There appears to be a fair amount of confusion around the upcoming FAFSA. To recap, there has been one big change for the 2017-2018 school year: the FAFSA will be available Oct. 1, 2016, instead of Jan. 1, 2017. That results in another big change: going forward, the FAFSA will use “prior-prior” year income data. For example,
As you get closer to college, the question of how to pay for it transitions from “how to save for it” to “how to pay the bills for it.” Many families have some savings and supplement that with cash flow and borrowing. The question is always, when do you use savings versus cash flow versus borrowing?
* Those of you who have completed third grade will likely notice that this post will not contain a dozen names; I just liked writing the Dirty Dozen. Families who plan to spend some time this summer visiting colleges should take notice beforehand of which colleges are good financial fits. The Project on Student Debt from TICAS, The Institute for…
Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is about paying for college, but it’s something parents of college-bound students need to know about. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a bit like HIPAA for student records: it prohibits release of a student’s education records without their consent. Generally this is a good thing:
One question I get a lot in my financial planning practice is “How should I help with my grandchildren’s college costs?” There are many options: opening a 529 account on your own, gifting into the parents’ 529 accounts, UTMAs, direct payment of tuition, just to name a few. The answer, as is so often the case, is It Depends.