@mom2collegekids I know… my income is not sufficient. It’s only 800~1000/mo 
But in my calculation, the payment would be $600/mo with 15yr plan, and $300/mo with 30yr plan.
If you have to borrow money for school, you cannot afford a home mortgage. You are getting too ‘leveraged’ - too much debt. Things happen to houses that cause expenses, roof leaking, electrical/plumbing, you fill in the blank, and you will have ‘broke, desperate, and stupid’ move in with you as Dave Ramsey says.
Once you are finished with school and have a regular income, and have some cash saved, then you can look to be a home owner.
Even if you count on having room-mates, you cannot always count on them paying.
You want to always cover your expenses and have an emergency fund. Emergencies happen.
@BrownParent True. But part of them was from the installment bank in my motherland. Is it okay? I’m little worried about this
And thank you for advice!
@SOSConcern I didn’t borrow money for school. I only got scholarship and grants.
But you’re right. That’s very critical advice for me. Thanks a lot!
You will NOT be considered independent as a 22 year old. You don’t get to do that until you are 24.
@Erin’s Dad
Oh I see…
- It doesn't matter where you have your $50,000. Even if it is stuffing your mattress, you must report it on the FAFSA. If you had any of this money when you applied for your financial aid this year, and you received need based aid, you did so fraudulently,
It is considered fraud to gain financial aid by providing inaccurate information. If you had the money, and didn’t report it, you committed fraud when you applied for financial aid.
- You will not be considered independent for financial aid purposes simply because you are working part time, and aren't declared as a dependent on your parent tax returns. Your tax filing status has NOTHING to do with independent status for financial aid purposes.
- How much do you earn at your part time job? And is this a contracted position that you can document to the lending institution? If you don't earn enough, and your job is a hourly job that could end at any time, you likely won't qualify for a mortgage at all.
- You do realize that in addition to your mortgage, you will need to pay property taxes, have property insurance, and you will also have utility bills to pay. In addition to electricity, cable, you will also,have a bill for sewage and water. Your monthly mortgage might only be $500 a month, but your taxes and other expenses could easily double that amount or more. So, I would suggest you double your estimated monthly expenses...make that $1200 a month.
- So...to pay $1200 a month, you would need to earn about double that amount. If you earn $24,000 a year, you will need to report that on the following year's FAFSA, and that will also reduce the amount of need based aid for which you are eligible. Oh...and the bank won't approve you for a mortgage if your income is only sufficient to pay your mortgage and taxes.
- Check the cost of attendance for commuters at your college....not students living off campus...commuters. If you list this as your primary residence, you would be considered a commuter student at many places. The COA might be less also, and therefore your need based aid could be reduced.
- Remember too...anything that breaks...will be fixed on your dime...so if the refrigerator dies, you will have to replace it. If the toilets get stopped up, you will need to call and pay the plumber.
- Home ownership can be a wonderful thing IF you have the resources to pay for anything that might happen. As a college student, this is highly unlikely.
- When you apply for your mortgage, the lender isn't going to care if you plan to rent. That is not certain money for the lender to consider.
- And lastly, any rent you collect will also need to be listed as income next year when you do your FAFSA form.
Have you considered any of these things??
So you have piles and piles of cash in your apartment that adds up to $50,000 and you never reported this $50,000 on your FAFSA?
How did you manage to earn all this in the few years you have been in this country?
@Erin’sdad He said independent for tax.
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But in my calculation, the payment would be $600/mo with 15yr plan, and $300/mo with 30yr plan.
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Banks will not consider that enough income. Home ownership has OTHER expenses…property taxes, home insurance, electric bill, water bill, cable, etc.
Ok…so you earn $1000 a month. If you banked every penny of that, it would have taken you over 4 years to save $50,000. You say some of it came from “the installment bank” in your motherland. What does that mean?
I think your bigger issue is that you didn’t reoort any money you already had on the current FAFSA for this year. How much did you have when you filed the 2015-2016 FAFSA…the one for the current year?
Well, it’s closer to $700-$750 for a 15 year loan and $460-$480 for a 30 year loan. And you’re forgetting about taxes and insurance, as well as repairs and maintenance on the house. I’d be very surprised if you could qualify for a $100,000 mortgage with just a part-time job.
Oops, I posted my reply before reading the rest of the posts. I see that others have already pointed out everything that I mentioned. Sorry for the duplication!
Wooah, I got really messed up the communication! 50k is my saving since I was very young!
I didn’t earn it within just a month or a year!!!
At least 10 YEARS, guys!!!
And @thumper1 , so some part of money (the installment saving) in my motherland and I did tax report in there too!
For more information, I reported everything about my financial status when I just moved-in here.
I didn’t tax fraud…
I totally understand that everyone said like that because my situation is not very clear.
But I just want to point out that I DID NOT TAX FRAUD!!!
Add on, the reason why my family and I am available to get FAFSA is we are an immigrant, and we didn’t earn a lot of income last year! (and I didn’t have full of 50k last year too)
That’s it! Maybe after this year, it would be changed.
So I just wanted to know the FAFSA would be reduced or gone!
And everyone pointed out: 1. I couldn’t get a mortgage with part-time job 2. other expenses
Thank you for letting me know, I didn’t think about them. That’s my fault.
I never said you did tax fraud.
You do not list savings on your income taxes. But you are supposed to list them in your FAFSA. Did you? If you didn’t, you may have committed financial aid fraud.
Then again, you may have been eligible for the simplified needs test whereby your assets would not have been asked for.
Did you put your savings on your FAFSA as an asset? How much DID you have when you completed your last FAFSA?
Then again…if your family income was less than $50,000 a year and you fulfilled another one of three criteria (eligible for means tested benefit, filed 1040A or 1040EZ tax form or parent was a dislocated worker), your assets would not have been considered in the FAFSA calculation at all.
Is that the case for you?
And lastly…you have plenty of time to be a homeowner. It sounds like you are very careful with your spending…and that is a good thing. Once you graduate and have a full time job, then start thinking about home ownership.
And about FAFSA, I mean, IT INCLUDES SCHOLARSHIPS based on my gpa.
Not JUST federal aid.
No…the FAFSA is used only to compute need based aid. The FAFSA doesn’t have anything to do with merit aid which is based on your GPA and test scores.
Some schools do require the FAFSA to be completed even for merit aid recipients.
The FAFSA would be used to,determine your eligibility for need based aid…this would include grants, work study, SEOG (not everyone gets that). And whether your Direct Loans are subsidized or not.
And the FAFSA is a financial,aid application form. The FAFSA does not award aid…at all. Your school crafts your financial aid award. It sounds like your school gave you both need based and merit aid.
Your need based aid was based on the info provided on the FAFSA.
Maybe his parents make so little that they are at automatic zero or simple assets for the FAFSA. If he didn’t have to report assets, he’s fine.
I think he should buy the house if he can qualify for a mortgage. Having a 33% down payment is pretty impressive to a bank, but the bank does have to meet the requirement for lending. The bank won’t count the income from any renters, but they do allow a debt to income ratio that most of us would probably not want to live under for many years (most assume they’ll make more in year 30 of the mortgage than in year 1.
Yes…that is what I said above. Maybe they qualified for the simplified needs test…whereby assets are not counted.
@thumper1 I also reported on financial aid either. But anyway, I got some grant and I just wonder I could keep that grant even I buy a small house.