Will Our Kids' 529 Be Enough?

My wife asked me a simple question the other day - will our kids’ 529 accounts have enough money in them to pay for their college? The answer to that question isn’t so simple. There are only really three possible answers: probably, probably not, and the classic it depends. No straight-up yes or no. To figure this out, I first took into account the current situation: our kids are 6 and 8 years old; each of their 529s currently has a balance of a little over $40k. That leaves 12 and 10 years before the kids would head off to college. Now for the part that really leads to the it depends answer: how much will college cost? What college or university will they go to? Public, in-state? Private? And will we use any of the 529 money to pay for any of their grade schooling, from now through 12th grade? To figure out college costs, I looked at two extreme ends: Wright State University - a local, in-state university - and the University of Dayton - also a local university, but private instead.…