Benefits Of 529 College Savings Plans

Investing in your child's future education is the best thing you can do as a parent. After all, you are investing your resources in providing your child with an education, which is undeniably the best gift a parent can give to a child. The government makes the giving away for the gift quite an easy task to do. The college saving plan, more specifically known as the 529 College Savings Plan or the Qualified Tuition Plan, helps parents to invest money for the time when their children will be entering college. The investment is done on a monthly basis, and begins paying out when the child begins attending college. There are many ways in which 529 College Savings Plans can be used, though the primary intention is to pay for the tuition fees while in college. Tuition fees could be backbreaking, and the 529 College Savings Plans give parents a very good option of allowing their kids to get a good college education. It also helps to give students a longer college education - they are able to study for four years instead of two, or they might be able to study in a private college instead of a public college. Since the 529 College Savings Plan allows all colleges within the federal state, there is no restriction at all on the choice of college.

But the tuition is not just the only thing that the 529 College Savings Plan will pay for. It will also pay for the other college-related expenses such as rent, food, living expenses and all kinds of utility bills. Thus, the 529 College Savings Plans are good options to see that the student has enough funds all through the college years. Even withdrawals are allowed if there is any express need of money while the student is in college.

There are some definite benefits of the 529 College Savings Plans which make them much better options than other college funding methods, like the college loans. Here are some of the benefits that these plans have:

These plans are free from all federal taxes, which make them one of the most cost-effective kinds of investments.

Even state taxes are waived on these plans in most of the states.

If contributions are made to these plans, then they can be shown as tax-deductible expenses in most states. In fact, the limit on this is quite high. One can show up to $250,000 as deductibles on the contributions made.

If these investments are made by the grandparents to their grandchildren, then they are considered as completed gifts, which are exempted from the estate of the grandparents. Grandparents are also given the right to switch over their beneficiaries among their grandchildren while the plan is alive.

There is no question why the 529 College Savings Plans are considered to be the best investment option for children's college education. The benefits are too many to give these plans a miss.