529 College Savings Calculator — State Tax Deductions & Trump Account Comparison

Your child & college required

Child's age today

College starts at age

Years of college Cost of college today ($/year, all-in: tuition + room & board)

College cost inflation (%/year)

College costs have historically risen faster than regular inflation — about 4–6% a year. The chips above are rough 2026 national averages for a year of college including housing and food; swap in the real number for schools you have in mind.

Your savings plan required

Already saved for college ($) Monthly contribution ($)

One-time contribution now ($) — e.g. a gift or transfer Expected investment return (%/year)

7% is a common long-run planning assumption for stock-heavy portfolios. Most 529s offer age-based portfolios that automatically get more conservative as college nears — so real-world returns will likely be lower in the last few years than in the early ones. Contributions are assumed to stop when college starts.

Your state's 529 tax break optional

Your state

Filing status

Your state income tax rate (%)

Reinvest the yearly tax break into the 529

The tax-rate box auto-fills a typical marginal rate for your state — but state brackets vary, so adjust it to yours for a sharper estimate. The break shown is an estimate for planning, not tax advice.

Compare against other accounts optional

Where should the college money actually go? Flip the chart to Compare accounts to see the same contributions in a 529, a Trump Account, and a plain taxable brokerage — after taxes, at college time.

⚙️ Tax assumptions used in the comparison — click to adjust

Your federal tax bracket (%)

Tax rate on Trump Acct earnings (%)

Capital gains rate (%)

Dividend yield (%/yr)

Why the Trump Account earnings default to your bracket: withdrawals a college student takes are taxed as ordinary income, and under the "kiddie tax" a dependent student's investment income above a small amount is taxed at the parents' rate — not the child's. If your child won't be your dependent then, lower this to their bracket (often 10–12%).

Projected savings at college start

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Total cost of college

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Covered by savings

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Gap to cover

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Monthly to fully fund

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Total you'd put in

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Growth — tax-free in a 529

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College savings over time

Good-to-know moves

Gifts are the cheat code: in 2026 anyone can give $19,000 per child per year ($38,000 from a couple) into a 529 with zero gift-tax paperwork — grandparents included.
Superfunding: a special election lets one person front-load 5 years of gifts at once — $95,000 ($190,000 from a couple) — and let compounding start early.
Over-saving is less scary now: up to $35,000 of leftover 529 money can roll into the child's Roth IRA (account must be 15+ years old; annual IRA limits apply) — and you can always change the beneficiary to another family member.
Financial aid math favors 529s: a parent-owned 529 reduces aid eligibility by at most 5.64% of its value. Taxable withdrawals from an IRA-style account (like a Trump Account) can count as income on a later FAFSA, which stings more.
Child born 2025–2028? Open a Trump Account regardless — the federal government seeds it with a free $1,000. Free money wins; this comparison is about your dollars beyond that.

Year-by-year plan

Contributions stop when college starts; whatever is still invested keeps growing while the yearly college bill is paid out of the account each fall. In a 529, all of that growth comes out tax-free when spent on qualified education (tuition, housing, meal plans, books, and more).