I had a great time talking financial aid and FAFSA strategies on the Hack Your Wealth podcast this week. Check it out here.

The FAFSA becomes available onOctober 1, but you can download the EFC Formula Guide to see how the sausage gets made in advance. Here are some suggestions for how to use this data.

Families getting started on the college search process are well-served by keeping a list of schools that the student is interested in. (This should be the student’s job, by the way.) But what does that list look like? What goes in it? Read on for suggestions.

Families who will file the FAFSA this fall should know what dates matter for which data inputs. Income is prior-prior year (meaning most recently filed tax return), assets are “day of” and then there’s the matter of education tax credits such as the American Opportunity Tax Credit.

Clearly, test-optional admissions are here to stay, with more than 1,600 four-year colleges offering test-optional admissions for the fall. More than 80 others are test-blind for the 2021 admissions cycle, according to FairTest’s online database of testing policies.

I’m changing topic today because my friend Jon said something on Sunday that I can’t get out of my head and I think all parents of teens and young adults need to hear: “We want our kids to be happy. We want our kids to be successful. But most of all we want them to be here.”

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.

An overview of the three primary types of student loans including insights into which loans don’t require a co-signer.

Many states offer free community college to some or all residents. But there’s some fine print that makes timely action necessary. Most states require students to apply for free community college during their senior year of high school.

Summary of changes coming to the FAFSA in 2022 stemming from the roughly 170 pages of the 2020 year-end omnibus federal spending bill that were devoted to FAFSA Simplification.

In my latest podcast episode, he walked me through some of the key pieces of college financial literacy. His wisdom is available here on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How much can you contribute and how much should you contribute?

The COVID pandemic has had a significant impact on higher education both in terms of enrollment and budgets. With federal stimulus pumping almost $40 billion into higher ed, we’re in uncharted water when it comes to forecasting future tuition cost trends.

Good news: This time around, if you get the stimulus payment and you claim your college student as a dependent on your taxes, you will get a stimulus payment for them as well.

It’s back-to-basics week for me and time to talk about getting started saving for college. If you want your children to go to college, you need to save. Period. That’s the easy part. Harder is where and how much.