College Savings Planner Calculator

Show expandable text

Warning

Product support for ToolBox CS ended on October 31, 2022.

Help & How-To Center content for ToolBox CS may be outdated and is used at your own risk.

You can use this calculator to determine the monthly savings deposit required to build a college savings fund sufficient to pay a designated percentage of projected college costs. The calculator computes amounts for both taxable and tax-free college savings accounts, and assumes savings deposits are made at the beginning of each month and continue until the start of the final year of college.

Example

What are the total funds necessary to send a newborn child to a four-year university costing $50,000 a year and where the cost of college tuition rises 2.3% a year using a non-taxable section 529 plan?

Field Input
Years until higher education begins 18
Years of higher education 4
% of cost to be funded by savings (goal) 100%
College Cost inflation factor 2.3%
Rate of return on college funds 6.25%
Combined Federal and State tax rate 28%

In this example, Total funds available are $311,706. To obtain the goal of accumulating enough savings in 18 years, a taxpayer must save $662 a month.

Was this article helpful?

Thank you for the feedback!