Are you an Ant or a Cricket?

Some year-end advice for parents of high school juniors and seniors

By Peter "College Pete" Ratzan

With 2007 winding down and Holiday shopping bargains tempting our wallets, it’s important to stay focused on what January will bring in terms of college financial planning. A new year will bring with it resolutions, college bowl games, a possible hangover, higher than usual credit card bills and a wake-up call to parents of high school seniors that college is just around the corner.

Once the ball drops in Times Square on December 31, the ability of senior parents to improve their eligibility for financial aid drops along with it. But not all is lost for senior parents, and for junior parents who have put college planning off for 16 years, the New Year should be your wake up call.

Andy and I use the term “emergency mode” to describe the situation of parents with senior or junior high school students. January 1 of the senior year marks the beginning of life support unless you have made the right preparations beforehand to take on the FAFSA.

This reminds me of the story about the ant and the cricket. To summarize, during the summer months, the cricket is playing and singing, telling the ant to relax, while the ant is working and storing food for the winter months. The cricket wonders aloud why the ant is working so hard during such wonderful weather. But when the winter months approach the cricket is cold, has nothing to eat and nothing stored. He cries out to the ants, who are all inside the warm colony enjoying themselves. The cricket collapses of fatigue and starvation, whereupon the ants take pity on him and invite him to stay under one condition: he must feed them all winter long.

By being unprepared with your FAFSA you become the cricket, giving sustenance to other families by sending your tax dollars into their pockets.

If your child is a senior and you are a client of ours, it is absolutely critical that you remain in close communication with our office so that we can ensure that you approach FAFSA season with the right strategy. While your first base income year has just ended and with it any opportunity to address your adjusted gross income, there are some last minute strategies that parents of seniors can implement before filing the FAFSA after January 1.

While it is important that your FAFSA be prepared and filed as early as possible, it is more important that your assets be properly organized and arranged so that you maximize your eligibility for financial aid. There are still actions you can take after January 1 to minimize your college cost burden, but it is more limited than if you tackled prior to the end of the year.

For parents of juniors, you remain in emergency mode and your objective should be to avoid life support. Your first base income year is about to begin, so the time to act is NOW if you want to maximize your financial aid eligibility.

Call our office at 954-659-1234 to make sure you are doing the right things to maximize your financial aid eligibility. A year goes by very quickly…don’t procrastinate any longer on this problem that may cost you somewhere between $60,000 and $200,000 over the next 4-5 years.

Note - if you are not a client of ours but want to learn more about "How to Pay for College Without Going Broke, check out our free workshops. You can view a schedule by clicking here or visiting www.CollegePlanningAdvice.com.