Thursday, January 31, 2008

Searching for Money

With all the talk about our economy and the shrinking buying power of the dollar, it's a little daunting (actually a LOT daunting)to think about trying to gather funds for Nate to go to college.

This weekend I hope to have the last bits of documentation I need to get our taxes done. For some reason our mortgage interest statement hasn't arrived yet. Usually it's one of the first things. And I don't have a 1099 from the paper, but I can easily total up my earnings from 2007 so that we can at least get a start.

After the taxes are done...next week, I know because our accountant promised he'll do ours right away because of college money search...I will navigate through the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). This form is apparently the be all and end all to getting financial assistance for college.

We have divided up the money search responsibilities. I am to do searching, paperwork, and number crunching. Nate will complete scholarship applications and write essays. Mensa Boy will be his cheerleader, helping him to decide which scholarships interest him and might be worth spending time on, and editing & proofreading his essays. So far Nate has done 3 or 4 applications and last night he wrote an essay. Hopefully the two of them can work on 2 or 3 scholarships a week.

So that's what's going on here. I fully anticipate that the bush beating for money will be my third parttime job. And I'm ok with that.

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