It’s hard keeping track of what matters when in the prior-prior year world of the FAFSA and CSS Profile. Here is a table summarizing tax year and asset dates for the next few college years: School Year 2020-2021 2021-2022 2022-2023 2023-2024 2024-2025 2025-2026 2026-2027 FAFSA/ PROFILE Income Tax Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Assets As Of Oct*…
FAFSA
Perhaps the most frequently asked question we get is how to balance saving for retirement and college. And I can’t answer that in a blog post because the right way to balance depends on your specific circumstances. We have told clients to pause retirement savings to meet college years cash flow needs, we have told clients to stop funding college…
Many families think there’s no point in doing the FAFSA because they assume they don’t have financial need. That reflects a fairly limited view of the FAFSA; in fact, there are plenty of good reasons why every family of a student who’s even potentially college-bound next year, regardless of the family’s financial position, should do it.
It’s time for my annual financial aid presentation at my kids’ high school. This year the topic is Five Questions for College-Bound Students, which your families might also want to discuss.
The FAFSA gets a lot of attention right around now, but it’s only one of two financial aid forms. The other is the CSS Profile, used primarily by private colleges and universities. The Profile differs from the FAFSA in several major respects:

