Beacon Financial Advisors » College Planning

More Financial Aid for College Students on the Way?

Kristine McKinley — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:44:54 +0000

According to MarketWatch.com, President Bush plans on signing legislation that would increase college financial aid by about $20 billion over the next five years.

The new bill would reduce the interest rate on need-based student loans to 3.4% (currently 6.8%) over the next four years.

It would also increase the Pell grant maximum to $5,400 over the next five years.

Other provisions in the bill will help borrowers who are having trouble meeting payments due to economic hardships.

For more details, click here.

New financial aid tool helps families determine whether they will qualify for federal financial aid

Kristine McKinley — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:26:22 +0000

Last month, the federal government launched a new online tool to help families predict whether they’ll qualify for federal financial aid. Called the FAFSA4caster, it’s modeled on the government’s official aid application, the FAFSA (which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

The FAFSA4caster estimates a family’s expected family contribution to college costs and notes whether a family will qualify for the federal Pell grant program, allowing families to plan ahead for the cost of college. To use the tool, parents will need to enter their child’s Social Security number, as well as their own tax and financial information.

When you’re ready to apply for aid, you can easily transition from FAFSA4caster to FAFSA on the Web. Much of the information that you enter in the FAFSA4caster will populate your FAFSA on the Web application, making the experience of applying for federal student aid a lot easier.

To see the tool, visit the Department of Education’s website at www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov.

Tags: financial aid, federal financial aid, pell grant, fafsa

Best Deals on Student Loans

Kristine McKinley — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 13:02:26 +0000

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the FAFSA form lately, as well as the best student loans to get.

Kiplinger.com has a great article on student loans right now. Some tips shared include:

Determine which type of school your family can afford
Set a realistic limit on how much debt you can afford
Stick with the Federal loan programs – Perkins, Stafford and PLUS loans
After you’ve exhausted your options in Federal loans, get a list of lenders from the school, or from FinAid (www.finaid.com)

This is part of a series of articles on paying for college. Click here to see the full text of this article, Best Deals on College Student Loans. Click here for last weeks article, Smart Ways to Pay for College. Next weeks article will focus on the best loans for parents.

Tags: saving for college, student loans, college loans

Estimating College Costs

Kristine McKinley — Thu, 18 May 2006 11:52:00 +0000

Much like saving for retirement, when you’re saving for college, you need to have a goal. Where will your child go to college – public or private, in-state or out of state? Wherever your scholar plans on attending, you can estimate the annual cost using this nifty calculator.

Once you’ve decided on how much you would like to contribute to Junior’s education, and how much it will cost, you need to decide the best saving vehicle to achieve your goals. Watch future posts for a discussion on the different methods to save for college, and which type of account is right for your goals…