How Much Should You Have In A 529 Plan By Age

How much should you have in a 529 plan? The short answer: about $96 a month from birth, or roughly $37,000 by the time your child is 18, if your goal is to cover a solid chunk of in-state tuition and fees.

If you want to pay for everything at a public university, housing and food included, plan on about $630 a month gets you to $245,000 at 18. Everything in between helps, and so we break it odwn.

The real trouble comes from rising tuition costs and how much every "college savings calculator" says you need to save for your child's education. According to The College Board, the average published price for 2025-26 is $11,950 in tuition and fees at a public four-year in-state college and $45,000 at a private nonprofit college. Add housing and food and the average total budget is $30,990 in-state and $65,470 private. Plug those into a calculator with a "pay it all" assumption and you're told to save $1,300 a month. Add that to your own retirement savings and there's nothing left.

When you start plugging those numbers into the college savings calculator, suddenly you're supposed to start saving over $500 per month for your child. Then, add that into your own savings for retirement, and you're not going to have anything left for yourself each month!

So let's dive in and see how much you should have in a 529 plan.

Average 529 Balance By Age

Here's what the data says about where families are today:

Two things to take from this. The average balance at 18 is barely one year of in-state cost with housing, so "average" is not the goal. And the roughly $21,000 gap between families with a 529 and without one is mostly tax-free growth plus the discipline of an account with one job. If you don't have a 529 plan yet, here's where to open one.

Follow The Order Of Operations For Saving For College

The full-sticker number gives me the same sticker shock it gives you. It's also the reminder of why everyone should follow the Order of Operations For Saving For Your Kid's College.

The key phrase is Y.E.S.:

(Y) YOU: Your own financial house comes first. If you can't make rent or buy groceries, there are bigger issues to fix. The YOU bucket also includes your retirement accounts and an emergency fund. I've said this hundreds of times: you can't get a loan for retirement. Fidelity's 2026 survey found 55% of parents with student loans say those payments delayed their own retirement saving, and 88% say the debt is exactly why they want to save for their kids. Do both, in that order.

(E) Education Savings Accounts: Once you're saving for yourself, save for your child in an education account like a 529 plan. If your baby was born in 2025 or later, a Trump account with its $1,000 federal seed is worth claiming too, as a complement to a 529, not a replacement.

(S) Savings: After the 529, a regular savings or custodial investment account covers the things that don't count as education expenses: a car, a security deposit, a gap year.

How Much You Really Need To Save In A 529 Plan

Part two of the "scary" number is that it assumes you'll pay 100% of the sticker price. You don't have to. Maybe you'll cover tuition and your child handles housing with a job or a scholarship. Maybe you'll cover part of tuition. Maybe you'll set a dollar target and stop.

It's THEIR college, not yours. There are plenty of ways for them to close the gap, from finding scholarships to federal student loans, and the sticker price isn't what most families pay anyway. College Board's estimate of average net tuition and fees after grants is about $2,300 at public four-year in-state schools and $16,910 at private nonprofits for 2025-26. Here's The College Investor's full breakdown of how to pay for college.

So instead of stressing about $1,300 a month, here are the assumptions I use, and the two targets that come out of them:

If you want your own state's numbers, our 529 plans by state page has the costs and the plan we recommend for each state.

How Much You Should Have In Your 529 At Different Ages

Started Late? Catch-Up Numbers By Starting Age

Most of the parents in our comments didn't open the account at birth. Here's what the same two targets cost per month if you start from zero later:

529 College Savings Plan Guidelines

From the results, the goal for most families should land between $37,328 and $245,427 in the account at 18. That's a wide range, so remember what the columns mean.

The low end covers about 40% of tuition and fees at a public four-year college, with housing, food, and the rest of tuition coming from the student, scholarships, or current income. The high end covers the whole in-state bill, housing included. It is not private-school sticker price; that's $65,470 a year today with housing, and almost nobody pays it. Average net tuition at private nonprofits is $16,910 because the schools discount heavily, so if your child is headed to a private university, the high end plus merit aid is the realistic plan.

In the low-end scenario, the 529 can pay out roughly $10,300 to $11,600 a year for four years, which at 4% college inflation is a little over 40% of in-state tuition in 2044.

What Changed For 529 Plans In 2026

The rules moved in your favor since this page was first written, and they change how much "too much" is:

Are You Saving Too Much?

Sometimes. A reader with $91,000 in a 529 at age six asked me this, and my answer was yes: at 6% that balance alone grows to about $183,000 by 18, three-quarters of the high-end target with no new contributions. Past that point, every extra dollar is a dollar you didn't put in your own retirement account, and if the child ends up with a scholarship or picks a cheaper path, the earnings on non-qualified withdrawals are taxed plus a 10% penalty. The 2026 rules above make over-saving less costly than it used to be, but not free. Once you're on track for the column you chose, redirect the surplus to yourself.

Where To Open A 529 Plan

You can invest in almost any state's 529 plan, not just your own. If your state offers a tax deduction or credit for contributions, that usually decides it; our Best 529 Plans for 2026 ranking shows why the state tax break beats a slightly lower fee for most families. If your state offers nothing (California, for one), pick on performance and cost: low fees, solid index options, and easy automatic contributions.

Find your state in our 529 plans by state page to see the plan we recommend, or see the best brokers to open a 529 if you'd rather hold it alongside your other accounts.