Congratulations! You got accepted into several schools, and each offered you some financial aid. When you compare the offers, it’s important to make apples-to-apples comparisons. The first thing to figure out is, did you get funded aid or unfunded aid? Funded aid consists of grants and scholarships. Funded aid reduces the cost of going to college. Unfunded aid is loans…
Most of us will be lucky to save enough in 529 plans to cover the cost of college tuition, let alone room, board and/or any of the other expenses that might qualify. Here is a quick rundown of what expenses qualify with a 529 savings plan: Room and board: This is easy to figure out if your student lives on…
Divorced parents tend to have a number of questions about aid issues and college applications in general. Let’s start with the basics: Do both parents’ incomes count? And what about new spouses’? As is so often the case, the answer is different depending on the aid form. The FAFSA is simple so let’s start there. The FAFSA only counts the…
Several of us weigh in on how to prioritize college and retirement savings in a recent New York Times article here.
A reader asked the question, “Can I use funds in my 529 plan to pay for college application fees, tests or test preparation?” Unfortunately the answer is no. Though all of those are both costly and necessary, they are not “qualified education expenses” that are eligible to be paid for by 529 plan funds. In Publication 970, the IRS spells…