A College Savings Windfall

Our youngest daughter is about to start her final three semesters of college this month, so it's been time to evaluate how to pay the bills! As planned we are beginning to use her Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits she received from her dad. 

For at least the next two semesters tuition and fees will be paid in full by the VA, each semester is equal to about $6365. 

Her housing cost and meal plan is $4,066 per semester. The VA will provide housing allowance and a book stipend for each of these semesters. Each semester should net $6,517. Clearly more than the cost of housing we pay! 

I found out yesterday that her scholarships with are $2,250 per semester can be applied to the housing costs! This means that the actual housing cost owed will be $1,816 each semester, after scholarships are applied. Her sister had a scholarship at another university that didn't benefit us in this way when the VA paid. I think this has to do with type of scholarship and that one university was out of state tuition, while this current university is in state tuition. So we are pleasantly surprised to have this $4,500 benefit and windfall in our favor.

I have been saving $500 a month since the end of last year and have set aside $4500 in anticipation of paying the housing cost out of pocket, knowing we will eventually get the housing allowance (it's paid out monthly). I basically don't need this savings at all to handle the upcoming bill, because on top of these benefits she still has nearly $7,500 in her Educational Savings Account. I have already made a transfer out of her ESA to cover the housing we owe after scholarships are applied. 

Now remember I said she has three semesters left? The final semester her scholarships will have ended and depending on her housing choice, cost may increase, to as high as $6K. And we know how universities love to increase costs. I expect we will owe between $10,500 and $12,000 for her that final semester, but we have plenty of funds between the VA payments (and they may pay a small portion in the last semester) and her ESA.

Funds currently available

Cash $4300

ESA $7504

Expected VA payments

$13,034

Total Funds

$24,838

Expected Costs

Fall 21 $1,816

Spring 22 $1,816

Fall 22 $10,500 (min) 

Total $14,132

We have more funds available than expenses!

$24,838-$14132 = $10,706

The next two semesters will come from ESA funds and I will shift the $4,300 I saved this year to other priorities! We will stockpile the VA payments as they come in, drain the ESA the final semester, pay the difference with VA funds and keep the remaining amount, which appears to be $6400! Interestingly enough the VA does not require that housing and book payments be used for these costs. If you don't have books to buy or housing to pay (say you are living at home) than you are allowed to keep the funds for any other use. 

So yes, a $10K+ windfall!! Whohoo! 

Because we over saved for our youngest daughter and our oldest daughter took out a small student loan her final semesters of college in the amount of $5,500, we are going to pay her loan off which is about $3100 remaining. She hasn't paid any money to the loan yet because of the deferment currently allowed. She is sitting on a housing reimbursement since the college closed early in March 2020 and a small VA payment that total $2400. 

I'm almost shell shocked that we did it, or are nearly there. With our college savings efforts, cash flow and VA benefits we paid in full for our two daughters to attend college (19 semesters). 

Estimating 2020 Taxes

I'm watching some college football on television this Saturday and decided to do some preliminary estimates on our taxes this year. I'm not sure if I ever did any estimates around the time 2019 taxes were due or not. I know that things have been in limbo not knowing when my husband would get his promotion. He is on the promotion list as of late May. Now we wait for the military to get to his sequence number for actual orders to promote. It will not be October, so at most he will have two months of increased pay. 

We do qualify to take the American Opportunity Tax Credit for our youngest daughter in 2020. Our credits are a $500 dependent credit, a $1500 non refundable credit (AOTC) and a $1000 refundable credit (AOTC). 

Without the raise we will owe approximately $228. With two months of increased pay we will owe $270. I'm assuming the withholding will increase, otherwise the amount we owe will be more. 

I did all the math by hand looking at last year's return and finding all the numbers and tax charts for 2020 to make it all come together. My notebook is full of all sorts of numbers. I could have looked for a potential calculator. This way, I feel like I know it was done correctly, using our real situation and numbers. It is still an estimate, but I can definitely handle owing less than $300 next spring. 

My next task is to do some tax planning for 2021. The raise is significant enough to put us into a higher tax bracket. Withholding will have to be adjusted, so we don't owe a significant amount. I need to consider what tax education tax credits we may take, maybe none if we use Post 911 GI Bill funds. This means I need to figure out our plan for paying tuition next year, which is only a few months away. I also need to decide if we put more into retirement to offset taxes. I'm leaning towards a yes on this one!