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Speaker 1: Welcome to Had of Money. I'm Joel and I am

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Speaker 1: Matt and today we're talking FAFSA hacks to curb college

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Speaker 1: costs with the FAFSA Guru. That's right.

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Speaker 2: We are excited to be discussing the Free Application for

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Speaker 2: Federal Student Aid today, also known as the FAFSA because

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Speaker 2: other than the cost of a hospital visit, nothing has

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Speaker 2: skyrocketed in price like college tuition and fees over the

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Speaker 2: past twenty years. So you think your house or your

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Speaker 2: new car is crazy expensive, Nope, you just wait until

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Speaker 2: your kids start looking at colleges. And that's why we're

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Speaker 2: excited to be joined by Tina Steel, who is known

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Speaker 2: as the FAFSA Guru. Tina is an expert when it

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Speaker 2: comes to financial aide decades of experience, and that's whether

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Speaker 2: she was working directly for public and private universities, whether

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Speaker 2: she was leading a statewide initiative and Maine helping disadvantage

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Speaker 2: students to pursue college, or just creating incredibly valuable videos

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Speaker 2: for her YouTube channel. We're going to be discussing all

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Speaker 2: things fast SAT today. So Tina, thank you for coming

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Speaker 2: on to How to Money podcast.

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Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me. Guys, I'm excited

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Speaker 3: to be here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, we're excited to chat with you as well. Tina.

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Speaker 1: Lots of cover on the show. But the first question

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Speaker 1: we have to ask you that we ask anybody who

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Speaker 1: comes on the show is what your craft beer equivalent is?

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Speaker 1: And that's because Matt and I we like to drink

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Speaker 1: fancy craft beers while also saving and investing wisely for

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Speaker 1: the future. What's that for you? What's your kind of

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Speaker 1: splurge while you're also handling your money properly.

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Speaker 4: Oh gosh, I'm a Christmas fanatic. I am over the

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Speaker 4: top with Christmas everything, Christmas decorations, gifts, gifts.

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Speaker 3: For the delivery drivers.

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Speaker 4: We have a big family gathering on Christmas Eve of

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Speaker 4: twenty to twenty.

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Speaker 3: Five people and we get matching T shirt.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, matching tea.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 1: Wait, you do matching T shirts every year or is

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Speaker 1: it like you?

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Speaker 4: Yeah? I usually do something different every year. Last year

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Speaker 4: was matching T shirts. This year I'm trying to figure

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Speaker 4: out what it's going to be. But there's usually some

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Speaker 4: kind of theme and everybody gets a gift.

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Speaker 3: So I just love it.

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Speaker 1: Awes. So you do Christmas the way a lot of

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Speaker 1: people do Disney basically.

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Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, that is a great way to compare it.

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Speaker 1: For sure, that's awesome.

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Speaker 2: It's always fun to kind of hear what it is

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Speaker 2: that folks like to splurge on. And honestly, though, I'm

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Speaker 2: not going to say that your splurge in this case

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Speaker 2: is wacky because we you know, we put out some

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Speaker 2: we'll put out some some Christmas decoration.

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Speaker 1: But uh, it's unique, which I love. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 2: But Tina, can can you give us, I guess, just

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Speaker 2: a general overview as to why it is the FACA

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Speaker 2: is so important. Let's kind of just ease folks into

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Speaker 2: the whole conversation and just talk about the merits of

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Speaker 2: the FATA.

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Speaker 3: Sure.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So the FAST is important first and foremost so

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Speaker 4: that students can access federal and state financial aid and

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Speaker 4: some institutional aid depending on the college, in order to

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Speaker 4: help them pay for their education.

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Speaker 3: So a lot of people.

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Speaker 4: You know, when they think about FAFSA, they might think

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Speaker 4: they might not even realize the importance of it, or

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Speaker 4: they don't understand financial aid, or maybe on the other

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Speaker 4: side of that, they think they might not qualify for

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Speaker 4: enough financial aid. So I tell everybody, every single person

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Speaker 4: that plans on going to college should fill out a FAFSA, unless,

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Speaker 4: of course, they have like several hundred thousand dollars sitting

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Speaker 4: in an account you're marked specifically for college.

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Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so we're gonna ask a ton of

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Speaker 1: follow up questions, some of which will probably sound a

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Speaker 1: little dumb because you're the FASA guru. So for you,

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Speaker 1: these are going to be like knock them out of

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Speaker 1: the ballpark sort of questions. But for most people, because

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Speaker 1: it's one of those infrequent things, right, it's not like

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Speaker 1: you're sending a kid off to college every year for

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Speaker 1: thirty years or something like that, Like, and you get

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Speaker 1: used to it and you figure it out, it feels

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Speaker 1: brand new. I think for most people every single time.

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Speaker 1: It's like for the infrequent traveler, the trying to get

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Speaker 1: to the airport, how do I time it? And when

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Speaker 1: do I get there? And how does security work? Again,

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Speaker 1: that's how a lot of people feel if you only

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Speaker 1: travel every five years. So like, okay, do you have

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Speaker 1: to know which colleges you're applying to before you fill

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Speaker 1: out the film?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 4: No, So you need to have at least one college

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Speaker 4: listed on the FAFT so when you fill it out

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Speaker 4: and submit it, and you're ideally you're filling out the FAFSA,

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Speaker 4: probably simultaneously as you're applying for admission for college, or

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Speaker 4: even before, so you do not have to know. You

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Speaker 4: can log back in at any time and add college

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Speaker 4: colleges to the FAFSA once it's submitted, but just for

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Speaker 4: that first initial submission, you need to have at least

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Speaker 4: one listed.

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Speaker 2: Nice and it doesn't really matter which one you select.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure that assuming most people choose whatever popular state

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Speaker 2: school that they know there's a maybe a high chance

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Speaker 2: of their kid getting into Harbor, or can you do

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Speaker 2: that or can you choose like the most elite, It

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Speaker 2: truly doesn't matter, and you can do up to twenty.

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Speaker 3: You can this year.

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Speaker 4: Starting with a twenty four to twenty five year, it's

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Speaker 4: going to be twenty. It's always been ten, so yeah,

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Speaker 4: you can go up to twenty, but some students apply

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Speaker 4: for even more. So you just submit it to the

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Speaker 4: twenty colleges and then log back in once it's processed,

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Speaker 4: delete some colleges and add some more if you have.

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Speaker 1: More than twenty nice makes sense. It's kind of like

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Speaker 1: if you're going to go out to eat.

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Speaker 2: It's like, well, I don't know exactly where we're going

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Speaker 2: to go, but step one we got to get in

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Speaker 2: the car and just start heading out of the neighborhood.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, for sure.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Well, so talk to us then about some of

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Speaker 2: the recent FAFSA changes. Let's talk about the FATA Simplification Act.

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Speaker 2: And like, one of the changes they made had to

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Speaker 2: do with the actual form that you that you pull

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Speaker 2: out in the past. It was kind of lengthy, it

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Speaker 2: was kind of tedious talk about some of the changes

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Speaker 2: they made there.

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Speaker 3: Sure, it's always been very tedious.

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Speaker 4: So one of the big reasons for FAFSA simplification is

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Speaker 4: to make it easier to fill out. Currently there's one

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Speaker 4: hundred and eight questions on the FAFSA. With this new

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Speaker 4: simplification process, it's going down to just thirty eight questions,

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Speaker 4: which is really going to be significant in a time saver.

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Speaker 3: There's a lot of.

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Speaker 4: Things, a lot of changes happening. You know, they're expanding

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Speaker 4: pelgrant eligibility. Pelgrant is the free grant the government offer

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Speaker 4: for families under a certain amount of money. Typically that's

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Speaker 4: been you know, families or students who make less than

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Speaker 4: fifty thousand dollars a year. That's being expanded to sixty

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Speaker 4: thousand dollars a year for the for twenty four to

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Speaker 4: twenty five. There's also another really big change happening. You know,

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Speaker 4: if you're familiar with the FAFSA or financial aid, you've

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Speaker 4: heard of the expected Family Contribution or EFC. This is

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Speaker 4: the number that the government comes up with when they

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Speaker 4: perform their federal methodology and process the FAFSA. This is

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Speaker 4: the technically the amount of money that a student is

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Speaker 4: expected to contribute.

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Speaker 3: Towards their education for the year.

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Speaker 4: They are changing the EFC to what's going to be

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Speaker 4: called the Student Aid Index or the SAI. And the

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Speaker 4: reason for this is because there's been a lot of confusion.

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Speaker 4: When families get this EFC, they think that that's the

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Speaker 4: exact amount of money that they have to pay for

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Speaker 4: the year, and that is not necessarily the case. In

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Speaker 4: a lot of cases, it could be more, and in

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Speaker 4: some cases it could be less. So they'll really try

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Speaker 4: to alleviate some confusion around that. And then one really

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Speaker 4: big change happening that's that's not the best change is

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Speaker 4: going is for families who have multiple children in college,

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Speaker 4: they're no longer going to get the same financial benefit

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Speaker 4: that they always have.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that seemed like a big downer.

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Speaker 2: That's a bummer for so Joel's triple Yeah, Joel's got

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Speaker 2: three kids. I've got four kids. There is a good

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Speaker 2: chance there's going to be a decent amount of overlap

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Speaker 2: as those kids are going to be in college. Could

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Speaker 2: you explain I guess how it how it used to work,

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Speaker 2: and then now given the changes, what that means.

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Speaker 4: Sure, So I'm going to talk about the EFC because

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Speaker 4: that's what it's been all along. So normally, when you

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Speaker 4: have more than one child in college, that EFC gets

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Speaker 4: divided equally among the number of children in college. So

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Speaker 4: you know, if you have a twenty thousand dollars EFC,

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Speaker 4: but two kids in college, each student would have a

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Speaker 4: ten thousand dollars EFC. So the lower that number, the

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Speaker 4: more financial aid that the student's going to get. So

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Speaker 4: that's where that's not going to happen the student. The student.

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Speaker 4: If you have two or three students in college and

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Speaker 4: your EFC is twenty thousand, it's going to be twenty

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Speaker 4: thousand dollars for each student.

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Speaker 1: For each yeah, rather than the entire household.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So it is it is a bummer. It's one

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Speaker 4: of those changes that I'm not thrilled about. However, it's

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Speaker 4: going to be very, very important that families who have

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Speaker 4: more than one child in college actually appeal their financial

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Speaker 4: aid offers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I was going to say that doesn't that

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Speaker 1: EFC or now the Student Aid Index, when that number

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Speaker 1: gets spit out, that doesn't necessarily that's not your bill,

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Speaker 1: that's not what you pay, right Like, that's tell us

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Speaker 1: how that number relates to what you end up paying. Though.

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Speaker 4: Sure, so when the when you get that number, what

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Speaker 4: the college does is they take their total cost of attendance,

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Speaker 4: So their cost of attendance would be tuition, fees, room

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Speaker 4: and board, books and supplies, the all in cost. So

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Speaker 4: let's say the college is sixty thousand dollars a year.

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Speaker 4: It's a private college. They're going to take your EFC

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Speaker 4: and let's say, for example, it's thirty thousand dollars just

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Speaker 4: for a number. They subtract the EA from the cost

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Speaker 4: of attendance to come up with a student's financial need.

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Speaker 4: So in this scenario, the student's financial need would be

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Speaker 4: thirty thousand dollars.

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Speaker 3: Then they try to package the.

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Speaker 4: Student with as much need based aid as possible to

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Speaker 4: meet that financial need.

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Speaker 3: So it's a really big part of the equation. You know, the.

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Speaker 4: Higher that number, the lower need based financial aid the

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Speaker 4: student qualifies for or the less.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and again a massive bummer for us. You have

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Speaker 2: multiple kids, and you've got a bunch of kids too,

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Speaker 2: I do.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Sure, you were very excited to hear that. We were

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Speaker 1: joking before we started that, Tina, that you started your

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Speaker 1: service basically as a personal endeavor to save as much

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Speaker 1: money on college.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Six kids total, Like, that'll do it, right, Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Six kids, and you know I our youngest one is

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Speaker 4: a high school senior right now, so she's the last

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Speaker 4: of them. I mean, I have had the benefit of

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Speaker 4: having multiple children in college and kind of also, you know,

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Speaker 4: being on the other side of this, knowing you know

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Speaker 4: what to do and how to really maximize financial aid.

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Speaker 3: But it's still like expensive. College is astronomically expensive.

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Speaker 2: Did I see that there's a change when it came

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Speaker 2: to a child who or a scholar, a future student

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Speaker 2: who's applying to a school that comes from a divorced home.

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Speaker 2: How does that work out as far as who has

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Speaker 2: to fill out the FASA.

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Speaker 3: Yep, that's another big change.

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Speaker 4: So currently, when you fill out the FASA this and

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Speaker 4: you have a divorced or separated parent situation, as long

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Speaker 4: as the parents are living in separate household in a

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Speaker 4: separate household, only one parent needs to fill out the

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Speaker 4: FASA on behalf of the student and all along that's

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Speaker 4: been the parent with whom the child resided with most

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Speaker 4: within the last year. Going forward with a twenty four

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Speaker 4: to twenty five year, it's going to be the parent

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Speaker 4: who provides more than half of that child support, whether

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Speaker 4: or not that is the custodial parent. So that's a

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Speaker 4: really big change happening to the FASA. However, it is

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Speaker 4: going to be a very gray area because you know,

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Speaker 4: it's going to be hard to really prove what you know,

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Speaker 4: which parent actually more than half support.

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Speaker 3: But that's the guideline.

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Speaker 2: So it seems like it's more about money. It's more

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Speaker 2: about income and in financial support as opposed to how

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Speaker 2: many nights that they're spending at that particular house.

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Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, all right, talk to us about the timing delay.

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Speaker 1: So not only are we getting an updated FAFSA this year, right,

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Speaker 1: we're getting the fewer questions, hopefully the easier to fill

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Speaker 1: out FASA. But why are we talking December right? Why

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Speaker 1: are we talking months delayed? What's going on there is

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Speaker 1: that is it literally just the process of creating and

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Speaker 1: it takes time to release the updated version.

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Speaker 4: It is because there's so many changes being made. They

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Speaker 4: did intend to have this all completed by October first,

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Speaker 4: but it's just been delayed just because of all the

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Speaker 4: hoops they're jumping through in the changes that are being made.

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Speaker 4: They just could not get it finalized in time. So

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Speaker 4: there's a lot happening. The FASA is getting a major overhaul,

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Speaker 4: probably the biggest overhaul that it's ever received in its history.

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Speaker 3: So that's fine.

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Speaker 2: Well, so, speaking of timing, you say, and we've touched

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Speaker 2: on this before on the show before, but it's important

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Speaker 2: to go ahead and fill the FACA out sooner rather

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Speaker 2: than later. Can you explain to listeners why that's the case.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, So with the FACA, it's kind of like the

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Speaker 4: early bird gets the worm. The earlier you get that

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Speaker 4: filled out, the more financial aid you can have access to.

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Speaker 4: There are certain pools and let's say, pockets of money

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Speaker 4: that colleges have to offer, and like once that money

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Speaker 4: runs out, it runs out. So the earlier you get

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Speaker 4: that FACA in the better. That's really what it comes

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Speaker 4: down to. And there's also state deadlines for the FACA

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Speaker 4: in order for students to be considered for state grants.

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Speaker 4: Every state has their own deadline, so it's crucial that

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Speaker 4: you look up and see what your state's deadline is

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Speaker 4: and get it submitted before then.

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Speaker 1: Gotcha?

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Speaker 2: Is there ever the case where there's more money of it,

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Speaker 2: like where it's the opposite, like something comes off comes

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Speaker 2: along and all of a sudden there's additional funding or

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Speaker 2: something like that?

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Speaker 3: Is that a typically?

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Speaker 1: Okay? The early bird gets warm? Nice?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean lower income families who make less than

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Speaker 4: sixty thousand, they're gonna be okay regardless, like with a

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Speaker 4: pel grant money, because that's federal money that's always there.

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Speaker 4: But that state grant money, you know, if they don't

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Speaker 4: fill out the FASA before that deadline, they can miss

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Speaker 4: out on it.

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Speaker 1: Okay. How onerous is it to actually fill out the FASTA.

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Speaker 1: It's obviously it's going to be easier this year once

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Speaker 1: it gets released shortly, But how bad is it? I

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Speaker 1: think people build it up in their minds and this

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Speaker 1: is probably why a lot of people avoid it. They're

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Speaker 1: like that thing. No, I don't like. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to bludgeon myself in the face, So why would I

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Speaker 1: fill out the FASA? Like how bad? How long is

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Speaker 1: actually going to take people to do?

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Speaker 3: So?

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Speaker 4: Right now with one hundred and eight questions, it takes

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Speaker 4: a good hour or more going down to thirty eight.

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Speaker 4: I anticipate families are going to be able to get

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Speaker 4: through this in less than thirty minutes. And there's going

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Speaker 4: to be an automatic transfer of data that's happening from

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Speaker 4: the IRS kind of pre populating information, so it's going

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Speaker 4: to be quick and easy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Is that the DRT, the.

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Speaker 3: IRS Data Retrieval Tool?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's like pulling in stuff that you would

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Speaker 1: have otherwise had to manually enter in yourself.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, like go and look at each tax line and

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Speaker 4: put that information in. And that's been on the FASA

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Speaker 4: for a few years, but they're streamlining it more this year,

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Speaker 4: so it's going to be like an automatic and even

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Speaker 4: smoother process.

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Speaker 2: And I was reading about that, it made me think

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Speaker 2: of like a credit card autofill on when I'm in

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Speaker 2: the browser. Yeah, it's just like auto populates, and it

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Speaker 2: just makes it so easy definitely. Yeah, just as reminder

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Speaker 2: for folks as well. This isn't something you just do

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Speaker 2: one time as you are applying to school. I think

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Speaker 2: sometimes if you think, oh, okay, I'm applying to schools,

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, I'm filling out the FACA, it's easy to

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Speaker 2: remember to do that. I guess maybe that first year.

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Speaker 2: But do you ever run into situations where families forget

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Speaker 2: in subsequent years to actually fill out the FASA.

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Speaker 4: Yes, And it's so important, you know, to make sure

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Speaker 4: you're filling that out every single year.

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Speaker 3: You know, because you can miss deadlines.

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Speaker 4: You can miss like your state grant deadline and miss

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Speaker 4: out on money that you might have otherwise received. So

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Speaker 4: just set a reminder on your phone whatever you need

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Speaker 4: to do. But yeah, fill it out every single year early.

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Speaker 1: All right, talk to us about like the children of

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Speaker 1: the elite, like Jeff Bezos's kids and stuff like that, Like,

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Speaker 1: does should Jeff Bezos fill out the FASA? Because I like,

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Speaker 1: if we're talking about the FASA as being mostly about

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Speaker 1: financial aid eligibility, why would someone who's making bank has

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Speaker 1: a lot of financial assets, why would they still take

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Speaker 1: the time, even the now reduced time frame that we're

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Speaker 1: talking about do they still need to actually go through

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Speaker 1: this laborious or right that so laborious process.

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Speaker 4: So here's that's a great question. There are some scholarships

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Speaker 4: that use the FACA in order to determine whether or

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Speaker 4: not students are going to receive the scholarship. They're few

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Speaker 4: and far between, but really, honestly, the big reason for

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Speaker 4: any like high income families to fill out the FASA

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Speaker 4: would be if they want the student to be able

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Speaker 4: to take a direct student loan in their own name,

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Speaker 4: you know, to help you know, have some skin in

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Speaker 4: the game and help them pay for college. Because in

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Speaker 4: order for a student to borrow a federal direct loan

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Speaker 4: in their own name, a FASA has to be filled

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Speaker 4: out along with a federal parent plus loan. So let's

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Speaker 4: say a parent, even though they have the money and

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Speaker 4: the means, they want to borrow a loan to pay

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Speaker 4: for their child's education, in order to take this parent loan,

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Speaker 4: they'd have to fill out.

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Speaker 3: A FACA form.

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Speaker 4: So those would really be you know, the only reasons

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Speaker 4: I would recommence a very wealthy family fill out the

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Speaker 4: fast or.

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Speaker 2: The psychological mindset game, right, right, But middle and upper

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Speaker 2: all middle.

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Speaker 4: And upper middle income families should definitely fill out a

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Speaker 4: FACA because very at the very least, if they don't

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Speaker 4: qualify for any need based financial aid like in scholarships

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Speaker 4: or grants other than merit, then they can appeal their

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Speaker 4: financial aid offers and ask for more money. You know,

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Speaker 4: eighty percent of students who appeal their financial aid offers

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Speaker 4: we'll receive additional aid, and a lot of families aren't

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Speaker 4: aware of that.

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Speaker 1: Nice.

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Speaker 2: Well, we are going to talk a little bit more

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Speaker 2: about appealing some of those aid aid packages. We're going

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Speaker 2: to talk more about the numbers and what goes into

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Speaker 2: determining the kind of financial aid that you're gonna get,

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Speaker 2: and we'll get to all of that with Tina right

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Speaker 2: after this.

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Speaker 1: All right, we're back. We're talking with Tina Steel. We're

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Speaker 1: talking about filling out the FACA. She's the FASA guru.

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Speaker 1: I know, Joel that why do you think we have

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Speaker 1: her on Matt, Like? Who else can we talk to

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Speaker 1: about this? Tina? I guess I'm curious, Like, while you're

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Speaker 1: filling out the FATAT form, is is there any way

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Speaker 1: to screw it up or to optimize your chances maybe,

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Speaker 1: let's say, of receiving financial aid from universities. Is there

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Speaker 1: something that when you're actually answering the questions that you

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Speaker 1: can do to either detract or impact your ability, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, to get the kind of aid you're looking for.

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Speaker 1: Joel wants to know if it's okay to.

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Speaker 4: Lie, right, Yeah, I know, it's really you know, honestly,

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Speaker 4: the biggest mistakes I see in this area, there's a couple.

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Speaker 4: One is when families are divorced or separated and they

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Speaker 4: filed a joint joint tax return for the year prior

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Speaker 4: they put have the tax information sent over with both

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Speaker 4: there and their spouse's income, which could really impact the

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Speaker 4: amount of financial aid they get because they only need

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Speaker 4: one parent's income on the FACA.

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Speaker 3: So that's a really really big one.

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Speaker 4: And just to note on that if that parent filling

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Speaker 4: out the FACA is remarried, then they do take into

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Speaker 4: consideration the step parents incoming, which.

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Speaker 3: Really which is a bummer too.

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Speaker 1: So you might even want to play in your marriage

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Speaker 1: according to when your kids are going off to school.

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Speaker 4: I know, right, No, it's true. The other thing is,

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Speaker 4: you know, reporting assets incorrectly. That's probably where I see

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Speaker 4: the biggest mistakes made, and that's what it comes down

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Speaker 4: to is mistakes. Because the FACA asked for concrete, you know,

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Speaker 4: figures from your tax form. There's really no way around

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Speaker 4: getting around that. There's a lot of information that families

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Speaker 4: self report. You know, how much money you have in

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Speaker 4: your bank account, how much your investments are worth. I

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Speaker 4: mean your self reporting that information. But there's two assets

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Speaker 4: in particular that don't have to be reported on the FAFSA,

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Speaker 4: which is the value of the primary home that you

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Speaker 4: live in along with the value of your retirement accounts.

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Speaker 4: A lot of times families accidentally report that as an

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Speaker 4: investment and they can really miss out.

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Speaker 3: On financial aid.

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Speaker 2: If that is something that someone does, are they able

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Speaker 2: to go back and correct that and how does that

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Speaker 2: work if you've made a mistake.

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Speaker 4: Yes, once you realize you made a mistake, the first

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Speaker 4: thing you'd want to do is log back into the

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Speaker 4: FAFSA and click on make a correction and just navigate

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Speaker 4: to the section and do that and then make sure

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Speaker 4: you resubmit it. If it's late in the year and

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Speaker 4: like the student has already received their financial aid offer,

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Speaker 4: then it's going to be important that the family reach

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Speaker 4: out directly to the financial aid office to let them

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Speaker 4: know about the mistake after.

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Speaker 1: They make that at the particular college that they're gotcha

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Speaker 1: so selfishly, Matt and I were. Our main goal is

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Speaker 1: to get how the money listeners to you save and

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Speaker 1: invest more of their money, right, to sock more money

441
00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:06,200
Speaker 1: away into tax advantage retirement accounts so that they have

442
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,239
Speaker 1: more they're building wealth and they have more money in

443
00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:12,800
Speaker 1: those retirement years, I guess. But one of the things

444
00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:14,760
Speaker 1: that's true as well is that if you save more

445
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,480
Speaker 1: for retirement, you actually could potentially get a larger financial

446
00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,439
Speaker 1: aid offer. Is that right? And is that truly just

447
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:24,240
Speaker 1: because you're reducing your previous year's adjusted gross income.

448
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,520
Speaker 4: No, And actually that's a little bit of misinformation that's

449
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:32,040
Speaker 4: out there in a way, because what's happened.

450
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:33,680
Speaker 3: All along is even though you don't.

451
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 4: Have to report the value of your retirement account, you

452
00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:41,199
Speaker 4: have in the past had to report the contributions. So

453
00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:43,199
Speaker 4: if you take like a big chunk of money and

454
00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:45,760
Speaker 4: you put it towards your retirement account, that's actually counted

455
00:20:45,760 --> 00:20:49,440
Speaker 4: as untaxed income for the family for that year. However,

456
00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:51,840
Speaker 4: that's changing for the twenty four to twenty five years,

457
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:54,880
Speaker 4: so your question is going to be a little more accurate,

458
00:20:54,920 --> 00:20:57,800
Speaker 4: they're not going to look at those contributions anymore. So yes,

459
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,240
Speaker 4: sheltering that money in a retirement out or paying down

460
00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:03,960
Speaker 4: your mortgage on your primary home is going to be

461
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:05,920
Speaker 4: the way to go. And of course this is only

462
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:08,760
Speaker 4: for colleges that require the FAFSA, because the colleges that

463
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:12,400
Speaker 4: also require the CSS profile, which is a supplemental form,

464
00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:14,200
Speaker 4: there are no assets that are protected.

465
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:18,159
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, so that's an entirely different form. Is it

466
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:20,880
Speaker 2: a lot of private universities that a lot of.

467
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:25,360
Speaker 4: The private universities, Yeah, so that you know, no, typically

468
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,879
Speaker 4: no public or state colleges require that.

469
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:31,119
Speaker 1: So should people proactively be searching out the CSS filling

470
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:32,880
Speaker 1: that out just in case? Or is that something where

471
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,760
Speaker 1: if you get accepted to one of these schools then

472
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:37,680
Speaker 1: and they request it, that's when you fill it out.

473
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,879
Speaker 4: So the CSS opens the same typically October first like

474
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,840
Speaker 4: the FASA, So it's really important to know whether or

475
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,119
Speaker 4: not the college requires it when you go into the

476
00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 4: process because you want to get that done early, like

477
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,159
Speaker 4: in October. So it's kind of just like the FAFSA,

478
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,720
Speaker 4: you'd be initiating it yourself. You just you can do

479
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:58,000
Speaker 4: a simple Google search colleges that require the CSS profile

480
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:01,200
Speaker 4: and pull up an alphabetical list of all those colleges

481
00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:03,440
Speaker 4: and then you want to get that filled out along

482
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 4: with the FAFT SAG.

483
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 1: Gotcha. Gotcha?

484
00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 2: Okay, So to clarify, it sounds like with the new changes,

485
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 2: by contributing to a pre tax retirement account, you are

486
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:16,520
Speaker 2: effectively lowering your AGI. Is that the mechanism in which

487
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 2: that could then allow you to receive more student aid?

488
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:21,399
Speaker 1: Is that how that works?

489
00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,920
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you are lowering your AGI, which definitely goes

490
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:29,959
Speaker 4: into the goes into the equation, but they do also

491
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:34,560
Speaker 4: look at your the income earned from each parent in addition,

492
00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,400
Speaker 4: so that they're going to look at like the wages,

493
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:40,040
Speaker 4: salaries and tips on W two's or the business income

494
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,720
Speaker 4: in addition to the AGI. So it can help because

495
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 4: the AGI definitely will be differently but I don't know

496
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 4: that it helps quite as much as we would like

497
00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:52,440
Speaker 4: it to, but it definitely can.

498
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:52,840
Speaker 1: Gotcha.

499
00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:55,200
Speaker 2: That's good to note. Okay, what about five twenty nine plans?

500
00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:57,679
Speaker 2: Because I feel like a lot of parents out there,

501
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:00,600
Speaker 2: maybe they're kind of they've got like two year old

502
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 2: and they know they've heard about the five twenty nine Oh,

503
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 2: and in fact, the five twenty nine plane got a

504
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,800
Speaker 2: little bit better, yeah, over the last couple of years,

505
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,159
Speaker 2: because if you don't use it for education, you can

506
00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:11,040
Speaker 2: kind of roll that into a roth ira, and so

507
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 2: they do look more attractive. But I think there's a

508
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,800
Speaker 2: lot of folks who may not have really parsed through

509
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,480
Speaker 2: the details, I guess, and they're not totally sure how

510
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,119
Speaker 2: much that plan is going to offset the ability of

511
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:25,200
Speaker 2: that student to receive aid. Can you kind of shed

512
00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:26,119
Speaker 2: some light there for folks.

513
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:28,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the value of a five to twenty nine

514
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 4: plan is counted as a parent investment on the FACA,

515
00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 4: and the government expects that parents can contribute about five

516
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 4: point sixty five percent of their total asset value towards

517
00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 4: their child's education for the year. So five point sixty

518
00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,400
Speaker 4: five percent of whatever assets you know they own are

519
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,199
Speaker 4: going to be factored into that EFC or what's going

520
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 4: to be called the Student Aid Index next year. So

521
00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 4: the five twenty nine is a great it is a

522
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,400
Speaker 4: great plan, And you know, the nice thing is, as

523
00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 4: long as it's a parent owned five twenty nine, the

524
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,720
Speaker 4: distributions are not going to count against the student in

525
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,800
Speaker 4: any way as untaxed income. So it is a great

526
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:11,439
Speaker 4: way for parents to kind of start early investing for

527
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 4: their child's education.

528
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:12,720
Speaker 1: Gotcha.

529
00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 2: And to clarify, that's total assets, not necessarily just the.

530
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:19,480
Speaker 4: Final investments and assets that you have to report on

531
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 4: the FAFSA, right.

532
00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:22,760
Speaker 1: So that's that's going in there, factoring in if you

533
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 1: have investment, real estate, what you have in your taxable

534
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: broken's account. Like it's all going into one thing and

535
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, we expect you can pay five

536
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: point six five percent.

537
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 3: Yeah, total, yep.

538
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 4: There's definitely more emphasis being placed on wealth the upcoming

539
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:41,399
Speaker 4: year versus income. So anything that you have like that

540
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:43,720
Speaker 4: is going to impact you for sure.

541
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:46,800
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, let's talk about income. You mentioned that

542
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,239
Speaker 1: it does have a lot to do with how much

543
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: financial lid is offered, even though wealth is taking a

544
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:56,160
Speaker 1: bigger front row seat. But for Mary Coumple's finally jointly

545
00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 1: and you briefly mentioned this number earlier, sixty thousand dollars AGI,

546
00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 1: that seems to be kind of a line of demarcation,

547
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 1: the line of the sand. Any advice maybe on how

548
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: folks should pre plan if they're close to that mark.

549
00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,840
Speaker 1: Let's say somebody makes their annual salaries sixty eight thousand

550
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,159
Speaker 1: dollars a year, and you know that that sixty thousand

551
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:20,919
Speaker 1: AGI mark triggers additional benefits from a college financial aid perspective.

552
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:23,720
Speaker 1: Are there kind of some tweaks they need to make,

553
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:25,959
Speaker 1: some ways they need to be thinking about kind of

554
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 1: maneuvering their income into that bracket.

555
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean what the sixty thousand mark is.

556
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 4: What that means is like an automatic zero EFC or SAI.

557
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,719
Speaker 4: So having a zero for that number means the student

558
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 4: is going to qualify for like the maximum amount of

559
00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,640
Speaker 4: financial aid. So that's not to say if they make

560
00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 4: sixty eight thousand or seventy four thousand that the student

561
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:50,560
Speaker 4: is not going to get any need base A. What's

562
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,560
Speaker 4: going to happen is, you know, after sixty thousand up

563
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,400
Speaker 4: until there's not really an actual cutoff because a number

564
00:25:56,440 --> 00:25:58,640
Speaker 4: of things are taken into consideration. But let's just say

565
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 4: around eighty seventy five to eighty thousand, that free grant

566
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,560
Speaker 4: money the government offers than the state grant money is

567
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,480
Speaker 4: going to be pro rated based on that income, So

568
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 4: they may still qualify for some but yeah, the closer

569
00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:15,119
Speaker 4: to that sixty thousand dollars mark.

570
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 3: Families can keep it the better.

571
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:19,639
Speaker 4: Now, if they make sixty thousand but they have a

572
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:23,680
Speaker 4: half a million dollars in assets or investments, it's kind

573
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 4: of a moot point because that's really going to drive

574
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:30,639
Speaker 4: up that EFC or student aid index. So yeah, and

575
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 4: there's a question when you fill out the fast stuff

576
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,040
Speaker 4: you make less than sixty thousand, and you fill out

577
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:39,399
Speaker 4: a simple tax return with no schedules, there's a question

578
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 4: that asks if you want to skip questions about your assets.

579
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 3: However, if you fill.

580
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 4: Out any schedules with your taxes, it doesn't allow you

581
00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 4: to skip the asset question, which means then you have

582
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:51,720
Speaker 4: to go in and report the investments. So that's where

583
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,600
Speaker 4: it can get some families also interesting.

584
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 2: So what Joel really needs to do then when his

585
00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,639
Speaker 2: daughter goes off to school is he needs to well,

586
00:26:59,680 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 2: first I need to fire him or drop him down

587
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:04,960
Speaker 2: to like a forty thousand dollars salary, what you're planning

588
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 2: on doing anyway, And then he needs to not claim

589
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,480
Speaker 2: any deductions and not file any schedules so that he's

590
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 2: able to skip.

591
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 3: You know, the big one is real estate.

592
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:14,920
Speaker 4: Like when you own real estate other than your home,

593
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:16,879
Speaker 4: you have to fill out certain schedules.

594
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:19,880
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's still there. Yeah you can't. Yeah, yeah,

595
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:22,080
Speaker 1: all right, all right, let's talk about it. Get around

596
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 1: a Joel. Sorry, Yeah, it's what I think. There's ways

597
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,679
Speaker 1: you can play play to your advantage, but there's no

598
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:31,160
Speaker 1: way to necessarily gain the system, right and right? Yeah, right,

599
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: but that's probably what people want, is right.

600
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 3: But that's that's where you know, strategy comes in.

601
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 4: When like we talked, we mentioned appealing financial aid offers

602
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 4: and then scholarships, which I know we'll.

603
00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 3: Probably get into.

604
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, let's talk about aid offers because you know what,

605
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,399
Speaker 1: if the school we want to go to doesn't make

606
00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:50,640
Speaker 1: it compelling financial aid offer you you mentioned the appeal,

607
00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:54,919
Speaker 1: is that the main recourse and you used the that

608
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 1: you said eighty percent success right for financially, Yeah.

609
00:27:57,920 --> 00:27:59,120
Speaker 3: For the students.

610
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:02,680
Speaker 4: From what I've seen, seventy five to eighty percent are

611
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:06,880
Speaker 4: successful in getting some additional aid. I've seen it range

612
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,480
Speaker 4: anywhere from three thousand dollars all the way up to

613
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 4: thirty thousand dollars.

614
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so there's a couple of substantial.

615
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, so there's a couple of pieces of information. There's

616
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 4: one thing that families can do that can help them

617
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 4: get additional aid, and that is they can report what's

618
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 4: called special circumstances. So, for example, the facts the twenty

619
00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:28,120
Speaker 4: four to twenty five fasts is going to be based

620
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,200
Speaker 4: on twenty two income. Maybe that a parent or a

621
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 4: student lost a job in twenty three, so their twenty

622
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 4: three income is going to be a lot less, or

623
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 4: maybe their twenty two income was inflated due to like

624
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 4: a one time source of income such as a retirement

625
00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 4: distribution or a capital gain, or maybe they're significant medical

626
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 4: or dental expenses. Those are all things that are considered

627
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 4: special circumstances that students in families can actually report directly

628
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 4: to the college financial aid offices. They're going to have

629
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 4: them fill out a form and then they can actually

630
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 4: recalculate the financial aid offer based on this new information.

631
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 4: So that's a big one for any families that fall

632
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,160
Speaker 4: into that category. And then for families that don't, who

633
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,160
Speaker 4: just get this offer that you know is not enough,

634
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:13,720
Speaker 4: they can write a financial aid appeal letter usually within

635
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 4: a couple of weeks of receiving that offer, and humbly

636
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:19,959
Speaker 4: ask the financial aid office for additional aid. They can

637
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 4: use other financial aid offers they receive from other colleges

638
00:29:22,520 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 4: that are better, and it really just comes.

639
00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:25,840
Speaker 3: Down to the college.

640
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 4: Some colleges have a very clear policy and they will

641
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 4: not accept financial aid appeals unless a student has special circumstances,

642
00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,280
Speaker 4: whereas other colleges will accept financial aid appeals regardless.

643
00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:39,959
Speaker 1: So it depends, gotcha, gotcha?

644
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's not like you can it's it's really

645
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 2: hard to compare apples to apples because of the way

646
00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 2: that these different colleges that their estimates work right, and

647
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:49,360
Speaker 2: even when it comes to the FASA, like, there are

648
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 2: different calculators online, but it seems like that those aren't

649
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,320
Speaker 2: all that accurate compared to maybe the calculator of a

650
00:29:56,360 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 2: specific school.

651
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:58,440
Speaker 1: Is that accurate, right?

652
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 4: Yeah, the net price calculators on the college websites are

653
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:05,720
Speaker 4: the way to go, and those aren't always accurate either.

654
00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 4: But the more in depth the net calculator is, the

655
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 4: more questions.

656
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 3: That they ask, the more accurate they typically tend to be.

657
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,160
Speaker 1: That makes sense. And you I think you even have

658
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: like classes where you teach people how to write a

659
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 1: good appeal letter and you basically say that the worst

660
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: they can say is no. So if maybe you waste

661
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: thirty minutes an hour of your time writing a good

662
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: appeal letter. But the worst they say is no, so okay, cool,

663
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 1: But the best they can ask in scenario thirty thousand dollars.

664
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: I mean you got that back there, right, So the

665
00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: strategies then to maybe write the most effective appeal letter.

666
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 4: So really, you know, there's a term a lot of

667
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 4: other professionals, professionals excuse me, in the field, you'll see

668
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 4: them use the term negotiate. I see her clear from

669
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,600
Speaker 4: that term. You know, when you're appealing to a financial

670
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,560
Speaker 4: lated director, you want to come across as humble. There

671
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 4: are a lot of circumstances and families that aren't necessarily

672
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 4: reflected on the FASTA. So is the cost of living

673
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 4: where a family lives, or maybe extra expenses in the

674
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,720
Speaker 4: household related to a child who has disabilities, or maybe

675
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 4: you're helping support elderly parents, or maybe you're just you know,

676
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,280
Speaker 4: on your income as a family of four, you don't

677
00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 4: have enough disposable income left over to pay you know

678
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 4: this this money. So you're really just asking them, you're

679
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 4: kind of pulling anything in you can that might apply

680
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 4: to you based on you know, your your financial situation,

681
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 4: cost of living where you live, anything that you know

682
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 4: would not be reflected in the FACA. And also you know,

683
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:40,120
Speaker 4: adding a paragraph in there about why this college is

684
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,960
Speaker 4: the first choice college, how important it is to the student,

685
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 4: what is it about this college? What is the student

686
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 4: going to bring to the table, you know, on campus?

687
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 4: And then you just ask nice and like I said,

688
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 4: you know, the worst are going to say is no, So.

689
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 2: Make that subjective appeal why it is that you want

690
00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 2: to go there. But then it almost sounds like you're

691
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 2: not necess cce csarily saying to like gravel but maybe

692
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 2: kiss the three.

693
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,480
Speaker 3: Like yes, okay, yes, it makes the difference.

694
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 4: I used to work in the Financial aid office is

695
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 4: reviewing the appeal letters, so it really can make a difference.

696
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: Right, Nice, I like you speak again.

697
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:15,840
Speaker 2: This is why we're talking with you, Tina, that you've

698
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 2: got just so much experience with lots of different institutions. Okay,

699
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 2: I'm curious to hear your thoughts, like do you recommend

700
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 2: for folks to go ahead just choose the college that

701
00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 2: they go to based on the package they receive or

702
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 2: do you take a good offer? And then basically you're

703
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 2: armed with that information and then if there's another school

704
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 2: that you really want to go to. Is it about

705
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 2: presenting that information in a compelling way and seeing if

706
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 2: you can get them to.

707
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 1: To juice their packages. Yeah, what would you say there?

708
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 4: Yeah, the best thing to do is, you know, get

709
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 4: all the financial aid offers back. They're all going to

710
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 4: provided you're applying like you know, regular decision, all of

711
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,200
Speaker 4: them Regular Decision or all of them early action, You're

712
00:32:57,240 --> 00:32:59,320
Speaker 4: going to be getting these offers back all around the

713
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:02,200
Speaker 4: same time. So compare and contrast. There's always a top

714
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,600
Speaker 4: choice that students have, and it never fails that the

715
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 4: top choice is always the most expensive financially and they

716
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 4: get the least amount of financial aid. So yes, you know,

717
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,479
Speaker 4: use the other offers and what your bottom line might

718
00:33:17,520 --> 00:33:20,880
Speaker 4: be at those other colleges in terms of affordability in

719
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,440
Speaker 4: that humble financial aid appeal letter that you write with

720
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:25,640
Speaker 4: the hopes they're going to come back and at least,

721
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 4: you know, make it so it's more affordable. It really

722
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 4: comes down to families and what their bottom line is,

723
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 4: what they can afford and what they're willing, you know,

724
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 4: to take on for debt. Because that's that's another thing

725
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 4: that I hate to see students get riddled with significant

726
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 4: debt for sure.

727
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: Obviously it's become a massive problem in our society. And

728
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,360
Speaker 1: so I guess you're saying you some of those data points.

729
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,440
Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to say, Hey, actually in that appeal letter,

730
00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 1: maybe well this other school, great school, they've offered me this,

731
00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:54,160
Speaker 1: but this is my number one choice and if you could,

732
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 1: if you could somehow get close to that, that would

733
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: really make it possible for me to go here.

734
00:33:58,200 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly what we did.

735
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 4: My step son did and that's you know how he

736
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,920
Speaker 4: got a much better offer at the college he really

737
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 4: wanted to go to. So it works and I help

738
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 4: families with it all the time.

739
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:10,880
Speaker 1: That's great. I love it all right, Tina, We got

740
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 1: a few more questions to get to with you, including

741
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 1: what about grad students. How does the FAFSA and you know,

742
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 1: getting additional financial help for grad school? How can we

743
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:22,279
Speaker 1: go about doing that. We'll get to that and more

744
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 1: right after this. We are back from the break talking

745
00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:34,720
Speaker 1: with the FAFSA guru.

746
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 2: We're talking with Tina and Tina. So, I don't have

747
00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 2: any kids in college, so I'm definitely not even thinking

748
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:43,840
Speaker 2: about grad school or like getting even higher levels.

749
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:45,719
Speaker 1: I am because my wife's in grad school right now.

750
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, you are? Is there is there like

751
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:52,839
Speaker 1: a is there a special FAFSA for grads if you're

752
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:54,359
Speaker 1: going to get your master's? How does that work?

753
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 2: What are what are some of the different changes that

754
00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:58,759
Speaker 2: we've seen regarding that.

755
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 3: It's the same theat for graduate students.

756
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,360
Speaker 4: They just be filling it out as an independent student

757
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 4: and not needing their parent information. And the big thing

758
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 4: with graduate students is financially it becomes more limited. Graduate

759
00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:14,040
Speaker 4: students typically are eligible to borrow up to twenty thousand,

760
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,720
Speaker 4: five hundred dollars a year and a federal direct student

761
00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:19,719
Speaker 4: loan that's not based on credit. It's a guaranteed the

762
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 4: government offers it to them to help them pay for

763
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:26,040
Speaker 4: their education. And they can also borrow graduate plus loans

764
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 4: to help make up any additional costs like above and

765
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 4: beyond that twenty thousand dollars a year mark. But in

766
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:36,000
Speaker 4: terms of the free money, that's more limited. Graduate students

767
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,680
Speaker 4: can apply for like graduate assistant ships through different academic

768
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:42,439
Speaker 4: departments at the college where they can do some work

769
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:46,359
Speaker 4: and actually receive money towards their tuition or off their tuition.

770
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:47,240
Speaker 3: Or in the form of a paycheck.

771
00:35:47,480 --> 00:35:49,719
Speaker 4: And then of course there are a lot of scholarships

772
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:53,239
Speaker 4: out there that graduate students can apply for, but the

773
00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:56,640
Speaker 4: FACA is really for that Federal direct loan for graduate

774
00:35:56,680 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 4: students of that amount.

775
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:59,799
Speaker 1: Okay, so if you need to take our loans, we

776
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: are are We have been paying cash so far, hope

777
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:04,360
Speaker 1: to hope to continue to do that for my wife's

778
00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 1: graduate school education. But yeah, scholarships. It's honestly something I

779
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 1: hadn't thought, Like, I remember applying for scholarships when I

780
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:14,759
Speaker 1: was going off to get my undergrad but I hadn't

781
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:16,520
Speaker 1: really thought about it. For some reason. It hadn't dawned

782
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,880
Speaker 1: on me until I was like thinking about it to

783
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 1: think about our conversation with you, and I was like,

784
00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:25,120
Speaker 1: wait a second, we could totally look up some scholarships

785
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,879
Speaker 1: for my wife's particular major, the direction she's heading in,

786
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:31,839
Speaker 1: and send out some applications, which we haven't done yet.

787
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:33,560
Speaker 1: But now I'm gonna get going talk to me about

788
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: scholarships because I guess in the other on the other

789
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 1: side of the equation, they can sound nice, but it

790
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:41,000
Speaker 1: feels like you put in a lot of effort for

791
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 1: this one off attempt, and maybe there's one scholarship available

792
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 1: or five one thousand dollars scholarships available, and you don't

793
00:36:47,239 --> 00:36:50,160
Speaker 1: really know how much competition you've got and stuff like that.

794
00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: So it should we be filling out applications for scholarships

795
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:55,759
Speaker 1: and if so, is there kind of the best way

796
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:56,359
Speaker 1: to go about it?

797
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:58,520
Speaker 4: I think it's worth it that this is where I

798
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:00,680
Speaker 4: see a lot of students leave money on the table.

799
00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 4: You know, it is true, searching and applying for scholarships

800
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:06,759
Speaker 4: can be a bit tedious, especially because a lot of

801
00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 4: the applications require essays and things like that. But the

802
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,040
Speaker 4: students who are doing it consistently throughout the year, like

803
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:16,920
Speaker 4: maybe they're applying for a few each and every month

804
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 4: are the ones that are going to get the most

805
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,759
Speaker 4: bang for their buck. And scholarships that are like three

806
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,040
Speaker 4: thousand dollars in less tend to be not as competitive

807
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 4: as other scholarships, so those are always good ones to

808
00:37:30,080 --> 00:37:32,680
Speaker 4: focus on. You know, when you're focusing on those big

809
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 4: twenty thirty, forty thousand dollars scholarships, so are a lot

810
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:37,480
Speaker 4: of other students. So there's going to be a ton

811
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:42,279
Speaker 4: of competition. But really, with scholarships, it's so important to

812
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:44,960
Speaker 4: just be consistent. You know, do a lot of specific

813
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:49,080
Speaker 4: Google searching with like terms, you know, multiple terms, not

814
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:53,680
Speaker 4: just you know, like scholarships for high school students pursuing

815
00:37:53,920 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 4: engineering or you know, scholarships for graduate students pursuing education.

816
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 4: And then maybe and add to that who live in

817
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 4: you know, Portland, Maine. So the more search terms you

818
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:09,920
Speaker 4: can put, themori'll kind of narrow down some good scholarship

819
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,080
Speaker 4: opportunities like locally, which which is always good. I always

820
00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,040
Speaker 4: recommend checking with your state higher education agency.

821
00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:20,720
Speaker 3: Every state has one of these.

822
00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:22,839
Speaker 4: Agencies, and a lot of students aren't aware of this,

823
00:38:23,239 --> 00:38:27,440
Speaker 4: and they house scholarship information specifically for residents of their state.

824
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,320
Speaker 3: So that's a really great place to look that a

825
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 3: lot of people aren't aware of.

826
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,520
Speaker 4: And then once you're admitted in college, make sure you

827
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 4: check with the actual academic department that you're admitted into,

828
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:41,839
Speaker 4: because they have a whole resource listing of scholarships specifically

829
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,880
Speaker 4: for students at their college studying whatever it is you

830
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 4: know that you're studying. There's some great websites out there.

831
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,520
Speaker 4: There's so many that you can actually get overwhelmed, but

832
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 4: a couple of my favorites are Scholarships dot com. They

833
00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:59,400
Speaker 4: have a really great directory search directory feature where you

834
00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 4: can search the secifically based on certain criteria such as

835
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:06,279
Speaker 4: you know your grade level or academics or what you're

836
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:10,920
Speaker 4: studying or abilities. And then myscholie dot com, m y

837
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:15,360
Speaker 4: scho l l y dot com. They do charge like

838
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,680
Speaker 4: seven dollars and ninety nine cents a month, but it's

839
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:19,840
Speaker 4: really worth it. I've seen students have a lot of

840
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 4: success on both of these sides.

841
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:24,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would seemed to me too that when you

842
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 1: think about as a student, not that maybe you shouldn't

843
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 1: have a high school job or something like that, but

844
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: if you're thinking, oh, I'm probably going to get paid

845
00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:33,839
Speaker 1: ten or eleven dollars an hour doing the high school job,

846
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,000
Speaker 1: and you factor it in and you think I'm going

847
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:39,400
Speaker 1: to spend forty hours which four hundred bucks that I

848
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 1: would make and instead put that towards potentially getting these scholarships,

849
00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:48,240
Speaker 1: your hourly rate could balloon by coming after scholarships instead

850
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:49,919
Speaker 1: of going and working the regular job.

851
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,920
Speaker 4: It could really Yeah, I recommend an hour to an

852
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 4: hour and a half a week. So if you think

853
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,360
Speaker 4: about it, like five hours five hours a month searching

854
00:39:58,400 --> 00:39:59,600
Speaker 4: and applying for scholarships.

855
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 3: You could easily apply for three to five.

856
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 4: Scholarships a month that way, and you know, if you're consistent.

857
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:08,320
Speaker 4: I know it can be frustrating when you don't hear back,

858
00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,000
Speaker 4: but it's just those students that apply for a handful

859
00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,760
Speaker 4: of them, you're they're just not being they're not applying

860
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:14,239
Speaker 4: for enough.

861
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:16,280
Speaker 3: You know, you just have to be in there.

862
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 4: Doing it regularly, very nice and yeah, it's definitely worth yeah.

863
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,200
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, your minimum wage job or there are certainly

864
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 2: skills to be gained when you are working outside of

865
00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:28,880
Speaker 2: the home and you've got a direct boss as opposed

866
00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 2: to I almost see scholarships is like this. It's like

867
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:35,719
Speaker 2: an on ramp to entrepreneurship where it's just like I

868
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:38,080
Speaker 2: get to choose the jobs that I want. And sure,

869
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,400
Speaker 2: I guess it's also up to you as to what

870
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:42,480
Speaker 2: the chances are of you actually winning one of some

871
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:46,520
Speaker 2: of those scholarships. But there obviously is something additional to

872
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 2: the dollars that you gain from working.

873
00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:51,080
Speaker 1: Out, Like the more proactive and go get or you are,

874
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:53,640
Speaker 1: you're gonna the more you're gonna crush your scholarships possibility. Yeah,

875
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,320
Speaker 1: the potential to kill it when it comes to scholarship.

876
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:59,720
Speaker 3: Absolutely, yeah, I've seen a number of students do that.

877
00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: Very So do you have any other sort of like

878
00:41:02,080 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 1: outside of the box.

879
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 2: Recommendations to help folks to avoid that ever increasing pile

880
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 2: of student loans that are our nation's burdened with. Where

881
00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 2: folks out there can kind of try to attempt to

882
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 2: bring down the cost of college.

883
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, so yeah, it's it's so tough. You know.

884
00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 4: Every college allows you to set up like a payment plan,

885
00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:26,560
Speaker 4: which if you do owe a balance after financial aid,

886
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,879
Speaker 4: I always tell families make a monthly payment plan over

887
00:41:29,960 --> 00:41:32,799
Speaker 4: ten months out of pocket the maximum that you can

888
00:41:32,840 --> 00:41:37,399
Speaker 4: afford to really kind of you know, minimize.

889
00:41:36,840 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 3: That, you know, debt.

890
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 4: Also, students can begin applying for scholarships is I mean,

891
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:43,600
Speaker 4: they have scholarships for young students, but a lot of

892
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 4: them start at the age of thirteen, So high school

893
00:41:46,200 --> 00:41:48,719
Speaker 4: students every single year they're in high school can be

894
00:41:48,760 --> 00:41:52,279
Speaker 4: applying for these scholarships, and then once they you know,

895
00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:55,240
Speaker 4: they hit college, they can apply every year they're in college.

896
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:58,160
Speaker 4: So just yeah, make that like apart, like I said,

897
00:41:58,160 --> 00:41:58,839
Speaker 4: five hours of boo.

898
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:02,040
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, question for you. You have a current

899
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:05,880
Speaker 1: high school senior. Your last one is is there anything

900
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 1: you're doing that you haven't shared with us or in

901
00:42:08,239 --> 00:42:09,880
Speaker 1: our audience yet that like we need.

902
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:11,759
Speaker 3: To know about anything that I'm doing with.

903
00:42:11,760 --> 00:42:13,680
Speaker 1: Her, hold back give us the good stuff.

904
00:42:14,719 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, Well, you know, I think we just have

905
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,480
Speaker 4: those really hard conversations in our house about what you know,

906
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,760
Speaker 4: what we're willing to spend, and what the bottom line

907
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:29,400
Speaker 4: is and and if you want this particular college and

908
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 4: we get this financial aid, like you've got to have

909
00:42:31,480 --> 00:42:34,800
Speaker 4: some skin in the game, like be applying for those scholarships,

910
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:38,719
Speaker 4: you know, and and that my daughter is definitely doing that.

911
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,760
Speaker 4: Like I work with parents of high school seniors every

912
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,319
Speaker 4: single year in a group coaching program, and I this

913
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:47,600
Speaker 4: is I preach, I preach this, but the reality is,

914
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:50,760
Speaker 4: you know, high school seniors are so busy with everything else.

915
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:54,600
Speaker 4: I think in my house that's that's really what we're doing.

916
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:58,080
Speaker 4: The outside scholarships and then the financial aid appeal is

917
00:42:58,080 --> 00:42:58,760
Speaker 4: a big strategy.

918
00:42:58,840 --> 00:42:59,359
Speaker 3: I love.

919
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:03,120
Speaker 2: It's so important to have those those honest, straightforward conversations

920
00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:04,839
Speaker 2: and sounds like you've had a you've had some.

921
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:07,399
Speaker 1: Practice and uh not just a one off combo either,

922
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: by the way, Yeah, yeah.

923
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:11,480
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's so important as opposed to it being this

924
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 2: thing that feels like you're tiptoeing around and all of

925
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:17,399
Speaker 2: a sudden, oh surprise, No, this is going to be dead,

926
00:43:17,400 --> 00:43:19,359
Speaker 2: that you're going to be saddled the way. This isn't

927
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,759
Speaker 2: something that we're willing to take on. These are conversations

928
00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 2: that have to start early. And I love hearing that

929
00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:26,560
Speaker 2: there are thirteen year olds who are.

930
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:28,040
Speaker 1: Also eligible for scholarships as well.

931
00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:31,000
Speaker 2: I think that's yeah, Tina, thank you so much for

932
00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:34,959
Speaker 2: talking with us. We'll make sure to link to thefaftsagguru

933
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:36,320
Speaker 2: dot com.

934
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:36,799
Speaker 1: At your website.

935
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,719
Speaker 2: You offer one on one help with families who are

936
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 2: looking for maybe some additional help as well.

937
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:42,359
Speaker 1: Is that right?

938
00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:43,640
Speaker 3: I do. I do consulting.

939
00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:46,720
Speaker 4: I also my signature program is my Financial Aid Academy,

940
00:43:46,719 --> 00:43:49,120
Speaker 4: a group coaching program I run every single year for

941
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 4: parents of high school seniors. Enrollment is still open for

942
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:54,880
Speaker 4: seniors for the class of twenty twenty four because the

943
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:58,120
Speaker 4: facts is opening late, where I kind of guide families

944
00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 4: through the whole process and help them maximize or financial

945
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 4: aid offers. And then I have a membership program for

946
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:05,319
Speaker 4: parents of high school students to kind of get them

947
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:06,240
Speaker 4: ready for college.

948
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:08,040
Speaker 3: I'm in some standalone digital.

949
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:10,359
Speaker 4: Courses and the consulting and I offer a free ten

950
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,279
Speaker 4: minute consult call for anybody that I've never.

951
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:12,920
Speaker 3: Worked with before.

952
00:44:13,280 --> 00:44:15,479
Speaker 1: Very cool. Great, Tina, thank you so much for joining

953
00:44:15,520 --> 00:44:17,120
Speaker 1: us on the show today. We really appreciate it.

954
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me. You guys, all.

955
00:44:19,520 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 2: Right, I feel like Tina knocked it out of the

956
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:23,920
Speaker 2: park when it came to answering all the face that

957
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 2: questions we had.

958
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 1: Would you expect anything less? No, if you call yourself

959
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:30,359
Speaker 1: the guru, I expect you better know your stuff. That's right.

960
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:33,400
Speaker 2: We covered a lots regarding the FATA. Did you have

961
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 2: a specific takeaway a big takeaway from today's episode?

962
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 1: Yeah? I did, and she didn't say it exactly like this,

963
00:44:38,280 --> 00:44:39,560
Speaker 1: but it's something you and I have talked about a

964
00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 1: lot on the show in the past, is don't be

965
00:44:41,560 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 1: afraid to ask for a discount, and because like when

966
00:44:44,640 --> 00:44:47,760
Speaker 1: you ask, truly so much of the time you're able

967
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: to get one. But so many people just haven't exercise

968
00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:53,800
Speaker 1: that muscle. They're kind of afraid to approach that conversation.

969
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: They're worried about the stank gy that they're going to

970
00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 1: get for somebody if they do end up if they

971
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:02,120
Speaker 1: make that request. Most of the time you don't get

972
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:04,919
Speaker 1: the stink eye. Maybe every once in a while. Most

973
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:07,000
Speaker 1: of the time either you're gonna get told no, which

974
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:09,080
Speaker 1: who cares like walk away and be like all right,

975
00:45:09,200 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: thank you anyway, or other times you might get quite

976
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:14,320
Speaker 1: a bit of money back. And in the case of

977
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 1: appealing a student aid offer, it can be thousands and

978
00:45:19,640 --> 00:45:21,799
Speaker 1: thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. And so it's

979
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,320
Speaker 1: one of those things where it's kind of like that

980
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,920
Speaker 1: Geico commercial like fifteen minutes will save you whatever percent,

981
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes or thirty minutes of doing this appeal could

982
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:34,600
Speaker 1: save you thousands. And so it's you're silly, You're really silly.

983
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:36,839
Speaker 1: You're leaving money on the table if you don't.

984
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:39,799
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, and be humble. We love that too when

985
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:41,839
Speaker 2: you do make that request. Which was so good because

986
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 2: again having with her, having been on the receiving end

987
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,840
Speaker 2: of things, she has seen how this works. And I

988
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 2: think it's a part of what makes Tina so effective

989
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 2: at what she does because she has been on the inside.

990
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:53,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's important to mention that there are humans

991
00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:57,200
Speaker 1: reading them, right, These are not just number crunching AI bots.

992
00:45:57,440 --> 00:46:00,080
Speaker 1: These are human people with real emotions. And so if

993
00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:02,640
Speaker 1: you can if you can speak to that sense, like,

994
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:06,040
Speaker 1: hey love the school, blah blah blah, and this would

995
00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 1: mean so much to our family, And oh my goodness,

996
00:46:08,120 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: what I have the color because the color matters to

997
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,280
Speaker 1: the end person who's actually doing the reading.

998
00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:16,400
Speaker 2: Because they're this is the difference between them letting you in.

999
00:46:16,760 --> 00:46:19,560
Speaker 2: And you've got an awesome story and you've made a

1000
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 2: just incredibly convincing argument as to why it is you

1001
00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 2: want to go to that school or somebody else who

1002
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:28,960
Speaker 2: just says, please reconsider, like who would you go with?

1003
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 2: And when you are working for higher education institution like that,

1004
00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:36,279
Speaker 2: you want folks who are able to provide vibrants. You're

1005
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 2: going to be looking to folks who are willing to

1006
00:46:37,640 --> 00:46:39,239
Speaker 2: lean in to push back a little bit, because those

1007
00:46:39,239 --> 00:46:40,879
Speaker 2: are the folks who get stuff done.

1008
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:43,719
Speaker 1: And I don't want to oversimplify it, but it could

1009
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:45,319
Speaker 1: be something like that, right, And they're like, we've got

1010
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:46,880
Speaker 1: an extra five grand, which one do we give it to?

1011
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: And so yeah, write your letter accordingly, Matt, was your

1012
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:51,359
Speaker 1: big takeaway from this combo though?

1013
00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:53,760
Speaker 2: So mine's going to be five point six five percent,

1014
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:57,400
Speaker 2: because that is the percentage of the parental assets that

1015
00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 2: are taking into account when it comes to determining student aid.

1016
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:06,440
Speaker 2: Not necessarily, not specifically, because that money is set aside

1017
00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:10,040
Speaker 2: within a five to twenty nine account, but well, fact is,

1018
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:11,960
Speaker 2: all of your assets are taken into account, and I

1019
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:15,760
Speaker 2: think sometimes folks can have maybe this roadblock to setting

1020
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:19,120
Speaker 2: some of that money aside because they think, well, every

1021
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 2: dollar a stick in there is a dollar that I'm

1022
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:24,359
Speaker 2: not going to receive via student aid via financial aid.

1023
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 1: Well that's not that's not the case. That's not how

1024
00:47:26,080 --> 00:47:26,439
Speaker 1: it works.

1025
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:28,400
Speaker 2: And so I just want to put that out there

1026
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:30,759
Speaker 2: because I think that can help to put a lot

1027
00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:33,360
Speaker 2: of folks at ease as to whether or not they

1028
00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 2: see the amount that they've got saved in cash in

1029
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:39,120
Speaker 2: the bank go up by ten thousand dollars, or whether

1030
00:47:39,239 --> 00:47:41,200
Speaker 2: or not they's you know, a five twenty nine account

1031
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 2: goes up, whether that goes up by ten thousand dollars.

1032
00:47:43,560 --> 00:47:45,760
Speaker 2: Either way, you're looking at five point sixty five percent,

1033
00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:47,719
Speaker 2: and I think that number specifically can just.

1034
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,480
Speaker 1: Provide a lot of relief for some folks out there.

1035
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 1: But let's introduce our beer. You and I we enjoyed

1036
00:47:54,280 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 1: a Blue Crab Special Reserve. Sounds like a very fancy beer.

1037
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:02,359
Speaker 1: This is another one by Other Half. It's a double

1038
00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:05,399
Speaker 1: dry hopped Imperial IPA. What are your thoughts, buddy? All right,

1039
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:08,880
Speaker 1: so my phrase to describe this one is creamy pineapple

1040
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 1: hot basket. And I feel like it's pretty accurate, right,

1041
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 1: what do you think? Pretty good? I second all those

1042
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:17,799
Speaker 1: descriptive Okay, all right, well yeah no, I just absolutely

1043
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:21,120
Speaker 1: delicious IPA from you know, one of the breweries that

1044
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:23,960
Speaker 1: makes some of the finest in the land. So massively

1045
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:25,840
Speaker 1: impressed with this one. And I guess they have a

1046
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: regular Blue Crab, but this is the Special Reserve, and

1047
00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:32,640
Speaker 1: so this is like the fancy version of the original beer,

1048
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:36,000
Speaker 1: which I'm sure is already delightful, so so good. Yeah.

1049
00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's got those those herbal elements from the hops,

1050
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:40,000
Speaker 2: and you just get.

1051
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:41,880
Speaker 1: That with some of these dry hopped hazes.

1052
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 2: Of course, this isn't a beer by Other Half that

1053
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,800
Speaker 2: includes a name of a vegetable like they oftentimes do,

1054
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:50,800
Speaker 2: but it's totally got those same vibes going on. It

1055
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 2: is so fantastic and again a massive thanks to Jason

1056
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:56,320
Speaker 2: for donating.

1057
00:48:55,960 --> 00:48:58,360
Speaker 1: This plus all the other other half beers here to

1058
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:01,279
Speaker 1: the podcast. Appreciate you, Jason, thank you very much. And Matt.

1059
00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:02,799
Speaker 1: That's going to do it for this one. And we'll

1060
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,680
Speaker 1: put links to some of the resources that we mentioned

1061
00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:09,200
Speaker 1: during this podcast up on our website at howtomoney dot com.

1062
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 1: That's right, fasaguru dot com, scholarships dot com. Let's nice, scholarie.

1063
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:16,480
Speaker 2: Those were Those were Tina's two favorite sites for scholarships specifically.

1064
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:18,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, make sure to link to those all that stuff

1065
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:20,279
Speaker 1: and more up there. You can also sign up for

1066
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:21,799
Speaker 1: the how to Money newsletter at how to money dot

1067
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:24,239
Speaker 1: com slash newsletter. If you haven't signed up for that yet,

1068
00:49:25,040 --> 00:49:26,880
Speaker 1: you uh, you should be ashamed of yourself and now

1069
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:28,799
Speaker 1: you should be ashamed. But you can write that ship

1070
00:49:28,880 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 1: right now, so please do all right, Matt, that's going

1071
00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:32,839
Speaker 1: to do it for this episode. Until next time, Best

1072
00:49:32,880 --> 00:49:34,759
Speaker 1: Friends Out, Best Friends Out.