<p>i have some money left over and am interested in investing in stocks. it will not be much and i probably wont make that much either, but i just want to do it for fun and experience.</p>
<p>my efc for this year was 0, if i do make money off my stocks/investments. how much will affect my efc? (i know for income through a job, its 50% after $3000)</p>
<p>Having a $0 EFC and investing in the market is like thumbing you nose at the financial aid office. What if you lose money - ever consider that? As an asset, you could lose 20% of the value per year.</p>
<p>i will not be putting that much. i am only doing a little bit because i want to learn how to trade stocks.</p>
<p>i know i wont make any money off of it. i will be spent probably on fun so i figure why not use it to learn how to invest. i am not afraid of loosing it since its so little.</p>
<p>i just wanted to know if there is a cap like how with jobs you can earn up to 3k.</p>
<p>If the investment results in a gain that you have to report on your 1040, it would be considered income, and student income above about 3,200 gets hit hard, as you said.</p>
<p>The investment would also be reported as an asset, and there is no student asset protection allowance. So you could get hit double in the formula, once for any income generated, and again for the asset on the day you file FAFSA.</p>
<p>No separate cap for investment income as opposed to work income-- they get added together.</p>
<p>would that still apply if i used work study money i make to do investments with?</p>
<p>(there is a investment club i want to join that wants to start an investing group. the idea is that we each pitch in 50 a month. like said before, its not to make $, more so that we learn how to trade since im a finance major)</p>
<p>Work study income doesn't count toward your EFC (it gets added in, then deducted). But income generated from an investment purchased with work study funds would count as income.</p>
<p>As to work study income that remains in an account or as an investment-- I'd always believed that it was reportable as an asset. However, I recently read here that it's not to be reported-- but I've not had a chance to verify that sourcing.</p>
<p>Caliguy07 wrote:
my efc for this year was 0, if i do make money off my stocks/investments. how much will affect my efc? (i know for income through a job, its 50% after $3000)</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that if your $0 EFC had to do with being eligable to file 1040ez or 1040a, you will most likely lose that eliability if you have a capital gain on your stock. There is no where to my knowledge to list a capital gain on these forms, so you must file a regular 1040 for tax purposes then. IF this is the case, I would use one of the EFC calculators to see what EFC would be if filing a regular 1040.</p>
<p>FWIW,</p>
<p>DJD</p>