Start as soon as possible, the more time you have for the plan to work, the greater advantage you'll have for growth.

A married couple filing jointly can deduct up to $6000 if they contribute that much and that is per student, per year.

For someone already in college I think the best route would be to just try to minimize the amount of student loans that you acquire so that you're not faced with a large amount of debt when you graduate.

There are some other things you have to take into account with risk. If you only have two or three years before college starts you really don't want to take the risk of the market going down and possibly not having as much as you started with.

The state doesn't match anything on anything or give you any financial incentive besides the tax break. And that's only on the state income tax.

It wouldn't worry me if I had to start working again. I know how hard work can be but I look at my brothers and they are happy enough and I don't see why I couldn't be like them. I don't think I would go back to the baggage handling, there wasn't much money in that. But I have had to learn how to do something else just in case.