3 big FAFSA mistakes that will cost you a lot of money! - YouTube

hey everyone Tina here the FAFSA guru and today I  want to share with you three FAFSA mistakes that  

can cost you a whole lot of money it's August  kids are getting ready to go back to school and  

before we know it FAFSA season is going to be here  October 1st of the earliest that you can fill out  

your FAFSA for the 2020 2021 school year I work  with a lot of families and helping them complete  

the FAFSA and some of the more common mistakes I  see I'm going to go over with you today because  

it can really cost you a lot when it comes to  financial aid so the first is not filling it out  

there is a lot of research out there showing that  forty to fifty percent of families are not filling  

out a FAFSA because they don't think they're going  to qualify for any money I encourage everyone to  

fill one out always you know not all financial aid  is based on just need and there are some colleges  

that award some institutional scholarship money  and they use the FAFSA information to do that  

federal student loans are a big part of financial  aid they're low-interest loans that are not based  

on credit that students can get in their own  name which can really help with financial aid  

but if you don't fill out the FAFSA they can't  even get awarded those so that's mistake number  

one getting the FAFSA completed is crucial  it's free and everybody should fill one out  

the second mistake that I see often is people  filling out the asset information incorrectly  

this is big because the government takes into  consideration your income along with the amount  

of assets you have when determining what they  call your expected Family Contribution which is  

what the financial aid offices use the financial  aid office uses to determine how much money to  

award you so filling this out incorrectly can cost  you a lot of money some of the biggest mistakes I  

see are people reporting their home value as an  asset the value of the home you live in is one  

asset that is protected on the FAFSA you do not  have to report so don't report that another asset  

that you do not have to report is retirement so a  lot of people accidentally put in their retirement  

and you know middle-aged parents could have a  significant amount of money put aside in that and  

if they list that as an asset it's going to really  count against you know their kiddo in terms of  

financial aid so do not count the home you live in  do not count retirement and then one of the other  

big asset mistakes I see is people reporting their  business value so if you're self-employed and own  

a business you file taxes when it comes to the  income section you have to report your business  

income or loss but in the asset section it asks  about the value of your business and you only  

have to report the value if you have a hundred  or more employees very very important a lot of  

people think because they own a business they're  self-employed and they reported their income that  

they have to report the value of their business  also no that's not the case and then lastly one  

of the other common mistakes I see is parents  who are divorced or separated filling out the  

FAFSA incorrectly if you're divorced or you're  separated and it does not have to be a legal  

separation you're just you know you just recently  separated and you're not living together only one  

parent needs to provide their information on the  FAFSA and that would be the parent with whom the  

child resided with most in the last year so the  custodial parent is the one who should be filling  

out the FAFSA on behalf of the child a lot of  parents who are recently separated when they're  

filling out the FAFSA using like prior year tax  information they think because they filed a joint  

tax return they have to use both of the incomes  on the return which is not accurate there's a  

question that asks on the FAFSA as of today are  you divorced or separated if that applies to you  

you would say yes and then you would list the  date of the divorce or separation and again you  

do not have to be officially or legally separated  in order to report that if you're no longer living  

together then that applies so those are three  big mistakes I see happen all the time filling  

the FAFSA out incorrectly can cost you a lot  of money so just be careful when you're doing  

that and for more information about the services I  provide feel free to check out my website I have a  

great new coaching program coming up this year for  high school seniors and their parents to help them  

navigate the college planning and financial aid  process step-by-step it's a monthly membership fee  

and it's going to be a lot of great information  I have two options for families one that's $49 a  

month one that's ninety-nine dollars a month just  to give families a couple of different options but  

check it out so on my website wwf/e saguru calm  and thanks so much for listening today take care