College Forum

Credit card sign-up or cashback bonus with tuition payments

Hi folks, I am looking to help my daughter learn about credit card perks. We spent several months traveling on my Chase Sapphire Preferred and Discover cards for points accrual and cashback, depending on expenses. She'll be going to college in the fall, and it's time for her to have her own (non-AU) card. I'll be visiting the site bonus cards because, well, every podcast I'm gently reminded that Brad pays for this hosting with the affiliations and I'm happy to help. But I'm not interested in her...

Paul Vail 75 XP

1 month ago 4 Share

AOTC/529…help me find any errors/inefficiencies in my thinking…

Let’s assume a recent high school graduate has 2 years of schooling left to complete their night-school degree at a commuter college where tuition is $4000/year. The individual is set to make $40,000 in 2026 with a $2600 federal tax liability and a $1200 state tax liability. The individual resides in a state that gives a 20% tax credit for 529 contributions (up to $1,500) but saved nothing for college thus far. Does it make the most sense for the individual to take out a $4,000 loan this year to...

Brianmain 104 XP

2 months ago 1 Share

Workshop for college students - recs on content or resources?

Hi, I work at a large state university in a role helping undergraduate students with their professional development. I'd love to host a couple of workshops about financial management. There are some already periodically offered on campus through various student orgs, banks/credit unions, and academic resources (First Gen, Women's Center, etc), but I'd like to develop and offer something for my students on an annual basis that I can fine tune and reuse each year. Two questions: 1\) What topics do...

iamjello2 45 XP

3 months ago 4 Share

529 - which child should be named if you have more than one

I suspect if you put the 529 in your youngest child’s name, then it won’t count against your oldest child when you fill out the FAFSA - can you always move it over to another child once you know who needs what?

BPinVA 369 XP

8 months ago 7 Share

HELOC/Life insurance

Good afternoon, Has anyone had experience with funneling college dollars through a HELOC and then through a life insurance policy that you then borrow from to pay tuition? ChatGPT sounds very skeptical about this but a friend is considering it anyway so I thought I'd ask here if anyone has thoughts/experience with it. Thank you, Carrie

Carrie Bach 231 XP

8 months ago 6 Share

Tax on scholarships!

Hello, fellow college hackers, My son (a sophomore at a state school) got a ton of merit Aid his first year of college – $30,000 K – which is great… But we just got the 1098T to file with his taxes and it seems we he owes federal and state taxes on half of the amount (which was not used for tuition and fees). From googling I found that this income is “hybrid “and doesn’t count as earned income, but there is tax due on it after his deduction, which is only $2280- he is then taxed at my tax rate (...

LisaB 519 XP

8 months ago 3 Share

Vanguard 529: Target date Portfolios or choosing your own?

I don't mind putting in the extra legwork - just wondering if this community knows about how individual portfolios have done compared to the target ones that Vanguard supplies.

elisabethmorgan

8 months ago 15 Share

529 tips, tricks, insights

I thought I'd start something here regarding 529 accounts and general tips & tricks. So feel free to share or ask anything. For my part -- *Consider Qualified and Unqualified Expenses & have funds for both* We have 529 accounts for our two kids. Now that the first one is in college, it is obvious that we saved a bit too much inside his 529 and not enough outside of it. He got a scholarship (a good thing) that reduces the qualified educational expenses to below what we have in his 529. However, h...

kindaFI 633 XP

8 months ago 24 Share

FAFSA and Rental Real Estate Assets

If rental property is in a trust, is it still considered an asset for the FAFSA?

Anonymous

9 months ago 1 Share

Early retirement and FAFSA Potential Strategy - thoughts?

Hi all- I’m exploring a new potential FI strategy and would love thoughts and holes poked. This strategy puts together 72(t) and Rule of 55 from Sean Mullaney and Episode 203 of All the Hacks podcast “Saving on the Cost of College with Brad Baldridge”. In that All the Hacks episode, Brad talks about the "Expected Family Contribution”, now calculated via a formula called the "Student Aid Index" (SAI) from the FAFSA. It sounds like the difference between the tuition sticker price and the expected...

JC 722 XP

9 months ago 18 Share

Parent loan or liquidate equity

My son inherited social security benefits and a small retirement fund when his father passed 3 years ago. He will be staring his spring semester and we had discussed liquidating some of his funds. I had put it into a custodial fund where it has grown to a little shy of 200,000. Would it be better to sell the equities to fund his education or take out a parent loan so that his fund can grow. Currently the growth rate of his funds have averaged 20%. This beats out the 5 to 10% interest I would pay...

mjenkins 108 XP

9 months ago 5 Share

AP Test waivers

Hi all, This is just an FYI that it is possible to get the $99 fee for Advanced Placement tests waived. All you have to do is ask. We had 8 of my daughter's test fees waived just by making the request, so we saved almost $800 that way. We have stared doing the same for our son.

SuzanneSR 423 XP

11 months ago 5 Share

Income bunching for financial aid

Has anyone discussed the strategy of income bunching to make artificially low income years to qualify for financial aid. We are looking to implement this strategy during years when we have 2 kids attending college at the same time. We plan on doing 2 things- take out more income in year before they attend college or use HELOC in Oct-Dec of the low income year to defer expenses to the next "higher income" year.

MM 301 XP

1 year ago 4 Share

Saving for Your Child's Future: 529 Account or Brokerage Account?

New or soon-to-be parents, I'd love your insights and advice. We are going to be welcoming twins this November (so soon!), and I'd like to start putting a small amount of money away for them each month with the goal of building a modest gift that I can turn over to each of them after they graduate high school. It seems like the standard advice is to open a 529 account for each child. I definitely appreciate that this money can be withdrawn tax-free and used for a range of educational expenses, i...

jbennz

1 year ago 5 Share

Anyone with experience creaating/implementing a "Dynasty 529"?

Hi! We anticipate having some left-over 529 funds. We are interested in using these funds (and then adding more) to create an asset to be used by future (non-existent as of now) grandchildren / great-grandchilden. Does anyone have experience with doing something like this? If so, am interested in any lessons/tips (best states to choose, best beneficiary/owner transfer approaches / unforeseen tax/financial hurdles, etc). I have read about this strategy in a few places (bogleheads / kitces). With...

G-FI-IS-NICE

1 year ago 1 Share

Military affiliated scholarship finder

This is a good resource to help find scholarships for military related students. You can select your military affiliations (branch, rank, MOS, locations, specialty) and it will provide links to scholarships you or your dependents may qualify for. My daughter qualified for over $15,000 in grants and 0% loans last year. https://search.militaryscholar.org/ George

George Coleman 224 XP

1 year ago 1 Share