FAFSA - The time to prepare is now.

We're almost through January and you should be preparing your FAFSA now. Though the Department of Education allows you to submit through June 30, 2011, for the 2010-11 academic year, many states and colleges have a deadline in February or March. The sooner you get it in, the better your chances of receiving college funding. The reason for this is many colleges have a limited amount of funding and they will begin doling it out to qualifying students early. Once the money is gone, you're out of luck.

A couple of things to remember...

The Federal FAFSA website is at http://www.fafsa.gov. If you come across sites with a .com or other ending, you are at a commercial site and they will probably charge you to do your FAFSA. Go to the site above and you can submit for FREE.

If you don't have your W2's or 1099's yet, you can still do your taxes with estimated numbers and file. Should the numbers change significantly, you can go back and submit an amended FAFSA when you get the final numbers.

Here is a listing of states with early deadlines for FAFSA:

February - Connecticut, Tennessee.
March - California, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island.

Some of these are the 1st of the month, so check it out and start filling out now. There are other states who haven't posted definite deadlines, make sure you check with your financial aid administrator.

For more information, you can check www.college-loans.us/fafsa.html.