Well then…the BIG question is…how much CAN your mom pay for each of you? That is your budget. If your mom can only pat $5000 per student…then your total college budget is $10,000.
I think you need to have a talk with your dad about this…and see what he is willing to contribute annually.
If your mom received other assets in addition to the house, she may be able to afford enough, depending on her willingness and ability, and the college you choose.
What is this mysterious $20k of tax she pays to her town?
How much is the fully paid for home worth? Would she consider downsizing and then using some of the proceeds for her 50% of college costs?
Who is paying the supposed $20,000 in taxes to the town? If your mom’s income is only $20,000…she certainly isn’t doing it out of her earnings. Presumably the child support is being spent on supporting the three kids…and sure, it could be used partially to pay for those taxes.
You need to understand that colleges are not going to consider your town tax amount or your many “other expenses” when they compute your need based aid.
ETA…are you planning to retake the ACT…or take the SAT? With significantly higher scores, your chances of merit aid increase.
Right now given your mom’s earned income, it looks like each of you will be lucky if your mom can come up with anything at all to pay for your educations. Which means that you won’t be collecting one cent from your dad either.
If you and your siblings can raise your ACT scores to 30 or more, you all will have many more options and decent chances at merit-based aid including some on this list: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Yes, your mom might have to sell the house to be able to have enough money. If her income matches the property taxes and child support is ending, she will have $0 to live on, which is crazy.
You triplets need to have a CALM, POLITE talk with dad. He’s not an idiot, but he’s letting his emotions “do the thinking,” instead of his natural intelligence.
He may think he’s hurting “mom” by insisting on this 50%, but he’s really hurting YOU kids because your mom, once child support disappears, won’t be able to pay ANYTHING towards college.
Just DO THE MATH. Your mom has a LOW income. SHE HAS to pay her property taxes, and other basic living expenses.
WELL…what would she have leftover after paying her property taxes AND basic living expenses? Wouldn’t you say ZERO???
So…you and sibs need to ask dad to take mom out of the education equation and simply come up with a FLAT rate that he’ll pay for you kids. If it’s $35k per kid, then work with that. If it’s $25k per kid, then work with that.
You need to discourage your dad from using this one last thing (college) as a way to give one final blow to your mom AT THE TRIPLET’S EXPENSE.
Nobody would have to sell their house. The house if owned free and clear, so they can take out a mortgage on the house. Most people have mortgages. Some take out 2nd mortgages to pay tuition.
^^
@lostaccount Are you serious? How is the mom supposed to pay back the mortgage?
It’s harder and harder to qualify for mortgages these days. If the mother doesn’t have a source of income that would cover the mortgage payments, insurance and taxes, she won’t qualify.
You have to qualify for a second mortgage these days too.
Yes you can borrow against home equity. But because of the home’s value and location, the taxes are very high. The mom’s income barely covers them. Child support is ending. If she stays in the house, what is she supposed to live on.
If she sold the house she could buy a cheaper house outright, no mortgage, and have money left over and possibly a lot less in property taxes. So her income might stretch further.
@catsanddogs22, please print this and give it to your dad on my behalf:
Dear Catsanddogs22’s Dad,
Congrats of being a doctor and attending college for 8 years. Your kids would also like to attend college. So pay for it.
Regards,
Barfly
Your mother won’t be able to pay for much, if anything. in fact, since your father will cut child support, she is likely to see a HUGE downgrade in her standards of living, struggling to make ends meet. She MAY be able to contribute 1 to 2, 000 dollars per kid. If you dad only pays what your mom can pay, then you won’t be able to attend a 4-year college. You’ll have to attend the community college closest to your home, and commute. With the current costs of college, you can’t “work your way through”. You’d have to work full time at a minimum wage job until you’re 24 in order to qualify for financial aid.
In short, hopefully your dad wasn’t dangling the 35K in front of you, but secretly thinking that without a job, your mother wouldn’t be able to contribute anything, and so he wouldn’t either, leaving you in a lurch. It sounds like he’s contributing a lot of money for child support so I assume he will also want to “do the right thing” and not keep you from attending college. (Not to mention that when he’s at cocktails with colleagues or dinnre with clients/partners, it may not sound so good if he says “Oh I figured the boys would handle it on their own, I suppose they’ll go to community college”. I’m assuming your dad will want to boast about where you got into.)
See if your dad will contribute 35K “no matter what” (only URI would cost that much, plus SUNYs and the colleges from the “low cost colleges” from the list cited above) and thus dissociates his contribution from your mother’s.
Prep for the ACT with your brothers. Any increase in score could results in several thousands of dollars in scholarships from universities. That would help in any case.
I am still stuck with the $20k tax. What is it?
@billcsho I’m pretty sure it has to be the annual property tax on their home.
Then sell the house and move to somewhere cheaper and smaller. The property tax is not affordable and she will have an empty next soon when the triplet go to college. I think that may be your father has in mind too, otherwise, there is no way your mom can cover 50% cost of college education for all 3 of you without financial aid.
Get Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover”.
Doesn’t hurt for anyone to learn budgeting and how to manage/get out of/stay out of debt. Start young.
Don’t borrow money and live in debt.
No way can your mom afford the house with 20K property taxes. I know how that works–my D found a great house to buy for great price but guess what? 10K in property tax made it impossible to maintain. So she had to look elsewhere no matter how attractive the initial sale would be.
Your mom can’t afford it this year and she won’t be able to afford it even if you didn’t have college expenses. It’s simply a fact. Do the math–it isn’t hard. And hoping to win the lottery is a poor planning practice to say the least.
Get your scores up if possible for merit aid.
Talk to your dad. See if you can come to some reasonable solution. I don’t care what it is–10K a year (30 total for all of you) would enable you to make some decent college choices in one form or another. I would HOPE that
Get Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover”.
Doesn’t hurt for anyone to learn budgeting and how to manage/get out of/stay out of debt. Start young.
Don’t borrow money and live in debt.
No way can your mom afford the house with 20K property taxes. I know how that works–my D found a great house to buy for great price but guess what? 10K in property tax made it impossible to maintain. And the house was little! So she had to look elsewhere no matter how attractive the initial sale would be.
Your mom can’t afford the house this year and she won’t be able to afford it even if you didn’t have college expenses. It’s simply a fact. Do the math–it isn’t hard. Buy everyone a calculator and learn to use it. And hoping to win the lottery is a poor planning practice to say the least. She should not go into more debt to maintain an unsustainable life style.
YOU need to plan
Get your scores up if possible for merit aid.
And your sibs–there are three of you. Band together.
Talk to your dad.
See if you and sibs and dad can come to some reasonable solution. LEAVE MOM OUT.
I don’t care what it is–even 10K a year (30 total for all of you) would enable you to make SOME decent college choices in one form or another without relying on mom and going into heavy debt.
I would hope that dad cares enough to want the best for you. But know that he may be making “I’ll match that” deals KNOWING it can’t be matched. He may be over extended himself in the finance department. It happens all the time to good people who don’t have a good financial grasp on things. As rich as his life-style may seem doesn’t mean he can actually afford it.
But YOUR goal is college and a future job. Look forward.
sorry for the sort of double post…
Dear Dad, This is not about your relationship with our mother. This is about us and our education. Please let us know what you are willing to pay for each of us up front so we can make informed decisions about college applications and begin the process of becoming responsible young adults. Thank you for supporting our higher education. With love, your kids.