WCI #463: 529 Plans: How Much to Save and What They Can Be Used For
White Coat Investor Podcast
Dr. Jim Dahle of the White Coat Investor
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
529 plans are one of the most popular ways for families to save for education—but many parents still have questions about how much to contribute and what those funds can actually be used for.
In this episode of the White Coat Investor Podcast, Dr. Jim Dahle answers several listener questions about 529 education savings plans, including how much parents might consider saving for a newborn child and how to think about long-term education funding goals.
We also discuss the concept of "Trump accounts" (530A accounts) and what these proposed or new account types are intended to do.
Finally, we explore whether 529 funds can be used for continuing education expenses such as CME, and how the rules around qualified education expenses actually work.
Understanding the details of education savings accounts can help physicians and other high-income professionals plan more effectively for their children's education while staying tax-efficient.
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The White Coat Investor Podcast launched in January 2017, and since then, millions have downloaded it. Join your fellow physicians and other high income professionals and subscribe today! Host, Dr. Jim Dahle, is a practicing emergency physician and founder of The White Coat Investor blog. Like the blog, The White Coat Investor Podcast is dedicated to educating medical students, residents, physicians, dentists, and similar high-income professionals about personal finance and building wealth, so they can ultimately be their own financial advisor-or at least know enough to not get ripped off by a financial advisor. We tackle the hard topics like the best ways to pay off student loans, how to create your own personal financial plan, retirement planning, how to save money, investing in real estate, side hustles, and how everyone can be a millionaire by living WCI principles.
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00:00 WCI Podcast #463
05:10 How Much Should You Put in a 529 for a Newborn?
35:22 What Are 530A "Trump Accounts"?
57:05 Can You Use a 529 for CME or Continuing Education?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the White Coat Investor Podcast, where we help those who wear the white coat get a fair shake on Wall Street. |
| 0:06.2 | We've been helping doctors and other high-income professionals stop doing dumb things with their money since 2011. |
| 0:15.9 | This is White Coat Investor podcast number 463. |
| 0:19.5 | Resolve is the number one rated physician contract team, |
| 0:22.0 | reviewing 1,000-plus physician contracts every year. They empower physicians with location-specific |
| 0:27.2 | compensation data, which leads to unparalleled leverage during the physician contract negotiation |
| 0:32.2 | process. A physician contract lawyer is included, and it can negotiate on your behalf, |
| 0:41.2 | alleviating the stress that can go along with reviewing complex legal terms. |
| 0:45.0 | Flat rate pricing and flexible schedules are designed for a physician schedule. |
| 0:48.7 | Use code white coat 10 for 10% off. |
| 0:50.7 | All right, welcome back to the podcast. |
| 0:53.0 | We have a great episode today. |
| 0:55.8 | I'm excited about it. I am here with Tyler Scott. |
| 1:03.2 | His title is President of Planning at White Co. Planning. This is a company we've been starting and has been ramping up here. This is essentially the financial planning firm that I always |
| 1:10.3 | wanted to see in the world. And it turned out that the way to see that was actually to create it. So we've been working on doing that for the last few months. It's very exciting. We're not going to spend a lot of time talking about that today. But Tyler, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. It's been fun to be here in the past on my own. I've interviewed you a little in the past. Now it's fun to take some questions and collaborate together. Yeah, so this is going to be a good time. You guys always like having more voices on the podcast. We got more voices. And I couldn't talk Tyler into just arguing with me about a whole life the whole time. So we're actually going to talk about some other stuff like 529s, but we're still going to have a good time. And maybe we can, |
| 1:46.9 | you know, argue about some other stuff like 529s, but we're still |
| 1:45.0 | going to have a good time. And maybe we can, you know, argue about something. I'm sure there's |
| 1:49.5 | something we disagree with here soon. Okay, it's match week, right? So from now until March 23rd, |
| 1:57.1 | if you book a consult with the experts of student loan advice, all you have to is book it. |
| 2:02.7 | You don't have to complete the consult during this time period, but if you book it between |
| 2:06.5 | the 16th and the 23rd, you're going to get fire your financial advisor, the resident version, |
| 2:12.7 | for free after you have your meeting with the student loan planner. |
... |
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