College Savings Calculator

College costs climb faster than almost any other household expense, so the sooner you put a number on the goal, the more room you have to fund it through tax-advantaged accounts like 529 plans. Published tuition and fees alone averaged $11,950 a year at in-state public four-year colleges and $45,000 at private nonprofit four-year colleges in 2025-26 (College Board). Pinning down a monthly savings target now lets you spread the burden across years instead of scrambling later.

The math behind the result rests on the future value formula for an ordinary annuity. First, the calculator takes a fixed yearly cost for the type of school you choose ($24,000 for in-state public, $44,000 for out-of-state and $58,000 for private) and grows it at 4% a year to each year your child will be enrolled. It then grows your current savings at your expected return, and the monthly figure is the deposit that closes the remaining gap by the start of college, compounded monthly at that same return.

The built-in yearly costs are one national figure per type of school, not the price of any particular college, so check the cost of attendance at the schools you are considering and adjust the plan rather than treating the result as the whole picture. Inflation on tuition is easy to underestimate, and that gap compounds painfully over a long savings horizon. State-level 529 benefits add real value, but they differ from one state to the next and still carry ordinary investment risk.