Margaret Is Trying to Decide Whether to Place Funds in a Qualified

question 51

Essay

Margaret is trying to decide whether to place funds in a qualified tuition program. Her son will be attending college in 4 years. She is in the 35% marginal tax bracket and she believes she can earn an 7% before tax return on alternative investments. Thus, $10,000 will accumulate to $11,948 (after-tax) in 4 years. Margaret expects tuition to increase at the rate of 5% each year to $12,155 in 4 years. Her son will be in the 15% marginal tax bracket in all relevant years. Given these assumptions, should Margaret participate in the qualified tuition program?

---

Definitions:

Profit-maximizing

The process or strategy of adjusting production and operations to achieve the highest possible profit under given conditions.

Fixed Factor

A resource in the production process whose quantity cannot readily be changed in the short term.

Production

The process of creating goods or services by combining various inputs in order to make products that are suitable for consumption or further production.

Increasing Returns To Scale

A situation in production where an increase in the scale of inputs leads to a more than proportional increase in output.