<p>Today is my 18th birthday and all I asked for from friends and family was money. My plan is to invest this money in some individual stocks or low-cost CD's. Will investing this money affect my FAFSA amount? I feel like opening a ScottTrade account will jeopardize any FAFSA money then show, but I am not sure. The investments wouldn't be through my mother, so should I just wait until I complete the FAFSA or can I invest now?</p>
<p>Any money you have that is not specifically in a retirement accout is reportable on the FAFSA. CDs, Brokerage Accounts, cash in a box under your mattress, all of these are reportable.</p>
<p>First of all…there is no such thing as “FAFSA amount” or “FAFSA money”. </p>
<p>Your EFC could be affected by your savings/investments.</p>
<p>However, your EFC is often largely affected by your parents’ income and assets, so if that will already be a significant number, then your savings may not matter. </p>
<p>Do you know what your EFC will be from your parents’ income/assets?</p>
<p>What kind of schools will you be applying to?</p>
<p>The fact is, financial aid is meant to provide assistance to those who need it most. If you have money to invest, that is money you could have used to pay for school. Whether or not investing makes a difference in the amount of aid you receive depends on your individual situation. Many students are only eligible for student loans, and for a freshman that is $7500. In this case, investing wouldn’t hurt you in terms of financial aid … but if you can’t pay the rest, the investment hurts you by tying up money you could have used to pay your school costs.</p>
<p>My mom is a single parent who has raised me without child support. Her EFC is around $5,600. I applied to 10 different schools: UArizona, USanDiego, Xavier, UPenn, Georgetown, NYU, Harvard, Yale, URichmond and Princeton. The first three I have already been accepted to with significant award offers.</p>
<p>And like I said, this is all birthday money. If I get $100 for my “presents”, how is that different than if I bought an Xbox with it? How do they know?</p>
<p>I know it’s crazy, but FA doesn’t care if a student buys an Xbox, but does care what a student has in savings. Personally, I think the first couple thousand of a student’s savings should be ignored. </p>
<p>As for knowing…if you open an acct, it will be linked with your name and social security number. It wouldn’t be difficult to discover.</p>
<p>Did you get NCP waivers so that you don’t need to provide info about your bio dad for the CSS Profile schools that will want that info?</p>
<p>For FAFSA only schools, your money may not make a difference —if your mom falls into the automatic 0 EFC formula, all of your income and investments are ignored. Profile schools may count the investments, or they may not (you never know with a Profile school).</p>
<p>It sounds like you are from a very low income family, and the investment account is not large (my assumption - if incorrect, then it could have some impact). I don’t think it is likely to affect aid.</p>
<p>I beleive the OP is saying thier EFC is 5600 not thier income.</p>
<p>Right…the family is not very low income. The mom earns a decent living and the EFC is 5600.</p>
<p>My mom makes around $56,000 a year and the investment portfolio will have only $100 in there, but I think I am going to wait until January 1st.</p>
<p>And what are NCP waivers? I have never heard about that</p>
<p>Well I dont really know what the point of a $100 investment portfolio would be. Trading costs are like $10-$20 which would be like a 20% loss on the money if you are dealing with a $100.</p>
<p>Oops, you are right - I misread that. If your investment portfolio is really just $100, though, it still won’t make a difference in your aid.</p>