Saving for College — AZ529 Plan

Have you started sav­ing for the kids’ col­lege? Bank accounts? Invest­ments? Piggy banks? A 529 plan? With 3 boys who will hope­fully be col­lege bound one day, this is an impor­tant topic here. And, just look…the boys already know where they want to go!

The thought of pay­ing for our 3 boys to go to col­lege is how­ever a bit scary! Thank­fully though, we have a great sav­ings option here in the form of the Ari­zona Fam­ily Col­lege Sav­ings Pro­gram (529 Plan).

Are you famil­iar with 529 plans? Basi­cally, they are sav­ings plans per­mit­ted under IRS code sec­tion 529 designed to encour­age indi­vid­u­als to save for future edu­ca­tion expenses. And, did you know that ANY per­son can be a ben­e­fi­ciary?! Here’s a  a snip­pet from the website:

Any per­son inter­ested in pur­su­ing post high school train­ing and edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties may be des­ig­nated as a ben­e­fi­ciary of an account. Par­ents can save for their chil­dren. Grand­par­ents can save for their grand­chil­dren. Aunts and uncles can save for their nieces and nephews. Friends can save for their friends. You can even save for yourself.

How great is that?! I had NO idea that essen­tially any­one could save for any­one they want. What a GREAT gift that would be for the grand­kids (and their par­ents) to receive from Grandma & Grandpa?! Very cool! There are  tax incen­tives too!

Earn­ings grow tax-free and will have no fed­eral income taxes on with­drawals used for qual­i­fied higher edu­ca­tion expenses. For des­ig­nated ben­e­fi­cia­ries who are Ari­zona res­i­dents, funds are exempt from state tax­a­tion when used to pay qual­i­fied higher edu­ca­tion expenses of the des­ig­nated beneficiary.

If you’re inter­ested in learn­ing more or get­ting started head over to the #AZ529 web­site and find them on Face­book! Also, AZ529 is cur­rently hav­ing a col­or­ing con­test for kids with some schol­ar­ship money up for grabs!

Dis­clo­sure:  This post is spon­sored as part of the #AZ529 Col­lege Sav­ings Month Blog Tour. How­ever, all opin­ions & expe­ri­ences are are entirely my own. As a par­ent, I think know­ing options about sav­ing for col­lege is impor­tant!