Announcement: the 529 Reference Project

[update 2/6/14: please see my post on Upromise Investments]

I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to be trying something brand new here on the site. After I wrote up the 3 craziest ways to manufacture spend using Evolve Money, I received a lot of feedback, and the most promising of the 3 methods seems to be the third: making contributions to a 529 college savings plan, then withdrawing the contribution to your bank account. The problem is that 529 college savings plans are sponsored by the states, and there are a lot of states. Each plan is slightly different, and it would be simply overwhelming for me to attempt to catalog all 50+ plans.

That's where you come in. I have readers all over the country, some of whom have children, some of whom are using their state's 529 plan to save for their children's education. That means they have information that other readers can use!

If you look up in the top right corner on any page of the website, you'll see a new tab: the 529 Reference Project. There will only ever be one post there, the Master List of State-Sponsored 529 College Savings Plans. In that post, you will always be able to find all the information submitted so far about each state's 529 plan.

Even more importantly, in the comments to that post you can leave information about any plan you have information about. Among other things, you can leave the following information:

  • Is the plan listed as a payee in Evolve Money?
  • Does the plan allow non-qualified withdrawals to be made directly to a bank account?

I've added the relevant information for three plans already; the rest are up to you. So be a part of something great: leave the information for your state in the comments to that post.