Also, I frequently change my bio on fastWEB so as to broaden my eligibility. My area is management information systems and business, but I recently added education to see if any other scholarships would pop up. The modifications have already garnered another 20 sources.
What to Avoid: Unsolicited offers. Since I've applied for the AVON Scholarship, I've received a couple of offers that loosely matched the scam alerts written by Mark Kantrowitz on the Financial Aid Information Page http://www.finaid.org/ . They said they could get me a scholarship regardless of my background; they had typographical errors; they wanted me to send a $35 fee. Those are three of Kantrowitz's warning signals, so I dumped the offers.
Coordinates: Sherry Bradford, jmarket@uoknor.edu
Bonus Education Site: The Financial Aid Information Page, http://www.finaid.org/
Check Out: The 41 different calculators that help you do everything from estimating your family contribution to comparing monthly payments for loans with different terms and interest rates. The College Cost Projector shows that if you're expecting a new child in the next nine months, the total costs of educating that child will be $339,534 for four years of private college or $159,527 for four years of public college.
Webhead: Pat Lottier, 47, publisher of the Atlanta Tribune in Atlanta, Georgia.
Financial Headache: Trying to file my 1995 taxes before the final extension date of October 15, 1996.
Favorite Web Site: It was October 1 and I had just two weeks before the last extension deadline. I fooled around on the Internet and came across NetTax http://www.vni.net/~nettax/ . It's a free program, designed by an accounting student at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, that calculates your taxes and helps prepare your 1040. I spent four or five hours going through the questions and charts, including one where you input values for 14 different deductions -- each deduction is linked to its IRS definition. Then I printed out my 1040 form and the schedules for rental income, capital gains, and home business using Adobe Acrobat. I put dummy numbers in when I didn't really know what I should say, and I came away with a rough estimate. It gave me peace of mind, because I realized I was going to get a refund!
I had three unusual situations that I couldn't find answers to online, so I met with a tax consultant. He asked a few questions, and we had my taxes done in two hours. NetTax saved me a lot of time and money. And if you have a relatively simple form with, say, just one extra schedule, NetTax can handle it all for you.
Tip: Gather returns from the last three years and all of your tax forms before going on the system. If you have everything right there, you can probably figure out your taxes in an hour. It took me five hours because I didn't have all my paperwork.
What to Avoid: I came across two or three tax accountant sites that promised to do my taxes for X amount of money -- that's not for me. I'm not going to send my tax information and my money without really knowing the people.
Coordinates: Pat Lottier, plottier@mindspring.com
Bonus Tax Site Ernst & Young Tax and Financial Planning Corner (http://www.wiley.com/ey/ey.html)
Check Out: The 50 Overlooked Deductions, including tax preparation fees, cleaning services when traveling, contact lenses, depreciation of home computers, employee educational expenses, business gifts of $25 or less per recipient, cellular telephones, employment agency fees, and points on a home mortgage.
Coordinates: Pat Lottier, plottier@mindspring.com
Eric Matson is a member of the Fast Company editorial staff.
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