I have been applying for aid (along with regular admissions applications) at a few “summer programs for high schoolers” (Brown, Harvard etc.) On the income portion of the aid application they say to include (among other things) Stocks. I own stocks but I m not super financially savvy. So, if I own 10 shares of something and at the time I fill out the scholarship application the stock is worth $1000 I just put $1000? As we know in an hour from now it could be worth $10. Also, what about other stocks that I may be carrying a negative balance at this time? Or do I report only income from line 7 on my 1040 (and in so doing possibly also Schedule D)? One application even went into detail about if and when you should include Schedule C but does not mention Schedule D. So all in allI have no idea what to put down on that question. I will be filling out alot of these things in the next few years so I have to get this right.
You need to differentiate income from assets.
If they are asking for “income”, that could include earned income, interest, dividends, capital gains, and losses (and many other items). Yes, line 7 and Schedule D, but also other lines, forms, schedules.
Such requests usually specify total income, adjusted gross income, or taxable income (lines 9, 11, and 15 on a 1040). Are they not more specific in what they are asking for?
Current stock holdings are not income, they are assets. If you are asked about assets, that would be current holdings at the current market price. But those are not “Income”.
Stock prices can’t be negative, so I’m unclear on what a “negative balance” could be.
I think OP was looking for a sneaky way to devalue his holdings, by positing that if he bought $10K of stock whose value then dropped to $5K, he hoped he could claim a negative balance on the asset.
Like you said RiP, that’s not going to fly. An asset is an asset, and even assets that are not as valuable as we might wish have positive valuations.
This also is for a HS student, right?
What form(s) are you filling out?
As noted, above, income and assets are different.
But most important…be honest. It doesn’t matter what value your stocks have on a different day than the day you complete the forms. Of course, like anything else “stocks” you could wait and see what happens…but then…their value could increase, right.
Just be honest.
It’s incredibly easy to get stock values today. If they are held through a broker or financial advisor, log into their client portal and find the current value. If you hold them yourself, find the value per share and multiply by the number of shares you hold. Enter the total on the financial aid paperwork, sign & submit.
Yes it is for high school. What form? Well, Sibley Scholarship is one.
RE: “Stock prices can’t be negative, so I’m unclear on what a “negative balance” could be” - As I intimated, not super financially savvy. I meant I have various tech stocks and they have all been down for about a year now.
One stock has enough variability to make some gains day trading, so for example when I filled out a form a few days ago that stock had a market value of 3000 and today it is 100 because I sold most of the shares.
I think part of my misunderstanding is on one hand they want tax forms (calculated yearly with many factors involved) but the assets question seems to - not - be that…and is different. If you all are saying it is the face value on the day the aid form is filled out I guess that is what it is.
Yes, that’s how the asset value of equities (stock) is measured. If you’re calculating on a day when the stock market is closed, use the last closing price. If you have foreign equities you’ll need to convert their value to US$.
it is confusing, because income is from a prior year and assets are usually as of the day you fill in the forms.
But…for the stocks that you sold that now have a market value of 100 (when they had been 3000) – presumably you liquidated them for cash and now your cash accounts are increased, so that asset is now higher than it would have been, evening out the fact that your stock value is now lower.
If you are not financially savvy, and your family has financial need, PLEASE for the love of god stop trading.
Trading is for people who are financially savvy and can afford large swings and large losses. If you cannot, there are no-load index funds which are much better investments for you.
Or for lower fees: ETFs (exchange traded funds).
yes- there are at least half a dozen great alternatives to churning an account for a young person who cannot absorb large losses.
OP- there are lots of places online to learn about investing.
Yes it would not be negative - it would be 5K
Wharton asked only “What is your gross annual household income? (Please include all sources of income in USD)” and did not give guidance pertaining to tax records of each parent whereas Brown specifically asks for both parents taxes. I assume an institution would ask for both in follow-up if it ever got that far. In our case, even with both incomes we are below what any programs I have seen list as an aid cut off point. As well, we are divorced, I am primary, she is a service worker and does not contribute. My takeaway has been it is all on me to make anything happen yet I am also stuck reporting her income.
To clarify – you are the parent and not the student? I was confused and thought you were the student based on your first post (“I have been applying for aid”).
I am a parent applying for aid for high school summer programs. However, I also plan to apply for aid for private high schools this coming year (and possibly each high school year thereafter should it prove even possible to have any luck with any of the various aid offerings. My son is in 9th grade. I am totally new to the world of applying for aid so it remains to be seen how it will work out. And I don’t want to fill out forms wrong as a baseline. But given our family situation the reportable picture VS the reality is somewhat complicated.
Do you mean that what you can really afford doesn’t align with the income and assets you are reporting?
Re: reporting both parent incomes…this is happens at a lot of places. Private high schools (and summer programs) want the complete parent financial picture.
I’ll repeat what I said above. Just honestly do your reporting as you indicated. Thats all you can really do.
RE: Do you mean that what you can really afford doesn’t align with the income and assets you are reporting?
To some degree yes, while my assets don’t exceed the limits they are not zero. However, I am not in a position to afford expensive elective programs. I was hoping to get the aid since paying out of pocket would be extravagant in my budget. Time will tell if I actually get aid.
But what I meant in “But given our family situation the reportable picture VS the reality is somewhat complicated” is just that as I outlined I know I must report her income but the reality is I get nothing from her. She lives such a marginal financial life that it is not even worth trying to enforce anything. I dont imagine any institution would ever care to or have the resources to waste time parsing all that out so I just have to include her income.
It sounds like her income is very low. If that is the case, it would have a small affect on need based aid calculations.
If you are trying to value individual stocks to report assets on a financial aid form, use the stock price at the last market closing. It’s as simple as that.
It is about 15-25K depending on the year