<prompt> Human: I had a discussion with my father-in-law. I mentioned that my wife and I were discussing putting money into Tennessees 529 plan. He scoffed at the idea because schools and FAFSA take 529s into consideration when calculating financial aid eligibility. I looked into it and while it does affect financial aid, it doesnt seem to affect it as much as he thought 5.64 of 529 plan maximum count as the students assets.Any advice here on whether or not 529 plans are worth it? It seems to me that 18 years worth of interest will counteract any negative affects to financial aid, so we should start one. Is my reasoning correct?  <response>: Yes, 529 plans are completely worth it. We started them when our teens were young. Our eldest is now a HS senior and approximately half the balance of their college accounts is profit. At a very rough estimate, if the 529 plan funds cover half of college costs and we cover the rest with current income, about ten percent of the kids college expenses will be paid for by legal tax avoidance. Also, the vast majority of financial aid is in the form of loans. Youll be far better off to have savings for college than to take on debt. And money invested in 529 plans isnt treated any differently than any other asset regular savings account, taxable investments for the purposes of financial aid calculations. 