Great question. My parents were in the same situation you are in (I'm one of four). When we were all young, my parents used to put aside about 5% of each of their salaries into special accounts in our names (that accrued interest over time). That money is the money that was used to help us pay for college. I just recently got married and while my husband and I don't have a lot of money, we do plan to have children some day so we've already starting saving this way. I hope this helps.