<p>
</p>
<p>I actually don’t need any more strategies for how to decrease my bank balance. I’ve got that trick figured out more ways than I care to say. But thanks anyway!</p>
<p>Now, if you have strategies for increasing it without selling Amway, I’m all ears!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Bunkel sales down???</p>
<p>D’yer: Consider writing the great American Novel and self publish… it has to work some of he times!</p>
<p>Goaliedad: Are you in Cushing? When does Goaliegirl get to go home and for how long before you turn around and head back up to Bear tourney?</p>
<p>No, they are not at the Cushing Tourney. Unfortunately, when we arrived, her school decided to change tourneys (to my disappointment), as the team seems stuck in a rebuild. We can talk more off-line, if you like.</p>
<p>We are headed back up to the Polar Bear tourney on the 26th to play with her pre-post team. They look like they have a pool they can win and move onto the elimination bracket.</p>
<p>
You forgot to add AND without adding to your income! LOL</p>
<p>I would be THRILLED to increase my income to the point where I can write the full pay tuition check. It’s a great value and it’s not a matter of trying to get a discount. It’s totally a matter of affordability. It falls somewhere close behind my mortgage payment (which I regard as basically a payment to myself, especially as my interest portion dwindles) and my water bill (about $1 for hundreds of 8 oz. glasses of my favorite beverage delivered on demand at the flip of a switch) in terms of bills that I look upon as easy to pay because of the value I’m receiving in return. I will gladly pay as much as I can afford to pay…so I’d love to earn more to be able to pay more.</p>
<p>The problem, of course, that I think we’re all talking about is when the numbers pumped out by the SSS engine are totally out of whack from reality and we’re expected to pay more than we can pay. That’s why we’re so eager to find ways to depress that number…to bring it in line with our actual ability to pay.</p>
<p>Exactly D’yer. Not meaning to sound like I’m trying to CHEAT the system, just trying to figure out a way to make it work for me. I too would love to be earning enough to pay full tuition. I would be happy to if my income were several times what it is.<br>
That hard thing right now is that for pretty much every additional dollar we earn now, it’s one less dollar in demonstrated need. Almost doesn’t make sense to get a raise unless it’s a $50,000 raise.</p>
<p>And for those who go to schools that meet only a percentage of need (Tuition - EFC) managaing the numbers too look needy is even more important.</p>
<p>Yes Goaliedad. That’s where the hard part arises. You get a second job to meet the unmet need…then your *need *goes down…because your “income” went up and your FA goes down.<br>
Increasing cash flow without increasing income. THAT’S the trick.</p>
<p>The unfortunate thing about SSS (as compared to CSS Profile) is they ask what your house payment is what your car payment and then make your EFC more than you have left over (LOL). </p>
<p>Seriously, managing cash flow is a big part of making BS work with FA.</p>
<p>One tactic (not advisible as a long term strategy) is to re-fi the house and pay off all other debt. Given the same interest rate as on your current mortgage, addint $20K of car debt may add only about $130 to your mortgage payment (albeit for 30 years) in comparison to the $400 per month that your 5 year note currently dings you for. That $270 per month will get you over $3K more in cash flow for meeting that EFC.</p>
<p>People who have to drive as a part of their employment are better off getting the company to reimburse them for the mileage on their own (hopefully economical) car rather than taking the use of a company vehicle (which you are supposed to indicate on the SSS form). For the effort of tracking mileage, the typical reimbursement rates (37 to 44 cents per mile) usually outpace the actual marginal cost (fuel, maintenance, depreciation) on your car especially if it is an older model with higher mileage already. Those mileage checks are not accounted for as income or any thing else on the SSS form, they are reimbursing you for the “damage” to your vehicle and fuel you supply.</p>
<p>just thought I would add in something my husband was told. He attended a workshop on filling out the SSS. The section where it asks about money spent on vacations, club dues over $250 and cost for camps/lessons for kids – schools look at this money as discretionary money that can be rerouted to school expenses. He was told that they don’t consider any of these expenses to be “necessary”.</p>
<p>I got that feeling that was true when I looked at the form.</p>
<p>I’ve been putting in the couple of thousand that we’ve spent each year on goalie clinics and then turned around and argued with the school about that being the cost of having a goalie and instead of upping our EFC for that they should be LOWERING it because it is a necessity to keep her developing to improve the school’s team. So far they haven’t jerked us around on it.</p>
<p>Perhaps I just shouldn’t mention it (reclassify those “camps” as an “educational” expense like an SAT prep course) and see if my EFC drops significantly…</p>
<p>My guess is that it is all dependent on the kid – if you are recruiting an athlete, you have to expect parents to spend money developing that athlete. However – if you spend tons of money on music lessons, private tutors, sports clinics, etc – prior to sending you child off to boarding school, i can see that the school would expect you to funnel that money to BS.</p>
<p>just thought I would add in something my husband was told. He attended a workshop on filling out the SSS. The section where it asks about money spent on vacations, club dues over $250 and cost for camps/lessons for kids – schools look at this money as discretionary money that can be rerouted to school expenses. He was told that they don’t consider any of these expenses to be “necessary”.</p>
<p>I was wondering where he was able to attend a class…</p>
<p>He attended the workshop in colorado – a little too far for you east coasters! It was held at the Fountain Valley School. Great information – he came home with all kinds of notes and information. They went over the SSS form line by line and answered all questions – plus, they covered how their particular school distributes FA including detailed information, like #of kids granted FA, stats and average percentage of SSS determined need met. </p>
<p>i think the admin at Fountain Valley really does a good job – the open houses, workshop plus lots of personal contact really makes my son feel like they want him – hopefully that is true come March!</p>