Thanks so much for your opinion! But, your stats don't convince me! Fact: Investors made money during your mentioned time frames!
Also, even if the market bombs...you think that the only option is to forgoe college all together?
You have made yourself clear...you are not comfortable investing for anytime horizon less than 20/30 years!
I have made myself clear that I am comfortable investing for any period 5-10 years or longer!
I have also made it clear that for most prepaid plans the restrictions regarding financial aid, using funds out of state, low returns, etc. make it a big disadvantage!
However, if you are risk adverse, expect your kid to go to a state college, expect college costs in your state to be high, don't expect financial aid, etc. the pre-paids make sense!
I still don't get it that BDn39 is so sure that someone knows exactly what college their kids will go to 10 years from now! Now thats a gamble FAR bigger than investing longterm in the market!
O.K. We both said our piece! We agree to disagree. How much more do you wish to beat this dead horse?