Parents may struggle for the first few years after a child is born but often are finally able to start saving toward the child's college education when the child starts school at age 6 (because working parents then can save the money they may have been spending daycare). Suppose that starting when you were 6, your parents put aside a constant monthly amount in an account paying 5% annual rate compounded monthly, with a goal of accumulating when you turned 18 a total of $93000 (the rough cost today of tuition, room, and board for four years at a public university)