I have money in my savings account. How does this affect my Pell Grant/Cal grant amount?

So I’m an independent student who lives on his own. I have about $9000 in my bank. How does this affect the amount i get each year? Should I take out money of my bank and spend it so I can maximize how much financial aid I’m getting? I’m really worried because I was saving this money to be used for my mom’s medical bills but if its going to hurt my financial aid earnings, maybe i should take it out…

Your $9000 will be assessed at 20%. It does not make sense to spend $9000 because you want top hold on to 1800. Financially, it makes no sense

When will mom’s medical bills come due? Can you give the money to mom now for her bills or would she spend the money instead of using towards med bills?

they are due in 2 months. Maybe I should pay for them now…

Sybbie, can you elaborate? I thought fafsa assesses how much money you have in your bank account at the time you file your fafsa application. I’m not trying to do anything weird but if I’m getting less financial aid for having more money in my bank account, then it makes more sense to me to spend some of it.