ThisIsTheDay Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 I hate FAFSA. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Just seeing the word, just typing this post, makes my stomach start jumping. It is the biggest cause of my stress every.single.year. I have one kid in the third year of college,so it's not like I'm new at this. My other kid begins in the fall--oh yay, two FAFSAs this year. I hate the FAFSA website (because I've discovered any govt website is sure to be horrid). I hate having to find old passwords for both me and my kid. I hate the electronic signing because I seem to screw it up sometimes. I hate estimating tax info (which is never consistent). This past week, I've received two emails, IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT YOUR CHILD'S FAFSA and URGENT: UPDATE YOUR FAFSA ACCOUNT. Between now and when I submit the match for actual tax numbers, I will be stressed about it. I'm looking at four months, and this happens every year--except last year, when or SSNs were stolen and someone else filed under them. Then I was still contacting the IRS and the college in August to get everything straight--further reason to hate it so much! And this year, I can worry about that special IRS pin that we need to file taxes accurately, on top of everything else. If I ever get an ulcer, this will be the cause of it all. And typing this all out just elevates my anxiety. I'm usually a pretty chill person. :crying: :crying: :crying: 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Can you just pull out your old taxes, do it off of an estimate TODAY, and get it off your plate until you file? It might take the edge off just getting a portion of it over with. I just got done "updating" DD's and I'm doing mine next and it took about 10 minutes to do hers once I found my 2014 taxes. :) If it helps you at all, we keep a "password list" that has all of our passwords on it so that we can readily find everything because there is NOTHING worse than having to search and remember passwords. I find tackling things head on just kills anxiety. I hope that helps. We have three to manage financial aid for next year and it can get overwhelming! But the good news is once you find it for one, you find it for the other kiddo! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 I'm sure that you aren't alone. *I* am a freak in that I actually rather enjoy things like filling out the FAFSA, doing our taxes, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 I'll send you sympathy. All four years that my daughter was in college, we received an alert at some point during the year that our figures had been changed. I lived in dread fear that we had done something massively wrong and that my daughter's aid would be snatched away. The changes never amounted to much and my worries were always in vain. That didn't stop the stress however. At some point, this too shall pass. Regards, Kareni 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Sigh. When did this all get so complicated? Is it when everything started moving online? Seems like all the paperwork in years past was much more simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 This past week, I've received two emails, IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT YOUR CHILD'S FAFSA and URGENT: UPDATE YOUR FAFSA ACCOUNT. Between now and when I submit the match for actual tax numbers, I will be stressed about it. I'm looking at four months, and this happens every year--except last year, when or SSNs were stolen and someone else filed under them. Then I was still contacting the IRS and the college in August to get everything straight--further reason to hate it so much! I think if our SSN's were stolen, I would totally freak out about doing it again too! (((Hugs))). We keep lists of important passwords (and while I don't usually freak about doing taxes or FAFSA, I certainly did freak when ds borrowed that list last year and it was temporarily lost for an hour!) Having a central place for pw's might be helpful. I don't like getting all of the alerts between the initial, estimated filing, and the final one, but I just try to remember they are auto-generated, and a computer's idea of "urgent" doesn't have to be mine. With the final numbers, I had them auto-imputed from our taxes rather than typing them in (system liked that better, and it's all about making the system happy, right?!) I found it confusing to find how to go back in and change things sometimes (had to change ours 3 times last year, for various reasons). I really think it's not as clear of a system as it could be. Maybe set aside a clear time to do it, with your favorite warm drink or some chocolate, and the promise of something relaxing to do afterward? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted January 3, 2016 Share Posted January 3, 2016 I waited to the last minute last year and had to fill out the FAFSA with a lot of chaos around me, kids with their friends over, etc. I messed everything up. Even really basic things like birthdates. No kidding. I gave dd her sisters birthday. It really messed things up. To make it worse, I transposed two numbers in her SSN when filing taxes. It was a disaster. This year, I will do better.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 I waited to the last minute last year and had to fill out the FAFSA with a lot of chaos around me, kids with their friends over, etc. I messed everything up. Even really basic things like birthdates. No kidding. I gave dd her sisters birthday. It really messed things up. To make it worse, I transposed two numbers in her SSN when filing taxes. It was a disaster. This year, I will do better.... I messed up one of my children's SS numbers on our taxes one year. Not fun to untangle that, can't imagine if I had also done that with the FAFSA! I hope this year goes better for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kewb Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 This is our first fafsa and I feel pretty stressed about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted January 5, 2016 Share Posted January 5, 2016 After reading so many horror stories, I was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised to find that once I had the necessary info by my side, it took less than an hour to fill out. I think people end up needing to update their numbers a lot, or file an estimate and then add details later. It's not such a big deal. I hope you find that to be true as well! Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 I started mine again today. The hardest part was remembering my password as I'd updated to the FAFSA ID last summer. Thank goodness for old planners! Then I had to dig for the 2014 tax returns. I think ds will be trickier because I'm not sure if he needs to file taxes as I'm not sure how the school will divide up his scholarship and grant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I think ds will be trickier because I'm not sure if he needs to file taxes as I'm not sure how the school will divide up his scholarship and grant. That's where we're stuck. We don't know if we'll receive any info about the grants and scholarships and whether or not any of that will have to be claimed. We are waffling between filing with estimates and waiting to see what comes in the mail in the next couple of weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.