How much to save for college each month, from a cost you choose
Start from the yearly bill of a school you have in mind, decide what share you want to cover, and the calculator works back to a monthly figure.
Monthly saving needed
$266
To have $92,559 when the first bill arrives in 17 years.
| Target, future dollars | $92,559 |
| You would put in | $54,295 |
| Growth does the rest | $38,264 |
The cost rise and the return are assumptions you set; neither is a forecast.
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · federal rules from Public Law 119-21 and IRS Publication 970, state rules from each state · not tax advice
The monthly amount you need depends on four inputs you control and two you can only assume. You set the yearly cost of the school in today's dollars, the child's age, the share of the bill you want to cover and anything already saved. You also choose how fast that cost rises and what the account earns: both are assumptions, and the calculator states them instead of hiding them. With a $28,000 yearly cost today, half of it covered, a child of 1, a 3 % yearly rise and a 6 % return, the target at the first bill is $92,559 for four years and the deposit is $266 a month. You put in $54,295; assumed growth supplies the remaining $38,264. Starting at 7 instead of 1 lifts the deposit to $420. A state deduction or credit on those deposits lowers what the plan really costs you each year.
Begin with the bill, not with a round number
A target like "a hundred thousand by eighteen" has no link to what a school will charge. The calculator asks for the yearly cost of attendance of a real school, today: tuition and fees, housing, food, books. Colleges publish that figure on their own admissions or financial aid pages, and it differs a lot between an in-state public campus where the student lives at home and a private college across the country. Take the one that matches the plan you have, or the average of two or three candidates.
The second choice is the share. Few families intend to pay every dollar from savings; current income during the college years, the student's own work and any aid all count. Covering 50 % of the bill from the account is a common starting point, not a rule. The share has its own field so you can see what each extra ten points costs per month.
The two assumptions you set yourself
Cost rise. The yearly cost today is carried forward at a rate you pick, 3 % by default. Some schools have raised prices faster than general inflation for long stretches and others have frozen tuition for years; the school's own history of published costs is the best guide you have. Return. The account is assumed to earn a fixed rate, 6 % by default, compounded monthly. Neither number is a forecast. The grid below shows how much the monthly deposit for the first profile moves when each one changes.
| Return assumed | Cost rises 2 % | Cost rises 3 % | Cost rises 5 % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 % | $271 | $320 | $443 |
| 6 % | $225 | $266 | $369 |
| 8 % | $187 | $221 | $306 |
Read the grid diagonally. A cautious reader who expects fast cost growth and modest returns sits in the top right corner; an optimist sits bottom left. The gap between the two corners is the price of uncertainty, and it argues for running the calculator again every year or two with the balance you actually have.
Your own guess for the cost rise
Monthly saving needed
$266
| Target, future dollars | $92,559 |
| You would put in | $54,295 |
| Growth does the rest | $38,264 |
Every year of delay, in dollars per month
Time does two jobs here. It spreads the deposits over more months, and it gives growth longer to work. Lose a few years and both effects go at once, which is why the monthly figure climbs faster than the calendar. The table follows the same $28,000 cost and 50 % share from birth to a start at fifteen.
| Start at age | Target at the first bill | Per month | You put in | Assumed growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $95,336 | $250 | $54,055 | $41,282 |
| 3 | $87,246 | $304 | $54,736 | $32,511 |
| 6 | $79,843 | $384 | $55,290 | $24,553 |
| 9 | $73,067 | $516 | $55,710 | $17,357 |
| 12 | $66,867 | $778 | $55,994 | $10,873 |
| 15 | $61,193 | $1,559 | $56,136 | $5,057 |
The target column falls as the start gets later, because the same cost today has fewer years to rise before the first bill. The deposit column still climbs steeply, since far fewer months share the work. Starting at 7 rather than 1 means $420 a month instead of $266, and $55,445 of your own money instead of $54,295.
A sum already saved helps more than its face value, because it compounds over the whole period. A family that starts at seven with $10,000 already in an account needs $317 a month instead of $420. The calculator's "already saved" field takes care of that.
A late start with a full bill
The second profile is a parent who wants to cover all of a $62,000 yearly cost and begins when the child is 10. With 8 years to go, the four-year target is $314,159 and the deposit $2,575 a month. Growth carries only $66,955 of it; the rest is deposits. At that horizon the useful levers are the share, the choice of school and living at home during college, not the return assumption.
Same late start, a smaller share
Monthly saving needed
$1,545
| Target, future dollars | $188,495 |
| You would put in | $148,323 |
| Growth does the rest | $40,173 |
What your state hands back on the deposits
The monthly figure is gross. In a state that rewards 529 deposits on its own return, part of it comes back each spring. An Indiana couple at $95,000 who puts in the first profile's $3,194 a year gets a credit of $639, so the account really costs them $2,555 a year. In Mississippi, the same deposit is deducted from income and saves $128 at 4.00 %. Caps matter at higher deposits: above the state's limit, extra dollars save nothing more that year. The state deduction table gives each state's rule, and the mini below computes it for yours.
State break on the monthly plan
Indiana tax saved on this contribution
$639
| Credit on your state return | $639 |
| Your state marginal rate | 2.95 % |
| Cap that applies this year | $7,500 |
| Back per $1,000 contributed | $200 |
The simplifications in the target
The calculator prices all four years at the cost of the first one and asks for the whole sum on the day the first bill arrives. In reality the later bills are larger, because prices keep rising during college, and they are paid later, so the money for them grows a little longer. The two effects pull in opposite directions and roughly offset at ordinary rates; the target errs slightly on the side of having the money early. It ignores taxes inside the account, which is right for a 529 spent on qualified costs (IRS Publication 970), and it ignores aid and scholarships, which can only lower the need. The 529 calculator runs the other way round: from a monthly amount to a balance, with the gap against a taxable account.