Child Education Fund
Free Child Education Fund calculator with clear step-by-step results.
About Child Education Fund
Inflates each individual year of the course separately, because a four-year degree starting in a decade has its final year priced thirteen years out, not ten. Existing savings are compounded forward, and the remaining shortfall is converted into a level monthly contribution.
Formulas
Future cost of year k
Cost = today's annual cost x (1 + education inflation)^(years until start + k)
Monthly saving
Monthly = shortfall / (((1 + monthly return)^months - 1) / monthly return)
Worked example
With the default values below, Child Education Fund returns Monthly saving required of $429.92. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Annual education cost todayminimum 0 $
- 12,000 $
- Years until study beginsaccepts 0–25
- 10
- Length of the courseaccepts 1–10
- 4
- Education cost inflationaccepts 0–20 %
- 5 %
- Investment return while savingaccepts 0–20 %
- 7 %
- Already savedminimum 0 $
- 5,000 $
Results
- Monthly saving required
- $429.92
- Total cost across the whole course
- $84,248.87
- Existing savings will grow to
- $9,835.76
- Shortfall to fund
- $74,413.12
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Future cost of year k
- 3Monthly saving
- 4Monthly saving required= $429.92
- 5Total cost across the whole course= $84,248.87
- 6Existing savings will grow to= $9,835.76
- 7Shortfall to fund= $74,413.12
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 6 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take tax into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why inflate each year of the course separately?
Because fees keep rising while the student is enrolled. Inflating only to the start date understates a four-year course by roughly 8% at 5% inflation.
Should education inflation be higher than general inflation?
Historically yes - tuition has outpaced CPI in most countries by one to three points, which is why 5% is a common planning assumption when CPI is 2-3%.