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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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Thinking it’s worth taking out student loans to go to your first choice college instead of your second choice? Here’s what recent college graduates have to say about their student loans.
Want to have a lot more money for college? The tax benefits of 529 plans mean you could have thousands more dollars available when the time comes to start paying.
April is Financial Literacy month, so I'm going to write about some broader topics that might be helpful to you and your student. Starting with credit scores: what are they, how do you get one, why do you care?
After years of saving, it’s time to switch gears and start paying for college. But when do the bills come?
Highlights
We’re almost there: acceptance letters are arriving and the May 1 decision day is right around the corner. For most families, how much schools cost is part of the decision making process.
Happy 2026! Last year I made a New Year’s Resolution and kept it. That makes me a self-appointed expert on New Year’s resolutions. Here are some resolutions for parents planning for college— and my expert advice on how to keep your resolutions.
Filing the FAFSA and CSS Profile raises tons of questions for divorced parents. Here are some answers.
What is and isn’t an asset on the FAFSA? Here’s a quick “is it or isn’t it?” for you.
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.
The College Board’s annual Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid report was released recently. Among the headline findings: college tuition prices increased at extremely low rates for the second year in a row, reflecting both a combination of continued impacts of the pandemic and enrollment pressures from demographic trends.
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.
I think Oregon is one of the last places in the US that starts school after Labor Day so my apologies if you’re no longer in back-to-school mode. Here are some resolutions your family might make for the coming school year. And, here’s hoping they don’t get broken as quickly as the typical New Year’s diet-and-exercise resolutions!
Categories
The FAFSA & CSS Profile
Saving for College
Student Loans
Application Process
Miscellaneous
All blog posts
Claiming the American Opportunity Tax Credit
It’s tax time, which means it’s time to claim education tax credits you may be eligible for. Unfortunately, a lot of tax software programs don’t provide good instructions for doing so. Here’s what you need to know.
College Students and Stimulus Payments
Parents of college students have likely heard that those students– if claimed as dependents on their parents’ 2019 taxes– are not eligible for the $1,200 stimulus payment.
Free Money: AOTC Claiming Strategies
Once upon a time, the American Opportunity Tax Credit was a pretty simple proposition: Families could get a $2,500 annual tax credit for $4,000 of out-of-pocket college tuition expenses for their dependent student, as long as their income was below the IRS threshold for the credit.
Changes to OR 529 Plan Tax Benefits
Changes to Oregon’s 529 Plan Tax Benefits that go into effect in 2020.
AOTC And New Tax Law
One of the big changes to the tax bill was making our young adult children less valuable to their parents from a tax perspective. The dependent exemption is gone and the child tax credit for 18- to 23-year-old dependents is only $500.
Tax Time Reporting: 1099 Q
Insights for folks who need to report 1099 q income on your tax return.
529 Contributions for Tax Purposes
529 savings plan tax planning strategies to best position your financial situation for the FAFSA.
College Tax Credits and Divorce
Divorced parents are probably already well aware that the financial piece of planning for college is mystifying at best. If you’re a divorced parent, I hope this information helps you with your planning.
April is Financial Literacy Month, so I'm writing about some general financial literacy topics. Today's topic: Pre-Tax and Roth retirement savings and how to decide which to use.