Check the Costs

Plenty of other rapacious fees can devour your return. You can find a plan’s other fees by looking at its program disclosure or program description. A 529 is considered inexpensive if all fees, including the underlying mutual fund costs, pencil out at less than .8% of your investment each year. With that percentage, you’d pay the plan $80 if you had $10,000 in it. Plans that charge between .8% and 1.2% are considered moderately priced. Anything priced higher should be avoided.

Outrageous fees can significantly erode the value of a college fund by the time a child graduates from high school. Assume, for example, that grandparents open a 529 account with $1,000 when their grandchild is born, and they faithfully invest $150 a month ...

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