<p>So here I am starting the dreaded CSS profile for some schools. As middle class parents with 2 in college its a must. Filled about 1/3 and have a very bad headache. I will be asking many questions for the next few days. First one- when they ask for your taxed deferred retirement do we list what is guaranteed or the entire amount. The entire amount is not promised as the invested amounts can go south and will mean less when I retire. Second - I can not predict that my son will work summer 2013 or how much he may make. Many college programs have month long orientation for certain programs as my daughter was required to partake in where she was not able to work. Do I simply put 0?</p>
<p>Not sure about the first question. For the second you can put 0. Most schools that require the CSS Profile and give away substantial amounts in institutional grants will expect some summer earnings contribution from the student regardless of all the things that might make that difficult for certain students. If the college expects a student to contribute, say, $1500 from summer earnings, it won’t matter if you put $0 or $500 or $1500 – they’ll still factor in a contribution of $1500 into the aid award. The only time what you enter there may have an effect, I’d guess, is if you put in expected student earnings in excess of the minimum they will automatically build in.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what your retirement plan is, so can’t answer. If you have a 401K type plan or IRA, you give what the market value of the plan is as of the day you fill in the form or the value on the closest day for which you can have value. UNless you have your money, any money in a federally insured account, there is no guarantee. You still report the market value, and that amount is adjusted. You don’'t report unvested employer contributions or any defined benefit type plan amounts. So it depends on what sort of deferred retirement invested accounts you have. </p>
<p>As 'rentof2 says, just putting a zero is the way most people go. You get hit for a minimum regardless and in future years the actual amounts will be taken into account, so there is no sense in trying to guess what your child is going to be making the following summer.</p>
<p>Gosh, I am dreading this.</p>
<p>I wonder if there are FAFSA and CSS preparers like there are income tax return preparers. ;)</p>
<p>I’d gladly pay someone to do this for me.</p>
<p>To those of you who are new to the Profile and FAFSA, believe me when I say, the first one is the worst. I completed a total of 8 FAFSA forms and 6 Profiles (luckily DS’s school dropped the requirement for merit renewals). Every time I did it, it went faster and was easier to complete.</p>
<p>One very important piece of advice…make sure you print out a copy of the Profile once you have completed it. Keep it in a safe place. Next year, it will be much easier to do the form if you have the previous one for reference.</p>
<p>The FAFSA will seem easy as you actually might have your taxes completed by the time you file it. Remember, this Is the year to get those taxes done ASAP after February 1.</p>
<p>Thanks to all who responded. I will enter 0 in summer savings. As for retirement I am unsure how they use this figure. If I will reach retirement in 15 years and only collect then how does this need to be a factor? Its not like I can take any of my retirement out now. I think I will get advice on this from my retirement company. TY all!</p>
<p>Most schools ask for the retirement account balances but do NOT use these when computing need based financial aid awards. It is speculated that schools want to be sure that retirement accounts don’t hold excessive amounts of money relative to actual income…that could have been designated for college purposes. In other words, they want to make sure you are not excessively overfunding your retirement accounts. Just put today’s value down…it is what it is.</p>
<p>Yolie, they are not asking for the amount you will collect when you retire. They are asking for the value of that retirement money NOW. You should be able to find that by going online and checking your account. I just used my quarterly statement value as it seemed to come when I was filing my Profile forms. There is no way you can predict the value of the retirement accounts when you actually retire in 15 years. But you should easily be able to find out what the value of those accounts ate today.</p>
<p>thanks much!</p>