<p>@jym626, there’s only so much barf but so many barfable actions. But, yeah, I’ll join you. 
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<p>It’s also easy to not report stock holdings which pay zero dividends. (no 1099…)</p>
<p>What about deferred compensation?</p>
<p>I hadn’t thought of deferred comp. We didn’t file a FAFSA, so I haven’t seen whether it asks about deferred comp. It’s purely academic for us, but I don’t know how I would feel about it. A good portion of my wife’s comp is deferred, not by her choosing, and Is subject to clawbacks and the value can change dramatically before it vests (most of it’s in company stock). A good part of any year’s income is due to deferred comp from 3-5 years ago. I don’t know if it’s fair to double-count it. </p>
<p>Voluntary deferred comp should, I imagine, be treated as an asset in FAFSA. </p>
<p>I’m (as you probably guessed) not an accountant :)</p>
<p>Deferred comp is not reported on w2 until received. </p>
<p>I believe there must be some hiding of assets involved because a good friend at work who must make less than $160K(maybe way less), has 4 kids in college(out of 5) and he said his kid has to pay $37K per year at MIT and the like, I believe MIT and Princeton are the cheapest private schools around so it’s impossible to borrow less than 1/3 of the first year salary for Stanford.</p>
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But is it a reportable asset (not income)?</p>
<p>If it is vested then it should be. </p>
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I believe there must be some hiding of assets involved because a good friend at work who must make less than $160K(maybe way less), has 4 kids in college(out of 5) and he said his kid has to pay $37K per year at MIT and the like, I believe MIT and Princeton are the cheapest private schools around so it’s impossible to borrow less than 1/3 of the first year salary for Stanford.
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<p>I dont understand the above. Who is hiding assets in this case? are you referring to another post?</p>
<p>weird that your friend’s kids don’t get more aid, if that is their income. what about the spouse’s income? Must have a LOT of assets if “family contribution” is 37k at MIT with 3 sibs in college.</p>
<p>BTW…MIT is NOT like HYPS in aid. MIT has good aid, but not like HYPS</p>
<p>All, did the story get updated on Yahoo? I can’t find any reference to a wedding or an out of work time. I agree the most salient line in the article was “each of their three kids decided to attend private universities”</p>
<p>mom2, I wrote very quickly last night, this seem to be a habit when I don’t want to go to sleep. Yes, I believe DadII is hiding something.</p>
<p>The financial aid case for my friends at work also puzzled me. There are 2 guys at work who technically at the same level, so they should be getting paid the same(plus and minus a few thousands), they both have kids got into and attending MIT, they both have lots of kids(3-4) in college or graduating from college or done with college, both have spouses that don’t work and own their own home. Yet the financial aid came out differently for one vs the other. They just told me their situation but I don’t dwell into the specific.</p>
<p>If these parents still have $150,000 in debt and aren’t qualifying for income-based repayment programs, they must make a lot of money. To be eligible for IBR, you have to have a partial financial hardship, which means that the monthly amount you would be required to repay on standard repayment is higher than what it would be on IBR. IBR is capped at 11.5% of your income with 2 family members, so that means that their monthly income has got to be over $14,655 (about $175,000 a year). Even if this went by the old rule of it being more than 15% of your discretionary income, that’s still more than $11,333/month (about $136,000 a year).</p>
<p>And actually, that’s probably a low estimate because they said that they are paying $1700/month on a 25-year repayment plan. That means that their monthly payments under the standard 10-year repayment plan would’ve been higher - quite a bit higher.</p>
<p>I have to wonder about them, too. They said they had no cash saved up for college despite the fact that they had 4 children and a pretty decent combined income. They also have no cash saved for retirement, but still decided to take on a cumulative $500,00 in student loan debt AND refinanced their home for a wedding?</p>
<p>Here we go again. Every where I post, several of you will show up and attack me. I don’t understand what did I do to you to deserve this??!!! Why is it that you come after me every single time? </p>
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What are your bases for such serious accusation? Why you want to say something so mean on a public site? </p>
<p>Let’s use some simple ways to discuss this once for all. Since some of you are not really that good in basic reasoning.</p>
<p>let’s say one’s income is A = X + Y + Z. X is what the taxes etc.; Y is the EFC and Z is what is left to live. The X is set by the government and Y is done by the schools. The only thing we have control is Z. For some, they spend above average on Z therefore they will not have enough to pay for Y. For us, we live way below the average on Z and use what is saved to buy few nice things. </p>
<p>Those of you keep putting dirt on me only looking at the very few nice things we have. I bet you could not live a week at the level of our daily life. </p>
<p>Some of you are really funny - coming up all sort of ridiculous ideas. Is it truly possible to do delay compensation at any public company other than stock options? </p>
<p>I left a job that was paying about 80 RMB a month to come to US for graduate school in the 80’s. How could I ever afford any properties in China? If you have any sense at all, you will know that a small apartment in any major cities is about $1 million USD. </p>
<p>I have explained it many times. We are very grateful that our kids got excellent FA from their schools. But everyone similar to us got in those schools gets the same FA. If you don’t have a kid in those schools, you will not understand.</p>
<p>Going back to my equation A= X + Y + Z. some schools requires lower Y so the family will have more left for Z. </p>
<p>Some of you might remember that we had a discussion about us being the private client of our bank. To some, that might mean we are doing well. To the schools our kids got in based on their effort, that might mean nothing. Whatever we have, the bank must know, otherwise they will not give us the status. Are you smart people saying we would lie about what we have in the bank? In CSS profile, we must include the tax returns, right? </p>
<p>Please, let it go. Both our kids are done with colleges and we are starting to enjoy our life a little. yes, I like to brag - even a small thing like a silk shirt and/or a full marathon. Be nice. Peace. </p>
<p>PS, this thread is about the other family. But I am sick and tired of all these BS. </p>
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<p>Most likely, Harvard which provides aid up to $180k income for one child in college. But then Y & P (and MIT) have to be close to be competitive. Stanford too, is rather generous since S caps home equity. (And its equity that hinders a lot of “middle class” families from obtaining need-based aid.)</p>
<p>mom2ck, so I now remember why I was being vague in the first place, it was not due to sleeplessness. My brain keeps flip flopping on me. :D</p>
<p>Cry me a river…</p>
<p>Dad II, OK, I’ll bite. What many members here find so distasteful about your claims is how your story seems to change over the years. It makes it VERY difficult to believe what you post. It’s been a while back (and if I wanted to look, I know I could find it), but for quite a while, you claimed how dirt poor you were - yes, you argued the point repeatedly with many members here over various threads. But then you’d brag about some expensive new toy you bought, a nice vacation, private bankers, etc. Others tried to point out to you if you could afford some of the stuff you were spending your money on, you were NOT dirt poor. But you never back pedaled to possibly admit you weren’t really dirt poor. Your insistence about how dirt poor you are is INCREDIBLY insulting to those who really are, in light of how you have reported you spend your money. In my opinion, it all really has nothing to do with where your kids went to college on what aid, etc. It was all about trying to present to CC with a ‘poor me’ attitude, when your actions said so much otherwise.</p>
<p>Do “dirt poor?” folks claim that they need $10 million to retire? none that I know of.</p>
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<p>Can’t speak for anyone else here, but in our situation the answer is yes, although we have not chosen to do so. </p>
<p>^^ at my wife’s company, there is the opportunity to delay compensation for a fixed number of years. Fwiw, we do not take advantage of that; I know someone who did it at Drexel and watched it all go to zero. </p>
<p>Additionally, partially in response to the financial mess and well-intentioned regulations, my wife’s employer defers a portion of each bonus, making it vulnerable to clawbacks if the company’s results are poor or if the employee (or the group they work with) are found to have behaved illegally. This deferral we have no say in; it is mandatory. </p>
<p>The deferred comp is usually a combination of cash and company stock (restricted shares that don’t pay dividends). </p>