ATLANTA — The stock market has taken major hits over the last two months, but even with so much financial uncertainty due to COVID-19, some Georgians are deciding that now is the time to invest in their children’s long-term success.
Georgia created the Path to College 529 Plan in 2002. Today there are 170,000 account holders and more than $3 billion set aside.
Mitch Seabaugh of the Georgia Student Finance Commission said that a dollar saved is one less dollar families will have to use on student loans, adding that “studies have shown that a child that has a 529 savings plan is seven times more likely to go to school.”
Any Georgia resident can open an account plan regardless of their relationship to the child or where the child lives. It can be transferred to a qualifying family member and used widely.
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Georgia State Treasurer Lynne Riley says families don’t have to wait years to receive some of the plan’s benefits, “Georgia taxpayers receive a Georgia tax benefit. They receive a deduction off their adjusted gross income in 2020 which is double [that of] prior years.”
Seabaugh says with $25 and 15 minutes, you can open an acoucnt plan online, “The sooner you start, the better [the] opportunities you have for the plan to grow.”
To learn more about a 529 plan click here or call the state’s 529 information line at 1-877-424-4377.
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