Can anyone recommend a book that discusses how FAFSA treats certain types of income and assets? We’re a couple years away from our first going to college and I’ve got a few decisions to make about what to do with/where to put some money in preparation for that. Just trying to anticipate the effect those decisions will have on financial aid.
Thanks.
If you’re up for it, the first thing I would recommend doing is going through the FAFSA to see what needs to be reported
(https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1819/pdf/PdfFafsa18-19.pdf),
and then take a dive into the FAFSA formula to understand how the data that the student provides is used to come up with the EFC number:
https://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/071017EFCFormulaGuide1819.pdf
Not bout the FAFSA…but read the book “Paying for College Without Going Broke”.
Good read.
First off just work out what FAFSA is, because people who can manipulate their finances/assets significantly are not going to be affected by FAFSA.
Thanks for the reference to the FAFSA formula - I assumed the calculation was some sort of black box algorithm unknown to mere mortals. And I’m glad to see “Paying for College Without Going Broke” recommended; I actually found that title with some online research and put in for an interlibrary loan right before I posted my question above. Glad to know it won’t be a waste of time.
I’m not in the “significant manipulation of assets” class - my immediate interest is in figuring out whether to put a few thousand bucks in my 2107 IRA before completing my tax return vs. setting up a SEP and putting it there instead vs. just putting the money in my son’s 529 vs. any other option. The formula BelknapPoint linked to should help me figure that out.
Second @thumper1 - Paying for College Without Going Broke - excellent resource. Very detailed but easy to read.