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📌 Before You File the FAFSA

The new Simplified FAFSA is here! Here’s a quick video with some tips that will help you get through it with a minimum of chaos and maximum of financial aid. 🔗

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA: Is it Income?

The FAFSA asks about income numerous ways: it collects your tax return data through the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and then poses a number of additional questions about income. So let’s look at those.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA Basics: Parent Assets

Parent assets seem to be the area that most families and planners focus on, despite the fact that they typically have the smallest impact on the formula of each of the components. Strategies and tactics to minimize parent assets abound, but for most families these result more in nibbling around the edges than actually making a significant dent in SAI.

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Getting Started Ann Garcia Getting Started Ann Garcia

FAFSA Resources

Happy FAFSA Day! Are you completing the FAFSA for the first time this year? While you’re waiting for the site to load, here are some resources that will help you get through it with a minimum of chaos and maximum of financial aid.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

What is “Income” on the FAFSA?

Many families– and also many financial professionals– believe that reducing their adjusted gross income by increasing 401k contributions will result in a lower Expected Family Contribution from the FAFSA.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA Simplification in the Stimulus

169 pages of this week’s stimulus bill are devoted to FAFSA simplification. It’s a great step and I apologize that 169 pages of bill-speak have left me unable to simplify the changes for you yet. Here are a few broad points:

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Getting Started Ann Garcia Getting Started Ann Garcia

To all the Sophomore Families

If you’re a parent of a high school sophomore (or younger) and reading this, congratulations! Today you’re going to learn some things you can do that will benefit you far more on the FAFSA than the last-minute moves families can make just before filing the FAFSA.

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Getting Started Ann Garcia Getting Started Ann Garcia

Preparing for the FAFSA

A lot of people ask about how to prepare for the FAFSA. Doing the FAFSA is a lot like doing your taxes. You can absolutely wait until April 15 to fill out your 1040, but you’ll probably save some money by thinking about your taxes in the fall and taking some steps before the end of the year to mitigate the bill.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA Basics: Divorced Parents

Divorced parents often wonder who and whether they should fill out the FAFSA. Learn what you need to know and tips to ensure your success.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA Basics: Student Income

Deeper insights into how student income is counted in the FAFSA and what you may not know and how to get setup for success.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

FAFSA Basics: What’s NOT Included

I spent the weekend dropping my daughter off at college and I’m still glowing from UChicago’s amazing orientation weekend for incoming students and families. Now I have to pay her tuition bill which is helping me to make the mental transition back to real life.

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Getting Started Ann Garcia Getting Started Ann Garcia

FAFSA Asset Do’s and Don’t’s

It’s the busy season for insurance and annuities hucksters who tell parents of college-bound students that spending their assets to buy an insurance policy will yield all manner of financial aid benefits. Before you start making expensive moves that end up costing more in the long run, you should figure out what will really benefit you.

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Getting Started Ann Garcia Getting Started Ann Garcia

EFC vs Net Cost

Families who are a few years out from college should calculate their EFC, but as college approaches and students start identifying schools they’re interested in, net price calculators become far more valuable.

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Ann Garcia Ann Garcia

How to Fill out the FAFSA 2: Divorced Parents

Divorce is one of the biggest question areas with the FAFSA. This may be because the FAFSA presents it so simply: it just asks the parents’ marital status; if “Divorced or separated” is chosen, it asks which parent’s information is going to be used.

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