Comments on: The FAFSA

By: sandi

sandi — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:12:26 +0000

You know, since I wrote this post, I had to go into the Family All Sacred Papers Folder (you know, the one with the birth certificates and social security cards, etc.) and THERE was a piece of paper with all our PIN numbers on it.

Jenny, I’ve heard that there’s a bill up before Congress to allow people just to check something on their tax return, saying, “Show this to FAFSA.” So maybe you’ll never have to do this!

Sexkitten, thank you for your good wishes, and thanks for visiting my blog.

Kathy, I did the same thing with my email address–have it linked to a service that I’m always just about to leave, except for the horror of changing my email address.

Susan, I have a whole notebook page of passwords and logins–why didn’t I think to put the PIN numbers there?? I look at that all the time! I’m going to add them there right now.

Heather,not that I am any great expert (obviously) but a friend of mine lost all her passwords, etc., when her computer crashed and she’d had them all stored there. But maybe if your email address is one you can get to easily, on any computer, you’re safe there.

Nancy, it’s a deal. You take mine, and I’ll take yours.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:46:40 +0000

Mine and first child’s have been on my white board for so long that I don’t think it would erase even if I were foolish enough to try it. How about this–you store a copy of mine, and I’ll store a copy of yours, and then we’ll both have a backup.

By: Heather Porterfield

Heather Porterfield — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:11:19 +0000

Ok, the horrors of the FAFSA are on the horizon of our future. Our high school junior will need scads of government monies (because he is a lazy, no scholarship having doody). Suggestions for password accessibility– we keep ours written in the back of our big checkbook. We always know where that bad boy is. My personal necessary information is stored neatly in a little online folder in my email. Not anything anyone could use to GET anything from me, just stuff I know I will never find again otherwise. Congratulations for being ahead of the game!

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:47:39 +0000

Try a small index card notebook to write down ALL important passwords and user id’s.Just slip this into a drawer in your computer desk and NEVER move it. Really a good system!

By: Kathy Holmes

Kathy Holmes — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:30:22 +0000

Ouch! That sounds so painful. I think I’d rather take myself out to dinner.

In addition to PIN numbers, what about accounts set up by phone numbers or email addresses – as if you’d never move and change either one. Well, if I’d known we’d live in 6 different states since 2000, I wouldn’t have been able to do much about the phone number, but I’d have chosen an email address that would never change – instead of using the local internet provider. Finally learned that lesson and now we’ll probably never move again.

By: sexkitten

sexkitten — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:05:32 +0000

I’ve heard horror stories. Hope everything works out for you.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:28:13 +0000

I am not only kissing the ground; I am praying that the next President will eliminate FAFSA and allow people to send info the FAFSA agency via their tax forms. Or even the President after that. I’ve 12 years before my first FAFSA.

By: sandi

sandi — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:45:34 +0000

Ah, the bulletin board! THAT’S where I’ll put the pin numbers! You are very smart.
Another thing: why do YOU get until March 15, when I had to rush to get the taxes done by March 1st?
And I have some good news for you: when your kid goes to grad school, you don’t have to do the FAFSA anymore. Plus, the grad schools don’t care about your income; they think the kid should pay his own way.

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:38:57 +0000

The key to never losing your FAFSA pin number is to have a bulletin board near the computer and never take anything off the bulletin board. Yes, it means that I have to go through piles of crap to find our PIN numbers, but I know that somewhere in the piles lies the numbers that I desperately need. Actually, I don’t know that I desperately need it, since I never seem to get the money that I’m sure I deserve. But I like to imagine that at some point they (whoever “they” are) will realize that I am deserving of tons of money. So I return to my bulletin board, year after year, and complete the paperwork prior to the deadline. The majority of the world views March 15 as the Ides of March, but those of us with college age children know that it is the FAFSA deadline. Like you, I am grateful that my child is a junior in college and that I will only have to complete this God-forsaken form one more time. What kind of mother am I? I’m praying that he decides to never go to graduate school. God forgive me!