Subject: Re: TIPS?
Crazy- our school’s tuition has nearly doubled over 7 years, way exceeding the standard rate of inflation, of course.

As I recall, that is primarily because government funding has been reduced over the past ~20 years (give or take). So the schools have had to raise tuitions to make up the difference.

Hard to know how big to grow the 529s nowadays given how tuition is soaring and uncertainty wrt grad school.

I wouldn't want to have to fund a 529 from retirement. As you say, difficult to know how large to grow it. We put in enough money for ~4 years of in-state tuition (while still working), and let it go. We just stuck it in an index fund. We did it a bit late, so it didn't have as much time to grow as we would have liked. She still exhausted it in about 2 years (in-state school), mostly because of tuition hikes before she got there.