How Families Can Maximize Student Financial Aid
Posted by LorMet Webteam on Thu, Jul 08, 2010 @ 11:30 AM
Get The Most Out of Student Financial Aid
When it comes to getting financial aid, you want to make sure that you can get the most possible. In recent years, colleges have seen the number of families applying for financial aid increase, and more families will likely apply for aid in the years to come. Experts say that while you should not be dishonest about your financial outlook, there are things you can do to see to it that your income is not artificially inflated by momentary financial gains that do not reflect the overall picture.
Here are some things to think about whether your child is heading off to college soon or in the years to come--
Be sure to pay down credit card balances.
Financial aid officers do not look at how much you owe on credit cards when they are thinking about how much aid you will get, so the money you need to use to pay these debts is not considered. You have to look out for yourself and do your best to lower or get rid of this debt.
Put more into the parental investment and savings accounts.
Use investment and savings accounts that belong to you as parents and not ones that are listed in your child's name. When you apply for federal aid, accounts listed under a child's name are weighted more heavily than accounts that are listed as belonging to a parent.
Add to, rather than subtract from, retirement savings.
Money that you take from a retirement account, such as an IRA, is viewed as income. So taking from your retirement to fund your child's college education will make it more difficult to get aid. Instead, you can put more into retirement accounts before your child starts college because that money isn't factored in when your finances are being examined to determine financial aid.