Bogleheads,
My daughter will be starting her Junior year of college this month. The good news is she is on schedule, lovers her school and major, and is getting great grades. She should graduate in two years on schedule with high probability.
The first year she lived on campus and the second year in a sorority, so it was easy to keep track of room and board/food expenses. Now, she is going to live off-campus sharing a rented house 5-ways with other girls.
So, I did some projections... just counting rent and university tuition and qualified fees, she should have $14k+ left over (investments did well, and we probably missed expenses she could have claimed). So, I asked her to make sure she keeps receipts for food and other qualified expenses so I can use 529 funds.
Here's the problem... she is resisting keeping receipts because there will be a lot of them. Also, a lot of times they split the bill and pay each other via Venmo, so there is no proper receipt. For groceries, they plan to shop together and split the bill for cost efficiency. But it gets complicated as far a receipts.
Additionally, the landlord wants only one rent check, so one housemate will pay it and the others will reimburse her via Venmo. My daughter notates the payment "Rent, Address of House, Month". I believe that in addition to the lease with all 5 housemates listed should be sufficient to prove rent payment, correct? I guess she could have the house mate that pays the rent write her a receipt at the end of the semester as well if needed.
So my questions:
1. Do you know of an easy way to keep receipts for food, utilities, etc? My understanding is that I should retain all receipts, correct?
2. Another option is If she did not do that and we just paid without using 529 money, could we just put the left over 529 funds in her Roth 5 years after her last contribution? The account is over 15 years old and we put $25K in last year, so 4 + years from now. We plan to help her with her Roth anyway.
3. She has a younger brother, but if we rolled the money into his account after she graduates, odds are he would have the same problem.
The 5 girls get along remarkably well and I hope it continues. They all have lived together in dorms or known each other before college.
Any suggestions from the collective mind?
My daughter will be starting her Junior year of college this month. The good news is she is on schedule, lovers her school and major, and is getting great grades. She should graduate in two years on schedule with high probability.
The first year she lived on campus and the second year in a sorority, so it was easy to keep track of room and board/food expenses. Now, she is going to live off-campus sharing a rented house 5-ways with other girls.
So, I did some projections... just counting rent and university tuition and qualified fees, she should have $14k+ left over (investments did well, and we probably missed expenses she could have claimed). So, I asked her to make sure she keeps receipts for food and other qualified expenses so I can use 529 funds.
Here's the problem... she is resisting keeping receipts because there will be a lot of them. Also, a lot of times they split the bill and pay each other via Venmo, so there is no proper receipt. For groceries, they plan to shop together and split the bill for cost efficiency. But it gets complicated as far a receipts.
Additionally, the landlord wants only one rent check, so one housemate will pay it and the others will reimburse her via Venmo. My daughter notates the payment "Rent, Address of House, Month". I believe that in addition to the lease with all 5 housemates listed should be sufficient to prove rent payment, correct? I guess she could have the house mate that pays the rent write her a receipt at the end of the semester as well if needed.
So my questions:
1. Do you know of an easy way to keep receipts for food, utilities, etc? My understanding is that I should retain all receipts, correct?
2. Another option is If she did not do that and we just paid without using 529 money, could we just put the left over 529 funds in her Roth 5 years after her last contribution? The account is over 15 years old and we put $25K in last year, so 4 + years from now. We plan to help her with her Roth anyway.
3. She has a younger brother, but if we rolled the money into his account after she graduates, odds are he would have the same problem.
The 5 girls get along remarkably well and I hope it continues. They all have lived together in dorms or known each other before college.
Any suggestions from the collective mind?
Statistics: Posted by Boglenaut — Sat Aug 10, 2024 8:15 pm — Replies 9 — Views 869