<p>Do Stocks, Bonds, and CDs affect financial aid?</p>
<p>Home Equity and Retirement savings do not affect financial aid, correct? What else doesn't affect financial aid?</p>
<p>If I earn more money than I am awarded in work-study/student employment and I save all of it, will that affect my financial aid? If so, how much?</p>
<p>Yes they do, and so does home equity at most shools that are not FAFSA only (the top private colleges most often discussed here).</p>
<p>Yes stocks bonds and shares can affect financial aid. </p>
<p>A dependent student has no asset protection and any reportable assets will affect the FAFSA EFC by 20% of their value. The student has a certain amount of income protection and any income over that affects the EFC by 50%.</p>
<p>Parents have a certain amount of asset protection based on the number of parents and the age of the older parent. Reportable assets over the protected allowance can increase the EFC by up to 5.6%.</p>
<p>The exceptions to the above are when the student qualifies for the simplified needs test where assets are ignored. This requires parent income below $50,000 and some other criteria (filing a 1040A or EZ or receiving means tested benefits etc) or automatic 0 EFC which requires parent income below $30,000 and other criteria.</p>
<p>All^^^ are for FAFSA EFC only.</p>
<p>For FAFSA purposes, primary home equity is not included. Nor are funds in a qualified pension/401K plan. Most other assets are. If the college asks for more info in their own FA app or uses PROFILE, they can ask and use anything and often everything for assets. There some exceptions, but that is a general rule.</p>
<p>How much is the student income protection?</p>
<p>For the 2010-2011 FAFSA it was $4500 for a dependent student. it usually increases a little every year.</p>