College Savings 529 Planner Calculator

Your state income tax rate, which is what a state contribution deduction is worth per dollar deducted. Leave it empty and no state benefit is assumed, which is the right answer for a large minority of savers: nine states have no income tax at all and four more tax income but give nothing for a 529, so roughly a quarter of households get nothing here. A handful of states give a credit rather than a deduction, which this field cannot express.

The largest yearly contribution your state will let you deduct. Leave it empty and the whole year's contribution is deductible, which is right in the few states that cap nothing. A cap is a cap on the CONTRIBUTION, not on the saving: with a cap of 10,000 and a contribution of 300 a month, all 3,600 is deducted and the cap never bites. A cap typed as zero means no deduction at all, which is a different state from leaving the field empty.

The part of the total cost you intend to meet from this account rather than from income at the time, borrowing, or anything else. Leave it empty and the whole cost is the target. Covering half is a scenario worth trying rather than the obvious starting point.

Whole years between today and the first day of study. Zero means study begins now, so nothing further can be saved and the account is whatever it already holds. Eighteen is the longest this calculator accepts, which is a plan begun at birth.

How many academic years you are funding. Four is a bachelor's degree and two is a typical associate degree or a transfer plan. Each year is charged the inflation of the year it is actually paid, so adding a year costs more than the year before it, not the same.

The rate you would have paid on the same growth if this money had been invested in an ordinary taxable account instead. It is what the account's federal treatment is worth, and it is a long-term capital gains rate rather than your income tax rate. Leave it empty and the published middle rate is used, which is what most savers on this horizon would pay; a higher earner with the surtax and a state tax would be nearer 30.

What you add to the account at the end of every month between now and enrolment. It is a level amount unless you fill in a yearly rise. There is no federal limit on what may be contributed to a 529; the annual gift tax exclusion limits what one person may give without using lifetime exemption, and the only ceiling on the account itself is the aggregate limit your state sets.

The return you expect the account to earn each year, before any fees. It is compounded monthly at the exact twelfth root, which is what a stated annual return means. Enter a nominal return, not a real one: the cost of study is inflated separately, so a return already net of inflation would count inflation twice.

What one academic year at the institution you have in mind costs at today's prices. Use the whole budget, which covers tuition, fees, housing, food, books, transport and personal expenses, rather than tuition and fees alone; the two differ by more than double at a public four-year institution, and most published comparisons move between them without saying so. Enter the price before any grant aid, and put the aid in its own field.

Grant aid and scholarships you expect for each year of study, stated at today's prices and inflated with the cost. It is subtracted from the year before the share you mean to fund is applied, so it is never counted twice. Leave it empty and no aid is assumed, which is the conservative case. Published net prices imply roughly 14,790 a year at a public four-year institution and about 32,640 at a private one, but aid depends on the family and the institution and is not a figure to assume.

What the account holds today. It compounds at the same return as everything else you add and is the whole answer when there are no years left before enrolment.

How much you raise the monthly amount each year, typically in line with pay. The rise happens once every twelfth month, so month thirteen is the first at the higher figure. Leave it empty and the contribution never changes. It affects the balance the account reaches; it does not affect the level contribution the calculator solves for, which is a level amount by definition.

How fast you expect the cost of a year of study to rise. The published tuition series has recorded between 0.9 and 2.9 percent every year since 2019 and 2.8 percent in the twelve months to August 2026, and published tuition has fallen in real terms over the last decade at public institutions. The familiar 5 percent is the average of an earlier period and is roughly double anything measured lately, so a figure near 3 is a mild conservatism rather than an optimistic one.

Machinery. Excel requires the quantity being tabulated to sit in the grid's top-left corner, where it means nothing to a reader, so it is formatted away. It holds the share of the cost the account covers.

The values down the left of the grid: the monthly contribution, in steps of fifty either side of yours and never below nothing. Read a row to hold the contribution fixed and vary the return. The middle entry is your own contribution; where five steps below it would fall under nothing, the lowest entries repeat at nothing.

The values across the top of the grid: the annual return, in steps of one point either side of yours and never below nothing. Read a column to hold the return fixed and vary the contribution. The middle entry is your own return.

Machinery, and NOT an input. The same for the column axis: Excel substitutes into it while filling the grid, and the rest of the time it mirrors the annual return.

Machinery, and NOT an input. Excel substitutes each value from the row axis into this cell while it fills the grid; the rest of the time it mirrors the monthly contribution. Change the contribution itself, never this: the axis is derived from it, so editing the mirror moves the axis while the grid is being filled and the whole grid comes out meaningless.

The sum of every monthly contribution between now and enrolment, before any growth. It is money out of your pocket, and the difference between it and the balance at enrolment is what the market did.

The federal benefit and the state benefit added together, which is what choosing this account over an ordinary taxable one is worth in tax across the whole plan. Compare it with the plan fees you pay, which are not modelled here.

The body of the grid: the share of the cost the account would cover, recomputed for every combination of the two axes. One hundred and twenty one cells, each one the whole projection run again. It is a component of the grid rather than a result on its own.

What the growth would have cost in tax had the same money been held in an ordinary taxable account and sold to pay for study. It is the account's federal benefit stated as a number, and it is only earned if the money is spent on qualified expenses. It grows with the horizon, because growth does.

How much is left once every year of study is paid for. It is zero unless the plan is more than fully funded. Money left in the account can be used for another beneficiary or, within limits, rolled to a retirement account; taking it out for anything else attracts tax and a further charge on the growth, which this calculator does not model.

What one year of study costs on the day study begins, after aid and the share you mean to fund. Set it beside the cost of the whole course to see how much of the total is inflation on the later years.

The balance at enrolment divided by the cost at enrolment. One hundred percent means the plan funds the target exactly; anything above means there is money left over. A share of less than one hundred percent is a finding rather than a fault, and the grid at the foot shows what it would take to move it. Where there is nothing left to fund, because expected aid or the share to cover has reduced the target to nothing, this reads as nothing rather than as an unbounded share, and the surplus beside it is what the account holds.

What the account holds on the day study begins: the balance you already have, compounded, plus every contribution, each compounded for the months remaining after it was paid. Nothing is withdrawn in this projection, so it is the balance available at the start rather than a balance after fees or spending.

Every year of study added together, each one inflated to the year it is actually paid, after aid and after the share you mean to fund. This is larger than the first year multiplied by the number of years, and that gap is the single most common error in a college saving plan.

The balance at enrolment less what you started with and less everything you paid in. This is the quantity the account's federal tax treatment applies to: it is never taxed when spent on qualified expenses, and the tax figure below prices exactly that.

How much of the cost the balance does not cover. It is zero when the plan is fully funded. This is the amount that would have to come from income at the time, borrowing, or a larger contribution between now and then.

What the state income tax deduction is worth in total: the part of each year's contribution your state allows, at your state rate, for every year you pay in. It is a deduction rather than a refund, so it is worth the rate multiplied by the amount deducted and not the amount itself. It reads nothing when no state rate is entered, which is the correct answer in the thirteen states that offer nothing.

Reads OK, or explains why the inputs are not valid or why the answer deserves a second look before you act on it.

The level amount you would have to add every month, from now until enrolment, for the account to meet the cost exactly. It already counts what the balance you hold today grows to on its own, so it is the extra rather than the whole burden. It is a level amount by construction, so it does not change when you ask for the contribution to rise each year.