It’s tax time, which means it’s time to claim education tax credits you may be eligible for. Unfortunately, a lot of tax software programs don’t provide good instructions for doing so, so it’s a good idea to pull up the instructions for Form 8863 and review them before filing. The American Opportunity Tax Credit is the more valuable of the two credits,…
Browsing Category
Saving & Paying
The SECURE 2.0 Act, which was signed into law on Dec. 29, introduced a number of changes to retirement savings. One in particular is relevant to parents struggling with whether to save for college or retirement: SECURE 2.0 allows excess 529 funds to be rolled over to a Roth IRA tax- and penalty-free, beginning in 2024. This isn’t a blanket…
With December almost here, it’s time to get on year-end tasks. If you’re among the many who want a year-end to do list, here goes!
“Use a Roth IRA instead of a 529,” many people will tell you. “It’s better for financial aid since it doesn’t count as an asset.” Some people will tell you the same about insurance policies, but those people are insurance salespeople who just want a commission. Deciding whether to use a Roth IRA is a little bit more complicated. Roth…
Now that you’ve done Step 1 and Step 2, what’s next to find scholarships? Step 3 is starting to build a spreadsheet of colleges that are likely to offer you scholarships so that you keep track of and meet application requirements and deadlines. If you don’t want to create your own, here is my college research spreadsheet. It includes columns…