Money Saving Strategies
For Highs School Sophomores And Below When should you start
planning for your children's college education?
Instinctively parents know
the correct answer. Sadly, while most parents know they
should have started planning when their children were first
born few do anything about it. Since we can't turn back the
hands of time this is your best last chance to more easily
afford to send your children to college. It's vital you do
all you can from this point forward or you'll pay more than
you have too which could jeopardize you ability to retire.
The following recommendations
are strategies for helping reduce the high cost of college
whether college is 3 years away or 18 years away. Both
parents and students have responsibilities in there mutual
quest for college grants and for free college scholarships.
What Can Students Do To Help Their
Parents
-
Student Positioning.
Learn how to make yourself an attractive candidate for the
various colleges. Increasing your community appeal
increases your chances of receiving college grants and or
free college scholarships. Educational grants for schools
and college scholarships for high school students are both
great ways to capitalize on your student positioning
efforts and a just reward for your hard work.
-
A strong
GPA. Your job is to get good grades. If you succeed with
your studies and receive good grades and strong SAT/ACT
scores you'll be rewarded by enhancing your chance for
free college scholarships, college grants and other
educational grants for school.
What Can Parents Do To
Make Paying For College Easier
-
You need
to move your
includable assets into non-includable accounts.
This is what we call
parent positioning. This strategy is key to receiving
more financial aid than you may have thought possible. If
your assets are exposed to either the federal or
institutional methodology you can reduce the amount you
have to pay by altering ownership or sheltering those
assets into non-includable accounts. Be careful to
properly and legally implement the available strategies.
If you err here it could be very costly when you complete
the FAFSA. This is where you should seek the advice of a
qualified
college financial aid consultant.
-
You need
to develop cash flow scenarios. Convert short-term debt
into long-term debt and take full advantage of low
interest student loans. Take full advantage strategies to
tax deduct the cost of college. There are some creative
strategies for tax
deducting college costs that work for
nearly everyone over and above the Lifetime Learning
Credit, Hope Scholarship Credit and student loan interest
deduction.
-
You should
evaluate the pros and cons of implementing a
529 savings plan
or a prepaid tuition program.
-
You should
seek help from a
financial aid consultant and assess the
implications and ramifications paying for college may have
on your ability to retire or pay off your house. If you
have more than one child, game plan how you'll be able to
send more than one child to college without going broke.
-
Learn the
rules and regulations that govern financial aid. Learn how
to use them to your advantage. Discover how to receive
more
free college scholarships and college grants so you'll
have fewer student loans to pay back. Become a student of
the financial aid process and you'll be rewarded.
The sooner
you start doing your homework and educating yourself or the
sooner you decide to take advantage of the
financial aid services the more cost saving strategies
you'll have at your disposal.
Maier & Associates is a member of N.A.C.F.A., the National
Association of College Funding Advisors, Inc.
Back
To Top
|
