The engine evaluated 5 strategies and recommended this one.
$11,775 saved vs. the typical "wing it" approach (the "No Optimization (Baseline)" row in the comparison table below).
Every paid plan compares 5–7 alternative funding strategies and surfaces the cheapest. For this family, four of the strategies clustered within a few hundred dollars — the family has flexibility.
Monthly payment assumes 10-year standard repayment; total cost includes school years plus 10 years of repayment interest, net of AOTC + LLC tax credits captured.
| Strategy | Debt at Graduation | Monthly Payment | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| ✓Front-Load 529 (Maximize Grants) | $0 | $0/mo | $109,486 |
| Even-Spread 529 | $0 | $0/mo | $112,190 |
| Back-Load 529 (Maximize Growth) | $10,088 | $118/mo | $118,964 |
| Savings First, Then 529 | $855 | $169/mo | $120,172 |
| No Optimization (Baseline) | $0 | $0/mo | $121,261 |
| Skip AOTC Coordination | $10,088 | $205/mo | $133,863 |
10 sections, ~7,500 words tailored to Emma's situation. Below is the structure and a one-line description of what's in each — your version contains the actual semester-by-semester numbers and prose for your family.
Sanity-check the plan against your own beliefs. Disagree with our college-inflation rate, our 529 growth assumption, or our take on PLUS interest? You'll know exactly where to look — and what would change if you swap it.
Stop guessing which account to pay each semester's bill from. When the bursar email lands, you open the table and the answer is right there — no recalculation, no second-guessing.
The one-page summary you'll hand to your spouse, your CPA, or your school — total spend, total borrowing, total tax credits captured, reconciled to the dollar.
Put the plan on a calendar. Know what to do every October, what to ignore in March, when to call your 529 administrator. Nothing slips through the cracks.
Stop worrying about a bad market week three months before tuition is due. The plan tells you when to derisk each bucket and by how much.
Take only the loans worth taking. Know which to accept, which to skip, and when a nonprofit state lender beats your default option.
Small in-school moves that compound into thousands saved by graduation — without meaningfully changing your monthly budget.
Know exactly what life looks like the day after graduation — total debt in each name, the monthly payment, and what alternative paths you considered.
Catch the easy wins most families miss — leftover 529 options, tax-credit timing, state-specific opportunities you don't know to look for.
Capture your state's 529 deduction every year without tripping the recapture rules that could claw it back.
The decisions that cost real money to get wrong — and the ones you can't tell are wrong without doing the full math.
AOTC has a brutal coordination rule: $4,000 of tuition must come from non-529 sources, every year, in the right tax year, without going over the income phase-out. Split a single dollar wrong and you forfeit $500–$2,500 per year — silently. The IRS doesn't tell you what you missed. And the LLC for senior spring lands in a tax year most families consider “after college,” so they skip it entirely. Across four years and the LLC tax year, that's typically thousands lost to a rule that wasn't written for families.
Front-load the 529. Exhaust cash before taking loans. Accept whatever the school offers. Fill the gap with Parent PLUS. Each of those decisions sounds reasonable in isolation. Combined, they leave four to five figures on the table for most families. The only way to know how much your family is leaving is to compute five different funding sequences and compare them. By hand that's a multi-day spreadsheet exercise — and it has to be redone every year as rates and balances shift.
Every number above was computed for a hypothetical NC family at Duke University (out-of-state). Your plan would be calculated from your specific income, savings, school, and preferences — same engine, same depth, your numbers.
Free estimate first. Pay only if you decide to upgrade to the full plan ($99 one-time).