<prompt> Human: Ever since I found that IRA contributions can be used penalty-free for education expenses, Ive been eyeing that for my sons college savings. If I use my Roth contribution for that college savings I have tax free distributions to pay for it, and if he doesnt go to college I have it as extra retirement savings.The 529 plan would be exempt from federal taxes same as Roth but it seems like only a select few states have any state tax benefit. My residency is a bit fluid but as near as I can tell any state of interest to me either has no tax benefit such as CA or the state has no income tax anyway such as TX or FL. On top of that, if my son ended up not going to college or college isnt as expensive as anticipated, theres a 10 penalty no tax benefit on whatever is left! A 10 penalty I dont have to deal with on the Roth.This is all on top of additional fees I wouldnt be paying in a Roth, and more limited investment options.So without a state tax benefit, and the additional 10 penalty, is there ANY positive to using a 529 plan over a Roth IRA? It seems like a pretty clear cut advantage to me, yet nearly every article I read regarding using an IRA for college savings suggests a 529 instead, but Im not seeing the benefit. The only values I can see in favor of a 529 are if I wanted to contribute more than 5500 annually to his college fund or that I wanted to prioritize my retirement savings more but Im still under max 401k contribution so it feels like something I dont need to worry about yet.Assistant: You can only withdraw your Roth IRA contributions for this purpose. A 529 plan can grow and the entirety of the account contribution and earnings can be withdrawn if used for education as you know.To illustrate the point, you can save less and still arrive at the same amount if you are using a 529: If you save 5,500 a year 458month in a Roth IRA for sixteen years for college, you can withdraw 88,000. If you save 5,500 a year 416month in a 529 plan for sixteen years, the savings are likely to also grow average long-term rates of return to about 158,000. If you go with the Roth, youre likely to fall far short. Human: Yea this was my missing piece. I knew something didnt add up. For whatever reason the articles I was reading were glossing over this fact if mentioning it at all. Seems like a pretty important detail. Thanks!  <response>: Also something to consider is the transferability of 529 assets between beneficiaries. If you have multiple children, you can shift money around between them if one child gets a good scholarship and wont need as much without any penalty. If you have funds left over once school is over you could create a 529 in your name and use it for you own education or hold onto it and transfer it to 529s for future grandchildren when they are born etc. Another consideration is you can make penalty free distributions up to the dollar value of any scholarships youre child receives as well so you wouldnt actually be penalized if you have a high achiever or goes to a service academy. You would still pay taxes on the growth though so its better to keep it in the 529 if at all possible. 