As quickly as each my kids have been born in 2017 and 2019, I superfunded their 529 plans equal to the five-year reward tax exemption. On the time, I used to be thrilled to do it given a mum or dad’s primary duty is to offer for his or her kids.
Lastly, a tax-efficient technique to shift a few of my belongings to 2 essential dependents. My mother and father and my spouse chipped in every year as properly. As soon as the five-year contribution window reset, I stored going, contributing as much as the annual reward tax restrict.
By June 2024, I hit a wall. I had reached my aim of funding 4 years of full-priced personal college tuition in a 529 plan—sufficient to ideally match or outpace faculty price inflation. With that field checked, I all of the sudden felt adrift, like I had misplaced a key supply of function. It was a mini parental existential disaster after fulfilling one of many largest monetary duties we have now.
Having kids gave me renewed power to earn and save submit early retirement, which was one thing I genuinely loved. It strengthened my ikigai, or purpose for being. However after assembly these targets, I began questioning: What now?
Second-Guessing My 529 Plan Contributions
As soon as the 529 balances hit my goal, I additionally started to query whether or not I had contributed too aggressively. Recently, I’ve had this recurring worry: think about finding out and paying 16 years’ price of tuition, solely to be changed by AI. This case is going on proper now to hundreds of school graduates, and I do not need my kids so as to add to the statistics.
Even with the mediocre returns of a target-date index fund, the market rebounds in 2023 and 2024 pushed the accounts larger than anticipated. And my son has 10 extra years of compounding to go earlier than he hits faculty. Will faculty actually price our household $750,000+ for 4 years when it is his time?
In hindsight, I may have directed extra of that capital into UGMA custodial accounts for higher flexibility. Alternatively, I may have invested extra in my most well-liked personal AI/development fund that holds the very names that might make discovering a job tough for my kids.
Anthropic, a prime holding, is reportedly elevating as much as $5 billion at a $170 billion valuation, up from a $63 billion valuation simply earlier this yr! Ah, I want I had invested much more cash in personal AI firms.
Might Have Lived It Up Extra At the moment
Selfishly, I may’ve purchased a Lambo and YOLOed extra in mid-life as a degenerate poker participant in Vegas. It has been considered one of my desires. We may’ve simply spent $50,000 on a candy trip rental in Honolulu for 5 weeks this summer season—and performed the identical for a lot of summers to return. As an alternative, I made a decision to economize and create priceless recollections residing with my mother and father in my childhood dwelling.
Alternatively, we may have used his 529 plan cash to develop our household’s passive earnings portfolio by an extra $20,000 a yr to purchase extra time freedom at the moment. With much less cash locked right into a 529, we’d additionally really feel much less stress for our son to attend faculty in any respect.
In case you’re eager about having kids, are you really ready to sacrifice your time, cash, and freedom for them? Elevating children isn’t low cost—particularly if you wish to assist them go to school. Don’t let anybody let you know in any other case. Odds are, your youngster gained’t get an athletic scholarship or be within the prime 1% academically. That’s why the very best factor you are able to do is save and make investments aggressively on their behalf.
Excessive Danger For Sending Our Children To Faculty In The Future
The considered forking over ~$400,000 in at the moment’s {dollars} for faculty, just for them to finish up in a minimal wage job, makes me just a little sick.
I nonetheless keep in mind opening my neighborhood McDonald’s at 6 a.m. and getting chewed out by my power-tripping supervisor whereas flipping egg McMuffins. However I used to be only a highschool scholar. To lay our a fortune on faculty simply to finish up residing at dwelling and doing the identical factor appears like an excessive amount of of a letdown. You don’t want a level to cook dinner frozen meat patties.
Luckily, the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act (OBBBA) has made 529 plans extra invaluable going ahead. Right here’s what modified.
529 Plan Enhancements Beneath the OBBBA
I wrote concerning the OBBBA’s impression on FIRE seekers. Now let’s take a look at a extra detailed look on the OBBBA’s impression for fogeys saving for his or her kids’s training. In case you’ve been worrying that you simply overfunded your kids’s 529 plans, this submit ought to allow you to really feel just a little higher.
1. Broader Listing of Certified Training Bills
Part 70413 of the OBBBA expands what’s thought of a “certified training expense,” significantly for Okay–12 college students. Right here’s what’s now lined beginning July 4, 2025:
- Tuition for public, personal, or spiritual Okay–12 colleges
- Curriculum and educational supplies, together with on-line programs
- Books and educational provides
- Tutoring providers (if licensed and unrelated to the scholar)
- Standardized check charges (SAT, ACT, AP exams, and so forth.)
- Twin-enrollment faculty course charges
- Academic therapies for college kids with disabilities
Primarily based on this expanded record of certified training bills, it certain looks like virtually something goes. And I am undecided how the federal government can penalize you if it is a grey space.
Instance: In case your eighth grader is struggling in math and also you pay $150 per session for an authorized tutor, these classes can now be paid for utilizing 529 funds. Similar factor should you spend $1,000 on AI programs to assist increase your kid’s productiveness.
Simply notice: federal tax-free standing doesn’t at all times imply state tax-free. For instance, California doesn’t conform to the federal definition of certified bills. In case you withdrew $500 for an AP prep course that included $200 of account earnings, you may owe ~$15 in state taxes and $5 in penalties on the earnings.
2. Increased Annual Limits
The OBBBA will increase the Okay–12 eligible expense restrict from $10,000 to $20,000 per yr beginning in 2026. This helps households with children in personal college or specialised packages pay extra out of their 529 tax-free. Whereas this gained’t have an effect on most households, it’s a win for a lot of households in large cities paying for personal grade college.
For instance, personal grade college in Honolulu prices round $33,000 a yr from Okay by means of grade 12. In San Francisco and New York Metropolis, tuition ranges from $45,000 to $65,000 yearly. With the ability to withdraw as much as $20,000 per youngster from a 529 plan to cowl these prices provides significant aid.
Take the traditional $500,000 family with two children in personal college costing $100,000 a yr whole. That’s roughly $150,000 in gross earnings going simply to tuition. After taxes, there web earnings after paying tuition may solely be about $100,000 – $150,000 to pay for lease or a mortgage, meals, transportation, garments, retirement, and journey.
Utilizing $40,000 a yr in mixed 529 plan funds helps stem the monetary bleeding and provides much-needed flexibility. However to take action, the mother and father first have to save lots of aggressively.
3. Postsecondary Credentials Now Lined
One of many largest psychological blocks for funding a 529 plan was: “What if my child doesn’t go to school?” Part 70414 addresses that by permitting 529 funds for use for:
- Trade-recognized credentials (e.g., Licensed Monetary Planner, CISSP, AWS certifications)
- Registered apprenticeships (e.g., electricians, plumbers)
- State-licensed skilled packages (e.g., cosmetology, HVAC certification, masseuse)
- Any credential lined underneath the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act (WIOA)
Instance: In case your youngster needs to grow to be a licensed HVAC technician and enrolls in a state-recognized coaching program costing $6,000, now you can pay for that program — and required gear — utilizing 529 funds tax-free.
With synthetic intelligence poised to eradicate hundreds of thousands of white-collar workplace jobs within the coming years, it’s smart to contemplate careers in additional AI-resistant industries.
Trades like plumbing and electrical work already supply six-figure earnings potential, and demand is simply rising. After spending over $40,000 reworking an in-law unit in Honolulu, I’ve little doubt that plumber and electrician earnings will proceed to develop.
4. Coordinating With the AOTC Tax Credit score
One other underutilized profit is coordinating your 529 withdrawals with the American Alternative Tax Credit score (AOTC) — price as much as $2,500/yr for 4 years. You may get the total credit score should you spend $4,000 out-of-pocket on tuition and charges. Or, if you wish to use 529 funds and nonetheless declare the AOTC, there’s a means to try this too — with a small tax hit.
Instance:
- You withdraw $8,000 from a 529 plan for tuition.
- You declare the AOTC for $4,000 of these bills.
- Now, solely $4,000 of your 529 withdrawal counts as a professional distribution.
- If half your withdrawal ($4,000) got here from earnings, then $2,000 of earnings now turns into taxable earnings.
At a 22% tax fee, you pay $440 in taxes — however nonetheless get a $2,500 tax credit score.
This coordination offers you choices should you’ve overfunded a 529 for certified instructional bills or need to optimize your return. To make clear, the AOTC is a tax credit score — it immediately reduces your tax invoice, greenback for greenback. A 529 distribution is tax-free solely on earnings used for certified bills, not a dollar-for-dollar credit score. Subsequently, the AOTC tax credit score will prevent extra.
5. The Potential To Roll Over Unused 529 Plan Cash Into A Roth IRA
Though with the ability to roll over unused 529 plan cash is due to the SECURE 2.0 Act, not the OBBBA, it is nonetheless price mentioning. Beginning in 2024, unused 529 plan funds can now be rolled over right into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary, as much as a lifetime most of $35,000. This rule supplies households with a invaluable technique to repurpose leftover training funds and kickstart a toddler’s retirement financial savings, tax- and penalty-free.
Nevertheless, there are some key restrictions. The 529 account should have been open for not less than 15 years, and solely contributions (and their earnings) made greater than 5 years in the past are eligible. As well as, rollovers rely towards the beneficiary’s annual Roth IRA contribution restrict, which is $7,000 in 2025, and the beneficiary should have earned earnings equal to or higher than the rollover quantity in that yr.
For instance, in case your daughter labored part-time and earned $6,000 in 2025, you can roll over as much as $6,000 from her 529 into her Roth IRA that yr. This implies it might take not less than 5 years to totally roll over the $35,000 most, assuming she earns sufficient yearly.
Even should you nonetheless have 529 plan cash left over after the Roth IRA rollover, you possibly can at all times designate the beneficiary to another person. Your grandchildren want an training too.
Reinvigorated Academic Planning
Because of the OBBBA’s updates to 529 plans, I am much less involved about overfunding two 529 plans. As an alternative, I now see extra flexibility and utility than ever earlier than. Whether or not my children select to attend faculty, pursue commerce college, or observe a credentialed profession path, the funds will probably be there—and so they can now be utilized in extra methods than earlier than. And if they do not use all of the funds, I’ll signal the plans to their kids.
Sure, I discuss wishing I may spend the 529 stability on having fun with life extra at the moment. However figuring out my monetary habits since graduating in 1999, I’d most likely simply find yourself investing the cash anyway.
In case you’re a mum or dad or grandparent, it’s a good time to revisit your 529 contribution technique and reap the benefits of the brand new guidelines. Even when your property is projected to fall underneath the property tax threshold, contemplate contributing as much as the reward tax restrict anyway. Encourage your accomplice and the grandparents to do the identical.
With these adjustments, the 529 plan has grow to be one of many strongest generational wealth switch automobiles obtainable. Slightly than merely gifting money, you’re passing down the chance for training, one thing that may be way more invaluable over a lifetime.
Reader 529 Plan Questions
Readers, are you as pumped as I’m you could now use $20,000 a yr from a 529 plan for personal grade college tuition? Have you ever ever heard of the AOTC (American Alternative Tax Credit score) earlier than? Do you assume these enhanced 529 advantages will simply make faculty much more costly in the long term? And at last, how a lot do you assume is an excessive amount of to have saved in a 529 plan?
Diversify Past The 529 Plan
A 529 plan is likely one of the greatest instruments to fund your youngster’s training tax-efficiently. However don’t cease there. Diversifying your loved ones’s portfolio past training financial savings is simply as essential, particularly if you wish to give your children optionality and monetary safety it doesn’t matter what path they select.
That’s why I’ve additionally invested in actual property by means of Fundrise, a platform that allows you to passively put money into a diversified portfolio of residential and industrial properties. With over $3 billion in belongings underneath administration, Fundrise focuses on Sunbelt markets the place valuations are extra enticing and yields are typically larger—an interesting hedge in opposition to inflation and market volatility.
You may as well put money into Fundrise Enterprise, which supplies publicity to personal AI firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks. With AI poised to reshape the job market and your kids’s future profession prospects, I need to make certain I’m investing not simply of their training, but additionally within the applied sciences shaping tomorrow.
I’ve personally invested over $445,000 with Fundrise and Fundrise is a long-time sponsor of Monetary Samurai. My thought course of is that if I am keen to speculate $400,000+ in a 529 plan per child, I also needs to be keen to speculate not less than $400,000 in personal AI firms set to disrupt their lives. With a minimal funding of simply $10, constructing generational wealth past the 529 plan has by no means been extra accessible.
