As quickly as each my youngsters 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 mother or father’s primary duty is to supply for his or her youngsters.
Lastly, a tax-efficient method to shift a few of my property to 2 vital dependents. My mother and father and my spouse chipped in annually as nicely. As soon as the five-year contribution window reset, I saved going, contributing as much as the annual reward tax restrict.
By June 2024, I hit a wall. I had reached my objective of funding 4 years of full-priced non-public college tuition in a 529 plan—sufficient to ideally match or outpace faculty value inflation. With that field checked, I abruptly felt adrift, like I had misplaced a key supply of objective. It was a mini parental existential crisis after fulfilling one of many largest monetary tasks we’ve got.
Having youngsters gave me renewed vitality to earn and save publish 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. Currently, I’ve had this recurring worry: think about learning and paying 16 years’ price of tuition, solely to be replaced by AI. This example is occurring proper now to hundreds of faculty graduates, and I do not need my youngsters 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 greater than anticipated. And my son has 10 extra years of compounding to go earlier than he hits faculty. Will faculty actually value 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 better flexibility. Alternatively, I may have invested extra in my preferred private AI/growth fund that holds the very names that might make discovering a job tough for my youngsters.
Anthropic, a high 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 non-public AI firms.
Might Have Lived It Up Extra At this time
Selfishly, I may’ve purchased a Lambo and YOLOed extra in mid-life as a degenerate poker participant in Vegas. It has been one in all my goals. We may’ve simply spent $50,000 on a candy trip rental in Honolulu for 5 weeks this summer time—and performed the identical for a lot of summers to come back. As an alternative, I made a decision to save cash and create priceless recollections residing with my mother and father in my childhood home.
Alternatively, we may have used his 529 plan cash to develop our household’s passive income portfolio by an extra $20,000 a yr to purchase extra time freedom at present. 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.
If you happen to’re fascinated by having youngsters, 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 varsity. Don’t let anybody let you know in any other case. Odds are, your baby received’t get an athletic scholarship or be within the high 1% academically. That’s why one of the 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 present’s {dollars} for faculty, just for them to finish up in a minimal wage job, makes me a bit sick.
I nonetheless bear 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 pupil. To lay our a fortune on faculty simply to finish up residing at house and doing the identical factor seems like an excessive amount of of a letdown. You don’t want a level to prepare dinner frozen meat patties.
Fortuitously, the One Massive Lovely Invoice Act (OBBBA) has made 529 plans extra beneficial going ahead. Right here’s what modified.
529 Plan Enhancements Beneath the OBBBA
I wrote concerning the OBBBA’s impact on FIRE seekers. Now let us take a look at a extra detailed look on the OBBBA’s impression for fogeys saving for his or her youngsters’s training. If you happen to’ve been worrying that you just overfunded your youngsters’s 529 plans, this publish ought to show you how to really feel a bit higher.
1. Broader Checklist of Certified Schooling Bills
Part 70413 of the OBBBA expands what’s thought-about a “certified training expense,” notably for Ok–12 college students. Right here’s what’s now lined beginning July 4, 2025:
- Tuition for public, non-public, or spiritual Ok–12 faculties
- Curriculum and tutorial supplies, together with on-line programs
- Books and educational provides
- Tutoring providers (if licensed and unrelated to the coed)
- Standardized take a look at charges (SAT, ACT, AP exams, and so on.)
- Twin-enrollment faculty course charges
- Instructional therapies for college kids with disabilities
Primarily based on this expanded checklist of certified training bills, it positive looks like nearly 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 periods can now be paid for utilizing 529 funds. Similar factor for those who spend $1,000 on AI programs to assist enhance your kid’s productiveness.
Simply word: 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. If you happen to withdrew $500 for an AP prep course that included $200 of account earnings, you would possibly owe ~$15 in state taxes and $5 in penalties on the earnings.
2. Increased Annual Limits
The OBBBA will increase the Ok–12 eligible expense restrict from $10,000 to $20,000 per yr beginning in 2026. This helps households with children in non-public faculty or specialised applications pay extra out of their 529 tax-free. Whereas this received’t have an effect on most households, it’s a win for a lot of households in huge cities paying for personal grade faculty.
For instance, non-public grade faculty in Honolulu prices round $33,000 a yr from Ok by 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 baby from a 529 plan to cowl these prices affords significant aid.
Take the classic $500,000 household with two children in non-public faculty costing $100,000 a yr complete. That’s roughly $150,000 in gross earnings going simply to tuition. After taxes, there internet earnings after paying tuition would possibly solely be about $100,000 – $150,000 to pay for hire 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 avoid wasting 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 varsity?” 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 applications (e.g., cosmetology, HVAC certification, masseuse)
- Any credential lined underneath the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act (WIOA)
Instance: In case your baby desires to develop into 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 remove tens of millions of white-collar workplace jobs within the coming years, it’s sensible to think about careers in additional AI-resistant industries.
Trades like plumbing and electrical work already provide six-figure earnings potential, and demand is barely rising. After spending over $40,000 remodeling 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 will get the complete credit score for those who spend $4,000 out-of-pocket on tuition and costs. Or, if you wish to use 529 funds and nonetheless declare the AOTC, there’s a means to do 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 certified 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 charge, you pay $440 in taxes — however nonetheless get a $2,500 tax credit score.
This coordination offers you choices for those who’ve overfunded a 529 for certified instructional bills or wish 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. Due to this fact, 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 because of 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 offers households with a beneficial method to repurpose leftover training funds and kickstart a baby’s retirement financial savings, tax- and penalty-free.
Nonetheless, there are some key restrictions. The 529 account will need to have been open for no less than 15 years, and solely contributions (and their earnings) made greater than 5 years in the past are eligible. As well as, rollovers depend towards the beneficiary’s annual Roth IRA contribution restrict, which is $7,000 in 2025, and the beneficiary will need to have earned earnings equal to or better than the rollover quantity in that yr.
For instance, in case your daughter labored part-time and earned $6,000 in 2025, you would roll over as much as $6,000 from her 529 into her Roth IRA that yr. This implies it could take no less than 5 years to completely roll over the $35,000 most, assuming she earns sufficient yearly.
Even for those who 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 Instructional Planning
Due to 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 faculty, or comply with a credentialed profession path, the funds will likely 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 youngsters.
Sure, I discuss wishing I may spend the 529 stability on having fun with life extra at present. However understanding my monetary habits since graduating in 1999, I’d most likely simply find yourself investing the cash anyway.
If you happen to’re a mother or father 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 under the estate tax threshold, think about contributing as much as the reward tax restrict anyway. Encourage your associate and the grandparents to do the identical.
With these modifications, the 529 plan has develop into one of many most powerful generational wealth transfer vehicles accessible. Fairly than merely gifting money, you’re passing down the chance for training, one thing that may be way more beneficial 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 faculty 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 baby’s training tax-efficiently. However don’t cease there. Diversifying your loved ones’s portfolio past training financial savings is simply as vital, 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 Fundrise, a platform that permits you to passively put money into a diversified portfolio of residential and industrial properties. With over $3 billion in property underneath administration, Fundrise focuses on Sunbelt markets the place valuations are extra engaging and yields are typically greater—an interesting hedge in opposition to inflation and market volatility.
You can even put money into Fundrise Venture, which offers publicity to personal AI firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks. With AI poised to reshape the job market and your youngsters’s future profession prospects, I wish to ensure that 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 prepared to take a position $400,000+ in a 529 plan per child, I must also be prepared to take a position no less than $400,000 in non-public 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.
