Author: Joe Messinger, CFP®

FERPA…sounds like a weird noise doesn’t it? Like FERPA…oh, excuse me! But FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 and is a federal law protecting the privacy rights of students. What comes as a surprise to parents is how a parent’s access to information suddenly and drastically changes as a result of FERPA when their student heads off to college.

Here’s what you need to know…

Teachers…we depend on them. We all know the starting salary of a teacher does not reflect their importance. In last week’s blog, I talked about the TEACH Grant Program and how a student can receive grant money to help pay for college. This week I’m going to talk about another program that can assist teaching professionals with their financial obligations—the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program (TLFP).

Teachers…We appreciate the work you do every week and every day. Choosing to be an educator is not a profession that you enter into if you are not passionate about it. For many it is a true calling. But for some the low starting salaries deter them from following their passion. We need great teachers now more than ever, and the good news is a number of federal programs are now available to help aspiring teachers pay for college like the TEACH Grant program. 

Read the paper this morning? The news was not good…“Ohio No. 45 in College Affordability”. What does this mean? Ohio families have the hardest time paying for public colleges and universities—only 5 states had worse college affordability rankings. Ohio is one of the least affordable states in the US! How did this happen? But more importantly…what can be done?

At Capstone, our advisors sit with families every day to discuss their unique situations. One of the things we love about good financial planning is there is no one size fits all cookie cutter solutions. Sometimes we have a client whose situation may be similar to yours, and who we can learn from in the form of a case study. Their situation brings up many facets you can learn from including tax considerations, loan payments, and grandparent’s estate planning.

Since this piece was written in February 2016, the FAFSA deadlines have changed. The FAFSA will now go live on October 1, 2016 for the first time. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool will be available for you to use if you qualify to pull up your “prior-prior” tax returns. What is the IRS DRT?

In the world of college finances, you’ll come across lots of acronyms, and all those letters can be so confusing. Today we’re talking about the FSA ID. What?! Is that a type-o? Do we mean to type FAFSA? No, these acronyms are two separate things. The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. We talk about the FAFSA in other posts. Today, we’re talking about the FSA ID. It is related to the FAFSA but is a whole different thing. AND more importantly the FSA ID is an important teachable moment for your student!