Thinking About Using Your IRA to Pay for A College Student’s Tuition? Make Sure You Evaluate Your Options First

Approaching the overwhelming cost of college is a challenge that many parents are thinking about this summer as they are preparing to send off their new graduates to college. With the cost of graduate school as well as college on the rise, many prospective students and parents are looking towards retirement accounts as an effective way to pay for school.

According to a recent study conducted by Sally May & IPSOS, up to 6% of parents withdrew from their retirement savings such as an IRA or a 401(k) to help pay for a child’s college. Since the price of college has gone up, it may the case that parents do not have enough set aside to pay for college. There are some considerations to evaluate before using an IRA to pay for school:

A withdrawal from an IRA can impact financial aid. Students who apply for need based financial aid have to report asset information and income on the free application for federal student aid. Money inside a retirement account such as a traditional or a Roth IRA are assets that are exempted from being evaluated on the FAFSA, but withdrawing funds from an IRA account does count as income over the following years.