Every year millions of dollars of free money for education goes unclaimed, just because students don't know how or where to ask for it. There are many levels of financial aid available, vast, often untapped, sources of free money for college--money that does not have to be paid back-to anyone-not ever. And it is 100 percent free when used for a student's college education!

Free money is available in three general forms: scholarships, grants, and through military programs which require service in the military following graduation.

Additionally, there are a few topics and rules one must become acquainted with if one is going to successfully play the "how to finance your kids' education and keep out of the poorhouse at the same time" game. These are very important and include: determining college costs, need analysis, application forms, financial aid packages, college aid "buzz" words, and sources of books and guides that can help educate you in choosing among the a multitude of possibilities for student aid.

The largest single expenditure for a family today, other than purchasing a home, is paying for a college education. For families with two or three children, the amounts can become staggering. Add to this the probability that more than one child may be attending college at the same time, and the outlook becomes depressing. To make matters worse, whereas paying for a family home can be stretched out over a period of 30 years, paying back college loans, if you can qualify for them, usually must be completed in a much shorter time, often five years.

College costs have continued to rise, and tuition hikes have been outpacing the inflation rate for the past several years. In the 1990s, costs for attending a four year public institution were between $5,000 and $9,900 a year, and between $11,500 and $19,000 per year for a private institution. In 2000, the average cost for four years at a public school is reaching $40,000, and $100,000 or higher at private schools.

• More than $1 billion a year is awarded to qualified students by the armed forces. Approximately $40 billion in financial aid will be available for the 2000-2001 school year.
• Four-year colleges in the country give more than 100,000 academic scholarships yearly. * In a recent year, over 1 million students received more than $1 billion in need-based state aid.
• Education costs are rising faster than inflation. For the past several years, private college costs have increased two to three times faster than the consumer price index (inflation rate), with public college costs rising only slightly less rapidly. The 2000-01 school year will see tuition increases from 5 to 11 percent.
• A college education now costs more than $100,000 for a four year school.
• Fifty-two percent of financial support for college comes from loans, 44 percent from grants, and about 4 percent from work/study programs. Compare this to a decade ago when 80 percent of student aid came from grants and only 17 percent from loans, with the remaining 3 percent from work/study programs.
• If your child will begin college in the year 2010, in order to pay for a four-year education at a public school, you need to start saving about $496 each month beginning now in order to pay his/her costs (based on an 8 percent annual pretax return on your investment). For a private four-year college, you need to start investing over $1000 every month. (See the savings calculator at FinAid! www.finaid.org/calculators/savingsplan.phtml).
• According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, when compared to high school graduates, male college graduates averaged 46 percent more in salary and female college graduates more than 70 percent more in salary, in their first 10 years of work.
• For the academic year 2000-2001: The federal government will award $18.2 billion in subsidized loans arid another $6.5 billion in grants; Colleges will award $8.5 billion in financial aid and tuition discount programs.