Bank Account info on FAFSA

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi I'm new and have a question.</p>

<p>When they ask for bank acct. info and you have too much
in your account should you cash out most of it while your child
is going to college?</p>

<p>I have been unemployed for 2 years and I will need what I have in the bank to live off
of maybe for awhile yet, I can't afford for them to not give us any money because
it looks to them like I don't need any help.</p>

<p>I don't know if they will be able to look back at my acct history or just what I have when
we apply.</p>

<p>Any helpful thoughts would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Well, it’s hard to imagine parents having too much while their kids are in college:) But, FAFSA does have a savings/asset protection allowance built into the formula which is based on the age of the older parent (see link below, page 19). Above that, parent assets are only assessed at 5.6%…income is by far the greatest contributor to the EFC. So it may be a non-issue and, if you need that money to live off of, I would not be spending it to fix up the house, pay off the car, etc. My advice would be to run a few EFC calculators and see what you come up with in your current situation.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/062810EFCFormulaGuideUpdate1011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/062810EFCFormulaGuideUpdate1011.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Thanks for the info, I’ll do some calculations.</p>

4

<p>If your family income is below a certain amount and you file a 1040A or 1040EZ tax form, or you qualify for some kind of public assistance (food stamps, free lunch), you would be eligible for the simplified needs test and your assets would not be counted at all. </p>

<p>I believe the income has to be below $50,000 a year total (for the parents).</p>