Fear and Loathing on the road to FAFSA

Fear and Loathing on the road to FAFSA

Anyone who has a college-bound student has gone through the FAFSA wringer. It is painful for financial form-phobic people like me.

FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It determines eligibility for federal and state financial aid programs.

Why go through it? College is pricey, no matter how you look at it. If you are in the Middle Class, national statistics show that you are stressed by increasing financial pressures:

• The average cost per year of a public college (in state resident) is $12,127, a 25% increase since 2001. A private university averages $29,026.

• Real median household income declined 3% from 2000 to 2004.

• Credit-card debt is at an all-time high, averaging $9,312 per household.

• The savings rate for Americans is the lowest it has been in 73 years.

So,
after you go online and blanch at the practice FAFSA forms, eat a lttle cheese with your whine, suck it up, and get to work.

FAFSA is one of those necessary evils ... like income taxes. (Actually, you have to compute you income tax to fill out the FAFSA!)

Do your student a favor by working on the forms together. The FAFSA financial reality check can prompt financial responsibility in the college selection process. Be clear on who will be responsible for student loan repayment BEFORE you sign any papers.

Don't put it off. Procrastination is a form of fear.

The choices students make today will impact their adult debt load tomorrow.

To Be 18 Again

My eldest is about to turn 18. I have made the same offer to him that Mary Anne gave her nephew Danny when he hit that benchmark birthday.

Start an IRA. Commit to put in $25 every month and I will match it every month for the first year.

Why would we want to urge these young men into starting their retirement funds at such a tender age? WHY NOT?

It's painless.
It's a great habit to begin early.
It's a nest egg that will grow to $300,000 by the time they are 55 (if they continue to invest at the $25 per month rate).

It's something I wish I had done at 18.