One of the advantage of crisis schooling at home is that I often get to listen to what my kiddos are learning, via their distance classes.

My big kid had been working through polygons in her math class. Today was the first day of circles; I was really glad we had an extra compass (the math kind, not the geocaching/orienteering kind) in the house kind of by chance. I know they created a diagram of a circle, complete with color-coded labels of the parts (chord, radius, diameter, etc).

Next they must have been being guided through a discovery of pi. I overheard the teacher asking them to each draw a circle, and then started talking about diameter. I heard my kiddo pipe up to matter-of-factly volunteer that “it must be around 3.14, because we celebrate pi day every March 14th with pie”. Yep, pi/pie day has been an important one in my house since long before there were kids.

Similarly, you know about Mole Day, right? Avogadro’s number of 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd power , celebrated on October 23rd, at 6:02 pm? I loved when my high school chemistry teacher came to school that fall day in a mole costume, complete with whiskers and pointy nose. My high school math and science teachers were favorites, and they had the best (dry) sense of humor.

And of course you must know about Star Wars Day – May 4th, “May The Fourth Be With You”? (And why hasn’t anyone come up with a highly memorable hook for a Star Trek day yet??)

But how about college funding day, have you heard of that one? That’s May 29th, for the tax-advantaged savings vehicle referred to by the number of the section or subsection of the tax code that administer it (like 403b’s, 401k’s, and 457b’s). I am, of course, referring to 529’s.

There’s nothing majorly unique investing-wise for 529’s. They’re a tax advantaged bucket of mutual funds – stocks or bonds. They’re specifically tax advantaged for the purpose of saving for higher education. The money that goes in isn’t given any special federal tax treatment (although your state, like MN, possibly does), but it grows tax free, and you can take it out tax free, as long as you meet the governmental requirements for what they consider acceptable use.

If you’re saving for college or other higher education for yourself or someone you love, there is no magic to May 29th; the tax-relevant deadlines are all December 31st. Instead 5/29 is just a convenient hook to remind you to start or continue to invest for this purpose.

May 29th is only 2 days away. Did the hook work?