01
Flexibility on outcome
Funds can support college, business, first home, or whatever the child's actual path turns out to be.
Strategy 02 · 529 Alternative
The 529 is the default. Default is not the same as best.
A structured way to fund a child's future that works whether they go to college, start a business, or take a path no one expected.
The principle
The 529 was designed for a narrow outcome: a four-year degree, used predictably, at a known institution. Lives rarely cooperate. A 529 alternative keeps the discipline of saving for a child's future while removing the assumption that you already know how they will use it.
What this looks like in practice
02
Capital that keeps working
If education isn't needed, the structure continues. It doesn't sit in a penalty box.
03
Parent and child, in sequence
The same dollars can serve the parent now and the child later, instead of being locked to one role.
Questions we answer together
- 01What happens if our child takes a path that doesn't fit a 529?
- 02How much of our 'college money' is also our emergency money, our opportunity money, our retirement money?
- 03Are we funding a degree, or funding the start of an adult life?