Am I on track?
One number, and what closes the distance. This is the same projection as the other tools, read as a status check rather than a comparison.
Nothing calculated yet
Fill in your situation above, then press Run the numbers to see your four paths.
What “on track” means here
There is no official standard for being on track for college savings, and any site that gives you one has invented it. What this tool does instead is concrete: it projects what you will have on the first day of college, projects what the education you named will cost by then, and reports the ratio between them.
A funding ratio of 60% means your projection covers roughly three-fifths of the projected cost. It is not a grade. Plenty of families fund a deliberate fraction and meet the rest from income, work-study, aid or borrowing.
Why the ratio moves so much on small changes
Two assumptions dominate: the return you expect and the rate at which college costs rise. The default of 6% growth against 4% cost inflation leaves a real spread of roughly two points a year. Narrow that spread and the ratio falls quickly, because you are compounding against a target that is compounding too.
The choice of school does even more. Based on the College Board figures the tool uses, a private budget of $65,000 a year is roughly double an in-state public budget of $31,000. The same savings can be most of the way there for one and a third of the way for the other, without anything about your saving changing.
Closing a gap
Only four things change the ratio: contributing more, earning a higher return, choosing a less expensive education, or having more time. The first is within your control, the second mostly is not, the third is a family decision rather than a financial one, and the fourth is fixed.
The tool reports the monthly figure that would close the gap under your assumptions. Whether that figure is realistic against the rest of your finances is not something it can see.
Common questions
- How much should I have saved by my child's age?
Age-based rules of thumb circulate widely, but they assume a target cost and a contribution pattern that may not be yours. This tool works from your actual numbers instead — your balance, your horizon, and the school type you are planning for — which is the only way the answer means anything specific to you.
- Is a funding ratio under 100% a problem?
It is a fact rather than a problem. It says the projection does not cover the whole projected bill, which is the normal position for most families. What it means for you depends on what covers the remainder, and the tool does not know that.
- Why does this tool give a different percentage from another one?
Almost always because of the cost assumption or the compounding convention. This tool uses total cost of attendance — tuition, housing, food, books and expenses — rather than tuition alone, so its target is larger than a tuition-only calculator’s. The methodology page documents every convention in use.
Same numbers, different question
- Should I stop contributing to my 529?Compare all four contribution paths at once
- Am I putting too much into my 529?Check whether your current path overshoots
- How much should I contribute each month?Work backwards from the bill to a monthly number
- How should I split savings between my children?Work out the split that levels your children up
- I have leftover 529 money. Now what?Rank the reuse, rollover and withdrawal pathways
- 529 or a brokerage account?Weigh the 529 tax advantage against keeping your options open
Your numbers carry across. They stay in this browser tab and are never sent anywhere.