Taxes and FAFSA
Posted by Ted Hopton on March 29, 2008
I haven’t written as frequently in this blog recently. I’m trying to prioritize, and since the deadline to file for financial aid for my daughter’s college is March 31, that’s a top priority. And to file the financial aid forms I have to do my taxes.
So, I’ve been having loads of fun discovering that somehow my withholding wasn’t right again this year and so I owe Uncle Sam big bucks, as well as learning that the formula the FAFSA uses to calculate Expected Family Contribution (EFC) assumes I have lots of money lying around (yet I sure haven’t seen it).
At least she is going to a state school so that helps, but it’s ironic that her total cost per year is pretty close to what it cost to send me to an Ivy League school in 1980. Ouch. The cost of college is way out of control, but the demand for a college degree has not diminished, so here we are paying for it, anyway.
I hope to write about less depressing topics soon, after I get all these forms filed and recover from the financial shock. Oh, well, it’s only money. That’s a phrase I learned to use during my divorce, and it’s oddly reassuring. Well, only a little bit reassuring, but I feel so mature and philosophical when I say it.
