<p>Question for parents, how do you all feel about letting your children know all of your financial information so that they can fill out their fafsa? </p>
<p>When I was younger my parents never told me how much they made no matter how much I asked. As a child your thinking is much different. I knew that we weren't rich or even well off because of where we lived and my brothers and I hardly ever had toys or allowance. However as child I assumed my parents made around a couple hundred thousand a year. Of course by the time I was a teenager I knew that was NO WHERE NEAR the case.</p>
<p>When I finally went to college and had to do the fafsa I felt really bad for my parents (or rather my father since he's the only parent working) I felt really bad when I found out how much they made. It's JUST enough to get by. Its amazing with how little income we had that my father always managed to put food on our table, I mean we never had to worry about losing our home. We never had any extra luxuries but we were always taken care of. I knew there was no way he could help me pay for school so I went and have had a few part time jobs to pay for most living expenses but even more to help my parents out.</p>
<p>Sorry to ramble but I was wondering how do you parents feel about giving kids your income information and do any of you dependents students feel the same way I felt?</p>
<p>Quite honestly, when the FA forms came around (and even back when the college list was being made and NPCs were being run), my parents gave me a copy of our bank statements and tax returns, told me that they could afford x each year, and let me to it. Part of it is that with both working full-time jobs (one away from home), neither really had the time to work through it with me. Part of it is that in my family culture, this really wouldn’t be out of place for us.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure my parents filled out whatever was the FAFSA of the day. I found some some of my SARs when going through some papers. I couldn’t make sense of them at all, so I believe things have change quite a bit. I fill out the FAFSA for my own kids. How do I feel about telling them the whole financial story? Eh. Not a big deal either way.</p>
<p>In her Junior year, I sat down with my daughter and reviewed the monthy budget. We talked in general about college money and what our family could afford out of pocket to support her. At this point, she was “fine” with anything.</p>
<p>In Sept of her senoir in high school, we once again talked about the monthly budget and what money we had available to her for applications and auditions (her major required an audition). I encouraged her to help decided the best way to audition to the schools she wanted, but to stay within the allotted budget. There was some picking and choosing here. She quickly realized how much it costs to travel to another state even for a day or two.</p>
<p>In Jan, as acceptances started rolling in, we again started the budget discussion - this time, it was much more real to her. I made her assist me with filling out the FAFSA. She was good about paying attention.</p>
<p>Finally we are approaching the end of the process. She has a hard choice between a school she sorta likes with great scholarship and a school she has dreamed of that barely squeeked under the top budget. I truly feel that because we have taken the time over the past year to involve her in the finances, she will be better able to make an informed decision. She now understands that “top of the budget” is exactly that, no extra spending money for her at all.</p>
<p>Long story short - I think we raise more informed and hopefully responsible citizens when they truly understand what it takes financially to raise a family and live here. Otherwise, they cannot understand the value of that money.</p>
<p>I’ve filled out the parents section of the FAFSA and any other forms that require parental info This is particularly important when there are complicated issues involved as it’s easy to make a mistake. If a parent truly wants the student to do this, really, at very least, the first time around, the parent should be side by side, helping out, or if the parent is challenged, working with the student. This is serious business and not something to be thrown to an 18 year old, which unfortunately happens too often. The reality is that some kids fill out their parents info, sneaking it and doing this fraudulently. Yeah, an ugly open secret. Cuz those kids wouldn’t get a think if they left it up to the parents. It’s a huge problem that some parents flat out refuse to fill out the FAFSA. Just refuse, as is their right.</p>
<p>Edit to add…since the IRS retrieval tool is in place, it is very hard to put inaccurate info on a FAFSA and therefore get aid.</p>
<p>My kids sat with us when we did the FAFSA. They had to sign using their PIN as well as us. It didn’t seem right to have them blindly sign something. Plus, if I am not mistaken…the student can access a submitted FAFSA with their own PIN…so once it’s filed it’s not exactly a secret that can be kept from the kids.</p>
<p>Which is a reason why some parents refuse to do the FAFSA. They don’t want to release the info to ANYONE including their kids. In divorce situations, it can cause a leak to the other party. </p>
<p>Yes, with the IRS retrieveal tool in place, inaccurate info will be corrected to match the return, but what some kids did was sneak the return and use it, or the prior years, and let the system make the changes in the even verification was done. FAFSAs are changed for mistakes all of the time. My DH"s one uncle simply refused to fill out the info many years ago, and, yes, some of his kids did do the fin aid forms behind his back, so that they could go to college. He never did find out. He would brag that the schools will give out money if you just held your ground.</p>
<p>Our income is considered family income, and our expenses considered family expenses, so our daughters have always had a pretty accurate idea of our financial situations. We’ve always discussed decisions on spending with them: “let’s see what we can do without to pay for this girl scout trip”, “Mom, why do we drive this old Escort when our friends have an XXX?”.</p>
<p>Then again, since I am a pastor and my husband used to be, all they had to do to know our annual income was pick up a copy of our churches’ annual reports or sit through the annual congregational meetings, so there was no point in secrecy!</p>
<p>My point…now that the IRS retrieval tool is required, it is virtually impossible to enter inaccurate numbers on your FAFSA. And it is quite difficult to do so for your tax return if you earn regular wages…as your w-2 is not JUST sent to you! We didn’t get a 1098I one year…but guess what, the IRS DID and we got a nice little correction from them…with a bill.</p>
<p>No financial aid will be disbursed until the correct tax return has been filed and the IRS retrieval tool used.</p>
<p>Many parents have children and spouses who are hopeless with numbers and so do all the taxes and the FAFSA for everyone and print stuff out for people to gaze at blankly before receiving the official OK to use everyone’s PINs and send them off.</p>
<p>Not that there is any deliberate secrecy, but rather that there is a division of labor.</p>
<p>happymomof1: I don’t think my husband even looked at the loans he co-signed with our oldest daughter. I filled out the applications, I applied for a PIN for him, and I used the PIN to sign it. He couldn’t tell you if his life depended on it how much those loans were for. The only thing he looks at on our tax forms is the line that he has to sign.
By his choice, my daughters know more about our finances than he does.</p>
<p>I believe that letting your child know your finances is a great way to teach him or her the current value of money By this I mean when I let my son see our Tax Returns, and informed him how much we GROSSED, I also quickly rattled off where that money went: Federal Taxes, State Taxes, SSI, Medicare…Now, after paying Uncle Sam (and Uncle Jerry in California) I told him roughly how much our Mortgage is, the cost of utilities per month, the current outrageous amount of money we spend on Gasoline, Auto/Life/Home Insurance, Food, Clothing, Entertainment, etc… That NET amount after taxes quickly dwindled down to our discretionary income which, as all of the adults know, wasn’t quite as grandiose as the original Adjusted Gross Income number. It was a very quick lesson in Economics all wrapped into a three minute spiel.</p>
<p>I should note that we’ve talked in general about these things in the past without revealing income numbers, but I think this quick lesson really gave him a better understanding of the “real world” since many kids think high five or low six figure incomes are huge sums of money and provide one with a life of luxury.</p>
<p>My parents never hid financial information from me. I’m quite grateful for it. I hope to do the same with my kids. I don’t understand hiding your income from your kids but to each his/her own =) (and no need to try to explain it, people have tried before and it’s never budged my views even a little).</p>
<p>My parents just turned tax forms over to me. I’m probably the best in the family with numbers.</p>
<p>We have been very open with our D about what we could afford and what benefits or sacrifices she would make based on the schools she chooses. I like even better what MTDancerMom did, providing as much financial detail as was appropriate at each stage of the process. (I think I will do that with my S who is coming up the ranks!)</p>
<p>In any case, my D got two acceptances to dream schools that are two of the best in her major. Unfortunately, they would require her and her parents to go uncomfortably in debt. Instead, she is choosing a program that is not as well known but where she will get excellent training and minimal debt. We couldn’t be prouder.</p>
<p>I feel for you! Happykid is a theatre tech/design major now on call at four venues that payroll her, and she also works with a pal’s small production company. That means four W-2 forms, at least one 1099 for one performing group that prefers to pay that way rather than through the venue’s payroll, and a whole bunch of random cash and personal check income that has no 1099 back-up because of the pal’s lack of a formal accounting system. After I had sorted through all the income and expenses, I talked her through the numbers. Her response was, “That’s a lot of words.” </p>
<p>Unfortunately Happydad was close enough to hear what she said, and when I talked him through our tax return, he repeated her phrase. Now it is their go-to response for anything financial that looks complicated. Arrgh! My only hope is that some nice accounting major will take Happykid’s finances off my hands one day.</p>
<p>I nearly wept with joy when the last FAFSA was filed this year!</p>
<p>My oldest did her own taxes this year! She even dealt with the IRS and the WI Dept. of Revenue to determine what to do since the private school that never paid her the last five months of her contract also never sent in the withheld taxes from the months they did pay. I am very proud of her and very relieved not to have done them.</p>
<p>I still remember doing her taxes the year she had worked a college job in PA, a summer job in WI, substituting for several school districts and a job at Wallyworld… 6 w-2’s and two states.</p>