nobody to discuss this with

[skyking]

First off, sorry to hear about this ton of crap. Seriously I am sorry.
Maybe you'll have to put off school for a year. Worse things could happen.
It would get you to a place where your FAFSA would be OK.

 

[angminas]

Short response- your family sounds pretty insane, and you should choose to view this opportunity to cut financial ties with them as a good thing. Once you get on your feet, I predict you will feel waves of relief and consider it a good bargain in the end.

 

[grohl]

he'll gordon gekko his way back, just you wait.

 

[Alex@Nosound]

So your step father lost it all due to stupidity

a good chair across the head should help him out.

 

[ViRGE]

Have you talked to the financial aid officers at the college you want to transfer to? Your specific situation is extraordinary, but I'm quite sure you're not the first person to have parents that won't contribute to their child's college tuition.

 

[chusteczka]

What type of bonds were given by your grandparents? Government, corporate, municipal, other ... How was your stepfather able to cash in a piece of paper with your name on it and a time limit before it could be cashed in?

Your car is in good shape. Keep it. It is a good asset. You will need it to travel to school and to summer jobs. Good luck getting anywhere without it in this society of personal transportation.

It sounds like you are/were pretty affluent, yet the rest of your family has no concern for helping to finance your education? That does not make sense.

The rest of your family was not watching this man control these finances?

Your mom gave financial control of her and her child's assets to a second spouse? Second spouses are rarely known for much time before a divorcee jumps into a permanent relationship. I would think any reasonable person would retain control of their own assets after going through a divorce. That is just normal self-preservation. (I assume parents went through divorce due to having both a step-mom and a step-dad.)

You family seems to be surrounded by people taking advantage of you. i.e. your stepdad and stepmom. Where is the common sense to prevent this? Why are these strangers being given free reign to family assets. Something is seriously wrong here.

I call shens on this thread.

Public schools require a FAFSA. Private schools are not required to use a FAFSA and have their own methods of determining financial aid that may be of benefit to you in this situation. Try talking to financial aid counselors, both public and private, to see if you can change your status to independent. They are probably calculating financial aid for next year right now. This is the time to talk to them.

Are you sure the stepfather "lost" the money or did he transfer it elsewhere outside of your knowledge? Maybe you can sue him for financial irresponsibility. It seems it is time for you to become financially independent.

The military provides the GI Bill and other financial college incentives. Often individual states will pay for educational expenses for returning veterans.

Get a job during the summer, and take loans during the school semester. Preferably government subsized loans.

Study and earn scholarships.

Move out of your rented house and find a roommate to share an apartment with.

It is time for you to grow up and gain control of your life. It seems you will have to work like the rest of us now. There really is little problem, assuming you still have your health, mind, and the ability to complete your education. You can get financial aid in some form, even loans, to complete your education. Then you can pay it all off with your new job after graduation.

This seems workable to me.


Edit:
How did you file your FAFSA for next year if you have known about this situation for 5 months already? You should have already taken care of your financial aid problem when you properly filled out the FAFSA form at tax time with the information you were aware of. You should have been asking these questions two months ago.

 

[Born2bwire]

How do you know? haha

OP, paying for college, like Rumpltzer said, should be relatively easy if you're independent from your parents. If you're doing FAFSA, it might not be easy to prove you're independent given their definition of it. Good luck and sorry to hear about your mishap.

Probably easier said than done. I know that even if he is not claimed or even eligible to be a dependent he will normally still have to include his parents income as a factor for his FASFA. The only way I was going to be considered to be independent was by turning 26. I am sure that there are ways that he can be deemed as being financially independent but it is not going to be a simple as a check box on the FASFA form.

He should definitely sit down and do a consultation with the school's financial aid department. One thing he might be able to do is work full time for a year and try again next year. His stepfather's finances should catch up to him at that point and he could expect that his parents' income is not significant enough to affect his aid package. Then again, unless he can be considered as an independent for the FASFA, he still needs to get a copy of his stepdad's tax forms and if his stepdad is just doing his taxes now... I got screwed this way myself as I did not qualify for some grants because my dad did not file his taxes in time for the deadlines. I was able to cover it with subsidized loans but still that was debt I didn't have to take on.

Personally, if I only had the option of selling my car and financing a single semester I would just take the year to work full time. I do not see any way you could easily scrounge up the money for a second semester in a few months without taking on large number of loans (and with a reduced aid package they would have to be from private institutions at higher interest rates). So then you are left with 9 months of nothing and no car. It also sounds like it's going to take some time to get everything back in order and holding onto the car (it is in the OP's name I hope) and taking on a full time job will allow him to remain financially stable and will give him time to try and work out what he needs to do.

He could even shoot to join in the spring semester if he needs more time but he would need to work out his financial aid now.

 

[mvbighead]

Until this year I have been on my father's insurance, which entailed my stepmother (the evil bitch) committing insurance fraud (since she didn't pay for half of my schooling) to claim me as a dependent and let me on the family insurance policy.

This year I can no longer be claimed as a dependent due to my age. Due to my parent's tax returns from the past year, (1.2ishM on stepdad and 750ishK on stepmom) I do not qualify for any financial aid for next year. Neither side of my family will give me money for school. I cannot qualify for FAFSA due to parental income.

Hence my inability to make a rational and sound decision on my own. None of my friends know about any of this so I can't talk to them.

Dude, all I can say is WTF.

Maybe I am misreading what you are putting down, but how in the blue frick can someone be moving that kind of money ($1,200,000 and $750,000) and have any justification in not supporting your education. My parents combined don't come close to that (or even half of the lesser amount), and they helped me with the bits I couldn't get onto student loans or cover myself.

As far as your situation sounds, I would get as far away from those parents as I could. Sounds like money might be a little too important (or not important enough in your stepdad's case) to them.

As far as schooling, I went to a state university with a good computer science and MIS department. Tuition for 5 years wasn't quite 30k I believe. It wasn't MIT or anything, but in most cases, all you need is a good school with a good program in your field of study, and it'll get you on your way to where you want to go.

I'd also suggest finding an employer who does tuition reimbursement. That'll probably help you out the most.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

long story short. My stepfather blew approximatively $7.5 million trading on the margin in the past two years, against all advice. This includes all of my savings, all of my mom's savings. Everything. I've bottled this up for a long time, I know I'm not going to get much sympathy here, but I need to talk to someone who understands about this. I'm 24, am about to sell my car to continue college (I took a couple years off) but I really need someone to talk to about everything. All my friends have no clue about anything to do with this, I don't want to let people I know know about this for fear of social repercussions.

This is anonymous enough that I don't have to worry about people I know IRL learning about this.

I have empathize, losing your money to your parent's dumbassery hurts, but:

It is just fucking money dude.

At 24, think about it, how much more productive life do you have left?

It's just money.

So you can't buy what you want; you are smart enough that you won't starve, even if you have to work to get through university at half-speed.

it is just money.

No matter what happens in life, the biggest thing in your would could seem to be your pocket book, but in the end:

it is just money.

who cares? it isn't life, it isn't family, it isn't what's important. Who you love is what is important: and who has loved you.

don't let money rule your life... it's just a way to keep score and guess what? that game doesn't matter to what is truly important.

 

[heat901]

I am 26 still in school and living at home. At age 24 the school system consider you independent, but to get my father medical insurance he had to declare me for his tax return. When I hit 25, I was dropped from his coverage and just grabbed some crap medical from the school. When you file your fafsa you do not have to put your family or parents income in there because they consider you to be independant now. Depending on how much you make a year, what school you go to and if you live on your own you could get a free ride. My friend waited till she was 24 to go back to school because her father wouldnt cosign on loans. Because of her job(bartender on the books making less than 10k), her going to a state school and living on her own she is getting a free ride. Me on the other hand, I am going to a private school, made between 17 to 24k a year since I start going to school and living with my parents..all I get are federal loans and some small grants.

Just fill out the FAFSA!!!! The school will not do anything till you fill it out and see what they can do. Worse comes to worse you take out some private loans which I had to do. Just remember do not put your parents finances in there and make sure when your tax return comes around you declare independant and such.

 

[rasczak]

You are your own person. You do not need anyone elses money to get you where youw ant to go. Make your own path in life now and make decisions based solely for yourself. At least you are young. Had this happened at 55 instead, then I would be worried about the my financial future. At this moment in your life, you have plenty of time to recover from this loss. As for school, if you cannot afford to go full time, then go part time and take on a full time job to help pay for and save for school. You have plenty of options available to you, you just need to take a step back and think about it.

If you need to, go see the school counselor. Maybe they can give you a tip or two.

Good luck, it's not the end of the world. Remember that.

 

[Matthiasa]

You know you could always explain everything to whoever deals with you schools financial aid.
Odds off if you have proof of everything that will be at least somewhat understanding.