College Aid: The Busy Parent's Guide To Paying For College - Part One

College Aid: The Busy Parent's Guide To Paying For College - Part One

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College Aid: The Busy Parent’s Guide to Paying for College
Quick Tips To Lower Your Out-of-Pocket Costs – Part One

If you’re wondering where you’ll find the money to pay for your child’s tuition fees, then we’re here to help. We’ve put together 6 useful pieces of advice that you can use to prepare for the big expenses of the next few years.

Let’s get started.

1. Identify Schools With A Wide Range Of Payment Plans
Many schools offer a good selection of tools that help take some of the pain out of paying the bill. These can include interest-free or low-fee installment payment plans, special scholarships, work-study programs, tuition remission, or even tuition-freeze programs which allow you to pay all four years up front, protecting yourself against tuition increases (a useful strategy these days, if you can afford it!)

Not all of these programs are likely to be good for you and your family, but there’s a good chance that some of them will be. It’s unlikely that you’ll hear about them from the schools directly. They aren’t often well publicized. You must take initiative and ask.

When you’re looking at schools, take the time to pick up the phone and talk to the admissions office about payment plans. You might find that some of the schools on your list are more affordable than you thought.

2. Make Sure You Have At Least One “Safe Money” School
When you use all the tips and resources included each week in this newsletter and make full use of all the help available through our office, it should be a breeze for you to position your finances and complete the applications on time, and in a way that gets you all the financial help you need.

However, it always pays to be a little bit cautious and include at least one ‘Safe Money School’ on your list. If the worst thing happens - and you find you can’t send your child to any of the top schools you wanted - you can always send them to your safety school in the first year and look for ways to move up in future years.

3. Start Spending Your Cash!
Most of the parents of children in their last couple of years of high school try to limit their spending and hoard up for the hard years ahead.

That can be a big mistake.

One of the factors that the financial aid administrators will use to calculate your EFC (your Expected Family Contribution - the amount that you’ll be expected to pay) is your current net worth.

That means that the money you’re saving for a new bathroom or to remodel the kitchen once the children head off to college could count against you when they total up the figures.

If you’re going to make a big expenditure soon, this could be the best time to do it. Before you make any final decisions though, make sure you speak to an expert who can give you the kind of objective advice you need to plan ahead.

In Part two we review the 3 remaining tips:

• Know exactly when to get the forms in
• Be smart with your assets
• Apply for Financial Aid – whatever your income

About the Author:
Ian Welham
Complete College Planning Solutions, LLC
(973) 467-0101
http://completecollegeplanningsolutions.com/pages-blog/

One of America's leading college financial aid experts, helps parents get every cent of financial aid they're entitled to, even if you make a six-figure income. "College Savings Video Series" reveals proven ways to reduce college tuition costs by $5,000 to $30,000 a year. Normally $47, FREE for a limited time: http://collegeadmissionscounselor.org



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


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