One of your upstream posts said that you are earning money to save for an apartment for summer, because you a) will be taking classes and b) don’t want to go home.
If you are receiving financial aid (my assumption is that you are), then talk to the financial aid office to see if they have grants and/or loans for students taking classes during the summertime. Also ask if they have dorms available for these students, and what the cost will be. It might be more affordable than you expect.
One of my kids rented an empty bedroom in a frat house over the summer… was doing a research project for a professor so wanted to stay close to campus, couldn’t afford a sublet for a “real” apartment (and didn’t want the hassle of security deposit, etc.). It was a great solution. Super cheap, basically moved in the day after commencement and moved out the day before classes started for the fall semester, no contract, just a bed, walls, bathroom, and internet…
There are likely affordable ways to stay close to campus for the summer… even renting a spare bedroom from a retired faculty person in exchange for mowing the lawn once a week?
You posted above that you are working 24 hours a week for a salary that is significantly above minumum wage.
Please be aware that if you are receiving financial aid, any amount you as the student earn over $7,040 in a calendar year will decrease your financial aid two years later by 50% of the amount that you earn over $7,040. So, if you earn, say, $10,040 in 2022, your financial aid award for academic year 24-25 will decrease by $1,500 (50% of the diference between $10,040 and $7,040). There will be some offset (in your favor) for income tax that you pay. The good news is that because there is a two-year lookback on income, this only applies to income that you earn in 2022 and 2023. Income that you earn in 2024 or later won’t be subject to this assessment, unless you take additional semesters to graduate (which is always possible, even for the best of students, based on course availability and other factors).
Also, everytime you file your FAFSA, the money that is in cash or in your bank account on the day youfile will reduce your financial aid award for the coming year by 20% of the amount of cash/savings/investments that you have. (Parent assets are assessed less). So it is usually advised to pay your expenses before you file the FAFSA. This is for all four years of college – there is no “lookback” for savings.
I greatly admire your work ethic and your plans to be self-supporting, However, I wanted to make sure you knew the above information so that you can make the plans that work out best for you in both the short-term and the long-term.
And again, please talk to the financial aid office to see if they have any additional grants or other means of helping you. You said that you contacted them and they were not helpful. You may want to try again to see if you can reach someone that you can communicate better with. If they are open in-person, you may find it easier to meet in person rather than over the phone.
Paging @kelsmom for her input on the above (including correcting any mistakes I may have made in my analysis), as she is a financial aid expert and former financial aid officer.
Summer on campus housing is cheaper than a real apartment so I’ll see if I can apply for housing and save money that way.
I’ve talked to several landlords and their rent is so expensive for no reason.
Thank you for that.
I have two 8 hour shifts and one 6 hour shift. If I work 12 hours in one or two days a lot of taxes and social security will be taken out of my check. But that’s a smart idea so I’ll look into that.
You will pay the same percentage in taxes and social security whether you work one 24 hr shift, or twelve 2 hr shifts. You should set your withholding correctly so that you don’t wind up owing the government anything, but also aren’t expecting a big refund (you need that money NOW, not a year from now as a tax return).
I’m assuming that tax-wise, you are no longer going to be your parents’ dependent. You need to notify them of that, tell them that they should not claim you as their dependent for 2022. You need to file your taxes, electronically, the first second that you are eligible to, usually in mid January. The IRS announces the earliest date for electronic filing every year. The reason you have to do this is that if your parents claim you, you will be taxed at a higher rate, and you certainly do NOT need that! If your relationship with them is still bad by next early January, then file electronically the minute it is possible, and then notify them the next day that you have already filed independently, and that they cannot claim you as their dependent, since if you’re not taking money from them, and you don’t live at home, you aren’t their dependent.
Renting to college kids is stressful and often expensive (the lease says two kids in a two bedroom apartment, but in actuality there are five people living there, the “minor” damages add up pretty quickly). So if you are seeing really high rents, it’s because the landlord knows that he/she can get that rent, AND that they need the money to keep the place in working order. I grew up in a college town-- we knew the houses which had been chopped up into apartments for college kids and they invariably had broken refrigerators, cracked toilets, bashed in doors, set out on the sidewalk on garbage day. Being a landlord isn’t as profitable as it seems.
Agree with Parentologist that it’s worth doing the math to make sure your withholding is correct. And it’s worth reading the benefits packet at work- you might be eligible for benefits you don’t know about. Some employers offer subsidized public transportation (like $100 a month to buy a commuter card on a subway) but in the fine print you might see “if you use a car to get to work, you are eligible for a $50 gas card per month”. There might be a meal allowance if you work longer than an 8 hour shift; -etc. Read the fine print.
Hugs. You can do this…
Just to clarify-- even if he becomes independent for tax purposes, he is still considered a dependent for FAFSA, right?
You’re welcome!
You may be better off looking for a sublet. Also, since you are planning on keeping your car, you can look at some of the complexes a bit further from campus and drive. Rents go down significantly if you are a bit further from campus.
Unfortunately, yes. But I’m under the impression that he’s already got a full fin aid package. The only way that one could be independent for FAFSA is to have been declared emancipated before he left home after having turned 18. Even then, I think the fin aid system has caught onto it, since apparently some families were deliberately emancipating their children so that they could apply for fin aid without the parents being put in the equation.
Some of us had already tried to help OP with these scenarios when they were looking at college options. I do not think OP fits into the possible independent scenarios based on previous threads, but their high school counselor may be able to help document something.
https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fafsa-dependency.pdf
https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/homeless-youth.pdf
@unknowncreature – I’ve been thinking of you and hoping you are doing well. Have you been able to settle into a routine that works for you?
Yeah, it gets a little less stressful every day
That’s great! So happy to hear that!!!