A Reader asks How to Pay for College With No Money and without a Trust Fund.
Question: My daughter is a senior in high school and is preparing to head off to college. We have no money saved for her college expenses and feel like loans are the only option we have. What should we do?
MoneySmartFamily: You have more options than you realize. Keep reading to learn about several of the easier ones.
1. Get Government Grants
Fill out a FAFSA application – it’s the Free Application for Federal Student Aid – StudentAid.ed.gov
Are you looking for free college scholarships and grants? We have tips and tricks to land tons of college money.
This blog presents lots of proven ways to find more scholarship hacks. It shares how to prepare for them and how to win more awards. It’s time to start gathering in scholarship winnings!
What if there really was a pot of scholarship gold waiting for you at the end of the scholarship rainbow.
And what if you KNEW that with some effort, discipline and organizational skills you could find the path that leads to that pile of money. And then, of course, take … Read more »
There are six things a teen can do in high school that will help to reduce the cost of a college education. We’ve done many of these with our 5 kids and they graduated college without any student loans!
How can a high schooler start to reduce college costs?
College is a monumental expense for parents and students alike. Who among us is prepared for paying out tens of thousands of dollars over a 4 or 5-year period? However, with any large expense, the more you and your child prepare, the more manageable the expense can be.
Are you’re looking for college savings when trying to get a university education? This blog will give you plenty of out of the box and unconventional options for college savings.
If you take to heart just a few of these ideas it could save you $10,000 or more.
The college landscape is changing so rapidly that savings can be found in the most unusual places. Especially if you’re willing to research and question conventional thinking and dig a little deeper.
Accumulating debt has become a common occurrence in most families – but paying off debts, even on a low income has become an achievable goal for visitors to our website. If you are looking for ways to destroy debt forever, then this article will encourage, equip and empower you!
Debt Free on a Small Income. On an average household income of less than $45,000, we’ve avoided debt and been able to pay off our home mortgages in record time. To do it, we’ve used many of the methods described in this blog. Follow these 7 Steps and you could be debt-free too!
Is it just us, or are you finding it takes more follow-up phone calls to get even little things done these days? Years ago, we could make one phone call, maybe two, and get a question answered or a sticky situation ironed out. Today, it takes dogged determination and a computer tracking system to help us follow up on long drawn-out tasks.
Here are some recent examples.
Congressional Red Tape Daughter Becky is going to receive her bronze and silver medals from the Congressional Award organization. It’s a personal development, physical fitness and community service award for … Read more »
We have some of the most generous readers in the world! In response to our articles, “10 Ways to Find Big College Savings” and “Paying for College without a Trust Fund,” we received a couple of thoughtful and very helpful letters. We couldn’t possibly cover every aspect of getting through and paying for college in a couple of articles, so here is our College Wrap-up.
Slow Down, You Move Too Fast
Deirdre Collins has been a community college instructor in California for 20 years. Here’s what she shared regarding having a part-time job and going to school:
This summer, we were asked by a local Fox TV station to participate in several segments that addressed saving on back-to-school expenses —including college costs. During our research for the segments, we uncovered some new information not included in our earlier articles on College savings.
The average college student is now graduating with $20,000 worth of debt. Most graduates take 10 years or more to pay it off. If you spend a little time applying for scholarships and shopping carefully for books, you can trim or eliminate any borrowing. This past year our daughter Becky graduated with … Read more »
In this two-part interview, Good Morning Arizona anchor Kaley O’Kelley talks with Steve, Annette, Abbey and Joe Economides about how to be a MoneySmart Family.
Plus, at the bottom of the page, we’ve also included a list of things parents should never pay for.
Part 1 covers College Expenses
How to go to college debt free.
Where to look for scholarships.
How to find huge discounts on textbooks.
Part 2 covers how to start training kids to manage money.
How young to start
How to set up a system that is better than an allowance.
What an 18-year-old money-smart kid looks like.
The average college student is graduating with $20,000 worth of debt.
Most graduates take 10 years or more to pay it off. If you spend a little time applying for scholarships you can trim or eliminate what you need to borrow.
There are always ways to save on college costs from scholarships to lodging to books. We cover lots of these strategies in our January, February, and April 2005 back issues.
1) Financial Aid — get thousands even now
FAFSA Free Application for Federal Student Aid www.fafsa.ed.gov. This is a two-step process: First, you’ll also want to register for PIN number, which will take … Read more »
This College Money Saving Tips & Ideas Page contains a growing number of money saving ideas for cutting the cost of a attending a University/ College and getting a higher education!
In addition to the reader-submitted tips on this page, we’ve written a 5 part series on how to save a ton of money on college expenses.
Read all of the Debt Free College Blog Series Here:
If you want to legitimately get the most FAFSA money for your college education, follow these tips and tricks. You’ll get maximum federal student aid in Pell Grants by following our research when you fill out your FAFSA application.
Debt-Free College Series # 4 – FAFSA and Financial Aid
We have 5 kids who have attended college, and we have filled out FAFSA applications with every single one of them.
As a matter of fact, we’ve filled out the FAFSA application several times with each of them.
In the process, we’ve learned several tips from our own experience and from financial aid experts.
The Money Smart Kids Financial Training KitTrains Kids To Be Financially Independent.
This is a kid-tested money management system that works! Since 1995 our kids and thousands of others have been the “test market” for this system. It has been improved, streamlined, and made super-effective.
Experian is one of the 3 major credit reporting agencies in the U.S. Over the years we have met several really neat people who work there. We’ve participated in a number of their weekly CreditChat video Roundtables.
This page contains several of these interviews.
How to Save Money on Groceries
In this Experian CreditChat we answer these Grocery Shopping Questions.
Questions We Discussed:
Q1: What are some common mistakes people make when it comes to buying groceries for the week?
Q2: What are some best practices when budgeting for groceries?
Q3: Are there different rules of thumb for saving on produce, meat,
etc?
Are you looking for free stickers? Do you want name-brand stickers from companies you, or your kids love? We do!
At MoneySmartFamily we love free stuff. Especially free things that our kids love or that can be given as gifts.
We’ve researched hundreds of companies and created this easy-to-use list. We update it every few weeks to keep it current and to make sure all of the sites still offer free stickers.
108 Companies with sticker request forms on site. (page 1)
28 places to send a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) (page 2)
If you’re looking for great websites to enhance your child’s learning you’re going to love this list of the best free educational websites for kids.
It can sometimes be hard to find the ideal balance of fun and learning. The challenge might seem daunting, but have no fear the perfect learning website is out there.
Just check out this list of fun and information-filled sites to find the right website for you and your kids!
We’ve put this list into 7 different categories to make your search easier. See the table of contents for details.
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