Ohio’s 529 Plan, CollegeAdvantage, wants to provide the best experience when you visit our website, whether to learn more about 529 plans and saving for higher education, review investment options, open a college savings account, or take care of account maintenance and review your savings.
As Ohio’s 529 Plan will roll out a new investment option—the Vanguard Ohio Target Enrollment Portfolio the weekend of March 18-20, we are taking this opportunity to enhance one of the most important pages on our website, the Plan page. These updates were driven by research and data shared by current Ohio 529 account owners and potential savers.
After reviewing the information on the Learn page to discover all the many benefits of saving in Ohio’s 529 Plan, the next step on your college savings journey is the Plan page.
It can feel like there’s a lot to know before opening a 529. The Plan Page has been redesigned to reflect the five key decisions to help craft the higher education savings account that fits your family’s needs.
The Plan page will now take you through a step-by-step decision-making process. Each time you make a selection, you can click a box in that step to add it to your Personal Plan. You can record each of your choices at each step of the way in your Personal Plan as you work to create the 529 that works best for your children. Once you have made your five decisions, you can save and download a pdf of your Personal Plan to assist as you open your Ohio 529 account.
The five decisions are:
Decision 1: What kind of school are you thinking?
Here is where you select the type of education you think your child will pursue after high school: four-year college, two-year community college, trade or technical school, certificate program, apprenticeship, graduate school, or professional school. This is the starting point of your Personal Plan.
Decision 2: What do you want your savings to cover?
Based on research from “How America Pays For College” by Sallie Mae and Ipsos, 43% of families plan on using personal savings to pay for education costs. This includes your 529 plan. In this section, you can choose what percentage of college costs for you would like to save.
Decision 3: How much are you going to save?
At this step, use the slider to select the dollar amount that you would like to contribute, either monthly or yearly.
Decision 4: What kind of risk/reward do you want?
At this stage, you can move a slider to review the different risk-and-award savings strategies within Ohio’s 529 Plan. If you prefer more conservative investment strategy, move the slider to the left. If you prefer a more aggressive option, move the slider over to the right.
Decision 5: Choose your investment option(s).
From the guidance you received from Decision 4, review the investment options that fit your risk tolerance level. This section includes information on all our investment options. Make your final selection and add it to your Personal Plan.
Once you have made your five decisions, you can print your Personal Plan or save it as a PDF, and follow it along as you open an account.
Additionally, you can now find performance data, fees and expenses, and price history all in one place–the Fees and Facts page. With all this information now housed on the same page, you can easily research any investment detail as you explore savings options with Ohio’s 529 Plan.
For more than 30 years, Ohio’s 529 Plan, CollegeAdvantage, has been helping families across the nation save for their children’s higher education. Ohio’s 529 Plan covers qualified costs at any four-year college or university, two-year community college or technical school, trade or vocational school, apprenticeship approved by the U.S. Labor Department, or certificate program nationwide that accepts federal financial aid.
An investment in a 529 plan is an investment in your child where every dollar saved today is a dollar that doesn’t have to be borrowed later. Learn, plan, and start with Ohio’s 529 Plan today at CollegeAdvantage.com.
