Last week I appeared in an article in the New York Times’ personal finance section about whether saving for college is advantageous or disadvantageous with respect to receiving financial aid. Many people believe that college savings result in lower financial aid awards; it’s a logical assumption since
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FAFSA
Here is a great article on how and why to talk to your student about paying for college. My favorite quote: “Many students view attending their dream school as the reward for working hard in high school. Instead, parents should portray financial independence in their mid-20s—a goal that’s more easily achieved by saving money in college—as the sweetest reward.”
Back in May, the Department of Education released its needs analysis methodology for the 2016-2017 school year’s FAFSA EFC calculation. The big numbers to know from this are the Income Protection Allowance (the amount of parent and student income that is not considered available to pay for college) and the Asset Protection Allowance (ditto for nonretirement assets). The Asset Protection…
Application season is upon us, so before your senior gets too enamored of Very Expensive U, you need to get real about what you can afford. Here are some rules of thumb: Parents can afford to spend no more than 10% of their income on paying for college out of pocket. No, you cannot afford the 47% that the FAFSA…
This week, President Obama signed an executive order that will dramatically simplify the financial aid process for many families. Beginning next October, for the 2017-2018 school year, families will be able to file the FAFSA using two years’ prior (“prior-prior year”) data. That means that