Taxes and Grants for College Kids

So I've been doing a lot of research on taxes and Pell grants the past few months, and I just wanted to share some tips that I've learned. I just feel like there is a lot of money college kids could be getting that they aren't, usually because they don't know about it. Here's some things you may not have known:

-College kids should claim the American Opportunity Education credit! There is almost no excuse for not claiming this unless you are in your fifth year of college or you are a dependent with parents who make over $180,000. You can get up to $1000 refunded from the government even if you owe no taxes. If you owe taxes, they can be reduced up to $2500!

       What you can claim: any required fees or costs for the classes you are enrolled in. ie books, tuition, laptop, health insurance (for BYU), etc. You should try to think of every cost you can to maximize your benefit! And if you are paying your own tuition, there is NO reason not to be claiming the maximum amount of credit ($4000)

-You can still claim the American Opportunity Credit even if you have scholarships/grants! Just count up everything you paid for and then count the scholarships/grants as taxable income. That way you will get paid for your expenses and only be taxed for the scholarships/grants at a smaller percent.

-Taxable scholarships/grants don't count against you when you are filing FAFSA. That is- if you do it correctly. I didn't- but was then able to fix it- and am now getting $950 back. Woo hoo! Make sure you fill the form out correctly

-On FAFSA, you don't have to count scholarship/grant money you have in the bank as part of your assets! Subtract it out before you report how much money you have!

-The Pell grant formula is actually not just some mysterious mumbo-jumbo. You can figure out in advance how much grant money you should get with the charts and tables found here: http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/010512EFCFormulaGuide1213.pdf

-Revise your tax form! I know, it sounds boring right? And your fancy tax software does it for you. But actually, a lot of times the software doesn't know all the benefits you can claim unless you tell it.

-You should still claim education benefits even if you are in your fifth year. Look into the lifelong learning credit or the education adjustment. You should also be claiming some sort of education benefit for every member of your family that is taking any college courses.

Well, that's most of what I can think of for now. But I'm almost positive I will post more in the next day or two. Also, I can help! Seriously, I love this stuff. (I'm weird, I know) But I also think I am pretty good at it. Last year I got more than $15,000 in grants and scholarships and we are learning more about how to get big tax refunds with the awesome education credits!

So yesterday I taught the class I TA for again. Except I was very sick. Then I came home and slept until  I started feeling better. Also, Ken just found out that he is getting $800 more than we expected in grant money. That's a pretty big deal I think. There is a lot you can do with $800.
Also Ken and I started taking this family finance class that is being offered at church. It's super interesting. Except too bad I had to leave early this week. Next week I should be able to go for the whole time hopefully. But then we might have to miss it the week after that. So we will see. But we are learning a lot of good tips about budgeting and grants and loans and stuff. And then I think in the future we will learn about investing and some other stuff... saving for retirement maybe? I'm not exactly sure. 
Ken's at work now. And I woke up because I went to bed at midnight and it's hard to sleep for more than nine hours. Especially when I took a three hour nap yesterday. Although I kinda wish I could sleep more.
Also today I am going to a bridal shower! Hooray! That will be very fun because I love bridal showers. And then I can see a lot of girls from high school. I like them. Maybe even more than some people I was better friends with in high school because now they don't talk to me. But the whole cheer group is very nice to me whenever I happen to see them. And they are always so enthusiastic about everything that it provides great entertainment.
Anyway, that's about it. We will probably watch the football game tonight and eat the blue chips and salsa that I won last week at the homecoming party Jenn invited me to. I won a whole gift basket! But we already ate some of the stuff last week.
That's all. Except for I wish that other people would write on their blog more. I know I don't really write on mine but I really like reading other people's more than writing on my own.

Quick Thoughts

Here are my thoughts for the day:
Texas is ridiculous.
Some people from Texas are particularly ridiculous.
Evolution is real.
The creation is real.
Christians teach evolution all the time.

Divorce Court

Wow... so Ken and I have been watching episodes of divorce court on youtube tonight... it's a pretty ridiculous show but also very funny. I can't believe how crazy some people are.  But anyway... it was definitely a nice break from school and work. And in other news... two people passed out today at work. We got two new girls doing blood research and apparently neither of them was that crazy about dealing so much with blood... so we will see how that goes since that's mostly all we do in the lab.

Teaching College

Yesterday, I taught a college class. That was pretty crazy. I have a new job as a TA (teaching assistant) for Chemical Engineering 378 aka Materials Science and Engineering. It's pretty fun. But yesterday the teacher had to go to his daughter's school play or something so he had me teach. It was a little scary, and I'm not sure how well I did. But, I tried my best. Hopefully the teacher can cover anything I didn't teach very well again later. Also, I have office hours where kids come and ask me questions about the homework. And yesterday a lot of kids came and asked me for help. I hope I was helpful to them. Also, I worked almost 15 hours this week. That is a lot more than I ever have during school. Usually I work about 5 or less. I still have my job doing blood research, but that will probably only be a couple hours here and there. So I am excited for my new job. Classes are ok, some of them seem pretty hard and boring. But we will see.

Summer

Wow. So it's been forever since I've written on my blog. I think part of the problem is that I feel like I have to write a ton and then it intimidates me and I don't want to go to the effort. So from now on I think I will write quicker, shorter posts. Also it didn't help that this summer I took an English class through independent study, which required a lot of writing and made it so I didn't want to write any more, even for a blog. But anyway, the summer was super great. I loved my internship and Minnesota. I met some pretty cool people at work and church and loved getting to know Ken's family better. Then a couple of weeks ago we left Minnesota and drove back to Utah (stopping in North Platte, NE of course). Then we spent half a day with Ken's brother and family and drove to Las Vegas. That was really fun. I love being with my family and I missed them a lot this summer. Plus we got to take a lot of naps and relax. Then after four days we drove to Long Beach, CA where we boarded our cruise ship! Our cruise was so fun and relaxing. Best vacation ever. The food was great, we explored Catalina Island, went horseback riding on the beaches of Mexico, and bought art at an art auction. And took at least one nap everyday. So it was perfect. Then we drove back through LV and on to Provo to start school again. We moved into our new apartment and encountered a few spiders in our storage unit. But all in all it worked out great and we have already unpacked a lot. Hopefully it won't take that much longer, but who knows with all of the clothes I have. Tomorrow should be an exciting day of school. I still can't believe we are starting school again. Ken thinks the whole summer just feels like a dream. I feel more like the summer was real and right now is a dream, but I'm sure I'll get used to life in Provo quickly enough.

Date Nights

Ken and I have the best date nights :) last night we went to rainforest cafe, shopping at the mall of america, and on the log chute ride (like splash mountain). Next week for our early anniversary celebration we signed up for the romance special at the hilton hotel: sparkling cider waiting for us in our room, fancy breakfast delivered to our room or in their restaurant (whatever we prefer), and late checkout. Plus we can go swimming in their pool/hot tub and plus anything else ken decides to plan :)