529 college savings calculator: project the future value of your monthly contributions and investment growth toward expected college costs. Free, no signup.
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$250 a month for 10 years at 6% grows to roughly $40,970 in a 529 plan: $30,000 contributed and about $10,970 in growth. The longer the horizon, the more the growth compounds. Set your own contribution, years, and return in the BoringToolsKit 529 college savings calculator.
529 earnings grow tax-deferred and withdraw tax-free for qualified education costs. (Source: IRS)
Many states offer a state income tax deduction for 529 contributions. (Source: IRS)
Starting at birth instead of age 8 more than doubles the growth on the same monthly contribution. (Source: BoringToolsKit calculation methodology)
$250 a month at 6%: $40,970 after 10 years.Same 250 a month: 45,000 at 0 percent vs 124,858 at 12 percent.
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18 years of $350/mo at 7%
What this means for your numbers: In the worked example, growth ($55,400) passes contributions ($75,600) around year 12. The last six years of the account earn more than the family deposits.
Illustrative breakdown using the worked example above. The calculator computes your own numbers with the same formula.
A worked example: 250 a month for 15 years
Say you contribute 250 per month for 15 years expecting a 6 percent annual return. The monthly rate is 0.06 divided by 12, which is 0.005, and the number of months is 15 times 12, or 180. The formula multiplies the contribution by ((1.005^180 - 1) / 0.005). Since 1.005^180 equals about 2.4541, the growth factor is (1.4541 / 0.005) = 290.82, so the projected balance is 250 x 290.82, or 72,705 dollars.
Of that total, you deposited 250 x 180 = 45,000 dollars out of pocket. Growth supplied the remaining 27,705 dollars, roughly 62 cents of every dollar in the final balance. Double the rate assumption to 12 percent and the same 250 a month produces about 124,858 dollars, which is why the return input matters more than almost anything else you type. If the return were 0 percent, the calculator switches to simple multiplication: 250 x 180 = 45,000, with no growth term at all.
What a 529 does and does not cover
The projection is a lump sum, but college bills arrive as four annual waves. The College Board's 2024 pricing put average published tuition and fees at 11,610 dollars for public in-state four-year schools and 43,350 dollars at private nonprofit schools; add roughly 13,000 to 15,000 dollars per year for room and board at each. A 72,705 dollar balance covers about three years of in-state costs but barely one year at a private college, so the same contribution plan serves very different goals depending on the target school.
Three structural limits also matter. First, tuition inflation has historically run 1 to 3 points above CPI, so holding contributions fixed understates the true savings target. Second, the model assumes a constant return for all 15 years; a portfolio that starts 60/40 and de-risks toward enrollment can be flat or negative in the final two years, and a 2008-style drawdown in year 14 removes far more dollars than the average return suggests. Third, the calculator ignores 529 mechanics entirely: state income-tax deductions (for example, up to 10,000 dollars of contributions deductible in some states), the 10 percent penalty plus income tax on non-qualified earnings, and the 35,000 dollar lifetime rollover to a beneficiary's Roth IRA created by SECURE 2.0. Those rules change the after-tax value but not this projection.
