Help › Setting up your family
Setting up your family
Tell AidAhead about your family once: the parents, each child's high-school class year, last year's tax return and your savings. It then estimates each child's federal aid and what each college may cost you.
Steps
- Open or create a family plan. The first time, setup starts on its own.
- Under Parents, choose how the parents are married or not, your state, and each parent's first name and date of birth.
- Under Children, add each child's first name or nickname and high-school class year.
- Under Tax return, type the amounts AidAhead asks for from that return. Where a line is hard to find, tap ⓘ beside it for its line number.
- Under Savings, enter cash and investments, each child's 529 or custodial account, and your home.
- If you own a business or farm, or a parent lives elsewhere, answer those steps too.
- Tap "See our estimate".
- To change an answer later, tap Family, then the topic. To start over, tap "Go through setup again".
Good to know
Which tax return
The FAFSA® uses your taxes from two years before the school year. AidAhead asks for the earliest year one of your children will need, or your latest return if that year hasn't happened yet.
Rough numbers are fine
Start with what you know. Every estimate lists what it assumed, and you can change any answer.
Shared with Taxtirement
If you use Taxtirement, AidAhead can open the same family file, so you enter your household once. Each app keeps its own part.
What we never ask
Your Social Security number, your FSA ID, or any bank or school sign-in. For children: only a first name or nickname, birth year, class year, colleges, and, if you choose, grades and test scores.