How to pick the right college without overpaying

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Why school choice matters

1. Why this is the lever nobody pulls
2. What drew her to this work

Choosing the school

1. Where your student sits in the pool
2. Where the money actually goes

In practice

1. What happened this week
2. Once you have narrowed the cost

The order of operations

1. Why most people start in the wrong place
2. Making a recommendation that fits

Why this is the lever nobody pulls

Hello. Hello, Miss Corey. Welcome. >> Hello.

Hello. Hello. >> I'm gonna make you a co-host so you can share your screen >> and then I am going to um stop sharing my screen. >> Okay.

And is is Daniel actually here to moderate the chat or that's on us? >> Yep, Daniel's here. The man the man is in the house. >> Okay.

>> Hello. Hello. There he is. [laughter] >> Uber.

So, he's dropping links and doing the good stuff. >> Yep. Yep. Yep.

And then I can help as well. >> You're you're monitoring the chat for questions, too. >> Yep. There you go.

I can monitor as well. I'll keep an eye on those. Again, welcome everyone. Thanks for joining us.

>> Share my screen here. >> Yeah, we'll let everyone get logged in here. >> That show. Okay, there.

>> Looks great. >> All right, >> that looks great. >> That's my daughter. >> Um, uh Oh, that's your daughter.

>> Uhhuh. >> Graduated. >> Graduated. >> Look at you.

[laughter] That's awesome >> with honors, it looks like. Well done. >> There's There's a few things. It's a women in STEM medal.

>> That's cool. That's way cool. I love that. >> Very cool.

We always prayed for kids of average intelligence so they wouldn't want to go to these expensive schools. No, [laughter] >> it's funny. Who knows how that will work out. Um, welcome everyone.

Thanks for joining us. If you're just getting logged in, so nice to have you. Um, we'll we're excited to get kicking off here soon. We'll just wait for a few more minutes.

Get everybody get logged in here and then we will get this party started. >> But it is. >> Yes. Yes.

Yes. It will be a party. All right. Very cool.

See here. All right. Okay. We're going to get kicked off in just a minute.

If you are just logging in, if you are just logging in, go ahead and put where you're from and the ages of your kids. We're kind of curious if we have some older crowd, younger crowd, high school students, seniors, of course. Tis the season. Tis the season.

So anyway, yeah, put put where you're from and the ages of your kids. We'll let everyone get logged in here and then we'll go ahead and kick it off. Eene. Eileen, welcome from South Carolina with a 14year-old.

Look at that. Eileen is on the ball. Plenty of time. All right, Tammy.

Welcome, Tammy. Wisconsin with a 16-year-old. See, plenty of time for the 16-year-old. I'm guessing, you know, maybe you had some like if you have a 20-year-old, we always we say that the first kid's kind of like the first pancake, you know, we kind of practice kind of practice on the first one.

[laughter] I'm just kidding. I'm sure you didn't do that, Tammy. I'm sure we know Tammy. >> No, Tammy.

Everything I'm sure went smooth as could be with your oldest. Now you're just here for a few tips and tricks for the next one. Michael from New Jersey with a 15-year-old. Look at these.

Yeah. On the on the ball. On the ball. Eileen, you're so welcome.

We all wish that we started early. Everyone wishes that. Everyone always says, "When's the best time to get started?" It's like the old oak tree, right? It's like that old oak tree.

As soon as possible. [laughter] Awesome. Awesome. Okay, we'll give everyone another another minute here.

>> Sure. All right, I think yeah, looks like we've got some people logging in now here at the last minute. If you're just getting logged in, we're going to get um going here soon. Um it's the top of the hour time to get ready.

Um we'll get kicking off here in just a second. But if you are just joining us, go ahead and put in the chat where you're from and the ages of your kids. Just kind of nice to know if we have some college students, high school students, middle school students, kind of where you're at in the process. Lets us know.

And then we'll go ahead and kick off um in just a second here. And then you can also keep putting the, you know, information in the chat even after we get started. So, uh, Nancy, thanks for joining us. Nancy from Connecticut, a grandparent.

I love that. I love that, Nancy. I know this gray hair kind of put gives it away, but I have a grandchild myself. Um, so I'm doing planning for my kids and my grandkids.

I have two more on the way. So exciting. Love the grandparents. Thanks for joining us with a senior in high school helping to move the needle with his parents.

Had two in college in 2004 and 2007. Dang. So you've been there. Been there, done that.

Nancy, >> done that. >> She's our experienced one on the call here. Um Julia from New Jersey with a 10th grader. Um ready to he hasn't started the process.

Looks like you're ready to start the process. Awesome. Very cool. Very cool.

Awesome. Well, I know we got others logging in, but it's a couple minutes after the hour. We're going to go ahead and kick this off. Super excited to introduce our amazing host tonight to um give us this amazing webinar.

My name is Lance Morgan. Um you were probably getting the emails from me if you've been on my list for a while. Um or if you've just recently found me on the internet through an ad or something like that. I'm excited to have you on um one of our webinar series that we're doing here with Miss Corey.

Corey is is amazing. And my so my company is uh Legetti or College Funding Secrets and we help families to navigate the college process and my background is in financial services. But I was very passionate about this topic of college funding when my kids started getting older. I have five kids and as they started getting older, I got more and more passionate about this topic out of desperation more than inspiration.

Um, and that's when I found Corey. Um, Corey has literally taught me everything I know about the college planning and college process. So, um, super excited to have her on. I've been doing this for well over 10 years now with Corey.

Um, having her as the expert in this area. She's always been our go-to specialist in the topic of college planning, admissions, financial aid, all the things we're going to talk about tonight. Super excited to

What drew her to this work

have her on. but she has a a background that goes way beyond just college planning. She might um introduce that some of that as well. But Corey has a very vast knowledge in a lot of different areas, but this is definitely her niche.

This is her specialty. Um she's been doing this for a very long time. So, um again, I've learned everything from her. So, I thought who better than to give this webinar than Corey herself.

So, I'm excited to have her on. I'm going to join and I'm going to chime in from time to time because I geek out. I geek out on some of this, especially on the financial side of it. And the paying for college aspect of it and how to pay for college without sacrificing your retirement, of course, is a topic that I love.

Um, but Corey's going to show us how to get um some free money and navigate the financial aid process and find the right schools and all good stuff. So, I'm just going to turn the time over to Corey and let her kick it off. >> Thank you. Thank you very much.

I love doing these kind of presentations with you and having these families on with us. So, welcome everyone. Um, if you missed it, this is my daughter. She is a recent college grad, so she got to be on the title page of the presentation today.

Um, and so what we want to talk about and teach about is choosing the right colleges and determining how to pay for it. Those two things can't be separated. They have to be considered in a connected collaborative decision because the colleges that our kids are looking at will dramatically affect their opportunities for admissions, for scholarships, and dramatically affect your ultimate final cost as as the parent. So, we're having this conversation because the problem is not just, "Oh my gosh, college is expensive.

It is that a lot of families we talk to have saved some money for college, but they haven't saved enough to just write a check to pay the full cost or they just don't want to pay that full cost, right? And so, yes, there are borrowing options. Yes, they have been limited um and are being limited. There's a lot of things on the table there.

And at the same time, the price that you actually pay for college will vary dramatically from one college to another. And so parents though are just often told, "Oh, save more. Oh, go borrow more. Oh, if you can't afford it, then go choose a cheaper, less expensive school." But that doesn't fit the dream that these kids have been working for, the dream that we've been dreaming with them, and that we all want them to achieve, right?

So, Lance and I know who've been doing this for long enough. The real opportunities are to begin much earlier. The real opportunity is coordinating the students college search and college selection with the parents financial strategies. So, I gave Lance a spot to introduce himself.

He already did, so we're going to skip over you. Um, as for me, I have been at this a long time. I started when my kids were three and five. That was 21 years ago.

And my job and what I love to do is help families make sense of financial aid, school selection, student positioning, tax strategies, planning strategies, all the things to reduce the cost of college. Um, my team for the class of 2026 grads, our most recent grads that are starting college right now, we guided 228 kids to amass $8.9 million of grants and scholarships. That does not include loans or work study. um those offers of admission came from 824 schools or came 824 offers of admission and that's across 336 schools across the country.

So it is not particular to a certain type of school. It's not particular to a region. Everything that we're going to talk about tonight will pertain to all of you no matter where you're dialing you're dialing in from. So you get both of us today um because it needs to be a coordinated effort.

I am going to start off with the college fit, the student positioning, the financial aid, the scholarships. I have a lot of stories and I'll tell the stories and then in the chat if you want to get into the weeds, we can do that as well. Um Lance is here for funding the remaining cost. How do we strategically use all of these financial tools in the buffet of tools to pay for college and not wreak havoc on our on our retirement?

And like we've already said, you get both of us because these two things do not operate in a silo. They have to be considered together. and we just are so glad that you're here and getting this so that you can make good decisions about the two things that we know you care about the most and that is your kids and and your money. Okay?

And I showed you my daughter at the beginning. I've walked this path. Lance has walked this path. You know, for me, she just graduated in May.

She was my youngest. So, I'm done paying for paying directly to the college. Now, we're using different strategies and whatnot to recoup some of that some of that. But I do remember the day that it just hit me.

And we were in the car. It was like sophomore year of high school. We're driving along, you know, be boopping to the music like we do. And she blurts out, "School's too easy." And I was like, "Excuse me?

Wait, what? What are we talking about?" Like I literally remember feeling like I was going to drive off of the road because she's a thinker and if she says something like that, she's already decided what the solution is. And so inside I was panicking a little bit. Um my heart was racing and I don't know what she's talking about.

Is she bored? Does she, you know, need more challenges? What does this mean? So, I'm calmly driving and all right, well, tell me more, you know, darling daughter.

And she proceeds to tell me that she wants to go to Merist. Merist is the top private school in our area. And I'm I get choked up. In that very moment, her dreams became my dreams.

And I was immensely proud of her and her ambition, but also panicking on the inside. And how were how was I going to support

Where your student sits in the pool

those financially? And I think probably we've all been there, right? We went from public school to private school to specialized programs to probably grad school or even med school in that moment. And so my stomach is churning because I had saved some.

I've known Lance for a long time. I've done all the things. But was there enough to do what she needed and wanted, you know, to do to make her dreams come true? And as a single parent, that was all on me as well.

So, I was faced with that daunting question. And you've all asked yourself, maybe you are asking yourself, maybe it's keeping you up at night. How do I pay for this for my daughter to help her do all the great things that she's going to do and still keep everything financially together for us, for me, for future, for her brother? How am I going to do this?

So, I got to work and doing exactly for her what we've been doing for families for years. It was just my turn. I knew it was coming. I just didn't expect it in that very in that very moment.

So the four key decisions that you need to coordinate will and when you do they will transform your students journey and alleviate your financial stress. So number one it is about finding the right college fit. This is an academic fit. It is a personal fit for them.

Number two is positioning the student. This is about maximizing opportunities to get accepted, maximizing opportunities to get scholarships. A lot of you are not going to qualify for need-based financial aid. If you can, great.

Then then what? And the then what is number three. Reduce that sticker price. This is all about financial positioning.

It may be about repositioning. It may be about tax strategies. all the things from the buffet we like to call it to reduce that sticker price and then the last is fund that gap and you do it in a way that doesn't wreak havoc on your retirement later. So by the end of this webinar you'll have a clear understanding of those things and strategies and some actionable steps that you can take.

Okay, so let's dive in. Number one is academic and personal fit. Finding the right college is more about name. It's more about it.

It's more than just about the name or the rankings or the prestige. It is about finding that place where they can thrive, where they can plant their feet, spread their wings, and do the great things that they are going to do. So, a lot of you put in the chat how old the kids were. I have another question.

How many of your kids have a very clear idea of what they want to pursue in school? So, Lance, if you'll watch, how about put an A if your student knows exactly what they want. How about a B if they have some idea or a C if they have no idea yet. And any answer is fine.

Oh, you're muted. Sorry >> there. You're right. You're right.

You're right. is those that we do have a lot of A's and a C and a couple B's. >> Okay. Right.

Normal. >> The No, no one expects these 15, 16, 17 year old kids to know exactly what they want to do and stick to it. Even when they do know exactly what they want to do, as fast as economies change and and technology changes, there's a lot of things that will be available to them coming out of school that just don't exist today. So any of those answers is is fine and good.

And what you do then is you encourage them to explore. You start the process early. And those two things make a world of difference. So action steps, start exploring, be open-minded, look for that academic and personal fit.

Are they going to love a big school, a small school? I remember when when my son was younger and I said, "Well, what where what do you want to study in college?" And he said, "Football." And I said, "No, no, no, no." Like, "What do you want to study?" Quarterback. Like, "All right, we're going to we're going to work through this." Um, but look beyond the big names. That was another of our problems, right?

Um, he was five or seven. So, uh, consider schools where your students going to be elevated in the class. It's college. It is not easy.

It is. But we do want kids to be elevated in the class just like they're taking honors courses now or AP courses. Those are going to elevate them in that and help them to stand out. Right?

Talk to your kids. H get them to share what they're thinking. you know, what their friends are talking about, what the high school is talking about, you know, encourage them to explore. I was just talking to a mom today and she has triplets, junior triplets, and she said, "What do I do with college visits?

How can I take three people in three different directions?" And I said, "No, just let's just visit the public school in your backyard, visit the nearest private school, get a sense of how those feel, and then and then we'll go from there." Right? Talk about those impressions. The goal is to find the right college where they're going to flourish, where they can plant their feet, spread their wings, and do the great things that they are going to do. And when you focus on the academic and the financial fit, that sets that foundation for them and for you to be successful.

And Kate is a great example of this. She had several interests and we did not want her at a school that was going to back her in or narrow her path too much. She needed a place where she could explore academically, figure things out, where she could participate in the activities that she cared about, and discover where that might where that might lead. So, I'm on the West Coast.

She enrolled at the University of Oregon, and she received a $7,000 merit scholarship. So, it made it very affordable. But the story's bigger. She played the piccolo.

She joined the marching band. If you know University of Oregon football, she went to two national championship games back in the day. Um, in her junior year of college, she just happened to be having a conversation with her professor and she said something about money and affording college. And the

Where the money actually goes

professor was like, "I just assumed you had it under control, that everything was fine." And she was like, "No." And so he went and pursued a grant. he wanted to update his um curriculum. It was a science he was a science professor because she was in the neuroscience uh department. And so he went and pursued a a grant that would allow him to up uh update his curriculum.

He carved out $10,000 of that grant for her to help him work on that project. that right fit, that choice and the opportunities that she took advantage of did more for her than just getting accepted to the UFO. It continued to create opportunities after she enrolled because working on that curriculum, it lit a fire in her to teach. And so that was the path.

She graduated from the honors college with a 4.0. that got her a $25,000 scholarship to continue her master's degree there. Today, she's a middle school teacher. She has won awards.

She speaks to other middle school teachers and her family still has college savings left over after all of that. So, it is just that that's those are the stories that we love and it happens. It happens all the time. So fit is the first one.

Number two, student positioning. Student positioning. Kate did this too. It is about maximizing the uh students chance for getting admitted for admissions and scholarships by strategically positioning them in the college search and the college application process.

Because colleges are businesses and this might surprise you. it normally does. Colleges have specific goals that they have to hit to build their incoming class. It is a strategy that they use.

You can Google enrollment management. Okay? And we can get into all the technical details of it, but I like to talk about it as an analogy. And Lass is smirking because this is my favorite one.

It might be his favorite one. [snorts] Um, imagine that you're planning a trip. Okay? You search online for flights.

You compare airlines, departure times, routes, prices, how many stops. You might adjust your travel to get a better deal. You might choose a flight with a layover instead of direct to save money. You might use your frequent flyer miles and pay six bucks and 40,000 miles so that you can do it that way.

You might buy a full price or a first class ticket and and fly like that. We have those options. You have those options. As consumers, we naturally do these things to minimize our costs, maximize our value, maximize our comfort.

And that's how airlines work, right? And we all know it and they know it. And it's great. They know that some of us are going to pay full price.

And the reason I tell us is colleges are the same way. They know some are going to pay full price. They know that others are going to work their tail off for discounts and use points. They know that early decision and name brand and we're coming no matter what.

We'll figure it out. And then others are at the other end of the spectrum. Airlines are good with this. Colleges are good with this.

They just need to make sure that they're hitting their net price numbers. The airlines primary concern is filling their seats. An empty seat is loss revenue. So what do they do?

They're going to use pricing strategies. They're going to use algorithms to fill the plane to offer discounts when they have to to meet those revenue goals. And as passengers, right, we are good with that. Colleges operate in the same way.

They have net tuition revenue numbers that they have to meet to cover their costs. They have to pay faculty. They have to feed and house our kids. They have facilities.

All the things. They don't necessarily care what each individual student pays for their seat on that campus as long as they are hitting their goals. But a college will use financial aid. They will use scholarships as tools to attract our kids and not all of them, right?

Just the ones that they want, the ones that are elevated in the class to fill their seats, so to speak. Because an open seat on a campus is lost revenue to that school. And you see it in the news every day. Two years ago, it was Syracuse.

We'll see who it who it is today. Okay, this is a picture that we have used for years and Lance uses it in his other um webinars, but this is the visual of these two variables, student positioning and financial positioning that will change acceptances, scholarships, whether you pay full price or there's a free ride. So if colleges are using scholarships and financial aid to build the class they want. The next question is what determines your offer that your students are receiving.

Okay. Number one is student positioning. It is their grades. It is their test score.

It is the colleges that they are picking. Okay. The second on the left side of the page is financial positioning. how the college evaluates your ability to pay.

What does that FAFSA look like? What does that CSS look like? Do we have investment real estate and businesses and 529s and all the things? Those two things together, as this graph shows, are the two variables that will dramatically get you different results.

And the same student might receive a discount from one college, pay full price at another, or be admitted and then denied any financial aid at at another. It is about our student positioning, our financial positioning, and it's about the colleg's enrollment goals. Okay, Mike here, he illustrates this for us perfectly. He was an exceptional student, but his family's financial profile meant that they were not going to get any need-based financial aid.

Okay. His original college list also centered on very highly selective schools where as great as he was, he looked average compared to everyone else. Everyone else was exceptional. And we all know, we all know those schools.

So when it came time to apply and get accepted, his top choice was Stanford and they said, "You're great, but we have a lot of you. We're going to deny your admission." He got accepted to everywhere else, more schools than this. Um, but we have no money from Johns Hopkins. We have 20 from Duke.

We have 30 from Portland. University of Southern California rolls out the red carpet and says, "Here's a full tuition waiver." Okay. Nothing about Mike changed between his applications. It's the

What happened this week

colleges that changed. It's their different enrollment priorities, the competition, and the different reasons that they were doing what they were doing and the different reasons why they wanted him. So Stanford said no. USC said yes, please.

Okay. Not only did they give him full tuition, they took all of his AP courses and he enrolled as a sophomore. The he didn't graduate early. What that allowed him to do was then double major cuz the goal was med school.

So now he's building his resume even more while he's there. They gave him a $3,000 research stipen and that project got published and then he got on to another one. So now imagine what his med school app looks like coming out of undergrad at USC compared to even if he did get in at Stanford, he wouldn't just wouldn't have had those kinds of opportunities, right? So what that did is set him up.

Duke accepted him for his undergrad, gave him only gave him 20. Now he's doing all of this and Duke said, "Oh, please, please come here, do your MD and PhD, continue your research, and we will fully fund the entire thing." Okay? So, the school he initially wanted was not necessarily the school that valued him the most. Okay?

And that's why this positioning matters. It is strategic college selection and it matters. We want to target schools where the kids stand out academically. The financial positioning matters because we want to optimize the financial situation.

It's all legal. It's all ethical. There's no nothing shady. We're fully transparent.

But there is positioning that can be done. we want and when we do those two things together, families opportunities multiply. Okay, the right college fit opens doors to scholarships. It opens doors to research opportunities, study abroads, graduate programs.

It is amazing what colleges put in front of these kids to take advantage of while they are there. and I love love staying in contact with them to hear to hear the stories. So uh step number three is financial positioning. This is reducing college costs from all angles.

So we need to understand the financial aid system. Now first please if you can just forget everything you would think you know about financial aid and scholarships. Okay? I I alluded to the business of higher ed and how colleges make decisions and I want to stick with that because colleges are businesses and they are making business decisions about who gets in and who gets money.

So just like the airplane industry and the airlines don't care what each individual person paid for their seat as long as they have enough money to get that plane from A to B and extra to do the other things that they're going to do. They just can't have those seats go empty. And I tell you colleges operate in the same way. Okay.

And the bad news, we can expect incorrect numbers to be flagged. Okay, just this Monday, Lance, I don't know if you saw it. We I was driving back from the holiday weekend and I had the most heartwarming email from one of our clients who was just profusely appreciative and thanking us for the help because they submitted financial aid forms to um it was Cornell. They submitted to Cornell, they got back their award and it there was just not anything there like we were expecting like they were expecting.

We didn't file the forms. They did it on their own and then they then they called in a panic. Um so thankfully we were able to go through line by line by line and see what had happened and they had made a huge mistake. They had double reported some numbers and Cornell didn't point that out to them.

Um, we pointed that out to them, helped them talk to the school, get it fixed, get their financial aid award adjusted, and reduce their college bill, cut it in half. Um, so it it was about two times what it should have been and and cut that cut that in half. So the risk, the financial positioning, the forms filing, those numbers need need to be accurate and complete. So those are your action steps for financial positioning is number one understand the financial aid system.

Understand your student aid index. Calculate it. Our software calculates it and then adjust those finances. Use those strategies.

It is all legal and ethical to clean things up before you ever go and submit any financial aid form at all. And this might be paying down debt. It might be repositioning assets. It might be a new business that you've started.

Like there's there's a lot of things that we can do on that financial side. And then like this family at Cornell, do complete your forms accurately and on time. These errors can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. and it's not on the slide, but I will also say don't assume that you won't qualify for financial aid.

Okay, financial aid comes in many different forms. So, definitely apply regardless of your income or your assets. It is why Lance, this was the quote I was, this is the slide, Lance's favorite saying is how you pay for college is 10 times more important than what you pay. So when we understand one, two and three and then work with that on how to pay that is the next thing is funding that gap because your plan has to protect your kids' dreams for college and your financial future, right?

Um this family I might really get choked up. This is the one family that I'm most proud of. In the 21 years that I've been doing this, I am most proud of this family because they had saved nothing for school. Um, it's not that they didn't mean to, right?

It's just life happened. Things got in the way. They had good jobs, but they just never got around to paying um for college. And so when we're talking about this and started to work with them, that didn't mean that they didn't have any options.

It just meant that we had to go find the scholarships to reduce the price and then get them on a plan to cover the remaining cost of it. And um his the students work really paid off. the parents work really paid off. So there was private school scholarship, outofstate school scholarship, local scholarship.

When Harry graduated, you know, he had or I should say when Harry graduated, their his parents had enough to pay for 80% of his college loans. And I guess I

Once you have narrowed the cost

didn't mention that we had no college savings. So, we did not have enough cash flow to pay for college. We had to strategically use loans to pay for college. And we day one started their savings plan so that when he was done, they weren't able to pay off 100% of the loans, but they were able to do 80%.

And Harry with a college degree in computer science, he could handle the other 20% and pay rent and things. It was it is the best. I'm so proud of them. Um and and because they could do that, but also because they they didn't just assume that a public school was going to be less.

Um they had offers that brought that private school down to that public school price. The outofstate school came down to the public school price. And then that gave them the options to really consider the best academic fit, the best social fit, and where was Harry really going to thrive in and be successful. So ultimately, it was the higher price school.

He did go to University of Portland. It costs a little bit more, but they put all the things in place to make that dream come true. All right. And so just a little bit more about their plan and that they had no money saved for school.

So going into it, but we had four years of college, you know, I think we started talking in junior year. So we really had senior year and four years of college to put their plan together. And yes, they had to borrow to bridge what they could pay and what they still what they still needed. and the student positioning that Harry did, the test prep, the essay, the all of those things created those more affordable choices.

And so this is a great illustration of just choosing the college is not the whole thing. We really do need and want to coordinate the financial side of that. So their four-year strategy covered the remaining of of that. So Lance, I don't know if you know this is where you want to chime in about why that four-year plan becomes so so important.

>> Yeah, I think what's the most important is, you know, once you do everything you can to narrow down the cost of college, you know, sometimes you just end up with a bigger bill than you want. It's just the reality, right? like sometimes you still have a chunk that you're going to have to pay. And so then it comes down to how are you going to pay that?

You know, are you just going to drain your savings? Uh take out your 529 money and just pay cash, maybe take out loans, pay back college loans, or are you going to rob from your retirement? You know, and most families would say, "Oh, definitely not going to take money out of my retirement." You know, I'm not going to take money out of my retirement. I'm going to I'm going to maybe cash flow a little.

I'm going to tighten the belt a little while they're in school and be a little more frugal those years or whatever the case may be. But the reality of it is everyone takes from retirement. You know, everyone takes from their retirement. If you take your 529 money and pay cash for college, you're taken from your retirement because that money will no longer be there in retirement.

Now, you might say, "Well, yeah, but it was designed for college." Well, what if it could still be growing? What What if that money could still be growing? What if all of your money could grow, you know, and compound the rest of your life? And I feel like, you know, there are some strategies that we, you know, won't get into in this particular webinar, but there are some strategies to allow your money to continue to compound, continue to earn that interest for your retirement.

Let it grow even for several generations. If you apply some of these strategies of the wealthy, let that money continue to grow, leverage it, you know, to maybe borrow from it or, you know, there's other strategies where you could take that money, even college savings money, and use it to buy assets. You can buy these assets that can generate cash flow and then the cash flow can pay for college. Like, there's so many different creative ways to pay for college to minimize that impact on your retirement.

And I think that that's what you need to focus on after you've done everything you can to reduce the cost to college is how to be strategic about how you're going to pay for what's left because it's a lot of money. It's still a big bill. >> Yeah. And and that's one kid or two or five like you have.

So I know what you're saying is yes, we can pay for college and still fund our retirement and have the two working together. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah.

That's exactly right. >> Awesome. Okay, thank you for chiming in. All right, so I know there's a lot in the chat.

Daniel's there. Lance has probably been answering some stuff. Um, but you know, which of these decisions is still unclear for your family? Okay.

Um, are there any that we want to bring to the group out of the chat? Um, oh, you're muted. >> Always the mute. always the mute.

Oh dear. Um [clears throat] yes. So um if you have any questions, comments to put them in the chat. Put them in the chat and uh and we can kind of expound on on some of these particular topics here.

>> I mean, you know, I have these where where should we apply? >> I I like public schools. I like private schools. I like big schools, small schools.

There's a lot of reasons. What I don't like and I see a lot is we have high achieving students who will reach really really high for that dream school and then they'll say well if that doesn't work out I'll just go to the public school in my backyard >> and you miss so many great opportunities in the middle >> and so don't we we that we talk about that a lot >> um you know and and which colleges are going to value your student, you know, depends on the school. It depends on the major. And if you're from out of state and you want to go to UCLA, they're not going to value you.

They're just

Why most people start in the wrong place

going to have a small sliver of seats available and charge you full price. And if you're lucky enough to get in and write those checks, then then great. Those are those are the things we don't want to happen and and what what we work on. So, >> I love that.

Eileen does um ask, "How often do families use their home equity to fund college?" >> I'm going to say less often than you think. >> Yeah. >> Right. The funding plans that we've put together lately, we're going to talk about home equity.

>> Yeah. You know, it's funny. I find it to be a very emotional decision for most families, the home equity is one thing they don't want to touch. They don't want to they don't want to involve their home in the in their college education.

um they also don't want to touch their retirement. >> However, I was talking to a client the other day that that was his first option. Like he knew that he could get the um he knew he could get a home equity loan cheaper, you know, at a lower interest rate than some of the other loan options. And that is a very logical decision.

And I I have no issues with somebody taking from a home equity loan if they can get a really good interest rate on the home equity home equity loan and using that to help their kids pay for college. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just that most people don't go there first, you know, as their first option. Um this particular client, that was his first option that he went to because he was very logical about it.

He was just looking at the numbers and the math. Um but most families will typically bootstrap it. They'll try to cash flow as much as they can and then they just borrow. They just borrow the rest and then try to pay it back if they didn't have enough savings.

Some of you, some of you have 529. Put put a 529 in the comment if you have 529 plans. Exactly. >> Um if you have a 529 plan, put 529 in the comments.

Um but a lot of families, they have been saving since their kids were born, you know, and so they've been sticking money away from from day one and they've got this 529 account. Here comes the comments now. We've got some 529 accounts. So, so there's, you know, some people who have college savings, that's their go-to, but a lot of times it's not enough because, you know, they didn't save enough because college got so expensive, you know, they didn't expect it to get so expensive, right?

And so then after 529 money, if that's not enough, you know, then it goes to, you know, savings maybe, then it's like retirement, home equity loan, or the kids are on their own. [laughter] And it's, you know, and it's kind of uh every family is totally different. >> Yeah. Yep.

All right. Any others? Moving on. >> Um Tammy says, "How do you figure out which college is best for your child regarding positioning if your child is high achieving like so many others and wanting to go to med school?" >> Yes.

So, we look at the profile of the students who are getting accepted at the colleges and our software shows what the SATs are, the GPA, who's getting accepted, and then you can very easily see if your student is at that or or above that. Um, and if we're talking about med school, then we're reverse engineering it. >> And and if if we know that that's the goal, then we're going to work that backwards. >> So, >> okay.

So, just a couple more slides. You know, this framework, you need to apply it to your your next step is to apply it to your family. And we got you. We have a strategy session that you are more than welcome.

We invite you, we encourage you, we could strongarm you. Um, if we could over Zoom to schedule with me or schedule with someone on my team and dig into these questions for 60 minutes. We will run numbers, play in the software, answer any questions at all that you have about looking at your student, your numbers, your priority. It's going to give you that clarity.

Um, we can if you have schools on your list, we can look at those. We can estimate what your numbers would mean for financial aid, identify where those opportunities are. If there's a hole there, that will that will show and we'll prioritize the next decisions um that your family will make. And so, the next action is to use the link.

Daniel probably put it in the chat. The 60inute session we are charging $97. It's a onetime payment for that time. It is a private one-on-one session and lifetime access to our software.

Okay? Because you don't need every answer today. You just need a clear understanding of where you're at and where things need to go, what your next decisions are, and a plan that protects your student helps them live that dream and your financial um future. So, in our software, you keep it.

It's lifetime access to our college cost planning app. and you see all the schools, all the stats, all the numbers that Lance pays a lot of money for, um the scholarships, the savings, the percentages, and we can model out your four-year plan for all the kids in in your family. >> So, this is our last slide, and I'm sure Daniel's got the link in the chat again, but do please take advantage, schedule with you'll get me or someone on my team. Um, and it is a standalone.

You're not required to buy anything else or enroll in any other program. You keep the software and then you'll leave with that clarity of what those next best steps are for your family. >> Love that. >> Okay.

>> Love that. There was a question in here I answered in the chat about tapping into pensions and stuff. Definitely wouldn't recommend that. But you know what I love?

I love the parents are so willing to sacrifice for their kids. It just really speaks to it really speaks to the parents who want you they will sacrifice their own future for their kids. And obvious obviously that is not you know something that everyone not everyone would do that you know not everyone would do that. And those of you who even saved from your when your

Making a recommendation that fits

kids were born not everyone you know makes those sacrifices you know to save you know the whole time you know your kids are growing up and then when you get to this point you know families to want to sacrifice their retirement to be able to help their kids. I appreciate that. I am just here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way. I have had hundreds of clients work with Corey over the years.

Hundreds of clients. And it's amazing how much value you can get in one phone call. Like literally one phone call can give you so much value to assess your own personal situation. Um it's so much easier once we have all the numbers in front of us and everything to see your situation and make recommendations with all of the the information.

It's always hard to make, you know, recommendations without having the whole picture, right? And and that's the benefit of this appointment. And what I love about this is that this is an appointment, you know, that you can get a lot of value from this one appointment. Um, and then of course we have additional services as well that we can offer if that's a good fit.

Um, but not everyone needs, you know, the additional services. Sometimes you just need one appointment to get all of your questions answered and maybe just pointed in the right direction. And then sometimes, you know, you might need more help, but um honestly, it's well worth it's well worth it. Um you can get a lot of value in that one appointment.

So, it looks like um Rose says, um best way to determine the SAI. So, yeah, we built some amazing software to help calculate your your student aid index. But what's cool is like Corey said, doesn't even really matter what your SAI number is. It matters how the school looks at that SAI number and how that factors into their formula.

The formula that that school uses to determine the financial aid and what you might be able to do to lower that. But how you lower that SAI number is part of that financial positioning that Corey talked about. You know, that might be repositioning some assets. It might be some tax strategies to reduce your your taxable income and your AGI so that you could qualify for more financial aid.

It's amazing how many f um how many families don't think they're going to get financial aid and then we can help them get financial aid. It's crazy. So really powerful really powerful um to be able to know again how that's going to apply to you. But yeah, our software can help you calculate that.

Um >> and get lifetime access. >> Yes, exactly. And Michael asked, "Can you reach out to go over more questions?" Yes, Michael, this is how you get your questions answered as well. So if you want to book that call um you can answer you can ask all the questions you want um in that in that call.

Um and then you can also ask some questions here as well while we while you got us here live. Um feel free to ask us questions while we're on here live. Put those in the chat if you have any questions. But I just want to say um while you're thinking about and while you're putting in some questions, I just want to say that, you know, go doing this for about 10 years now.

Um Corey's been doing this twice as long as I have. Um she's been teaching me everything that I know over this last decade. And it's amazing how much you you don't know that you don't even know. You don't know you don't know.

Like some team the thing with college you know some people are like oh yeah you know financial planning I I know I don't know a lot about it or um space dynamics or you know if you wanted to be an um a uh a uh rocket scientist or something like that you know you know we know that we don't know a lot about some of these topics but with college with college planning and college funding you don't even know what what there is that you don't know [laughter] you know it's like there's There's so much until until you have those kids that you go through this process and you're like, "Oh, wow. Yeah, I I kind of made some mistakes." You know, my first kid I I joked earlier in the beginning. I joked about, you know, the first kid is like the first pancake, you know, like it's like, you know, you sometimes you practice on the first one, then then you're like, "Oh, maybe maybe I want to not make so many mistakes on the second one." And it's amazing. How many times have we had the conversation with a client that says, "I wish I would have known this." you know, a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, whatever it is, whatever the case may be.

Um, there's really no you can never start too soon. So, but anyway, >> awesome. Well, any final thoughts? >> No, I don't think so.

It is um I guess, you know, don't wait. Um, the one question that didn't get asked and I do get asked all the time is, you know, if I have a senior, is it too late? If I have a freshman, is it too early? And you the reality is the earlier that we can start teaching and guiding and sharing this information the better you know for your students so they see what they need to do and then for you financially there's just more time to make adjustments and save and if you know compound interest and and all the things.

Um, if you have a senior, no, it isn't too late. They are going to graduate high school and you are going to want them out the door. So, no, it is never it is never too too late. >> Yeah, I love that.

I love that. All right. Well, book a call. Book a call.

Um, >> and Eileen says, "Thank you. Thank you, Eileen." Angel says, "Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for being on. I'm super excited to have everybody on here and uh excited to work with you. So uh we're excited to have we're excited to see you on the other side. >> Yeah.

>> Book a call. We'll talk to you soon. >> All right. Thanks.

>> Thanks everyone. Bye bye. Bye bye.