College Savings Calculator
Project your college fund against a cost target that rises with its own inflation rate — not the same as your investment return. Results update as you type, and the link always carries your numbers.
How this calculator works
This tool runs two separate calculations and compares them. Your savings grow with the standard compound-with-contributions formula — starting balance and every monthly contribution earning your annual return, compounded monthly, until college starts. Separately, today's total cost estimate is projected forward using its own college-cost-inflation rate raised to the number of years until college starts. These two rates are genuinely different things: one describes how fast your money grows, the other describes how fast the price tag rises, and college costs have historically outpaced general inflation. The gap (or surplus, if your projected fund comes out ahead) is simply the inflated cost target minus your projected fund.
Worked example
A child currently age 5 starts college at 18 — 13 years away. Starting from a $5,000 fund and adding $200/month at a 6% annual return, the projected fund at college start is $57,975.65. Meanwhile, today's $100,000 estimated cost, growing at 5% college-cost inflation for 13 years, becomes a target of $188,564.91. That leaves a gap of $130,589.27 — a clear illustration of why the two rates need to be tracked separately rather than assumed to cancel out.
Frequently asked questions
Why does college cost inflation matter separately from investment return?
Because your savings and the cost you're saving for are moving at two different, independent speeds. Your account grows at your investment return; the price tag grows at college-specific inflation, which has historically run higher than general inflation. If the cost grows faster than your money does, the gap between them widens every year even while your balance keeps climbing — which is exactly the scenario in this calculator's default numbers, and why treating the two rates as one and the same would hide the real risk.
Is 5% college cost inflation realistic?
As a factual note, published data on U.S. college costs has often shown increases outpacing general consumer inflation over multi-decade periods, though the rate varies significantly by institution type (public in-state, public out-of-state, private) and by era. 5% is a commonly used planning assumption, not a guarantee — adjust it to match the type of school you're planning for.
What account types are typically used for this?
In the US, 529 college savings plans are the most common purpose-built vehicle, offering tax-advantaged growth when funds are used for qualified education expenses. This is a factual mention, not a recommendation of any specific plan or provider — the calculator's math applies regardless of which account you actually use.
What if I start saving later than this calculator's default age?
Change the current age input and watch the projected fund and the gap update — that's the fastest way to see how much a later start actually costs you in lost compounding time, and how much more the monthly contribution would need to be to close the same gap.