Personal Finance and Money Management

In the past, filling out the financial information on the FAFSA has been a hassle since parents and students had to manually enter all of the information. Plus, this information would then need to be cross-referenced with the IRS by the financial aid office. This new IRS data retrieval option takes the some of the burden off of the families, allowing for an easy way to fill out the FAFSA.

Remember, if you havent filed your FAFSA yet, get started! The earlier you apply the more likely you are to receive certain types of aid! If you need help, make sure to download our free FAFSA Guide ebook, or head on over to FAFSAOnline for step by step instructions to this years form!

• Filing your FAFSA before taxes
• Tax credit information
• Determining a students dependency status
• Defining a parent
• Using IRS Data Retrieval

And much more!

Heres a brief excerpt from the guide:

Quick Tips

• When the FAFSA refers to I, You, Your, etc. it is referring to the student!
• Always double check even basic items, such as your address and ZIP code.
• Nothing will kill a FAFSA faster than errors or omissions! Check everything!
• Colors matter and each years FAFSA is different.

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Heres what you can expect to find in the improved 2012-2013 FAFSA:

• Easier online navigation- The sections and questions have been reordered to make it easier to navigate. This best part of this is that the system now knows where you left off, so if you fill out the form over a few sessions, theres no more searching for your next steps. Plus, its skip logic has been improved. This means that the system will eliminate unnecessary questions based on what youve already answered, making less work for you!
• Updated notifications In addition to previous notifications such as the Student Aid Report and confirmation emails, students may now get various reminder emails depending on how they file.

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I recently released my co-signer from the burden of being responsible for my student loan payments. A co-signer is responsible for the payment of a student loan if the student who ‘owned the loan’ was unable to make payments, and deferment or forbearance wasn’t an option.

I thought this would be an easy, no ceremony process needed. I didn’t realize how big of a deal this can be to your co-signer, the relief, and the adult-like responsibility you embody when youplete this process.

You see, I AM and adult . I’ve been out of my undergraduate school for almost 10 years, but have been in and out of graduate school since that time in order toplete a Master’s and a PhD. My father,

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