Asset Allocation for 529 (MESP)
My parents started 529 investment accounts for our children. We are not pushing college on our children and some of our 4 may not attend college (and we are fine with that as we both come from blue collar families and have done well financially). That said our kids range in age from 14 to 2 years old. My parents set up asset allocations for them and they are all currently 61% moderate allocation (36% us equity, 18% international equity, 6% real estate, 40% fixed income) and 39% fixed income. While I know I need to be more conservative with my 14 year old, I do think this allocation is too conservative for all of them. We will have enough cash reserves to cover their college and their accounts are not very large ($54K in 14 year olds). Can you suggest better allocations? Global equity option looks attractive to me as it follows what a lot of our retirement is invested in (70 percent US equity, 30 percent international equity), but is this too aggressive for 14 year old who will likely be starting college in 2030?
Posted Feb 28, 2026, 1:16 PM UTC