Top 10 Critical Goofs Made By Parents During The College Planning Process

Mistake #6: Not knowing how to differentiate “included assets” and “unincluded assets” for filling out financial aid.

Reality: Some assets are counted differently than others in financial aid formulas. All included and asked on Federal Financial Aid are; savings accounts, CD’s, and stocks and bonds. The said form does not actually ask about value of annuities or any cash-value insurance.

Mistake #7: It doesn’t matter where you keep your money;it’s all counted in the same way.

Reality: Nothing could be further from the truth. Where you keep your money could mean the difference between you getting $10,000 in financial aid or getting nothing! For example, money in the child’s name is weighted much more heavily than money in the parent’s name.

Not knowing how to put your money into good use for financial aid purposes can costs you to end up losing thousands of dollars in financial aid that you might actually deserve.

Mistake #8: Having a CPA or tax preparer fill out forms for financial aid for you. having them do it for you.

Reality: These CPA’s and tax preparers aren’t the good people to get advices from. They are actually experts tax planning and how o prepare them. They might a swell suggests keeping your money under your child’s name to save money or taxes. This plan is quite reasonable but will actually decrease your chance of getting that financial aid.

CPA’s and tax preparers are not very careful with filling out financial forms. They can sometimes omit some vital information like (i.e., using pen instead of pencil, using correction fluid to cover mistakes, and not including social security numbers, etc.). These mistakes can often lead your financial aid forms to be brought down at the “bottom of the pile”.

If this happens, you will have to re-submit these forms all over again, and you will likely lose thousands in financial aid since it is awarded on a first come, first served basis. The students with properly filled out, “top of the pile” forms will leapfrog your messy paperwork and be considered for aid first!

Mistake #9: Waiting until January or even worse after January of your child’s senior year of high school to start working on your college financial aid planning.

Reality: Since financial aid is based on your previous year’s income and assets, it is imperative to start your planning as soon as possible before January of your child’s senior year. If you want to legally set up your income and assets so you can maximize your eligibility for financial aid, you must start working on this, at least, one year in advance – preferably in the beginning of your child’s JUNIOR year of high school.

It’s tougher to set up your financial aid once you wait longer and get closer to your child’s senior year, you create a “red flag” for the college and universities. You can start saving once you know what your “Expected Family Contribution”.

There are schools that would give you the best packages, so you should know which schools to start visiting and apply to them. If you did not do some planning yet, DO IT NOW!

Mistake #10: Going Through The Financial Aid Process By Yourself Because It’s “Cheaper”.

Reality: If this is true about you, then colleges and Federal Government will have a ll the glory-they will love you! Examples below.

It would easily allow them to have control instead of you, the parent. You must be aware of how it works and take control over it. It’s a common practice to seek a doctor if you are sick, seek a lawyer, if you are sued, but sometimes, we wanted to save money that when we send our child to college and spend between 410,000-$45,000 per year we wanted to do it ourselves instead of getting someone to help us.

I’m going to give you information on how this is. Because of the complicated system that grew, the combination of federal and government bureaucracy, with involvement of private, for-profit and non-profit enterprises, rules deadlines, regulations and other complications. At the end: it’s not easy knowing how to do things.

There is no way you are to know how to get the maximum amount of money from each school, unless you spent at least half a decade to a decade of your life studying and understanding the financial process. if you do try it out yourself, you’ll spend hours trying to figure it out. It can be done, but you might have to quit your day time job.

The lesson to this story: ” Don’t Be Penny Wise And Dollar Foolish!” get a service of an expert to help you with the process! Normally, the cost of your investment will return a lot of profit for college aid that never could be obtained as “do-it-yourself!

To find out exactly how I can assists you with financial aid for college, check out my website on Tips for collefge in Illinois and get a FREE Report: “How to Pay For College Without Going Broke”