<prompt> Human: So a family friend is giving me 6000 that was invested for me a while ago to help with my school. I want to use it to both help me pay for my schoolingI have 2 more years left and to knock off some of my loans currently accruing interest. But if I put it in my bank account it will show up as income and negatively affect my student aid.What should I do? Get the cash from the CD and use it for living expenses then use the money I make working to pay off unsubsidized loans? Should I just put the money into my bank account when I need it and bite the aid loss? It is currently gaining 1.5 interest because it already matured. How much would this even really affect my student aid? Im pretty poor so I get quite a bit of loan and grant help.  <response>: Scenario 1: As a gift, it need not be reported as income to you. The donor need not report it as a gift either, I believe.When you file the FAFSA for aid, it asks for a snapshot of your current bank balances. As in, you could have had 10K in the bank last week, paid off your bills of 9K, now, today you have 1K and are filling out the FAFSA. You tell FAFSA 1K is in the bank, thats all FAFSA knows. It has no idea that you had 10K last week and spent 9K of it on miscellaneous expenses.So, if you get the donors money now, you can pay off your older loans with it. Then it will NOT be in your bank account at FAFSA filing time and it will not be a reportable asset for FAFSA and will not affect your FAFSA aid amount for the future. And youll have knocked out 6K of your loans. Scenario 2: You receive your tuition bill for the coming year. It includes tuition amounts you must pay. Im assuming over 6K. You ask your donor to pay the 6000 directly to the school applying it towards your tuition. Then it doesnt count as a gift to you at all, as income to you, or affect your aid. You pay the remaining tuition. You take out whatever loan you were going to take out, or less if you want to use your own savings to pay more. If your tuition is less than 6K, perhaps the donor would be willing to pay some now and some in the future. You wont knock out any past loans, but you wont be out the tuition for right now either and may be able to reduce your loan for this year. 