Almost everyone with young children and teenagers needs to be thinking about how they are going to help their children fund their college expenses! This is not something that you can start effectively planning with a 17-18 year old! Effective planning strategies are most effective if you start implementing them when your children are 7-12 years old! The fund allocation strategies also require that funds be allocated before you start working on your Free Application For Student Aid (FAFSA) Time is your best friend!
Albert Einstein said "one of the greatest wonders in the universe is the compounding of interest!" This is from the same guy who discovered E=MC2!
If you want a copy of my whitepaper titled "2013 Guide to College Funding"
If you want a copy by email it is available at no charge. If you live in the US and want a copy by regular mail it is also available. However for mailed copies there is a charge of $6.00 including shipping and handling. We prefer to send it by email!
It discusses Scholarships, Grants, 529 Plans, ROTH IRA, 401K Plans, Cash funding and TAX FREE funding strategies. It also includes strategies that can help you increase your eligibility for Financial Aid. This involves ways to reduce your out of pocket expense in the college funding process. Some of these you can implement on your own but some do require the use of a financial professional like us! Even families with close to a 6 figure income or 6 figure assets can benefit from some of the legal strategies we talk about.
These techniques are very useful for parents and are also helpful for grandparent that wants to help fund a grandchild's college education. In many states we can help you effectively implement the strategies we discuss.
Generic questions or comments can be directed to us here on the blog or contact us through the following methods.
To call 614-264-3864
to email financial-services@live.com
to visit website go to http://financial-service6.wix.com/polarisfinancial
Showing posts with label College funding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College funding. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Economy Impacts Students College Plans
In tough economic times students may be tempted to cut out or scale back
college plans. That's a tough nut to swallow and not necessarily the best alternative
to follow. Certainly one should investigate all possible funding alternatives before
canceling or scaling back college plans. Dropping the level of the schools you apply
for may be a good strategy alternative especially if the career choice is not going to
be a top level income career choice. As an example if your goal is to be a corporate
lawyer the top schools may help you achieve that goal. On the other hand if you
want to work in company in a department full of computer programmers a local
university or even community college may meet that goal with a substantial
reduction in the total cost of the education.
Cappex.com LLC just completed a study of almost 3,000 prospective college
students. Over 15% have indicated that they are putting their college plans on
hold because of the concern that they won't be able to fund college. Over 55% are
considering downgrading the quality of the school they will be applying to in an
attempt to make their college costs more affordable. An even larger percentage
are increasing the amount of time spent on searching for scholarships in an
attempt to reduce the costs. All of these were strategies included in the study.
All of these are valid strategies. One should also consider seeing if alternative
strategies may be able to increase your college affordability. This is an area where
some professional help might be appropriate. We have two different alternatives
that may help.
First lets find out if we can increase your eligibility for need based financial aid. We
utilize the information needed for the (FAFSA) Free Application for Federal Student
Aid. This information is what is used to generate your Expected Family Contribution
or (EFC). This is the dollar figure that you have to come up with before you are eligible
for financial aid. We can often lower your EFC and that makes you eligible for more
financial aid.
Second there are a number of Corporate programs available that can help you pay for
school. Some of these programs are not need based and do not discriminate against
families with significant financial resources. Some of these are available to our clients.
college plans. That's a tough nut to swallow and not necessarily the best alternative
to follow. Certainly one should investigate all possible funding alternatives before
canceling or scaling back college plans. Dropping the level of the schools you apply
for may be a good strategy alternative especially if the career choice is not going to
be a top level income career choice. As an example if your goal is to be a corporate
lawyer the top schools may help you achieve that goal. On the other hand if you
want to work in company in a department full of computer programmers a local
university or even community college may meet that goal with a substantial
reduction in the total cost of the education.
Cappex.com LLC just completed a study of almost 3,000 prospective college
students. Over 15% have indicated that they are putting their college plans on
hold because of the concern that they won't be able to fund college. Over 55% are
considering downgrading the quality of the school they will be applying to in an
attempt to make their college costs more affordable. An even larger percentage
are increasing the amount of time spent on searching for scholarships in an
attempt to reduce the costs. All of these were strategies included in the study.
All of these are valid strategies. One should also consider seeing if alternative
strategies may be able to increase your college affordability. This is an area where
some professional help might be appropriate. We have two different alternatives
that may help.
First lets find out if we can increase your eligibility for need based financial aid. We
utilize the information needed for the (FAFSA) Free Application for Federal Student
Aid. This information is what is used to generate your Expected Family Contribution
or (EFC). This is the dollar figure that you have to come up with before you are eligible
for financial aid. We can often lower your EFC and that makes you eligible for more
financial aid.
Second there are a number of Corporate programs available that can help you pay for
school. Some of these programs are not need based and do not discriminate against
families with significant financial resources. Some of these are available to our clients.
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