The College Financial Plan Masterclass
7 Self-Paced Online Sessions
Develop a custom plan to get your child a great education at a price that
you can afford. Find great colleges. Get great scholarships.
Minimize student loans and maximize free money.
With Your Instructor, Ann Garcia, CFP®
What if you could save thousands of dollars and millions of headaches from trying to figure out how to pay for your kids’ college?
Are you struggling with finding the right scholarships for your student?
Are you wondering what college actually costs and where you are going to find the money to pay for it?
Are you concerned that limiting your child’s college choices limits their future?
Get Help with Choosing a College
Are you confused about…
What college costs?
How to qualify for financial aid?
How to get scholarships?
How to find colleges that fit
academically, financially, and socially?
Meet your College Financial Advisor
Hi, I’m Ann, and like you, I’m a parent who’s also had all of these concerns. I’m also a Certified Financial Planner™ who has seen people struggle with paying for college or paying off their student loans because their parents didn’t plan for college. Over the last decade, I’ve helped thousands of students and their families— including my own— save millions of dollars on college and university. As a result, my kids are now attending their top-choice colleges at a cost we can afford.
We all want great educational opportunities for our children. That is why I created the online course “The College Financial Plan Masterclass.”
This seven-session, self-paced online course includes all the information, tools, and resources for YOU to build your custom college plan, from choosing where to apply to filing the FAFSA to negotiating a financial aid package.
Plan for an affordable college education
Can you imagine…
- Your child getting a great education without risking their financial future or your retirement?
- Helping your child make an informed financial decision about which college to apply to?
- Being confident about how you’re going to pay for college?
- Understanding the FAFSA, financial aid, and merit scholarships and how the college system works?
- Saving thousands of dollars?
What Parents Are Saying
In this course, you’ll learn the following:
How the system works and how colleges award money
How to complete the FAFSA to maximize financial aid
How to get more scholarships and financial aid
How to find great college fits: academic, social, and financial
How to build a financial plan that minimizes loans and maximizes free money
How to make the most out of your college budget
How to negotiate your financial aid award letter to get more money
And so much more …
Here’s What You’ll Learn
Chapter 1: Setting Expectations
Despite its high cost, college remains a good investment in your child’s future. But as expensive as it is, it’s important to ensure you get value from your education choices. You’ll learn:
- How to set priorities for your student’s college choices
- How to think about college from the perspective of “why college” and not “which college”
Chapter 2: Your College Budget
Your budget is one of the most critical pieces of your college selection process. This module isn’t just about creating a budget, though: it’s about getting everyone on the same page about college costs. You’ll learn:
- How to build a budget using all the components of a college funding plan: savings, out-of-pocket spending, scholarships, tax credits, and student loans.
- How to have productive and positive conversations with your student about your college budget.
- How to spend down your savings
Chapter 3: The FAFSA, CSS Profile, and Financial Aid
The FAFSA is your first step in getting financial aid. Completing it is a lot like doing your taxes: you could wait until the deadline and just fill in the blanks, but preparing for it ahead of time could save you thousands of dollars. You’ll learn:
- How the FAFSA calculates your ability to pay for college
- How much your family will be expected to pay based on financial need
- Strategies to reduce your Expected Family Contribution on the FAFSA and CSS Profile
- Key differences between the FAFSA and CSS Profile
- Plus, bonus content for divorced parents and business owners
Chapter 4: How to Get Scholarships
There’s a scholarship for every student, and often more than one. You just have to know how to find them. You’ll learn:
- How merit scholarships are awarded
- How to find schools that are likely to give your student scholarships
- How and where to find outside scholarships
- Bonus content for student-athletes
Chapter 5: Application Strategies
Choosing the colleges you’ll apply to should be fun, not stressful, for you and your student. But with so many choices, where do you begin? You’ll learn:
- How to find the colleges most likely to give you scholarships
- How to find colleges that are good fits, not just financially but also academically and socially
- What information you need to track about each college your student is considering
Chapter 6: Your Spending Plan
You’ll develop a spending plan that gets you through four years with a maximum of free money and a minimum of debt. You’ll learn:
- How to spend down your college savings, including 529 plans
- How to claim education tax credits
- How student loans and Parent PLUS loans are disbursed
- How to estimate your total cost or attendance for four years, including borrowing costs
Chapter 7: Financial Aid Awards
Congratulations! Your student has been accepted into multiple colleges. But comparing aid awards is like comparing apples to taco salad. You need to know what each college actually costs. You’ll learn:
- How to read an award letter
- How to distinguish between gift aid that you don’t have to pay back and self-help aid like loans and work-study
- How to calculate your actual bottom line cost to attend college and compare costs for different colleges, including tuition, fees, and financial aid
- How to negotiate for more money
Each chapter includes detailed worksheets for you to map out your college plan.
About Your Instructor, Ann Garcia
I’m a CFP®, The College Financial Lady, and the author of How to Pay for College. I’m also a fee-only financial advisor and mom to two college students. Early in my career as an advisor, I noticed that many clients were coming to us with questions about how to pay for college, and not many advisors wanted to answer them. And more people were coming in wondering how they could save for a home or retirement when they struggled to make monthly student loan payments.
I realized there was an opportunity to help the first group– parents trying to come up with reasonable pathways to help their kids earn a college degree– and, at the same time, hopefully, reduce the number of people who wound up in the second group. And, of course, I wanted to understand this for my own family!
Over time I discovered I was answering the same questions again and again, so I started publishing the answers in blog form as The College Financial Lady. As that grew and served more and more families, I recognized that there was a need for a more directed approach to planning for college, so I created the College Financial Plan masterclass.
This course walks you through the process of not just building out a college budget but finding colleges that meet that budget, identifying scholarship opportunities for your student, and maximizing your chances of getting financial aid and scholarships at your top choice colleges.
Another thing I learned along the way: planning for college is equal parts financial planning and parenting. You’ll learn how to talk to your student about money and college costs to get them on board with a plan that works for the whole family.
Built for parents of college-bound
high school students
you can save thousands of dollars and millions of headaches.
The College Financial Plan Masterclass
7 Self-Paced Online Sessions
Develop a custom plan to get your child a great education at a
price that you can afford.
Ann Garcia’s expert advice as seen in:
Learn How to Prepare for College Today!
What are you waiting for? The techniques and tools included in the College Financial Plan Masterclass have helped thousands of families save countless hours and millions of dollars on college.
You’ll have access to interactive message boards to ask the instructor additional questions about your child or your situation.
