I am behind on my 529 funding. I have an account thru Capital Group / American Funds. Current investments include: (1) The Growth Fund of America-529A (2) New World Fund-529A. I also have additional Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds, and American Funds Insurance Series I can add to the account.

So a couple of questions:
(1) Does anyone have experience and recommendations as far as (1) increasing contributions to current investments vs. (2) adding a net new mutual fund, etc. to my portfolio.
(2) I'm not even sure how I ended up with The Growth Fund of America-529A and New World Fund-529A. Any heartburn with these two accounts as far as being the cornerstone of my 529?

Thank you

We put ours heavily in GFA - especially at the beginning. its a great growth stock - leave it there and forget about it.

cjsag94 said:

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Biggest heartburn is you're are paying A share commissions but asking this board instead of the advisor you are paying.

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But it's a 1 time commission as I understand it

With the market in its current condition, This would be a good time to max your contribution per kid if you can ($30k per couple per child for 2022). Your advisor should be advising you on shifting investments from growth mode to minimal risk as your child approaches college age.

If you're using an advisor American Funds is the way to go, yes they charge a fee to buy but their trailers are really low and the long term performance of GFA is stellar. Anybody saying different isn't researching.

fulshearAg96 said:

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I am behind on my 529 funding. I have an account thru Capital Group / American Funds. Current investments include: (1) The Growth Fund of America-529A (2) New World Fund-529A. I also have additional Mutual Funds, Exchange Traded Funds, and American Funds Insurance Series I can add to the account.

So a couple of questions:
(1) Does anyone have experience and recommendations as far as (1) increasing contributions to current investments vs. (2) adding a net new mutual fund, etc. to my portfolio.
(2) I'm not even sure how I ended up with The Growth Fund of America-529A and New World Fund-529A. Any heartburn with these two accounts as far as being the cornerstone of my 529?

Thank you

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I just looked at my kids account to make sure as we used the American Funds as well. We contributed $300 per month per kid that bought $150 of the Growth Fund of America (CGFAX) and another $150 into the Investment Company of America (CICAX).

I have said many times on this forum how this paid for my daughters undergrad 100% with $30,000 left over after her graduation.

My sons account will pay for his undergrad and he too should have some money left over.

We started in 2000 for my daughter who graduated HS in 2017 and 2005 for my son who graduates HS in 2024. Until 2017, I just left the accounts alone. But starting in 2017 and since, I actually started to time the market because we started to draw funds and we couldn't risk the values of the accounts to diminish.

Because these funds mirror the market index, when the market seems to take the down turn, I would convert the funds to American Funds US Gov Money Market Funds (AAFXX) which is like holding cash.

You betcha we are holding 100% AAFXX today and saw 0% decrease in the value of the accounts as we are 2 years from my son drawing them and my daughter is currently still drawing the funds.

But to answer your question #1, no.

#2, CGFAX, CICAX and AAFXX have been great for us.

Definitely talk to your advisor. They will/should know when you would need this money, which will determine the right balance.

Take a look at more diversification. GFA is large growth companies. NW is large growth companies.

Small Cap World (pretty sure this is there only small/mid fund)
Washington Mutual (large dividend paying companies).