How to Pay for College Without Going Broke

Welcome everyone.

So we do have a poll up. If while you guys are coming in, we can go ahead and start filling that out.

We're going to get started in just a few moments. If you'd like to do this quick, fun little short quiz, I'll give the answers and you can see how ready you are for college. Welcome everyone. Please go ahead and complete the quiz and see how close you are to being college ready. We will get started shortly and are excited to share a ton of awesome information. Awesome. Thank you for participating in the quiz. It's super helpful to know where we need to start. The more you share, the more we can help you.

See some familiar people joining here. Good to see you guys.

Well done. Thank you for completing the quiz. It's going to help us to really cater this to you. And it's okay if you don't know the answer because you will before you leave tonight. We have about 2 more minutes, so please go ahead and jump in, complete the quiz. All right, one more minute. If you want to silence your cell phone and make sure you have something to take notes, we're going to go ahead and get started here real shortly. Awesome. People are still joining. Alright, we value your time and we want to honor it, so we're going to go ahead and get started. If you're still completing your quiz, please go ahead and continue, but we do want to start. We have a ton of great information that we cannot wait to share with you, so we're going to jump in and get started. So welcome to College Planning Success Strategies and Making College Affordable One Family at a Time. We are here to give you the knowledge you need to make the right choices. Let's start with answering the quiz. So we're gonna go through this super quick because we have so much to cover tonight. But I wanna make sure you know the answer. What is the term COA? Right? Cost of attendance. See, did everybody get that? Awesome. Next one, number 2: How many pieces of the college planning puzzle are important? The answer is C, 3, and we're going to go over each one of those tonight. If my student has a high GPA and high test score, are they assured to get accepted? Unfortunately, the answer is B, false. If we earn too much income, will we qualify for grants and assistance? So that's number 4, and that's B, that's false. It doesn't always mean that you make too much or not enough money, but we'll get into that. I get so excited about this. Number 5, what is the ideal number of colleges to apply for admission really strategically? C, 10 to 12, and we'll explain because you want to make sure that you can make competitive decisions out of that. Number 6, SAI in college admission stands for D, Student Aid Index. That's a new one. It used to be EFC. Number 7, what is the average time for a student to graduate from a 4-year undergraduate college? Uh, the answer is we'll tell you in a little bit. Number 8, it does not matter what lender you borrow from for college needs. A loan is a loan. Mm, false. Number 9, from 1981 to 2023, tuition costs have increased by— oh, this is a close one. I can see your results. It's C, 533%. Ouch. Number 10, is it possible to pay less for a private college than public college? D, yes, it is. And we are gonna show you how. Before we go any further, it's really important that we do offer a disclaimer. The following presentation is an educational program and it's not intended to sell investment or insurance products. Please read the disclaimer. I don't need to read it to you. Our goal is to give you knowledge that you can make good choices, but we are not the end-all. Every person in here has their own situation. Alright, so let me go ahead and introduce myself very briefly. My name is Shellee Howard, and I'm the founder and CEO of CollegeReady. We are independent college strategists, not just counselors. We are certified. We belong to ethics organizations, and we do this full-time for a living. You can read about my professional qualifications, but what you really want to know is I'm a mother of 4, and all 4 of my children will graduate debt-free. The first one did it at Harvard. Kevin?

My name's Kevin Rourke. I know a couple of you are familiar with me. Good to see you guys again. And for those of you who are not, I'm the founder and CEO of CapeCo. It's primarily a financial planning firm who also has been focusing on college funding. In the side of college funding for about 8 to 9 years so far. Um, I am a part of a team. We have many financial planners that work with us. These are the list of credentials that you would run into. It's not just investments. We don't do, uh, solely putting your money in the stock market. We can do anything from Social Security, uh, we can do trusts, anywhere that you need financial plans, comprehensive. Again, not just investments, but here today we're going to be focused on the college planning aspect. So housekeeping, a little bit of housekeeping at the beginning. Attendance is good, but participation is better. I see quite a few of you have participated in the poll, so thank you for doing that. If you have questions, please write those in the chat. If we see it and I know that we're not going to address it later, we can address it at the end of the presentation. But most likely, if you have a question and you type it down, we'll probably be answering that question in a couple slides. So make sure you're writing those down. Workshop's going to be roughly about 80 minutes, about an hour and a half. Sometimes they're a little sooner, sometimes they're a little later, but that should be the rough estimate there. We are going to ask one thing. Because this was a free presentation, we have an evaluation form. And then also in that evaluation form is going to give us data. What can we be doing better? What information did we not cover that you wish we would have covered? And it helps us just improve along the way. And we are going to have one scholarship offer at the very end. So we're going to have to make sure we stick to the end of the presentation. But it is of a value of about $1,500. Okay, and we'll explain more. Again, this was our last winner. It says last week, it wasn't last week. We haven't done presentations over the summer. People are traveling. But the last winner here was, again, $1,500 value, and we'll explain more. At the end. So financial planning, we teach classes all over the country. We've been doing it, and some team members of mine have been doing it for 50 years, right? And so these are some of the major classes we teach today. We're again focused strictly on college planning, but the 3 other classes we are currently doing is Your Dream Retirement, Tax Reduction Strategy, and Estate Planning. Okay, all of them are going to be relevant to you at some point, if not already. And I know a few of you in here definitely is a part, and we're more than welcome to come. Uh, you know how valuable the education is. So again, comprehensive financial planning is not just investments. You'll see here diversification, tax planning, parents' needs, personal savings. But again, today just college planning. It's one of the biggest expenses you're going to have in your life, so it's good to address it, make sure that we're not making any mistakes that's going to hurt your retirement in the long run. Okay, so again, I'm the founder of CapeCo College Planning. Uh, we've been doing college planning, financial planning for about 8 to 9 years. I've had a number of partnerships in the space and been lucky enough to have met Shellee Howard, who's one of the best in the country at what she does. You'll get to hear from her quite a bit in this presentation. And so we did the partnership. We in financial planning, we meet a lot of families in a lot of different situations. But what's pretty common is someone coming close to retirement, 65 years old, 60 years old, and they have a mountain, $100,000, $200,000 of debt, which is what we're trying to solve now. So if you have a middle school, if you don't have a baby but you're planning on having a baby, that is an important step to learn now to avoid some of the biggest mistakes. And we're going to cover some of, some of those mistakes that we made and we see other people make quite often. So this is myself and my wife. We've known each other since we were about 9 years old. We're from Indianapolis, Indiana. We've been married since 2020. We had a pre-COVID wedding. We missed it by about 2 weeks, so one of the last events our family's got to enjoy before everything shut down. We love to travel. That's us in Italy, in Rome. That's San Francisco. That's Venice. We love to, love to travel, love to travel around the world. This is my family. I am the youngest of 3. I have 2 older sisters. One's 5 years older, one's 10 years older. All of us are college athletes. All of us were great students as well. Both of my sisters attended Indiana Wesleyan University. One played softball, one played golf. Myself, I was a football college athlete. Whenever I was a freshman, I had a scholarship offer. Unfortunately, 6 knee surgeries later, Scholarship was pulled. I ended up doing business at Radford University. But I'm showing you my family to tell you a couple mistakes that I made with my family in the college planning process. Both of my sisters made the same mistakes. I made the same mistakes. One of your quiz questions is, what is SAI? OK, and that's new. Even for the families that I do know in here, that's a brand new term in college planning. They recently changed it. And it stands for Student Aid Index. Okay, previously it was known as expected family contribution, but it's the number the government puts on you as a family that they say you can afford per student per year. Okay, and it's based on your income and assets, and it's a very complicated calculation, but what it boils down to between your income, between your assets, where your assets are allocated, they're going to give you that number, how many people are in household in that calculation. One of the biggest rules that most people don't know about, and they make this mistake, is when they fill the FAFSA form out— and if you're not familiar with what that is, we'll be explaining that here soon— they include the equity in their primary household in their investment pool. You do not need to do that. The higher your student aid index, the more that you're not going to qualify for financial aid. Okay, so one mistake I made, I claimed my mother's household and I claimed my father's household, both houses in the primary primary household's equity. Okay, so that's mistake number 1. Mistake number 2: if you are in a separated household, which is very common, 50%, uh, in America right now, maybe even a little bit more, one huge mistake is you do not need to put both parents' income on the FAFSA. You do not need to claim both, uh, household's income. I did. The technical rule, which also for you new guys has just recently changed, it's the parent who provides the best, the most amount of financial support. Previously, it was the parent who had the majority of custody. Okay. But that's just recently changed here. So I claim my mom's primary household equity, my dad's equity. I claim my dad's income and my mom's income. So once my college scholarship was pulled, I did not qualify for any financial aid. Right. But the mistakes didn't stop there. I kept making them. So as I said, I went to Radford University. I started a clothing line my sophomore year of college with this gentleman here. And if you're not familiar with who that is, that's Stephen Curry, the greatest shooter of all time in, in the NBA. He's a multi-time champion, multi-time MVP, great guy, great family guy. But I'm not putting him up there just to say, hey, look, I know Stephen Curry, right? The point is assets in the FAFSA calculation for student aid index. Any assets in mom and dad's name, only up to 5% is going to actually go into that calculation. But any assets in the student's name, up to 50% is going to go into that calculation. Right. So I owned a business and I was proud of the business. So I puffed up the value, you know, oh, I think it's worth this much if I wanted to sell it, you know, and I again qualified for no financial aid. If you own a business and you have 100 employees or less, you do not need to claim the business on on the FAFSA. It's another mistake I made. Okay, so for those parents that have 529 accounts or any sort of custodian account that's strictly for the student, that's going to count against you in that student aid calculation. We'll cover that a little bit more in depth later on. So this is my family again. This gentleman on the left is my nephew, and I know he looks like he's 30, but he's only 16 years old, and he's one of the highest-ranked baseball players. He's a rising junior in high school. He has the ability, and right now we're handling all these different contacts from universities wanting him to play for them, but he has the ability to go play where he wants to. But he cares very much so about not just baseball but academics. He's a straight-A student. And so he comes to us, Uncle Kev, I don't know where to go, all these people want me to come there. We have the support. Our team has former financial aid officers, former admissions officers, guidance counselors. Anywhere where the student is and what they need, we meet them there. And then we help guide them through that process. So you might not want to hear from Uncle Kev, but I have a team of people like Shellee who you'll meet here more in depth in a minute. His cousin, her name is Anna. She's right here. She's going to graduate in 2027. She's much different situation. She's not an athlete, not an athletic bone in her body. I love her still, though. And she has no idea where she wants to go to school. Okay, she's a good student. She doesn't know what she wants to do, doesn't know where she wants to school, and she also has all this pressure from adults. This is where I think you should go. This is what I think you should do. But again, we have that team that can help support her. The youngest here, his name is Aiden. He's gonna graduate in 2030. He loves video games, so we're just gonna pray for him for the time being and address that when he gets into the high school level. So that is my story. I'm going to let Shellee tell a little bit of her story here.

Outstanding. So a little bit different than Kevin's, but a little bit similar. I started out as a college athlete and I soon found myself figuring out, do I want to play in college? Well, I play softball, or I did, and there were no professional leagues, so I knew my, my, uh, softball career was going to be cut short. So I really wanted to give my own children a lot more guidance than I got. And so my two kids are pictured right next to me, and they're, they're my why. My firstborn in 8th grade came home and he said, Mom, I know exactly what I wanted to do and where I want to go to school. And I'm like, he's so pumped up, and I'm like, yes, what? He just Says, I wanna be a brain surgeon and go to a top-tier school. And I kept it cool until he left and I panicked. I don't know about you in the room, but it was a little terrifying for me. And I made it my mom mission how I was gonna do this. And that's how College Ready West started 16 years ago. My daughter as well had very high hopes. So they're my why this whole process got started. They're the reason why I'm passionate about doing this for others. The other why is I, I love inspiring teenagers from all over the world. We have a project right now that we're doing through College Ready called EmpowerEducation.World. We take passion projects to a whole nother level. We've started a student-led organization. I could go on and on, but I must keep going. Here's my experience. I am a bestselling author and international speaker. I love what I do. I have been called a workaholic and I'm okay with that. I've won multiple awards. I've been on all the news stations, articles, but I'm most proud that I'm a, a standing member of 3 ethics organizations because what we do is the right way to support your child. My passion is travel and I just got back from Uganda, 17 days where I went there to help women build businesses to change the life of their children. You can see me down here below where I'm actually building a mud school for them. So I am passionate to the core. I have 4 of my own, 2 biological, 2 step, an Italian exchange student, and an African Uganda mentee. So I really live and breathe this stuff. Why do we do these educational workshops and why do we do them for free? Many people are like, this information is so valuable. It's the same reason I wrote the book, because the need for this information is crazy. It is something that it could change the whole future for your family. I also know that I made a ton of mistakes.. And I've watched others make a ton of mistakes. And it's my passion and Kevin's passion to hold workshops so you don't make those mistakes. So why, why should we listen? Why is this important? So Harvard did a study about people and their blind spots. Some of the things are known knowns, some are unknown unknowns, and some are known unknowns. And that's a bit of a tongue twister, but let me unpack it for you. Very briefly. You hear and you see well-intentioned posts and people trying to give you advice. I caution you because the advice is something that could get you in trouble. Our goal tonight is to give you the nos so you can make the wise decision, and at the end, I'm hoping you're going to say we did just that. Here's what you're gonna learn during our presentation. You're gonna learn how to pay less for college, the formula for planning for school so you can pay the least amount for college, and how to avoid the biggest mistakes. Oops. Alright, the topics we're gonna cover are inside admission strategies, how to maximize grants and financial aid, how to attend private college for less than a state college. Now, if you're shocked The first time I heard that, I was like, that is no way I'm going there. There's just no way. But I want to tell you, Kevin is going to unpack that for you and you're going to be blown away. I'm going to go into the forms you need to complete, not would be nice to, but you absolutely need to, or they can change how much college will cost. So you may be asking yourself, why college? It's more competitive than ever. It's more expensive than ever. Your kid may just want to be the next influencer, but let's get real, right? What are they going to influence? How are they going to have a business plan? Is college a good thing for them? It might be. We're not saying every student has to go to college, but if they want to go to trade school, whatever that is, let's start talking about it. So, Kevin, you want to talk about the poll?

Absolutely. So poll number 1, and this was in, uh, the initial quiz for you guys. So poll number 1, what graduation class are your students in? Uh, we have 2024, so this upcoming, we have rising seniors, 3 out of 9, so about 33% of you guys were. Uh, 2025, 2 out of 9 is 22% of you guys. 2026 is another 2. 2027, we have 2. We even have a middle schooler here. So pretty much all around the board there. But the good news is all the information we're sharing with you guys is going to apply all across the board.

Outstanding. Okay, so let's keep moving on. Because we have so many students, I will tell you, on my podcast, the number 1 question that gets asked is, when do we start preparing, Shellee? And I always tell the story of— I've been asked when people have been pregnant and they're like, hey, I don't want to screw this up, it's time to get started. And they're serious. I've had parents, you know, address it the elementary years, the middle school years. It is our suggestion, if you would want to go to college without debt, that you do it now. Well, you're like, well, when is now? Now is when it is, because we start helping students when they're in 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, 12th grade. We have transfer students, but the sooner you start, the more money you save. So let's talk about the next poll, Kevin.

Right. So we gave you guys two options because we have limited time here and there's two major topics that we're going to cover. So did you want to spend more time on strategies of getting accepted or affordability grants and scholarships. And pretty heavily, 78% of you said we just want to know how we can afford rather than getting accepted. And 2% said we want to know getting accepted. And my point to those of you who said, well, just want scholarships and grants is it's not going to much matter about the scholarships and grants if we don't get you accepted first. So we are going to cover both. But it's good to know where you guys are so we know where we can best help you, because that's the goal today is to be of service and help you guys.

Awesome. Okay, so let's keep moving. Oops, let me shut that down. All right, we're going to first talk about getting accepted. So as Kevin mentioned, if you don't get accepted, you don't have to worry about paying for it. So we're just going to go— let's pick the school very quickly. I'm going to go over some things that are going to be mind-blowing. So here are some challenges to each family, right? You do not know the process. It's confusing. It's competitive. How do we get free money? What do you want to know? Everybody wants to know what's the easy thing, or how did your son get into Harvard and graduate debt-free? Let's just cut to the chase. And they think it's just like a one-word response. It is not. It's a plan. There's forms to complete, the FAFSA. There's deadlines that are changing. Yes, we want you to know, if you don't apply, the money will run out. So it's important. Who should apply? Every one of you should apply if you want any kind of scholarships. The FAFSA is changing this year with the number of questions, but what's really scary is 91% error rate. We want to help you so that you don't make that mistake. Then there's a CSS Profile. So if you think the FAFSA is crazy, try doing the CSS Profile. I completed the FAFSA 9 times, 9 years in a row for my children. Then when my son got into Harvard, they're like, oh, you thought that was something? Let's have you do the CSS Profile. That is a whole nother beast. Private schools really want to know everything about you and your student. If you don't complete the CSS Profile, you will lose 70% of grants from colleges. So even high-income families can take advantage of this. School-specific applications are critical, and I'm going to give you your very first tidbit sneak peek at something very important. So you can do the Common App, the Coalition App, the UC App, the State App. You have essays, you have so many things to think about. Here's one I'm going to take off your plate. If you complete the Coalition App, the chances of you getting accepted are significantly less. That's a stat, that is not my opinion. All right. So how many colleges should you apply to? This was a quiz, right? Well, 10 to 12 strategically picked colleges because you want to play them against each other. You don't just have to pay the sticker price, and that's where many families get so confused. And why 10 or 12 is you need a balanced list. You need reach schools, comfort schools, and safety schools. So if you're only applying to 2, That's not enough to have a competitive advantage. Remember, we're not just trying to get into school, into college, we're trying to get out without debt. Let's take a look real quick at the US News and World Report. I know many of you have used this probably as a guide online to pick what is the best engineering school, what is the best finance school. Be very careful. This is a very slippery slope. Colleges use this to manipulate the ranking system. Admissions officers do not make the final decision. Strategic enrollment managers play an integral part. Did you know that there is a strategic, strategic enrollment manager? This is new to many people. Keep in mind, they have to balance accountants and teachers and business people. They can't have all of the same major, and they have to balance diversity, and they have to— it goes on and on and on. I can talk all day just on that. But let's really dive in. The U.S. News and World Report is all about admission yield. That means how many people applied and how many people got in. The more applied and the more that didn't get in, Right? That makes it seem exclusive, and that's where everybody wants to go. So I'm not gonna go in detail here, but I want you to know, be very careful when you just look at one element of this process. How do you get accepted? Let's look at a couple of examples using a standout strategy. Here's Natalie. She wants to go to Pepperdine. She's Hispanic. She has a 3.7 GPA, 1050 SAT. She wants to do biology. And our team of admissions officers really deep— dive deep to help Natalie understand what are the algorithms, how many people get into Pepperdine, how many Hispanic people, how many with that GPA, how many with that test score, how many biology majors. I can go on and on because this is such an important piece of the strategy. We have to put that student in a position to win, and that may be changing the major and the minor. It may be positioning Natalie a little bit different to get accepted. We ultimately got her family $30,000 in scholarships. So another opportunity is strategic enrollment management, understanding Marcus He's a freshman in high school. You may know him. He dreams of going to UCLA. He has a 4.1 GPA. He wants to do engineering, and he's the guitar player. But we did some deep diving to figure out how he was going to be competitive. We interviewed the music department. We found they had trouble with finding bassoon players. Guess what? He's happy to play bassoon. He really wants to go to UCLA. Marcus got accepted. He also received $24,000 in gift aid. All of this is because he had a standout strategy. It wasn't by chance. This is something we help you understand: academic fit, financial fit, social fit, and athletic fit. So let's take a look. What is the beginning of all of this? Or what affects this first college admissions piece? GPA with rigor. Do you take the SAT, ACT, IB, dual enrollment, AP test? If that doesn't make your head spin, parents, you are way ahead of where I started. It was like I'm learning a whole new language. Passion with purpose. We take it to a whole nother level. Don't just be a tutor. That's not going to impress anybody. Extracurricular activities, leadership, letters of recommendation, essays are so critical. Diversity and inclusion activities, honors and awards. Here's your second gift. You need 20 of them if you want to compete at the Ivies and college interviews. We're here so you don't have to start from scratch. The Roadmap to Acceptance. This is a summary. The standout strategy is critical. We have people with years and years of experience. We've analyzed the school's algorithms. We know what universities want. We know how to make them stand out. We know what that student needs to do to get into their dream school. We know how to market the student We know how to help them find that social fit, the athletic fit, the whole fit, the whole package has to fit. Our counselors put together a strategic plan, a strategic major. How are they gonna pick their major? How are they gonna pick their career? There's a strategy for that. We help them to get involved with passion projects, extracurricular activities. It could be a research project, an internship. I can go on and on because this is my passion, but I don't want to take away from Kevin's time.

No, amazing points. And I put in the chat, just by the way, everybody, at the end we're going to offer— because everything that Shellee's saying is, is correct— we have to pay attention to what your student's good at and match them with the school that matches with them. Why should the school want them? Why should your student want that school? It's very important to make that match. We're going to give you great information today, but until we see you one-on-one, we're not going to know how to really help your student. Okay, so she just went over— Shellee Howard just went over everything with getting accepted. So that was the first puzzle piece, but you'll remember from your quiz there's 3 main puzzle pieces here. So getting accepted, get financial aid, and then the last one is fund the cost. But let's look at the financial aid piece. There's going to be 3 major areas. If you hear the word scholarship or financial aid, think more synonymous, but they're going to come from 3 major places, right? Need-based aid, which is based on mom and dad's income and assets. Merit-based aid, which is based on your student's performance, so the GPA, SAT, ACT scores. And the institutional aid is really that standout strategy that Shellee Howard was talking about. How does your student stand out from the crowd? If they are just participating in the National Honor Society, some schools that's really a pizza club, you know, they, they're not really actively doing anything. Or some schools it's really active and they're teaching the students a lot, but the universities don't know that, right? So we have to think beyond what the cookie-cutter thing to do is. We're not just doing community service just to put it on the resume. We need to focus in. That's where we get the institutional aid. But let's dig a little bit deeper into these 3 categories. OK, so what you need to know, the rules for this whole entire process is created by Congress, our government. And they're always saying, we're trying to make it easier. It's never easier. It's always more complicated. They just said, oh, well, we reduced the questions on the FAFSA. But they really didn't. They just categorized the questions and made it look like they get less questions. But honestly, it's a little bit more difficult. They recently took away the discount. There used to be a discount for having multiple students in college at one time, but apparently they thought the colleges weren't getting enough money, so they took that off, right? They calculate— again, I talked to you about Student Aid Index, and we'll go into depth about that a little more. But they count— the calculation of the formula to find the Student Aid Index is 36% printed pages long. Okay, so it's not a simple thing. It's not, oh, you subtract your income from your gross. And no, it's a very complicated process. They don't always make sense, again, because Congress designed it. And then understanding how the rules apply to you specifically is going to be very important. At the end, again, I put in the chat box a link to book a one-on-one. Once you book that appointment, it's going to give us a little questionnaire. That'll allow me to calculate your Student Aid Index and really tell you more about it on a one-on-one basis there. Okay, so it's expensive no matter where you go. I think we all can agree on that. Uh, 4 years can cost $80,000, could cost $300,000. Here in Texas, Rice University, $71,000. Stanford out in California is going to be up there in price too, or they're going to have state schools that can be closer to $20,000, $30,000. But regardless, If you're going 4 years at a $20,000 school, that's an $80,000 cost, okay? And when we're doing these classes in person and I ask, "How many of you have a 2024 graduate, 2025?" We have some parents that are raising their hand 3, 4 times. So multiply that cost by how many children you have. It really, really adds up, okay? And it keeps going up, about 10 to 12% every single year is what it's increasing right now. Okay, one of your quiz questions was since 1981 to now, how much has it gone up? You know, it seems like a million percent, but it's not a fun fact, but a fun fact is it's never once gone down. Stock market up, down, gas prices will go up and down. Not once has the cost of college actually reduced for you guys, right? So what do we do? Cost of attendance is not just tuition. It's assumption a lot of people make is it's just one flat fee. No, it's— let me go back here. It's just tuition, room and board, books, transportation, personal expenses. If we're going to the football game, it's the ticket to the football game. It's the foam finger. It's the helmet. It's the— we're going out for pizza afterward. Everything involved in college, the cost of attendance is everything you're going to need to come out of pocket. And as a financial planner, we help families really understand what that impact would be and help prepare you for that. Right. So let's look at a breakdown of a real example here. We have tuition being $36,428. Room and board is $11,644. And a lot of times I'll hear parents say, oh, you know, Johnny's going to stay at home with us this time. But I don't know about your students, but when I was a student and I was at my mom's house in between summers, I ate a lot of food. I used a lot of electricity. It's still not cheap to have your student there. So that's going to be calculated in there. Comprehensive fees, there's parking fees, transit fees, every school is going to have their own version of that. We have a couple of girls who are still in school that work for us in the office. They go to University of Houston. And they say, well, my parking pass was $650, but it's really frustrating because I don't use it. The building's completely on the other side of campus. The parking lot it allows me in has nothing to do with where I need to go, but it's still something that that they told them they need to pay at the beginning, right? So it's very expensive. The bottom line here, cost of attendance is $55,000 when the tuition was only $36,000. Okay, and that's just an example, but the price just keeps going up and up and up, right? So how's the family supposed to pay for that? We can do it out of our savings. I've met tons and tons of families. Is it— it's very rare, even if it's a well high-income family that they specifically save for college. Maybe we had assets in other places, but strictly for college, why are we putting this money here? Uh, the average family is about $10,000 to $15,000. Uh, if you have a 529 account, we are not fans of those. We'll tell you why. Okay, we can do it, or out of borrowing, we can do loans, right? But it's not just an easy answer. There's so many different kinds of loans out there— subsidized, unsubsidized, mom and dad's name, student's name— and there's not one answer for that either. So again, please, if you need more assistance, book that one-on-one meeting and we can help you guys in the office. In the chat, uh, chat box there, we put the link. Scholarship— a lot of parents, when I first meet them, oh, we're going to get a full-ride scholarship. It's not that simple. Long time ago, it used to be GPA, SAT was good enough to get you in and maybe get you a scholarship if you're a high level, but it's not the case anymore, and it's really school dependent. Depending on what school, they're going to value different things over others. They really want to know who your student is, you know, why should we accept them, where's the passion of the student. And that's what we specialize in, that's what Shellee specializes in. We want to help the student know what is your passion, but let's help you show that into the resume for the universities to help get you accepted. Full-ride scholarships are not just commonly had just because you did well in school. Go to a lesser school. One of the most, uh, most hated parts of my job is when I have a family coming in and such a high resume, high GPA, high SAT, and I say, what school do you want to go to? And they say even maybe junior college or a state school that I know wouldn't best serve them whenever a private school would be. And I say, why, why is that your choice? And they say, well, the cost of attendance at these private schools is way too high. We're going to cover today how you can go to a private school for cheaper than a state school, okay? And that is possible. All right, and lastly, not go at all. I'm not here to tell you that you have to go to school or your student needs to go to college. That's not what I do. But I can help you decide that. If you want to build, uh, if you want to come into the office, book that appointment. We'll ask you a lot of questions. We'll tell you more of what to expect. There's a lot of careers out there that don't require a 4-year degree. I'm in the finance industry. There's a lot of certifications that you can get in 2 years that you don't— does not require a 4-year degree. One of our coworkers here, he's a longtime partner of mine, his— he always says, my neighbor is a plumber. He makes $700,000 a year. He stinks real bad, but he has a really nice car, you know. So there's other careers out there you don't need a 4-year school. But if you do, that's what— that's who this is for, and we can help. Again, come in, we'd be glad to talk to your student, help you decide that. Okay, so financial aid, some myth versus reality. I'm going to go through some myths, and later on in this presentation, we'll tell you why they're not true. But the myths are: my income is too high, I earn too much money to get financial aid, okay, our child's grades are too low, we own a home. At this point, I've said it I think 3 times: do not claim the equity in your primary household as an investment on the FAFSA. Okay, if you have a rental property, we do need to claim the equity there, but equity in primary household should not be on there. Aid is only for special groups, minority groups. This— that's also not completely true, uh, and it's actually for a wide range of people. We'll dig into that as well. It's an easy process. Okay, we have a room full of people here today. If it was easy, I don't think everyone would be listening to us, or we'd have a specialized area in this field, right? And high school advisors can help, okay? It's not that they don't want to help. It's not that that's not their passion too. But even private high schools, they have one guidance counselor for 100 students. Public schools can have one guidance counselor for 300, 400, 500 students, right? So how much time can they really offer specifically one-on-one to your student? It's just not realistic. I'm not saying don't go talk to them. They're awesome tool. You go speak, they might have local scholarships, they might have something that your student could get involved in that helps the resume. But for the attention, you really need to be efficient in this process, especially if you want to go to a top-tier school. They simply just don't have the time or the ability to, right? So again, 3 secret scholarships, uh, secret scholarship banks. We have merit aid, need-based, institutional. OK, so let's talk about need-based aid first. 3 magic letters, SAI. We covered it, but I'm going to dig in deep here. Student Aid Index used to be Expected Family Contribution. OK, and you might have heard the old term. This is a brand new term. It is what the government thinks you can afford, not necessarily that you can afford, but what they think you can afford for college. And that's per student. Per year. Fun fact: the way that the government calculates this is under the assumption that a family of 4 can survive on $25,000 per year. Okay, that's all needs covered. And I, like I said, I know a few of you in here and you're laughing behind the computer screen because that's not going to cut it, right? So over 74 factors are used to determine the Student Aid Index. The top 5 are parents' income, parents' assets, student income, student assets, how many people are in the household. Okay, so they do take that into consideration, but not— they do not again give you a discount any longer for having multiple students in at one time. Okay, so student aid index continued. There's many different ways in reducing your student aid index. We'll give you some examples here. But it's much like tax planning. If you own your own business, you can write off certain marketing expenses. You can write off materials that you need to use for your, for your job. Just like that, some things are going to count into that calculation. Some things do not count into that calculation. Okay. And so if you book the appointment again and I'll post it a couple more times, but a link to book the appointment, it's going to— after you book it, there's going to be a questionnaire that pops up that'll help me calculate your student aid index for you. Okay, because what it says here, you're not going to know what your student aid index is until halfway. And actually, because the opening date for the FAFSA used to be October 1st every year, but now that's changed and it's later. So you're really not going to know your student aid index until three-quarters of the way through the year. And so you should be picking your schools beginning— towards the beginning of your senior year, right? So I equate that to going to a car dealership Picking a car you like just because you like it, driving it off the lot, calling the dealership and saying, hey, how much do I owe for that? It's the same thing because you pick the schools and not knowing at all how much aid they're going to offer you. But what we'll do for you again, if you book that appointment, we'll calculate that for you now and we'll tell you what you can expect. And then we can work on it from there to lower your SAI if possible. And we'll give you those within the first meeting. With us. You have to apply for it every single year. Okay, so senior year you're applying with the FAFSA, the CSS Profile. You're going to apply for your freshman year of college. Freshman year of college, you're going to apply for your sophomore year of college, and so on. Okay, if you do not complete the FAFSA again, you're sacrificing some financial aid. You won't get any. Okay, so calculation: cost of attendance, which we covered before, everything under the sun— tuition, books, room and board— minus your student aid index, which again is what we've been speaking on, what the government deems you can afford, equals need. And need is how much aid your family is eligible to get. Doesn't mean you're guaranteed to get it, but it's what you're eligible for, right? So an example, if the cost of attendance at your, uh, local state school is $20,000, your student aid index is $16,000, you're going to have availability for $4,000 worth of aid. Okay, so that's just a cookie-cutter example. We'll give you some more examples here. Okay, so Student Aid Index case study number 1. One of my students, Robert, parents were divorced. Okay, and we already told you if you are in a separated household, you only need to put one household's income. Okay, if you're divorced and you're remarried, you do have to put your spouse, both spouse, your spouse's income. So the stepparent in that, in that case scenario. But the technical rule is the parent who provides the most financial support. It can get tricky. I know dynamics are different with every family, but again, I'm going to keep saying it. But if you need some one-on-one assistance there, please book an appointment. We'd be glad to help you and advise you in that first appointment. But Robert wanted to study pre-law. He had a 1250 SAT. He wanted to go to 11 different colleges he was interested in. His family income was $55,000 a year, but that wasn't mom and dad, that was just one parent. When he first came to the office, I was speaking to both mom and dad. They were going to put both parents on that, uh, on the FAFSA, so we made sure that we corrected that for him. $23,500 in a UGMA— some people called it UGMA— it's a college save— a college student savings account that the student is the owner of. Remember I told you any assets in the student's name, up to half of that could go into that calculation. Any assets in mom and dad's name, up to 5%. So that's a huge difference. We have different college savings accounts that we teach people. A couple of you already have them with me and you know how great they are. It's not counting into the SAI calculation. That's one. You cannot lose money. That's two. One of the biggest advantages of 529 plans is why people love 529 plans, that they think they like 529 plans, is that it's tax-free. And ours as well is tax-free, except for with 529s, you have to use them for school. If you guys come into our office, we'll teach you about one you can use for whatever purpose that you wish. Right. So he had that. We put it out of Robert's name, out of the student's name, into mom and dad's name. So that calculation was done separately. 5 family members, only one in college. His initial student aid index was $16,211. And with these couple switches here, not putting both parents on there, switching the owner of the account, we dropped it down to $4,176. Okay. So he would have almost had to pay 4 times the amount that he should have just knowing the rules. And then knowing and having financial support from a professional that can help them there. Right. So just two little tweaks helped him quite a bit. He received $42,000 total in financial aid at the University of San Diego. Okay. Case study number 2, one of my Texas students here. His name is also Kevin. There's good people everywhere. Good Kevins everywhere. He wanted to go for business management. He had a 1388 SAT, so a little better. We can get some merit-based aid at some schools, not all schools. Some schools you really need even higher than that, but it gives us some leeway. Okay, initially he had one college pick. He had to go to Baylor. Baylor, Baylor. The dad went to Baylor, uncle went to Baylor. Okay, but we've had a lot of experience, and we had one student in particular that I told him and his family, Kevin and his family, about, which was we had an excellent student, high SAT, high GPA. He came to a similar presentation like you guys are in right now Okay, he came into the office and he said, I have one pick, it's this Ivy League school. And we said, you really should open your expectations there. And he did not continue with us. Fast forward into about February or March of his senior year, he come back and he's panicking. They didn't accept me, they didn't accept me. And I tried to tell them early on, I said, your resume needs to be bigger. Okay, Shellee taught you guys about admission yield, how many offers were sent out, how many came back as a yes, accepted. Okay, and these schools really want that high yield percentage. Luckily, we've worked some magic in the background with him, and we found a school that did not have that yield percentage that they wished, and we got him accepted, got him a full-ride scholarship actually, because like I said, he was a very intelligent student. Okay, but you have to know the rules in the background, and that's what the benefit of dealing with professionals— the school, you might have heard of it, is Princeton. Okay, so big deal there. That was like a, in football terms, that was a fourth quarter Hail Mary pass. We were down 3 points and got him accepted. But I told Kevin and his family that story. So he comes back and now Kevin's panicked. And so he had 24 schools picked out, right? But we narrowed that down to 9. Family income was almost half a million a year. And so one of those myths is, oh, we have too much money, we're not gonna earn, 'cause we make too much money, right? So they had $360,000 in a taxable investment, right? And the equivalent of that is you can have a brokerage account, stocks, bonds, mutual funds. We put that again into the account that I briefly touched on. We'll talk a little bit more about it in the funding side. But again, we took that, put it somewhere where it's hidden legally from the student aid index calculation. And he had that $250,000 in home equity that you do not need to count on the FAFSA, right? For family members, the initial student aid index was $78,452. We got that down to $11,298. Okay, and there was a lot of different angles with comprehensive financial planning that allowed us to do that. And then we had the help from Shellee Howard and her team on the other end. How are we going to get him accepted? The back end is how do we position financially? What's the smart way to pay for the tuition, right? He received $21,975 per year, almost $90,000 total, and we got him accepted to Baylor University. So he did get that number one college pick that he had. Okay, so that was need-based aid. We're going to switch gears and talk about institutional aid. So there's two kinds of institutional aid. We have gift aid, which is self-explanatory. That's free money. And then we have self-help. Self-help is going to be work-study or student loans. I always like to yield to Shellee Howard here to kind of explain what is work-study, what are some examples of work-study, because that's really her avenue. All right.

So the best way I can explain it is with an example. So my firstborn did his work-study at Harvard. He was the one giving tours. That young adult who is trying to sell you on why the campus is so amazing. He actually got paid for that, but it was payment to reduce his tuition. I call it skin in the game. He called it fun and he got paid, so he enjoyed that very much. My daughter who went to University of Alabama, she said, "Well, I can one-up that. I'm gonna sit at the gym where all the cute boys come in and out, and I'm gonna check their ID card and see how old they are. So she got paid to sit in front of the gym and check people's ID, and that came off her tuition. If you use it wisely, it is great for the student to show they have intention in helping paying for college. Those are just two examples. There's so many more.

Thank you, Shellee Howard. And, and that's something that needs to be awarded. It's not something that you just apply like a job application. That's something like student aid that you're actually awarded to. So two types: gift aid, self— I'm sorry, I did not know I was muted there for a second. And what I said right before this slide was that's not just given to you, that's something that you have to earn, right? Now, 3 questions you need to ask every college. Again, book an appointment, come speak with us, but if you want to do this on your own, make sure you're asking these questions. It's very important. What percent of need do you meet? We taught you the calculation: cost of attendance minus your student aid index is need. But not every school is going to meet 100% of that need. Okay, and then question number 2: What percent of need will be gift aid versus self-help? Okay, so that's something to, to highlight. Shellee Howard told you U.S. News and World Report's going to show you kind of jaded data that the schools know about that they know is going to make them look a lot better than they are. So for example, school can say, well, we meet 100% of the need. Okay, but how much is that that I need to pay back, and how much is that actually free money that I don't need to pay back? So it's important to highlight that. Number 3, how long does it take to graduate? Okay, huge oversight. As a financial planner, opportunity cost is something that we preach on a pedestal that you really need to understand. Okay, if you're going to school at a junior college that takes, uh, 3 years for a 2-year associate's, every school year that you're not, uh, that you're not on pace with is another year that your student's not going to be earning money in the workforce. So put a number on how much you think they're going to earn. Is it $30,000 when they graduate? $40,000? $50,000? Multiply that by how many years you're pushing out graduation, and then also add in all the cost of attendance for all those years that you're, you're pushing on forward. So it's not how— it's how long does it take to graduate. State schools are average 5 to 6 years, uh, private schools are 4 to 4 and a half years. And if you're going to go to that community college route, understand a 2-year associate's can be 3 to 3.5 years. Then if your plan is to go from a community college to a state school, now you're going to push it out 3 years, 4 years. That cost is really adding up. So are you really saving money by taking the shortcut down to the community college? I don't want to say that it's a unanimous, unanimous answer either. Sometimes community college can be the right answer. It just depends on what you want to do, why you want to do it, and if the school can provide that for you. And again, that's why we have a team to help you with that. Okay, so let's go on. Case study. We're going to go neck and neck, so we're going to do state school and private school and show you an example of student aid index and how much was awarded. So state school is going to cost $20,000 in this example. Student aid index is going to be $10,000. Okay, and the need is going to be the difference. Remember, cost of attendance minus the student aid index is the need. The private school, we're going to use the example of $40,000, okay? Student aid index is the same, $10,000, and the difference again is the need, $30,000, okay? So this is how we're going to get into private school. It's going to be cheaper than the state school here. Let's keep going. So the state school, again, question number 2: how much percent of need do you meet? That you need to ask. The state school is going to be typically 50-60%, maybe even lower, it can be 40%. It really just depends on where we're going, right? So 60% of the need, that's $4,000 short of what the actual need is, the $10,000. The private school— I'm sorry, that's going to be broken down again. So the next question, how much is gift aid, how much is self-help? And this is really actually being generous for the state school. Oftentimes we don't see that much gift aid. So we're going to use 50% gift aid, 50% self-help. Let's go to the private school. They're going to meet closer to 100% of the need, and that's pretty typical. It can be 90%, could be 95%, but we're using just for this example 100%. Gift aid is going to be 80% and self-help is going to be 20%. Okay, so let's keep calculating here. What are you actually going to pay? So Student Aid Index, again, $10,000. The unmet need, we showed you up here, $4,000. So the total Student Aid Index is going to be $14,000. The total gift aid is going to be 50% of that 60% need, right? So we're at $3,000. Total self-help is going to be the same, 50%, at $3,000. So the total cost is going to be $17,000 per year. $85,000 total. And remember, state schools are going to take 5 years to graduate, so that's putting you out to $85,000. Okay, let's go over to the private school and what you're actually paying. Total Student Aid Index again is going to be the same. The total self-help is 20% of the need, so that's $6,000. The total gift aid, so free money, is going to be 80% of that need of $24,000. So the total cost is going to be $64,000 for 4 years, right? Remember, private schools are going to be closer to that 4-year mark. I'm not the best mathematician, but you tell me which one's cheaper, right? And even if we're going for 5 years at the private school, we're still $1,000 cheaper, okay? Let's go to a real example for the Texas students out here. Uh, UT, okay, get this out of the way now. The state schools in Texas admission yield— how many offers were sent out, how many came back— they have no problem getting a very high yield. UT, A&M, and a lot of other state schools don't either in other states, right? So they don't need to offer a lot of extra aid to get your student to come. And you'll see the example of that right here. So let's double the student aid index for this example— 20,000 student aid index. The cost of attendance for University of Texas for an in-state student is $32,124. The gift aid is going to be $5,800. If your student is in the top 4% at the University of Texas, which is not easy to do, it's a very competitive school, they're going to award your student for being a genius of $1,500. That's it. Okay, all that hard work, here's $1,500. Total aid is $7,300. The total out-of-pocket would be $24,824 per year. Okay, let's go to Gonzaga. Gonzaga is more than double the cost, it's $70,000 per year, but the gift aid is going to be $30,000. The merit-based aid is going to almost half of the students, 48% of the students are going to get $21,000, as opposed to University of Texas where a very small percentage is getting a very small amount of money. Okay, so the total aid is $51,000 cheaper, $17,722 per year. Okay, and that's a very real example. I'm not telling you your student has to go to Gonzaga, by the way. There's a lot of different variations of this. Come in again, we'd love to see you. Okay, so the number one way to get additional money outside of everything we just covered—need-based aid, merit-based aid, institutional-based aid—is simply ask the school. Okay, what does that mean? It's not Oliver Twist, "Please, sir, can I have some more?" It's an actual very formal process. It's called an appeal, okay? And there's a lot of reasons we can appeal. We're going to get offers from the school that do accept you, and they're going to have a bottom line how much aid they're going to be offering your student, and we can appeal for additional aid. Shellee has given the example previously. If one school is going to give you a little bit of money over here, and that really is a school that you want to go to, but another school is giving you a lot more money we can take that offer and go over to the other school and say, hey, this is how much aid we're offering, can you match that, or different versions. Again, a very formal process. If your family has $20,000 in medical bills or more a year, that's something we can appeal. If you recently lost a job since you completed the FAFSA, that's something we can appeal. If you recently moved, there's a lot of different reasons, we help guide you through those. Okay, so remember Natalie, our Pepperdine student that, uh, that Shellee took you through earlier? We're going to break down that $30,000— it's actually $31,526. The Pell Grant, that was need-based aid of $1,225. Work-Study, that again we covered, Work-Study, that was $1,000 they gave her. The University Alumni Grant, institutional aid of $1,000. The Seever Trust Grant was $600, and the Pepperdine Grant was $27,704. Okay, that's a good amount of money. I'm smiling because one time I did the seminar and one of the mom raises her hand. She says, hey, how do I get the Pepperdine Grant? And I said, well, where did your students apply? She said, well, Texas A&M and UT. I said, you might want to go to Pepperdine for the Pepperdine Grant. I'm not a genius, but I think that's where they offer the Pepperdine Grant. Right? But every school offers their own version of institutional aid. So we'll help you— well, not every school, but some schools are going to have their own version of this Pepperdine grant. But it really matters of where you apply, and not only if they offer it, but how do we get your student granted that, because that's not automatic, right? Okay, so let's go myth versus reality. I covered the myths with you earlier. Let's look at what the reality is. My income is too high, I will not qualify. Okay, so you might not qualify for need-based aid, right? Your income's high, but we still have merit-based aid and institutional-based aid. Okay. My grades are too low. Again, now maybe not merit-based aid because your grades are too low, but we still have institutional and we still have need-based aid available to you. All right. I own a home with equity again and do not claim the equity in your primary household as an investment. I think that's number 4. Okay. At this point, it's on you guys. If you claim it, it's on you. All right. So biggest, biggest mistake on FAFSA. I don't know if you can hear in my tone that I'm frustrated, but a lot of people do that. Do not do that. Okay. Is easy process if you're a high school. Again, high school counselors are overworked. Private ones have 1 counselor for every 100 students. Publics are going to have about 1 for every 500 to even 600 students. Right. Forms to complete, we went over that. FAFSA, CSS Profile, SAT, ACT application, all those are very relevant in the financial aid process. You have to do them correctly. It's very specified to the student. Again, in case someone— some of you joined us here recently, I'm putting in the chat again a link to book a one-on-one. We can discuss those with you. Okay. Talked about an award letter. Here's an example from USC. $36,000 cost in the fall, $36,000 cost in the spring. This is an older letter, by the way, but just an example. Shellee's smiling because she knows they, they keep updating and changing these. Uh, we got gift aid of $20,000 in the fall, $20,000 in the spring, over half the cost. But this is what they're going to look like, right? Okay, covered appeals. So, roadmap to financial aid. Institutional aid— we got to pick the right colleges. Not all colleges are going to offer you that institutional aid, and we don't just pick schools just because they offer aid either. It's going to be very attuned to who your student is and how can we show the school that your student is worth, uh, giving that acceptance letter. Then better yet, how do we show your student that that school is worth going to? Very important. You want to market the student for the best opportunity, applies to the schools again that align with your values. Test score strategy. ACT, SAT, you're going to hear it's not required. Actually, Shellee, do you want to touch on the not required piece of SAT, ACT, and what we offer?

Absolutely. So, uh, this is probably the second most asked question I get is, does my child have to take a test? And my answer is, if they want Scholarships, it's a really good idea because scholarships aren't concerned of the number they get. Their concern is, does it match their GPA? Because if there's a high GPA, low test score, that means something, or low test score, high GPA, that means something. And they want the whole picture. So it really is student by student, but if you want scholarships It is very important.

You're muted. I unmuted myself this time. Okay, so thank you, Shellee Howard. And need-based aid, Student Aid Index Fact Finder. Again, when you book your appointment, quick 10 questions allows me to calculate what your Student Aid Index is, tell you if anything can be lowered for you, and tell you if it's worth it. Sometimes it's a moot point. Sometimes your Student Aid Index is just too high. Let's go focus on the merit-based aid and the institutional-based aid. Okay? We are not salesmen. We educate. If you come into our office, we're going to teach you. There's, again, not a blanket answer for a lot of these things, but we're going to educate you on what the options are. We're going to give our opinion that you might want to go this way. It's what we see work more often. But at the end of the day, we're going to do financial education. And if you're doing further help with us beyond the first appointment, We're going to do at least 4 hours of financial education, right? Are we able to reallocate the assets? We're going to look at that. We're going to advise on the FAFSA. And for the merit-based aid, as Shellee just talked about, the SAT, ACT, strategic school selection— again, that's going to be repetitive with everything. School selection is huge. Don't just go to the family's favorite school just because your family's favorite school. Okay, there's a lot of opportunity out there. We don't want to miss anything. Award letter analysis, and then award letter appeals. Okay? And we help cover that with you as well. Shellee Howard, we'll hand it to you.

Okay, so let's just take a quick check. This is where you want to take a big inhale and a big exhale, because you were just fed through a fire hose. That information that we just shared with you is years and years of doing this. Let's just dive in just real quick and make sure that we're in alignment. What are the opening, um, and deadline dates for all forms that will qualify you for free money? Check. Do you have that? What are the 10 most common FAFSA mistakes that will lose you free money? Can you check that? Are you college ready? What are the 5 items you need to include in the student essay for the major they are seeking. Oh my gosh, I can't even tell you, the essay is critical. Please take the time and do all optional essays. That is a bonus for you. To get your student into the best schools, what are the 3 items to correctly market them in each area? This is so important because we teach our students to be humble. We teach them don't brag, don't boast, don't— and now we're saying sell it, tell them how awesome you are, make them believe it. They're so frustrated and so confused that we have to prepare them to answer interview questions. So what do we need? We need an academic fit, a social fit, a financial fit. All of these are important. Do you know how to select the 10 to 12 best colleges? This is so important. If you missed all of it, if you missed everything tonight, those 10 to 12 colleges need to have purpose, not just a good football team, not just a good location at the beach. Purpose. That is what I'm really good at, and I would love to share that with your family. Go ahead, Kevin.

So my internet was breaking up just a little bit. At any point in time, raise your hand if you can't hear me, but we'll go into— so that was puzzle piece number 2, okay? Get financial aid. Puzzle piece number 1, get accepted. 2, get financial aid. 3, we've done everything we can do to get the financial aid, to get accepted. If we have any cost after that, how can we get a refund back to us, or what's the best way to fund just in general? Right. So let's dig into that. Cost of college keeps rising. That's not something I think I need to teach you guys. It's just higher and higher and higher. Projections for 2034 for private school are six figures per year, $105,000. And that's not too far off. Time flies. And if you have a middle schooler, you're going to be closer to that cost than you are where we are right now. Right. This keeps going up. They tried to do a government forgiveness program. Biden tried to pass the $10,000. It didn't go through and people were really rooting for that. But what you got to understand, colleges are a business at the end of the day. They're forgiving $10,000. Guess what's going to go up equally? The cost, right? Okay. So let's dig into that. How can we pay? Out of income, out of our assets, or borrow. Those are the only 3 ways. Other than that, there's no other way to pay. Okay. But let's dig even further into those 3 ways. Savings. Again, most families have not saved specifically for college. If you have, the average was $10,000 to $15,000 total. Uh, 529s— we are not fans of 529s, okay? They count towards the student aid index. They are very restrictive. Shellee Howard is one of the best in the country, in my opinion the best in the country, at what she does. She can get scholarships for you and help guide your students to secure those scholarships, and it can surpass how much you saved in a 529. If that's the case, now you're taxed and penalized on the funds if you're trying to get those out unless you're gifting it to another student. Okay. So very, very restrictive. The government decides where the funds are allocated within a 529. Okay. They're not very aggressive. Their goal is not to gain a ton of money. It's to not lose money. And they're not very good at accomplishing their goals. Our families that have them within the last 2 years are down 30, 40%. Okay. And if you're not familiar with what a 529 account is, it's somewhere you can park your money. The money is invested. Any gain in that account, if you're using the funds strictly for school purposes, is tax-free. Okay. Again, we're going to educate you on an alternative. It goes up a lot, a lot higher than what typical 529 account does. You cannot lose money. Historically, historical performance is amazing. Fees are less than 1% and it does not count in that student aid index calculation. 529 accounts do, right? So you're penalized for saving essentially. If you have a baby— went back here— if you have a newborn baby, you start a 529 account, you're putting $10,000 in per year. By the time your student's there, you're not going to get any student aid because you have all that big account that's counting against you. Right. But they don't want to teach you that. That's the government. So you're penalized for saving stocks, bonds, mutual funds. Again, that counts against you. Also penalized for saving. However, we can maneuver those assets around if it's necessary. I'm never going to tell you to do something unless I bring you in my office. We're doing projections. We're looking at that's the right thing to do for you. But there are ways to legally hide assets from, from the student aid index calculation. Right. Borrowing. Huge mistakes that people make with borrowing. There's going to be variable interest rates. There's going to be a lot of options. We can do private loans, we can do federal loans, subsidized, unsubsidized, mom or dad's name, student's name. Certain loans that we use, students are only going to qualify for a little bit. Parents are going to qualify for more, but then the interest rates are higher. It really just depends on where you are. Right. And so again, come see us. I'm going to say it 20 times, but there's so much involved in this that if you're just assuming what you should do, you're going to make a mistake. Right. So unless you're willing to do the work, I have had parents that are doing this— actually, last college season, we had a mom that came in for this discovery meeting and she had a binder about this thick that she's been taking notes for 4 years. After our appointment, she took that binder that she did for 4 years and put it in the trash can on the way out. Kevin's taking it from here. I'm, I'm done with this. So, but a lot of different options. Interest. So if you're borrowing and let's say it's $20,000 freshman year, sophomore, junior, senior, that's $80,000. But what people don't think about, let's tack on the interest there, can be up to $120,000, right? Interest rates are not very favorable right now. Scholarships and grants, need-based aid. Again, we would hammered all these points: need-based, merit-based, institutional aid, and private scholarships. We do have a database for private scholarships outside of the institutional need and merit, and we can have your student and family access those. If you're Googling scholarships, you're going to come up with a million of them. Half a million of them are just wanting your data, and there's actually no money to be had. The other ones might be a 1 out of a million shot. We want to sift through all of that and give you the data. This is what's actually out there. And your family can search for those. Okay, so step 1 in our process for the financial peace and funding is lower the cost, which is everything we've already talked about— choosing the right college, securing financial aid. Step 2 is any money— if we have any money that we have to come out of pocket, we want to create a refund for you. We want all that coming back to you for your retirement. And I know you're thinking, how is that even possible? But we'll dig into that here in 1 minute. Let's spend 1 minute on lowering the cost first, the impact of lowering the cost. So all that work Shellee's done, why did we do that and what's the impact? Let's assume that the cost of attendance is $40,000. If we're getting some institutional need or merit-based aid, let's just say of $15,000, we're going to be saving— and that gets our wholesale cost, we like to say, instead of retail of $40,000. We got it down to $25,000. You're saving $15,000 per year. Let's multiply that by how many years we're in school. That's $60,000. Okay. But it's not just $60,000. If we teach you where to park that money in safe places where it can grow, not only that, but that you don't have to pay the government after it grows and it's tax-free, that could be a quarter million or even more than that tax-free for your retirement. And these are just little decisions we can make. What school are we going to go to? What program are we going to be going for a major and a minor? Those little decisions. Can make a $15,000 impact, which you think, oh, that's a $15,000 impact opportunity cost. That's actually a quarter million. Could even be even greater down the road for your retirement. So let's not take all these decisions lightly that we're making. So look at a case study. Mom and Dad had 3 boys and they all went to a state school, so they did not get much money. $2,250 free per student per year. So total of $27,000. However, we help them save $95,000 in interest. Okay. We protected that $95,000. Again, we parked it somewhere where it does not count against them in student aid index. It grows tax-free, and that's going to be projected $325,000 tax-free for that family in future retirement funds just by choosing the right loans and making the right decision and making that come back to them for their retirement. Okay, so that was step 1. Step 2, we want the refund. What does that mean? We want a refund for all money you're paying out of pocket. Currently speaking, unless you're one of my clients who I know are in here and they are participating and they know what I'm talking about, you're financing everything you buy, right? Either you're literally borrowing from a bank, you're paying interest. If you need a car and you don't have $20,000 to pay upfront, and you need $20,000, you're going to borrow $20,000 from a bank, but they're not going to just lend you that for free. They want what's called interest. You're going to have to pay them a little bit above that $20,000. Depending on how long the loan could be, a lot above the $20,000, right? Or if you're paying cash and you did save that $20,000 for the car, if you just give the dealership $20,000, that money is no longer working for you. That money could be parked somewhere gaining interest. So therefore you're financing either way you buy. Paying cash, you're losing the ability to gain interest, or if you're borrowing, you're paying interest. But there is a better way, okay? So there's 3 kinds of people in this world. Let's assume that these black lines you see for the spender, the saver, and the wealth creator represent $0 financially speaking, okay? Let's see if I can get Oh, go back here. Can you see my mouse here, Shellee Howard? Okay. So let's assume on the spender, we're going to borrow for that car. Let's use that car example. But by the way, college will easily apply here. Let's borrow for the car. $20,000 borrowed. We're going to pay that back, get back to that $0 line. We're going to borrow for college, pay that back. We're back to $0. The saver who thinks they're so much better than the spender, They're going to save, save, save for that car, spend for the car, back to that $0 line. They're going to save, save, save for college, spend, back to that $0 line. We want, instead of you borrowing from another institution, instead of you just paying cash, we want you to put your assets in a new place. And we'll teach you more about it. But that asset's going to grow for you. And when you borrow, you're going to be your own bank. You're going to borrow from yourself. And when you borrow that $20,000 from yourself and you pay that $20,000 back to yourself, that $20,000 has actually became $30,000 because it's been, it's been participating in what's called compound interest the entire time. And those aren't finite numbers. I'm just giving an example of— so Kev told me if I put $20,000, that's going to be $30,000. It might be $50,000. I don't know. But just get the concept. So let's assume that we're borrowing for school. By the time we get all the way up the slope here, that money has now been refunded and then some back to you. So if you have to pay $40,000 per year for school, you're going to borrow it from yourself, allow that to, to participate in compound interest. And the beautiful thing is the entire thing is tax-free. You don't need to pay extra taxes on that. Okay. So best way to describe what we do. Shellee went through how can we get that lower cost, right? Focuses on what it takes to get the best fit college— academic fit, social fit. We talked about the financial fit. That's where we come in on the finance side. Okay, you— I showed you opportunity cost. Just making these little decisions makes a big, big deal. The biggest benefit though, when I talk to our families that go through the entire process and they get their student into school So what was the best part of what we did for you? And they say, peace of mind. This is a mountain of work. It's very stressful. Otherwise, we would not be in here, right? Just knowing that the professionals are taking care of it, that's good enough in itself. But we take it steps further and we'd be glad to meet you guys. And I know a couple of you who have experience are still in it and know exactly what we're talking about. So 5 major areas of expense: mortgages. Okay, we have taxes, we have qualified plans, so 401s, IRAs, college, and finally major capital purchases such as cars, weddings. For those of you who have daughters, you might want to learn a word called elope. Elope, elope is one of the highest costs. Let's look at the mortgage first. Those of you who have a mortgage, if you are paying over what your monthly statement is, I have a few questions for you. One, does that make the value of your house go up? The answer is no, it does not. Does that make your monthly payments decrease? The answer is no, it does not. Is your money easily accessible? If you need to get that extra equity, can you go to the bank tonight, pull it out? No, you can't. It's not bad, it's just not good, right? So what my job is, okay, if you have a financial planner, that's great. My question to them is, what is your college funding plan? I don't just do investment, guys. If you have a financial planner, they're going to have you in the stock market. I'm not knocking that, but we're going to specialize in how are we going to utilize our assets to pay for college taxes. I have people that come in the office, I have $1 million in my 401. No, you don't. What are they missing? They got to pay Uncle Sam. They don't have $1 million. They have a quarter, three-quarters of $1 million. How are you funding your qualified plans? And do you understand how you're taxed on those qualified plans at the back end? Right. Colleges, we beat that to death today. And then again, major capital purchases. Okay. Long-term effects. We want to figure out where you are for your retirement and how to pay your fair share. Of your college expense. I cannot financially give you the right— what you're supposed to do. We are what's called a fiduciary. I have a fiduciary responsibility, which means I legally have to have your best interest in mind. You would think that should be across the board for all financial planners, but it's not, right? And so I can't tell you— you can go to the school without saying, this is what the projection is going to do to your retirement, this is what your bottom line is going to look like with this decision, this decision, and this decision. Okay, we want to give you a good clear look at what your future finances look like on your decision-making. Okay, so quick summary here. Financial analysis. Again, if you book the appointment, we put that in the chat box. We're also going to send you guys emails. We're going to give you what's called an SAI analysis, quick questionnaire. It's not very invasive at all. But if you want to know what, what your SAI is, expect what kind of aid you're going to get. We'll calculate that for you. We're going to do college cost analytics. We're going to show you how we can lower the cost. We're going to show you a full retirement analysis. That is, if you go on with our services after the discovery meeting, we're going to do financial education again. A few of you in the room know exactly what I'm talking about. We— that's what we do. We educate. We go very, very much so in-depth. We have books, we have videos, we bring you into the office. More PowerPoints. We want to educate. This isn't simple, but it's very, very well worth your time if you have the time to set aside and learn. Okay, we're going to design a family funding plan. We're going to harvest your current plans if you— if possible. Sometimes 529s are just too in-depth and it's a huge, huge penalty. That's why we don't like them. But, uh, if we can, we can harvest some of those plans and put them in a new one. And college funding account And retirement restoration, we're going to give you a full analysis. So if we see any holes that you're currently making, maybe has nothing to do with college funding, we're going to point that out to you. And maybe we can even fix that for you because, again, we're not just college funding. We do everything. We're comprehensive financial planners, right? So recap, we want to understand the financial aid rulebook and how it applies to you. We want to know— excuse me. We want to know which schools have money and which do not. We want to file your forms accurately and on time. The biggest killer in this process is procrastination, right? We want to negotiate with the schools or schools when it's appropriate and be prepared for a last-minute ambush. If you have a, a rental property and you're not going to claim it on the FAFSA and they find out about that, you can get in trouble. This is something— it's kind of like a tax audit. Half the time they can come back and check on Are you being honest? So make sure you are being honest, not that any of you wouldn't, but know that that's a possibility. And sometimes you make mistakes without meaning to. Again, that's why it's good to have a professional there for you. And we, again, figure out where you are for your retirement. We help you with these steps. Then I will pass it on to Shellee Howard.

Okay, a few more tips. We're wrapping up and getting ready to give you guys your well-deserved bonus. So Kevin alluded to, but I have to emphasize, start early. If you do not plan, you plan to fail. Absolutely need to have a plan. Use professionals. You could do your taxes, or you hire a CPA. You know what it takes. Work with us. We're former admissions officers, guidance counselors, strategic enrollment managers, educational consultants. We spend hours with our students. We do this so you don't have to. Would you like our assistance to ensure your child has a standout strategy and is accepted and graduates in 4 years or less? Yes, I would. Maximizing your grants and financial aid. To find your SAI now. Can you imagine what it would be like for your family if you knew and had a plan and how to strategize for that? Finding what is affecting your SAI negatively, so at least you can make a decision on investments that will lower your SAI, on education for alternative college savings accounts. Plan now, save time, money, and more importantly, your child's future. Kevin, do you want to talk about the takeaways?

So Do you know how to fund college without sacrificing your lifestyle in retirement? It's a genuine question. We've been going through a lot of data. I hope that you've been trying to apply your, your specific situation to what we're saying here. Uh, are you going to pay as you go? Are you going to borrow from the 401? Okay, quick, quick, quick quiz question. If you do borrow from the 401, you lose your job, do you know how long you have to pay that back? 30 days, right? So it's risky. It is a possibility. We have seen families do it, and most of the time that was against our, our suggestion. Uh, but do you have a family member that can help? Some people do. Some people have an uncle or aunt or grandparent that wants to help pay, but you still want to get them that wholesale cost as opposed to that retail. We want to lower that cost as much as possible for them as well. And then loans, which ones are good ones, which ones are bad ones? So as we've been going through everything tonight, ask yourself, how prepared are you? Do you need some more help? Okay, go here. So options for you, uh, Shellee Howard, what are some of their options here?

Okay, this is one of my favorite slides because I have met all of them. We have the family in denial. Well, you know, we don't need to plan yet. They're still young. I didn't start this process till I was a senior in high school. You don't want to be that person. What about the one who just put your head in the sand? I just don't want to even think about it. The thought of my child leaving, that sounds awful. Not a good strategy. I have had a few do it themselves. I've got it. I've got it. And then it's Shellee Howard, the senior year. I don't got it. I need your help. I made mistakes. Please help me, and it's a fire hose. So you don't want that strategy. Using experts will save you time, money, energy, and prepare your child for their future. So information versus insight. Have you Googled how to pay for college? We have. The scary thing is how many results we got. This is not a safe place. You could Google why your thumb hurts and you could have cancer. Not a good strategy. We talked about the blind spots. Now you know, but now it's up to you to make that decision. So important that now you know, you need to make that decision. College planning services for you. We guide your student on finding the right colleges. Again, remember that picking the right colleges Give parents free money for colleges regardless of income. Siri is just announcing— I don't know if you can hear it in the back, but she just chimed in that she said, "Don't Google it." Show parents how to fund for the cost of college. You can do this, but it's not easy. Getting my kids in college was easier than figuring out how to fund it. There's 67 steps that you can do, or you can have somebody else guide you through it. We do— who do we work with? We work with students and parents who are motivated. If your student is not motivated, we can't motivate them. We want it for them, but they have to want it with us. We want families that are friendly, that see the value in this. We want students and parents serious about their college degree and career placement. Students and parents who want real expert advice from former admissions and financial aid officers. Parents are serious about their money in retirement. Please don't say, "We'll just figure it out if they get in." That is the scariest thing for me to hear because I know that you're going to be pulling from your retirement. Parents and students do not want to procrastinate. This process is going to happen. Your child is going to age out. Don't let it happen to you.

So this is our process. We're sitting at the very beginning stage right now. We're in the enlightenment experience. That's strictly educational. Now the light's turned on, hopefully, right? The next step is we're going to offer for you to come in, uh, and again, I put in the chat box. I'll do it again just in case some of you had just joined a little bit later. We're going to offer the one-on-one meeting. It's called a discovery meeting, right? That's going to give you a platform, ask your questions. We're going to answer all questions, but then we're going to explain how we can further help you. We're also going to calculate your student aid index in that meeting, tell you how we can lower, if we can lower, or if it's a moot point. Uh, if you choose to move forward with us on another level, we're going to have a strategic design. Every single student is completely different. Very rarely have I ever had someone who's real similar. Everyone's completely separate. GPA, personality is huge. It's no longer just GPA, SAT. So let's get that strategic design. The next step is those 67 steps that Shellee Howard showed you. Everyone has to do those steps if you want to go to college. It's just now we apply your, your strategic design to those 67 steps. Right. Then we go through funding and implementation. We're going to educate, educate, educate on finance, on the entire process, and then the actual implementation joins there. We teach other classes. Shellee Howard's got more in-depth college planning courses. She takes people through depending on grade. She does them by group, by individual, possibly. And then I do a lot of different courses of what I showed you at the beginning. Tax-Free Strategy, Your Dream Retirement. We're going to invite you guys to all of those to come join us and learn a little bit more. Okay, so let's talk about the discovery meeting, what we're offering for you guys for the link that I've been putting in the chat here. Our discovery meeting, we're going to again calculate your student aid index, tell you what it's going to be, say, say if you can lower it, can we reallocate any assets, is it worth your time there. Okay, we're going to give you additional strategies there. We're going to answer all of your personal questions. It's a chance to get one-on-one. I saw quite a few questions in here. We have about 6. We— I think we're pretty tight on time. I think we'll email you guys some answers to those questions and hopefully you guys come in and book. But we're going to answer even more questions in depth. Then we're going to ask you a lot more questions, which is then going to give you more questions and we'll answer those. Right? But it's about an hour long. Students are recommended to attend. We're going to give you additional strategies on acceptance, financial aid, and funding. So each one of those puzzle pieces we covered tonight, uh, again, parents and students are recommended to attend. I say that because a lot of times we ask the student a question, the mom and dad kind of look at each other like, that's not what they told us yesterday. It's just different coming from another perspective. It's good to get another perspective. And another person your student can talk to about this. It's a very scary process. It's overwhelming for them, right? So we want to be able to help you. We're going to go over how our services can continue to help. Our time— I'm a fee advisor. We do financial planning. It's $400 an hour, right? But if you guys book with us in the next 2 weeks, if you can pay today, come in within the next 2 weeks, We're dropping that down to $97 for you guys. There's a lot of reasons for that. We don't have to further educate in that meeting. You guys are showing up already with a book full of knowledge of what we gave you today, uh, and we're going to give you— because you took your time out of your night, we're going to give you that discount. Okay, don't keep us a secret. Okay, if you found something that was helpful, anything at all that you think someone, your family member, someone in the clubs that your students in it would be helpful for them to hear, we have actually an offer for you. Okay, we offer private scholarships. I have one offer that I already brought up earlier, we're going to explain here in a minute. But if you have anywhere that you can set up for us to present, uh, on a webinar, on a seminar, in person, we'll give your student 100% of that $97 fee from anyone who books that appointment with us. So it's a good little— hey, it can make your $97 appointment free, and then it's a little bit of financial support for your student going off to college as well. Okay, so email us, talk to us about that if that's of any interest to you. Okay, so we had 3 major pieces: get accepted, get financial aid, and how are you going to pay funding. That funding side is what we're going to offer for free tonight to one of you. Okay, so How you're going to qualify for this is it's $1,500 or more because we do a minimum of 3 hours of financial education plus a little bit more on implementation. And we have some things and gifts that we're going to give you as well if you book the meeting within the next 24 hours. So that link in the chat and you fill out that Student Aid Index Fact Finder. Okay, so little 10 questions going to pop up after you book your appointment. If you do those two within the next 24 hours, In sequential order, each one of you will have a number when you book your appointment. We're going to have Google pick a random number, okay? Whichever one that is, we're going to educate you completely free. We're going to do how you will pay section completely free for you, okay? So that's our offer. If you guys have any questions, please feel free to ask. Um, I'm going to turn this back over to Shellee Howard.

So thank you so much for your time. We are so grateful to able to live in our mission, and that is to educate you. I want you to understand that this is possible. College-ready families in '21 to '23 earned over $23.3 million in scholarships. It is possible, but it's just not easy. So we want you to know that we know you can do it too. My kids are no different than your kids. When my son graduated from Harvard, his first job was $106,000 a year, and he had no debt. I want this for every family. So please know that this is possible. It's not something that's just, um, for a few people. Uh-oh, where did that go? Oh, that's strange. Thank you. All right. So I wanted to share that that information is in the chat. Follow the link. You can then sign up, get this information, and be that much closer to getting your student into their dream school and doing it without going into massive debt. Thank you so much for attending.

Have a good night, guys.