I’m a widower with $9.7 million: what’s the best way to save for my kids’ education?

Saving for kids and college sparks plenty of debate. Ask three financial advisors the same question and you may get three different answers, which makes it genuinely difficult to know how much to set aside.

In the case of one Redditor in r/fatFIRE, his post reveals he has put away almost $1 million between two children for their education. His question is how best to keep contributing to those accounts, even though the numbers already suggest the job is done.

What makes this post worth examining is the father’s honesty about his own uncertainty. It takes real self-awareness to ask for outside input when the balance sheet looks perfectly fine on paper. His instinct to over-provide for his children is admirable. The math, however, suggests he can stand down.

The Scenario

The Redditor is a 47-year-old widower raising two children. The older child is in 10th grade and the younger is in 7th, so college is a near-term reality for at least one of them. His $9.7 million net worth was built largely on two household incomes, and now he is the sole earner, bringing in $450,000 a year.

The balance sheet breaks down as follows: a home valued at $2.1 million with $953,000 still owed on the mortgage, $4.6 million in taxable investments, a retirement account worth $2.9 million, and a combined 529 balance of $1 million split between the two children. After taxes, medical costs, retirement contributions, and 529 contributions, his net take-home runs about $260,000 a year.

The Recommendation

The short answer to his core question is that the job is already done. With $1 million sitting in 529 accounts for two children, he has far more than enough to cover even the most expensive private college experience. According to the College Board’s Trends in College Pricing report, the average published tuition and fees at a private nonprofit four-year school reached $45,000 for the 2025-26 academic year, with total cost of attendance (tuition, room, board, and other expenses) running $65,470. A $500,000 per-child 529 balance covers four years of that all-in cost more than three times over, even before accounting for investment growth. The case for stopping all new 529 contributions is overwhelming.

One useful change from recent legislation: the One Big Beautiful Budget Act raised the annual 529 withdrawal cap for K-12 education expenses from $10,000 to $20,000 per beneficiary, effective for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025. If either of his children attends private secondary school before college, this expanded limit gives him more flexibility to use existing 529 funds for those costs without penalty.

There is also a practical tax consideration. The IRS treats 529 contributions as gifts, so any amount above $19,000 per beneficiary per year (the annual exclusion for both 2025 and 2026) requires filing a gift tax return. With the accounts already heavily funded, continuing to contribute creates unnecessary paperwork and potential gift-tax exposure with no meaningful benefit.

One development still worth knowing: under the SECURE 2.0 Act, which took effect in January 2024, families can roll up to $35,000 of unused 529 funds into a Roth IRA owned by the beneficiary, provided the account has been open for at least 15 years and the annual rollover does not exceed the Roth IRA contribution limit for that year. That annual ceiling was $7,000 in 2025 and rose to $7,500 in 2026, and it will continue to adjust upward as Roth IRA contribution limits increase over time. There is an important catch for high earners: IRS Notice 2024-73 confirmed that the standard Roth IRA income phase-outs apply to these rollovers as well. At $450,000 in annual income, this father would likely be phased out of the rollover benefit entirely during his peak earning years, so the provision is more relevant to his children once they are out of school and earning at lower income levels. Any funds the children do not use for school can eventually be redirected into their own retirement savings once their incomes qualify.

On the retirement side, the Redditor has projected that a 4% annual growth rate on his retirement account would take it to $10 million by the time he turns 75. His timeline is actually well-calibrated. Under SECURE 2.0, the required minimum distribution age for someone born in 1960 or later is 75, not 73. At that point he anticipates an RMD of roughly $376,000. After taxes, his after-RMD income would land around $253,000 a year, which is more than sufficient, particularly as his mortgage and child-related expenses wind down over time.

The Takeaway

This father deserves credit for thinking ahead. His children will enter adulthood without student loan debt, a gift whose value many people only fully appreciate years later. The question of whether he over-contributed to the 529 accounts is largely academic: he has already said he is open to passing any surplus to future generations, so no money is truly wasted.

The more interesting question is what he does with the freed-up cash flow once he stops 529 contributions. At 47, with a $9.7 million net worth and no young dependents on the horizon, there is a strong argument that working until a traditional retirement age is entirely optional. A sabbatical, a period of travel, or simply a slower pace of life while the kids finish high school and college are all within reach. The empty-nest years will arrive sooner than expected, and his financial position gives him plenty of room to enjoy them on his own terms.

Editor’s note: This pass corrects the article’s RMD analysis: because the Redditor was born around 1977, he falls in the “born 1960 or later” cohort under SECURE 2.0, making his required minimum distribution age 75 rather than 73. The previous text incorrectly suggested he would need to begin RMDs two years before his model assumed. This pass also adds that the One Big Beautiful Budget Act raised the annual 529 K-12 withdrawal limit from $10,000 to $20,000 per beneficiary for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, and clarifies that the $19,000 annual gift tax exclusion is unchanged for both 2025 and 2026.

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