College Savings Gap Calculator

This calculator projects two numbers forward to the year your child starts college and compares them: what college will actually cost by then, and what your 529 plan will actually hold by then. On the cost side, it inflates today's annual college cost at a fixed 5% per year for every year between now and college, then again across each year your child is enrolled, since tuition and room-and-board keep rising while your child is on campus, not just before. On the savings side, it grows your current 529 balance and monthly contributions at your expected rate of return, compounded monthly, using the standard future-value-of-an-annuity formula.

Subtracting projected cost from projected balance gives the gap or surplus, and if there's a shortfall, the calculator works backward to solve for the monthly contribution that would close it exactly by the time college starts, given your current balance and years remaining. The 5% college inflation rate is a fixed planning assumption baked into the engine, not something you can adjust here — real tuition inflation varies by school and has run both above and below that figure historically, so lean on the projected cost to gauge your savings pace, not as a locked-in number. The calculator also doesn't account for financial aid, scholarships, or a mix of public versus private tuition, so it's most useful as a savings-pace check, not a final college-cost estimate.