From FAFSA to Financial Literacy: A Guide to College Finances

Webinar Transcription

2025-11-20-From FAFSA to Financial Literacy

Lonnie: [00:00:00] Here we go. Okay. Hello everyone. Welcome to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar presented by Fizz entitled, “From FAFSA to Financial Literacy: A Guide to College Finances”. To orient everyone with the webinar timing, we are first going to begin with our presentation, and then we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions in our live q and a at any time.

Lonnie: As our presenter is sharing information and you are ready to ask your question, just go ahead and place that in the q and A tab, and then when we get to that portion, we will go ahead and answer your question. Also, we’re gonna be sharing a lot of great information, information that you may not quite catch when it’s shared immediately, and so you can follow along with us

Lonnie: by downloading the handouts. So how you do that is you go to the handouts tab and it’ll be readily available for you. All right. So with that, let’s go ahead and introduce our [00:01:00] presenter, Frank. 

Frank: All right, thank you. Yes. My name is Frank Ranieri. I’m with CollegeAdvisor. Um, I’m a Financial Aid Specialist here and I’ve been with CollegeAdvisor I think four years now.

Frank: Um, I have almost 15 years experience in financial aid at all different types of colleges and universities from the online to the small liberal arts to the major private institutions. So, um, a wide array of of background and, you know, I really enjoy just trying to help families and students make well thought out decisions about their future.

Frank: Um, so a lot of good information here. Um. It can be a little wordy, so I’ll try and make it as exciting as we can. But, um, you know, looking forward to helping questions at the end. 

Lonnie: Nice. Thank you so much, Frank, and I love it. You are an expert in all things, uh, related to financial aid. [00:02:00] Um, so before we jump into our poll, I actually would like to turn it over to Sam.

Lonnie: We’re doing this, um, webinar tonight in partnership with Fizz. And so Sam, I’m gonna turn it over to you to speak to our audience. 

Sam: Hey guys, nice to see everybody. Um, excited to, you know, get started with you guys tonight. Um, I’ll talk a little bit more about Fizz later on in the presentation. But, uh, for a little background about me, I’m a product and operations lead at Fizz.

Sam: Do a number of different things related to, uh, you know, just making sure all the, the, the wheels are turning smoothly. Uh, and I also run our customer support team. So, you know, anything that’s customer facing is, uh, you know. Like in my wheelhouse. Uh, but yeah, great to meet everybody. Um, and yeah, excited to talk a little bit more about how, you know, Fizz can help you get ahead and stay ahead.

Lonnie: Nice. Awesome. And definitely make sure that you stick along for the entire presentation because we have a special offer, um, that will be readily available for you. So with [00:03:00] that, we love to get a sense of what grade you all are in. Um, it allows us just to find ways to make sure that we’re speaking directly to our live audience.

Lonnie: And so we’re gonna give you just a few seconds to go ahead and submit your responses. And I’m gonna share it with Frank.

Lonnie: Let’s see. The responses should start to come in. All right. Here they come. Awesome. Okay, so we have 55% of our live audience are in the 11th grade, and then we have, oh, it just changed. So we have about 50% are in 11th grade and then 29% are in the 12th grade, and then 14% are other, which may be a parent, a guardian, or um, an educator of some sort.

Lonnie: Um, so with that, thank you so much everyone for filling out our poll. I am now gonna turn it over to Frank, who is going to define what financial aid [00:04:00] is. So Frank, I’m turning it over to you. 

Frank: Awesome. Thank you so much. Um, so we’re just gonna start with just some basically vocab terms here when it comes to financial aid.

Frank: Um, again, it’s an overall term for how you’re actually going to pay for school. Um, again, the overall term financial aid is. Not strictly free money or loans. It kind of encompasses all of it. Where, um, when schools talk about financial aid, it can be a mix of scholarships and grants. Scholarships and grants are, um, free money.

Frank: Um, scholarships gonna be based on your academic merit, um, where grants is gonna be based typically on family’s financial need. Um, work study is another way in which to pay for the school. Um, work study is an allotment that a student can earn. It is not necessarily free money, um, but you don’t need to pay that [00:05:00] back.

Frank: And then loans obviously, uh, need to be paid back. Um, and, uh, some of the loans, uh, terminology is the direct, uh, federal loans. And then there’s the direct, uh, federal parent loan, which where a parent is the borrower and then there’s private loans. Um, again, just a very. Basic intro into some of the terminology.

Frank: Um, what you will see as you’re navigating the different college financial aid websites is, um, the cost of attendance. The cost of attendance is the overall cost that it cost to be a student at that school. If you look at the top, we have direct costs, meaning these are what you will be billed, tuition fees, uh, room and board obviously is made up of where you live and your meal plan, indirect costs.

Frank: So it’s gonna, you’re gonna have to pay for books and supplies. You will [00:06:00] have to pay to get to school, whether it’s, um, gas money ’cause you’re driving an hour or it’s a flight to get there. Um, that is a cost that someone needs to pay, but obviously you’re not paying school for those things. Same with like incidentals or, um, you know, personal expenses.

Frank: You know, you want to go. To the movies on a Friday night. Again, that’s a cost associated with being a student, but you’re not charged by the school. Um, the, again, the cost of attendance is going to be the overall cost, meaning rather it’s a billable or non-billable. That’s how schools come up with their, what’s called cost of attendance.

Frank: It, you will see the abbreviation COA, um, a lot of times. Um, and then, you know, the net cost, what it costs, what the charges to you, um, billable fees minus any age you get, and then you’re left with the final cost.[00:07:00] 

Frank: Cost versus value. Um, financial sustainability. Um, how important is the more prestigious school if it’s going to cost you and your family more money? Um, you know, my, my role here is to kind of assist you in not only filling out the forms, but also basically here’s what it looks like on both hands and then you and your family make what decision is best for you.

Frank: So, um, you know, some people have a certain school or a certain major or a certain, uh, program of study that they feel is most important to them and wanna do that no matter what. You know, um, some families, obviously, the money is going to play a role in that final decision. Um, you know, um, is your interest based solely on fit?

Frank: Whereas like, this [00:08:00] school’s the best for me, or this school is the best because of their name, or because of this program, or because it will look how it will look on my resume again, you know. Different people will have different views and different values as far as what they want of their college experience.

Frank: I’m not here to tell you right or wrong, I’m just trying to, you know, help you understand if you go this path, it might cost more. Um, however you may be a better fit for your job down the line. Um, and again, um, what are the students and family’s goals behind undergrad? Um, are you willing to have debt? Are the parents willing to take on debt, uh, as a student?

Frank: Um, you know, some, some families will say, you know, we’ve saved up X amount. Anything you go over, that’s your responsibility. Um, you know, how much money do your parents need to save for other siblings? How close are your parents to retirement again? Um, when we say, uh, college and where you go to school is a family [00:09:00] decision, this is what we mean, where it’s, it takes a lot of, um, you know, there’s a lot of, uh, factors that go into making your overall decision.

Frank: What is the fafsa? Um, the FAFSA is the free application, um, for student aid. It, what it calculates is called the Student Aid Index. For years, this was called the EFC or Expected Family Contribution. The basic way to explain it is the FAFSA’s going to calculate a number of what they think you can afford based on parents’ income and assets.

Frank: Um, schools, then take that number and decide if they want to give you any free funding. Um, regarding grants, um, I’m talking solely grants when I talk about like, uh, the Student aid index or how much can this family afford, this is strictly talking about need-based [00:10:00] grants, not scholarships. Um. So again, the FAFSA is going to calculate your student aid index, which is a number that is not necessarily what you can afford, but what your financial, um, information looks like.

Frank: And then schools take that information and decide how much, uh, free money can we give you based on your finances. Um, who is a contributor? It’s obviously it’s student and parent. Um, if a parent says they do not wanna fill out the form, most schools will not review you for, um, free grant money, um, unless there’s a reason that you are considered independent.

Frank: Um, and we can go into the dependent versus independent questions, but from the federal government, you know, if you are under 25, um, and you’re not married and you’re not a veteran and you don’t have a child, um, and. You live with, [00:11:00] uh, mom or dad, most likely you would be a dependent student. Um, and we can talk more offline should you have questions about that in the future.

Frank: Um, deadlines, it’s going to be set by the school. Typically what happens is whatever your admissions deadline is, the financial aid deadline is pretty similar to that. When it comes to early decision, for example, early decision, typically the, um, admissions is due by like November 1st or even earlier. And then the FAFSA and financial aid forms are due either the same date, November 1st or November 15th.

Frank: Um, for early action. Sometimes the FAFSAs do a little bit later. Um, but what you do not wanna do is I wanna wait and see if I get in before I fill out the financial aid forms. Most schools want your financial aid information very early, so if and when you get accepted, they can give you an award letter as well.[00:12:00] 

Frank: When you fill out the fafsa, you have to create what’s called an FSA ID. This is a requirement for both student and one biological parent. Um, if a student, if parents are separated or never married, um, whoever the student lives with, um, 51% of the time should be the parent that completes the FSA ID.

Frank: All the FSA ID is, it’s a fancy term for name and password. Um, so again, the only stipulation is both student and one parent needs to have one. Um, to set it up, you’ll need to enter, um, your name, date of birth, social security number, um, create a username and password, answer a bunch of security questions, check off that you understand it’s a federal form.

Frank: And, and I mean, really, that’s it. Um. Then once you have the FSA ID, both parent and [00:13:00] student, the student can start their section of the FAFSA and then the parent goes in and does theirs. Um, what’s nice about the way it’s set up with the two separate FSA IDs now is, um, both parent and student can do it completely separate.

Frank: It’s not like the student has to log in for the parent or anything like that. Um, the FAFSA the last couple of years, they’ve made a lot of changes to it. It is extremely, um, it’s a lot faster than it used to be. It is, it is a very automatic process because by filling out the FSA ID and then completing the fafsa, it is all linked to your IRS and the tax returns from the required year.

Frank: Um, so a lot of the income questions are gonna be filled out for you because of the backend pulling from the IRS into the fafsa. Um. The FAFSA as a family shouldn’t take more than an hour. Really, probably [00:14:00] 30 minutes is more, is more realistic. Um, the longest part will be the student entering the colleges because a student on their section needs to enter all the colleges they’re applying to.

Frank: And if a student’s applying to 12 or 15 schools, it can be kind of tedious adding the schools. Um, when it comes to the parents’ information, as long as they, their social security is linked to their taxes and the data retrieval, meaning all the tax information is pulled in, there’s only gonna be a handful of questions parents have to answer.

Frank: Typically, it’s going to be what is your cash on hand savings, checking, uh, what’s the total amount of your investments not in count, not counting retirement and the home you live in. Um, so it is a much easier process now.

Frank: Alright, what happens next? Um, what if there’s a change? What common mistakes do families have? What is verification? [00:15:00] So once you submit your fafsa, it will automatically go to whatever schools the student listed. So again, if you, if a student’s applying to 10 schools and they only listed six on the fafsa, once you submit, it’s only going to be available to the six schools listed, but it will only be available to those schools once you submit your application.

Frank: Um, so the, the timeline is kind of like this. You, you do your common app, you enter your application. Once you do that, you’ll be able to set up your online portal and then the systems automatically look for any documents that are required, including the fafsa. Um, so if you apply to a school, couple days later, you submit the fafsa.

Frank: A couple days later, it’ll all be loaded electronically into that school’s, um, into that school so that they can review it. Um, if a financial change happens, or any mistake that you make on the form, once the school has the, [00:16:00] has the, uh, record of the FAFSA mo, any corrections most likely will have to go through the school.

Frank: Um, if it’s a financial change, mo again, most likely it would be something you’d have to discuss with the school, because when you, once you submit the fafsa, it’s based on prior, prior years information. And what that means is, so if you’re a senior right now, and if you’ve already done the FAFSA or you haven’t done it yet, this FAFSA is based on your 2024 income.

Frank: So if you were like, you know, my 24 income, I filed my taxes, um, my 2025, you know, we’re, we’re almost 11 months to 2025. If you were to lose your job tomorrow. You would have to contact as a parent, you, you would’ve to contact the school directly to let them know about the change. And then the school would kind of walk you through how the appeal process works.

Frank: Again, that’s kind of down the line and that’s something we can discuss further, um, further down the line. But [00:17:00] again, most changes, anything that happens once you submit the form or once you’re an applicant with the school, those changes gotta be discussed with the school. Another financial aid form is the CSS profile.

Frank: I know we’re doing more federal form and FAFSA today. Um, but just wanted to put this term on your radar. Um, every single school, if you wanna be determined for, for uh, financial aid or free money, um, is going to require the fafsa. Some schools, in addition to the FAFSA, require the CSS profile. Typically, it’s gonna be your more.

Frank: Expensive, you’re more prestigious. Schools that are harder to get in, but schools that tend to give a lot of money, um, require the CSS profile. It’s kind of like the FAFSA and steroids. Um, you will have to submit everything manually. So unlike the fafsa, if you do the profile, you will have to have your taxes read.

Frank: Electronic copies would be [00:18:00] best, but you know, it will say line 16, go to your taxes. Look at line 16. Put that number in this box. Next question will say, go to box 11 A if there’s a number there, write it here. Um, again, it’s an additional form for schools to determine how much money they want to give you and free money based on financial need.

Frank: And it is through the college board, which most of, uh, the students will already have an account, um, through college Board for the SATs.

Frank: What resources are available for student and families to need help with the FAFSA or financial aid? Obviously us here at College Advisor, um, there is, reaching out to the federal government is actually not an option with doing the form unless you have an issue with your FSA ID or can’t log in or lose a password.[00:19:00] 

Frank: Everything is gonna be through the school, you know, rather you fill out the form incorrectly. Um, or again, there’s been a financial change. Everything is, the FAFSA is a tool that schools that gotta verify that you’ve done that, you’ve done the forms correctly. But once it’s with the school, any changes or any financial questions go through the school, not the government.

Frank: How do we stay organized? Obviously College Advisor. Um, we specialize in keeping you organized through this entire process, um, rather it’s deadlines, paperwork requirements. Um, we typically have you make a college list, and then we have a bunch of things that you add to this list, um, on an, on a, uh, a worksheet type or, or an Excel spreadsheet type situation.

Frank: Um, that will list, you know, admission deadlines, financial aid [00:20:00] deadlines, what forms are required. Um, so we certainly help you keep track. And then as I mentioned before, once you do apply to a school, even before you’re accepted, even before the, the application is looked at, you are going to get an email to set up your online portal and that will have checklists about everything that, that you’ve done or need to do.

Frank: Again, that will be school specific. Um, again, if you apply to a school and you didn’t do the FAFSA or you didn’t add that school to the fafsa, you might be on that school’s web. Like for example, let’s say you were applying to Texas and you submitted an application for Texas. You submitted the fafsa, but you did not add Texas to the fafsa.

Frank: On Texas’s online portal, it’s going to say that you haven’t done the fafsa, and the way you correct that is by going back into the FAFSA and adding the correct school. In this case it would be Texas. Um, but yes, us at College Advisor, we will [00:21:00] help keep you very organized and on track.

Frank: All right, how do I know what I’m gonna pay? Is there any way to know how to, what the cost will be beforehand? Um, net cost or net price calculator. Some schools, um. Call them. You can find this on the college board website. It’s more general. You can go to individual college websites and look for what’s called the net price calculator.

Frank: In those instances, some of them are very detailed, some of them are more generalized, um, or some of them will actually have you put in actual numbers from your taxes and some it will have you say, you know, pick a range. And basically it’s a step-by-step process of, you know, if your income is this, you can expect potentially this much in free money.

Frank: Um, the net price calculator, again, is a tool. Um, schools will not [00:22:00] hold you to, well, the net price calculator said I wanted to pay 2000, but you guys say I have to pay 20. The net price calculator is not really a means for appealing, but it is a tool to you for you to kinda like, hopefully get a general idea.

Frank: Um, full need and debt free. Um, these are some. Terminologies you will see on different schools websites, um, what they mean basically is if a school says all of our award letters are gonna be, are without loans, that just means they’re giving you an award letter without loans included. So, um, federal loans for a freshman are typically, or at maximum, are $5,500, 5,500.

Frank: So what a lot of these schools will do is they’ll give you an award letter just without any loans. So, um, you know, you still may have a large bill due at the school. Let’s say it’s 20,000, but you could get that bill down to 15 if you take out the federal loans, um, [00:23:00] full need. Um, again, this kind of goes back to, um, the student aid index on the FAFSA and the family contribution that’s calculated by the profile.

Frank: If a school says they meet full demonstrated financial need, they meet the full need as determined by the financial aid forms. Again, it can make for some difficult conversations where it’s like, you know, a school could say, Hey, congrats, we met your full need. And, and as a parent you can be like, how do you think I can only, I can afford this much money.

Frank: So it’s not always as, um, you know, nice as it sounds. But yes, meeting full need means they’ve met the full need as demonstrated by the financial aid forms, FAFs fund profile, um, state schools, um, typically, uh, the benefit of going to a state school is going to be obviously the in-state tuition cost. Um, most state schools do not have a [00:24:00] lot of other outside funding, but some do.

Frank: Um, again, when we’re talking private schools, you know, even if you are a resident of the private school, most likely there won’t be a difference between the cost of tuition. Again, some schools are different. Um, so you definitely wanna. Um, be always reviewing the individual financial aid websites at the different schools you are applying to.

Frank: All right. Now back to the how will I pay again? One type of aid is obviously the scholarships. There’s two types of scholarships. One is gonna be institutional and one is external. Institutional are gonna be the automatic scholarships determined by the admissions offices based on your application itself.

Frank: Most schools in the country do not have a separate application for scholarships. When you submit for admissions, um, the college, the admissions advisors are reviewing you not [00:25:00] only for acceptance, they’re also reviewing you for scholarships. Institutional scholarships obviously are for that institution alone.

Frank: Going back to my Texas example, if Texas offers you a scholarship of 20,000 and you’re applying to say Duke, and Duke gives you nothing, if you choose to go to Duke, obviously you can’t take that Texas scholarship with you. You can however, talk to Duke and say, well, Texas gave me a scholarship. Can you help me here?

Frank: But individual institutional scholarships, you know, they’re for that institution. External scholarships are gonna be free money from third party foundations. This can be major companies like Coca-Cola, Dell Computer. Um, sometimes they’re very specific to like, maybe even your church could have some scholarships that they offer.

Frank: Um, external scholarships are a huge opportunity, um, to, to get money to help pay for school. But it’s very rare to find enough external to pay for all of [00:26:00] school. Um. Um, the scholarships, again, most scholarships are gonna be need blind, meaning they’re not looking at your parents’ finances, rather your parents’.

Frank: Finances are good or bad when determining a scholarship. Um, sometimes they can be demographic or regionally based. Okay.

Frank: All right. Now, now, no. Now we’re going back into the need-based aid. Need-based aid. Again, when I say need-based aid, that means money that is free from the school, typically in a grant. Um, that is based on your parents’ finances. There’s institutional grants and then there’s state grants, there’s federal grants, and then there’s can be external grants as well.

Frank: Um, the really the only federal grant there is out there is the federal Pell Grant. By doing the fafsa, you’re going to be determined if you’re eligible for the federal Pell Grant. If the school or the [00:27:00] FAFSA says you’re not eligible for the Pell Grant, it doesn’t mean you’re not eligible for grants from the school.

Frank: It’s just the federal grant you’re not eligible for. Um, again, the proof of financial need is the fafsa, um, your parents’ taxes, and obviously the CSS profile as well.

Frank: Uh, the institutional aid things to know, um, like I said, the need blind means they’re not looking at your finances when the, when determining acceptance. Meeting full need means the full need based on what the financial aid forms say, you can pay zero debt. Again, doesn’t mean that your bill will be zero, it just means the bill won’t include, um, loans on there.

Frank: Um, again, a lot of these, um. A lot of these questions, um, you know, us here at College Advisor, I’m happy to answer, but a lot of times when I’m speaking with our families, [00:28:00] you know, what are your top three schools? Let me pull up their financial aid website. Let’s review this website together so I can tell you exactly what they mean by these terms.

Frank: Um,

Frank: all right, sources of aid. Uh, who else pays? Um, again, third party payers. Again, if you get an outside scholarship from a third party, 99% of the time they’re going to send it the money directly to the school. Rather it’s a paper check, e-payment, um, you know, transfer of funds. Most times co uh, scholarships are not going to send the money directly to the, you know, the 18-year-old kid.

Frank: Um, are they renewable? Are they single year? Are they tuition restricted versus not? Um, that just means some scholarships can only go towards tuition. So if your bill is only room and board, some scholarships won’t apply to you. [00:29:00] Um, institutional aid reduction myth, um, scholar, any scholarship you get will go directly towards your bill.

Frank: The outside scholarships do need to fit within the overall cost of attendance and your financial need. Um, and that, again, that’s more of kind of a detailed question for, for once you get a little deeper into it. Um, as I said, the institutional scholarships are all pretty much reviewed at time of admissions.

Frank: Um, again, they’re going to be looking at not only the GPA and the test scores, but extracurricular. Um, you know, philanthropy, class rank, strength of schedule, things of that nature. And every school can be different based on what they value and for their incoming class. Um, again, external merit scholarships.

Frank: We have a couple websites listed. Um, those sites are where basically as a student you can make a profile and then whenever we [00:30:00] see a new scholarship, if it matches your profile, you get notified, um, it kind of helps, uh, make your search a little easier. And then obviously high school, your high school counselor, and then alumni networks, you know, at the school you wanna apply to.

Frank: Looking outreaching to their alumni network can be huge opportunity as well.

Frank: And how do we help with identifying and applying to scholarships? Like I said, we have a handful of websites. We, we advise you to make profiles on those different websites, get on listservs, get on email, um, get on scholarship emails. Um, a lot of the, um, scholarships these days are not writing essays like they were back in, like when I was applying, or even just as recent as 10 years ago.

Frank: A lot of schools are looking for like 15, 32nd videos of you answering a question that’s given. Um, so again, you wanna make sure [00:31:00] you’re prepped and ready to answer these questions, but you want it to be natural. It’s gonna be on screen. Um, and, and then you submit again, the outside scholarships can be difficult because the.

Frank: Foundation, awarding them can change from year to year, the amount they’re giving and what they’re actually looking for. Um, but we will help you navigate that as well.

Frank: All right. I think I am, uh, to my stop point here. 

Lonnie: Okay? Yes. Thank you, Frank. We’ll be jumping back over to you for our, our live q and a. So with that, I am now gonna turn it over to Sam to talk a little bit about financial literacy and fizz. 

Sam: Hey guys. Um, thank you so much. That, that was lovely. Um, I don’t know, you know, it’s a tough [00:32:00] act to follow, but, uh, I’d love to talk just a little bit about, you know, sort of what I think underpins, um, a lot of what we’ve just talked about.

Sam: Um, ’cause you know. When it comes to, you know, student loans, financial aid, like all that stuff. Um, you know, like I said, what underpins it is a really good sense of how you manage your money, how you manage your finances, and how you think about like your greater, you know, financial picture. And, you know, much like is the case with, uh, student loans, financial aid, like you wanna set yourself up for success in the future.

Sam: Uh, whether that future is a week from now, whether it’s a year from now, or whether it’s 10 years from now. Um, and, you know, that’s a big part of what we do at Fizz. And you know, I, I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they start too late when it comes to thinking about financial literacy and just, [00:33:00] you know, stuff like credit building or stuff like saving or investing.

Sam: Um, ’cause they think, you know, oh, they’re only, you know, I’m only in college. You know, I’m too young. This stuff doesn’t apply to me yet. Um, but it’s true. I mean, finances really will touch every single part of your life. Um, you know, they’re hugely relevant when it comes to picking where you go to school, where you’re gonna live, you’re gonna live with, um, you know what job you’re gonna have, who you’re gonna marry.

Sam: Uh, you know, it, it really, you know, touches every part of life. So you don’t wanna wait until you need financial literacy, until you need credit, until you need money to start thinking about it. Let me get the next slide here. I don’t know if I can do that yet. Um, so that’s where, uh, Fizz comes in. So talk a little bit about, uh, Fizz company that I work for.

Sam: Um. Fizz started about four years ago with the mission to be a financial ally, uh, for young adults and college students like yourselves. [00:34:00] Um, we started with the idea of, you know, credit cards and credit building is really tough and you know, it’s not always accessible to young adults and college students.

Sam: You know, I know that I got denied for credit cards when I was younger. Um, it’s not always straightforward. You know, people get credit cards when they’re in college and they run up big balances and they don’t realize they have to pay them off and they don’t realize all the fees that come along with them.

Sam: And before they know it, they’re under mountains of credit card debt. So we said, what can we do to strip out all of these sort of negatives? From the credit building process, uh, leave all the good parts that are necessary. ’cause credit cards are a tool. Um, you know, like, like anything like they can be used for good, they can be used for bad, everything in between.

Sam: So what we did is we built a credit card optimized for college students and young adults. So a normal credit card has typically [00:35:00] lots of hidden fees. Um, they require credit checks or co-signers for young adults and college students. That can be hard because if you don’t have any credit history, it can be, you know, you need a credit history in order to get a credit card and you need a credit card in order to get credit history.

Sam: It’s kind of a classic catch 22. Um, you know, they make it really easy for you to build up big balances. ’cause unlike using a normal debit card that pulls directly from your checking account, uh, you know, you’re spending on a line of credit that, you know, feels like somebody else’s money. So he said, how can we make all of these things.

Sam: Better. How can we strip out the bad parts and leave the good parts? Um, and what we came up with was the fizz card. Um, what makes Fizz special is that we look at your bank account when we give you a line of credit, so we don’t check your credit. Uh, you don’t need a co-signer. Um, it’s truly accessible to young adults and college students, people who are just starting out.

Sam: Um, you get a credit limit based on how much you actually actually have in your bank account, [00:36:00] which is notably different from how things are done with a normal credit card where you just get kind of a big line of credit. You’re expected use for an entire month, um, and not have to worry about paying back until the end of that month.

Sam: You know, good for some people, but for a lot of people, you end up spending more than maybe you realize you’re unable to make your payments at the end of the month. You end up carrying a balance. You end up paying interest. It’s exactly what credit cards. Want you to do. We don’t even have interest rates and we operate on a daily payment cycle.

Sam: Um, so inclu, along with that smart spend limit that has to, it’s based on how much you actually have, not just some arbitrary number, um, you know, to keep you from overspending. You go out and spend $50 today, that is withdrawn at the end of every day. So you’re starting every day with a $0 balance, uh, on your fizz card and an accurately reflected checking account.

Sam: And there’s, you know, much less risk, risk [00:37:00] of overspending. So, yeah, you can think of it kind of like a credit card, but with guardrails. Um, and so that’s like where started, right? But we didn’t wanna stop there. And so, you know. What we’ve done is we’ve built out a bunch of other important financial resources to help people get ahead and stay ahead.

Sam: Personal finance courses, trivia, uh, credit monitoring, uh, budgeting, spend tracking. Uh, we’ve even built an AI financial wellness coach slash advisor. Um, and, you know, we’re just getting started. So it’s, it’s, it’s exciting times and, um, you know, we’re very excited to, to, you know, partner with College Advisor and, um, you know, offer the Fizz card to you guys.

Sam: Um, you know, we obviously think it’s a really good place to start your financial journey. You know, there’s a lot of things along that path, like, you know, uh, financial aid and student [00:38:00] loans included. Um, but, you know, credit building, uh, and just like money management is definitely not too far behind. Um, so, you know.

Sam: With, uh, uh, with our College Buyer Advisor partnership, you actually get a $40 signup bonus when you, um, sign up for a Fizz membership and get a Fizz card. So that’s exciting stuff. And, uh, yeah, uh, you know, very excited about this partnership and, uh, like very excited about what it’s done for a lot of young adults and college students.

Sam: And you know what it can potentially do for, for, for you guys? 

Lonnie: Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much Sam. And so we have the QR code here on the screen and so please, um, go ahead and scan it. Um, and if you happen to miss it as I move on to the next slide, again, it will be in the handout. Um, and so Sam and Frank are gonna be around and they’ll be able to answer any of your questions because we are now [00:39:00] gonna move into our live question and answer.

Lonnie: So how this is gonna work, I am going to read the question that you wrote in the q and a tab. We may not get to every question, but we’re definitely gonna try our best. Um, and so once I read out loud, I’ll also paste it into the public chat for you to be able to see it. Alright, so I’m gonna move to my first question actually.

Lonnie: Um. Have this question go to Sam. So like, what’s the recommended strategy for managing credit cards responsibly as a student without, you know, building up so much debt, 

Sam: you wanna think about everything you spend as being your own money. I think really where people get into trouble is they think, oh, this is a credit card.

Sam: This isn’t my money. Um, there’s a lot of benefits to having a credit card. Um, you know, I’m a big credit in my personal life, a big credit card. It’s points and miles person. So, you know, like I use my credit card rewards to [00:40:00] travel and that’s a benefit, uh, that I get. But like, I’ve never paid a single cent in interest or like payment fees or any of these things.

Sam: Um, you know, because if you stay on top of it, you can really make credit cards work for you. So I really think it’s just, it’s about that mindset at the end of the day. Like, like any tool, uh, you know, it’s kind of as complex as you want to make it. Um. I think particularly with finance, things get complicated and, and, and people think that the, like they have to be an expert in order to do something, but no, there, there’s not really any special, uh, trick to it other than just saying, okay, I went and I spent a hundred dollars today, um, and I put it on my credit card and I would’ve done the same thing if I had just been using cash or if I’d just been using my debit card.

Sam: You just don’t want to think about it differently. You wanna make sure that you know what you’re spending and that you can afford it. And you know, aside from that, everything else should be equal. 

Lonnie: Nice. Nice. All right. Thank you so much. [00:41:00] All right, so moving to our next question for Frank. Um, this question reads, and of course, you know, with financial aid, Frank, you know, sometimes there’s gonna be very specific questions, so I’m gonna try my best to make them a little more general.

Lonnie: Um, but what if your 2025 income was much lower than your 2024 income and you’re a senior now, and you haven’t filed the FAFSA yet, can you indicate the lower income? 

Frank: Uh, short answer is no, but this is a question I get quite regularly. So, um, when you are filling out the fafsa, again, it’s all gonna be linked to the tax return for that specific year.

Frank: So you don’t really have an option, like if your, if your child’s gonna be a se, uh, you know, if your, if your child is graduating this coming spring and they’re gonna be a fall 26. Uh, student applicant, then they have to do the FAFSA with 2024. Um, if, you [00:42:00] know, your 2025 is going to be less, that’s a conversation you can have with schools even before your child’s accepted to the school.

Frank: But most likely you’re gonna get a response of, you know, number one, some schools can simply be like, you don’t even have an award letter yet. There’s nothing to appeal. So they could be kind of like, kind of push you away in that, in that sense, most schools will say something like, we can totally take into account your changing income that happened in 2025, but we can’t do anything until you file your taxes.

Frank: So meaning you might have to make your decision on school with whatever their initial award letter is, um, and then appeal. Fully appeal once you, you know, file your taxes as quickly as you can for 2025. Um, and that, and that depends like, you know, if your regular decision, you sh you know, you should be fine waiting until February to make your decision on school.

Frank: You know, if you’re an early decision or early, early action, you might have to make your decision without the appeal being [00:43:00] reviewed yet. Um, but yeah, so schools will definitely take into account your lower income year, but they need some sort of documentation. Same thing if like, you lost your job tomorrow and your 2025 is gonna look relatively the same, you can still reach out to the school, tell them about your loss of job and then, and then they can use estimates that you give them to try and figure out what your 2026 income can look like.

Frank: But if it’s strictly like 2025, we made $20,000 less, nine times out of 10, the school will say, once you file your 2025 taxes, get us those copies and we can use those instead of 2020. 

Lonnie: Right. Thank you. 

Frank: Try to make that as quick as possible. 

Lonnie: No, I, I understand. No, no, no. But it, it gave our audience the information they needed.

Lonnie: Um, so next question for Sam. How does FIS prevent overspending or debt? Like what guard rails do you use? 

Sam: Yeah, so it’s a great question. Um, like I said, we [00:44:00] linked to your connected bank account and you’re available to spend. Balance is based on that balance. So if you have a hundred dollars in your bank account, um, your spend limit is gonna be a hundred dollars minus any like outstanding purchases you have on, on the card from that day.

Sam: So, you know, if you go and spend $10 on coffee or something, um, then, you know. The spend limit will go down by $10. Um, it’s a real like, sort of welcome departure from how a normal credit card works, which is basically just, you know, you usually have a pretty large credit limit, um, you know, relatively, and you know, you can spend as much as you want against that credit limit.

Sam: We think that’s kind of irresponsible. So we like to say, Hey, you have this amount of money, like, don’t spend more than that. Um, so that’s kind of a, you know, it’s a central, central part of what makes Fizz awesome. 

Lonnie: [00:45:00] Nice. I love that. I love that. Um, okay, so next question. This is for Frank. Do you need to apply through FAFSA for each school year or do you need to apply for scholarships for each year?

Lonnie: So kind of two questions. Do you need to apply through FAFSA for each school year and do you need to apply for scholarships each year? 

Frank: Um, yeah, if you get any type of aid from a school. That’s need based, then yes, you have to do the FAFSA every year. Now, if you fill out the FAFSA and don’t get any money from the school, um, meaning your income’s too high or whatever, then no, you don’t have to.

Frank: But if you get any financial aid, yes, FAFSA every year. Um, number two, um, you should not stop applying for scholarships just because you finished your freshman year. Um, you can apply for scholarships all the way through your senior year of college and even like, you know, grad school and stuff like that.

Frank: So never stop applying for scholarships. Now, depending on the scholarship [00:46:00] itself could change. There was that one slide about like, is it, is it repeatable? Is it yearly? Is it a, sometimes a scholarship will say, you know, we’re, if you get this award, you get. $20,000 and you can choose to get it five, five KA year or 20 k for year one.

Frank: Um, some schools will, some scholarships will say, this is a $5,000 scholarship just for freshman year. Some will say it’s a 2000 per year. It’s all gonna be kind of in the, the fine prints not the right word, but based on the third party, uh, found foundation and what their rules are. 

Lonnie: Alright, thank you. Um, okay.

Lonnie: So, um, to Sam and the, you know, a question around financial literacy. Uh, what are the biggest mistakes you see students make when building credit for the first time? 

Sam: That’s a really good question. Um, honestly, not to reuse an answer here, but I think thinking [00:47:00] of the credit card as like something different in terms of like where the money is coming from, um, at the end of the day, like credit card’s, a tool and one of.

Sam: Things it can be used for is credit building, but at the end of the day, it’s like, it’s still money. The same way that you would spend money any other way. Um, so I think that like, that’s one of the biggest mistakes that I see is like people get sort of like excited in the wrong ways and, and think this, you know, I have a credit card that means I have more money now, or that means I can spend differently.

Sam: It really shouldn’t mean any of those things. Um, it really should just be another card in your wallet. But I think that’s, uh, that’s really one of the biggest mistakes is like thinking that, you know, it’s different now. That’s when people have actually started building credit. Right. I really think the best answer to this question is people who don’t get started at all until it’s too late.

Sam: I mean, you would not believe the number of people that I talked to, [00:48:00] 18, 19, 20 or 20 years old, uh, finishing up high school, going to college, who say, oh, well I shouldn’t get a credit card now because like, I, you know, I’m too young. That’s just baloney, frankly. I mean, there’s really, as soon as you turn 18, like it’s a good idea to get your own line of credit, uh, your own credit card, learn how to use it, learn how to build credit, learn how the whole ecosystem works.

Sam: Like it can only help you. Uh, you don’t want to be in a situation where you’re waiting too long. So I think that really is the biggest sort of error I see people make when it comes to credibility. 

Lonnie: Nice. Thank you so much for those pointers. Um, all right, so we’re gonna move over to Frank. And this question says, does your financial aid package at the time of accepting a school as a freshman adjust automatically if the cost of the school increases year after year?

Frank: That’s a [00:49:00] good question. It’s more about the family contribution and the student aid index number where, um, if. If nothing changes in your parents’ financial situation, then the bill should not change at these schools. Meaning if, you know, if the, if the cost goes up and your income stayed the same, then your aid in theory will go up slightly to help kind of go up with that change in, in tuition.

Frank: But it’s all based on the FAFSA and the profile that student aid index and family contribution of, of what can you pay and if what you can pay for school stays the same, then your bill will stay the same. 

Lonnie: All right. Uh, next question, uh, for you, Frank, is, uh, what are the most common mistakes students make when filling out the FAFSA and how can they avoid them?

Frank: So the more [00:50:00] common mistakes are on the CSS profile, to be honest with you, because that form is so much more manual now with the fafsa. If, if, again, as long as you filed taxes on time, they were accepted by the federal government. And there’s no like issues there. There’s really no very little room for error for the income numbers themselves on the fafsa.

Frank: The most common is like honestly overestimating. I, I put my retirement into my, into the savings amount. In the end, they asked about my investments and I put my, uh, my 401k, um, or, you know, a very common question I get is like, because the fafsa, when they ask for your asset values, it’s one is just like, you know, cash, savings, whatever.

Frank: And then there’s one question about like investments, but they, you’re supposed to also put any other real estate or any other property you have rather it’s a rental property or a vacation home or what have [00:51:00] you. Technically the equity you have in there should be reported and a lot of times family put the equity they have in the home, they live.

Frank: It. So that’s a pretty common mistake as well. Um, and when you’re filling out the fafsa, the FAFSA is obviously based on the prior, prior income, but as far as filling out the savings, it’s technically as of that day, you’re filling it out. What is your savings account look like? So again, it’s, it’s quite confusing where it’s like, well, you want my income for a year and a half ago, but you want my savings from today?

Frank: Um, the savings doesn’t need to be an exact number. Um, and, and at any time during their financial review, a school can ask you for like bank statements to review what your savings is. In most cases, schools are not verifying that information, but they, they can, um, again, the FAFSA is like a tool for a school to say, how much free money do we want to give this family?

Frank: Really what they’re asking is, do we wanna [00:52:00] discount our tuition? To help this family out based on their finances. So when it comes to like a school’s institutional or their own grant funding, they really have free reign to do what they want. But they use the FAFSA as a tool so they can’t like over award you federally.

Frank: A lot of schools have that kind of, you know, uh, uh, they’ll use that kind of terminology when they’re explaining like, you know, ’cause I used to be an advisement and someone would say, well, isn’t it your money? Can’t you give us whatever you want? It’s like, yes, but it has to fall within the regulations set by the school and by the federal government.

Frank: So, but yeah. 

Lonnie: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Great tips and suggest suggestions. Excuse me. Okay. Um, this question is for Sam. Um, and it’s kind of coming from a perspective of a, a parent. Um, are there any red flags parents should look out for that indicate that their student is mismanaging their credit early?[00:53:00] 

Lonnie: Oh 

Sam: family. 

Lonnie: Lemme unmute you. So sorry, Sam, can you repeat that? You were muted. 

Sam: Oh, 

Lonnie: sorry. You’re on muted now. 

Sam: Sorry. Um, yeah, so it’s, it’s interesting ’cause at the end of the day, stuff like that really comes down to, you know, parent kid dynamics because like, the interesting part about credit building and like financial literacy in general is like there’s only so much that somebody else can do for you.

Sam: Um, you know, I can’t really have somebody else build credit for me. Uh, you know, it just doesn’t necessarily work that way. Um, so like, ultimately if you wanna build a robust credit profile, you have to open up lines of credit on your own. Now how much, sort of like, oversight you want there to be from your parent or you know, to your kid if you are a parent?

Sam: It’s kind of up to you. [00:54:00] Um, and so I would, you know, encourage everybody to be very open about these conversations and have these conversations and talk about these types of things, because that’s another big mistake that’s kind of in the same vein, um, of like not starting early, um, is, you know, money is kind of taboo.

Sam: People don’t like to talk about it. And I think the more that you can kind of push back against that, the better. Uh, the more that we can talk about these things, the better. Um, because then you can get to a place where, you know, as a student you’re building credit responsibly on your own, but you have a sort of comfortable amount of oversight from, you know, parent guardian, whoever trusted adult, uh, who can sort of monitor to make sure that you’re, you’re doing things okay.

Sam: Um, but you know, it’s a little scary, but you know, ultimately. You do have to go at some of this stuff alone. [00:55:00] Um, even if there is like, you know, sort of a helping hand. But again, that’s why tools like Fizz I think are really great. You know, make it as easy as possible, you know, not to get into hot water.

Lonnie: Great. Great. That’s super helpful. Okay. I am going to share more about the work that we do here within CollegeAdvisor, and then we’ll be able to take maybe just like one more, one or two more questions. So if you haven’t asked your question, please do so now. Um, so the work that we do here within college advisors, so for those who are in the room who, um, you know.

Lonnie: Aren’t already working with us, we know how overwhelming the admission process can be. And CollegeAdvisor’s team of over 300 former admission officers and admission experts are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admission process in 1-on-1, advising sessions [00:56:00] and essay editing through our digital platform, college advisor has had over 10,000 total lifetime clients and a 4.8 out of five rating on trust pilot with over 750 reviews.

Lonnie: After analyzing our 2023 through 2025 data, we found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor have, um, who have a strong academic and uh, testing record are 2.6 times more likely, uh, to be admitted to an Ivy League around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and around five times more likely to get into John Hopkins, UCLA and NYU when compared to national acceptance rates.

Lonnie: Increase your odds and take the next step in your college admission journey by signing up for a free 60 minute strategy session with an admission specialist from our team by using this QR code. [00:57:00] During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out.

Lonnie: At the end, you’ll also learn more about our premium packages and how we pair you with an expert who will support you with building your college list, editing your essays, and much, much more. As well as we do have our financial aid specialty team, so you can have the opportunity to work a little bit more with our team, including Frank.

Lonnie: We are here for the entire process. Okay. So with that, I am, we’re gonna take one more question, and I kind of condensed this question a little bit. It’s, it’s kind of specific, but I, I know it’s relevant. Um, so this question is coming from a divorce family. Um, and this is for Frank, a divorced family where one [00:58:00] parent qualifies for a very low SAI on the fafsa.

Lonnie: But the CSS profile may reduce aid because it considers both parents. Um, one parent has also had a one-time severance that inflated this year’s income. Um, how can they clearly explain this to the colleges and is there an opportunity for them to appeal it so that they can get a better financial aid package?

Lonnie: Um, and you can keep it as general as possible if, if you want. Yeah, 

Frank: I’m gonna. As you guys are probably hearing, I, it’s hard for me to explain things in just a couple words, so I’m gonna try my best. Um, okay. Anything that’s a severance, anything that’s a one-time increase in income, um, where it’s, it’s an abnormal situation that is completely appealable.

Frank: Um, most schools on their appeal letter, a couple of things that are standard are gonna be like loss of job, reduction in income, one time boost in income, um, a large severance [00:59:00] along with like not replacing that job. Those are two, those are two out of like the five main appeal reasons. So yes, again, same idea.

Frank: Most likely it’s gonna take a conversation with the school on the phone and something in writing and some sort of documentation. But yes, completely, uh, to do that. Going back to the, uh, separated households. Now, if. Yes, if the school is FAFSA and profile, they’re going to get both biological parents information anyway, so it’s kind of a moot point.

Frank: Um, uh, a lot of times what happens is, like if it’s completely split custody, schools will ask you who, you know, there’s an odd number of days in the year. Who did you live with? 51% of the time to figure out who, like parent A or parent one or household parent is has nothing to do with who claims a child on, on the taxes.

Frank: It has to do with like, uh, domicile basically. Um, what I [01:00:00] try and tell families if they’re like, it’s a, it’s an even split. We both live in the district. I kind of go back to, you know, where do report cards go, sent home from the high school, um, you know, who’s, what address did you use on the admissions application?

Frank: Because sometimes if you have like. Mom is the as parent one on the fafsa, but dad is parent one on the profile. Schools will go back to the admissions essay and be like, well, on the admissions essay you had dad’s address, so he should be parent one. Very long-winded way of saying, um, uh, if it’s, if it’s the CSS profile school, it’s gonna be a moot point because both parents’ information is gonna get weighted.

Frank: If it’s a FAFSA only school, um, you know, as long as you live with the parent, that’s the lower income. 51% of the time you’re completely allowed to use that parent on the fafsa. Um, [01:01:00] just again, if a school digs deeper and see and sees, you know, let’s say dad’s a lower income and you use dad on the fafsa, but it’s mom’s address on the admissions application, you may just need to explain to them why you changed it, which in most cases is just gonna be some sort of a letter, but.

Frank: Again, it’s that, it’s, that’s kind of like a, a, a tricky subject. Um, and it becomes even more tricky if like one parent’s not in the picture, um, rather, you know, remove themself from the picture when the student was a child or just not supportive. It, it’s, it’s a very, it’s a question that I can help answer.

Frank: Uh, you know, I was a child of divorce myself, so it’s, I know it’s a very sensitive subject. Um, and the financial aid office will ask you some pretty detailed questions about your situation, so just be prepared for that, I guess. 

Lonnie: Awesome. Well, thank you [01:02:00] so much, Frank, for sharing your insight, your knowledge, your expertise, um, through this webinar this evening.

Lonnie: And thank you Sam as well for sharing with our audience more about this as well as providing some financial literacy, uh, tips for our students and for our parents. Um, we are now at the end of our webinar and so this webinar is being recorded so you are able to view it beginning tomorrow on the College advisor website by looking at our webinar resources.

Lonnie: And so with that, thank you all so much and thank you both Sam and Frank. Have a great evening. Goodbye. 

Frank: Bye y’all. Thank you. 

Lonnie: Bye.