Going back to school after working

[NYCGurl]

I know there are people on this board who have gone back to school after working and I'm wondering how having an income and I'm assuming, savings, affected your financial aid? My husband and I both work and have a pretty substantial amount of savings that I now realize we should've just put in a 401k or just SOMETHING with. I'll be going back to school this fall and now I'm afraid I'm not going to get any financial aid whatsoever. Does anyone have any advice/experience on this kind of situation and if there's anything I should do maximize the amount of aid I would qualify for?

Thanks a lot!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[skysurf2]

I know there are people on this board who have gone back to school after working and I'm wondering how having an income and I'm assuming, savings, affected your financial aid? My husband and I both work and have a pretty substantial amount of savings that I now realize we should've just put in a 401k or just SOMETHING with. I'll be going back to school this fall and now I'm afraid I'm not going to get any financial aid whatsoever. Does anyone have any advice/experience on this kind of situation and if there's anything I should do maximize the amount of aid I would qualify for?

Thanks a lot!

You can get the same amount of federal student loans for graduate school regardless of your income. The federal grant options (Pell, SEOG, etc.) are not an option for graduate students, which means your income isn't going to matter much. It will impact private scholarships that are need-based (if you apply for any).

 

[dpmd]

You will still get your stafford, but it might be all unsub (depending on how much you made). It will also mean you may not qualify for a perkins loan, and other low interest need based loans (if your cost of attendence is enough that you need more than stafford). There is not much you can do at this point, unless you want to defraud the FAFSA by failing to report the actual amount of your savings.

 

[crowman]

I know there are people on this board who have gone back to school after working and I'm wondering how having an income and I'm assuming, savings, affected your financial aid? My husband and I both work and have a pretty substantial amount of savings that I now realize we should've just put in a 401k or just SOMETHING with. I'll be going back to school this fall and now I'm afraid I'm not going to get any financial aid whatsoever. Does anyone have any advice/experience on this kind of situation and if there's anything I should do maximize the amount of aid I would qualify for?

Thanks a lot!

Do you own a home? Does it have a mortgage? If yes, you could do what I did and take your savings and pay down the mortgage. Your primary residence will not effect your FAFSA or loans because it is specifically excluded from the income/investments worksheets of the FAFSA forms. If you dont own a home, I suggest buying one... the market is a 'buyer' controlled domain at this time.

Barring this, the only way for you to get savings off the books so to speak is by making IRA contributions ($4K each) for 2006. You have until 4/15/07 to make these contributions.

One other way would be if you were self employed. You could set up a SEP plan and contribute approximately $40K to this a year. This is a stretch because I would venture that you are a W-2 employee.