I am planning to “retire” early - abroad - when my son graduates from high school. We are US citizens and I am the custodial parent. I will be retiring from a stressful job and I will still provide for him and he will spend the summers with me.
My question is: for the purposes of FAFSA/CSS what will his residency be? I will still file taxes as I will do a bit of online work (to cover cheaper living expenses abroad) and can use my taxes for FAFSA/CSS. Can I still be considered his custodial parent if I move abroad?
I’m so fed up with corporate jobs that I count the days till he graduates. I won’t last an additional 2-3 years of FAFSA filling after that…
Am I impacting his chances of scholarships negatively by doing this? He is a a high achiever, and will apply to top 30 colleges (private and public) in the US. His sister will have graduated from Vandy by the time he starts college.
Your son’s custodial parent for FAFSA is the one he lived with the most during the 12 months ending at the date he files the FAFSA. So, if you are abroad, and he is not, and living with his mother, she is the custodial parent regardless of what the court papers, tax deductions, custody agreements say.
If above I’d the case, the custodial parent is his mother and it would be her financials ( along with your child support payments) that are used in the FAFSA
For CSSPROFILE, most schools want the non custodial parent’s info too. PROFILE schools tend to have the more generous Fin aid policies. UCh and Vanderbilt are two top schools that do not require NCP info.
FAFSA EFC is rarely met by schools. Some say UCh is close in that regard. You have impacted your son’s FA prospects if his mother’s household finances exceed yours for FAFSA based aid and the schools that only use Custodial parents numbers. I believe there might also be some differences as to who is custodial and who is NCP on CSS Profileb
How much will you have available to pay each year for his education?
Yes you will still be the custodial parent. His “home address” for residency will be wherever you are. Some public colleges and universities consider students who graduate from high school in that state to be in-state no matter where the parents move after the kid starts college. So if a current home-state public is the safety plan, double-check their residency policy. You don’t want your costs doubling or tripling just because of where you move.
Your FAFSA and CSS Profile are based on your worldwide income and assets. The paperwork just gets a bit messier and you have to remember to use the exchange rate for the proper date. Your move won’t mean he loses eligibility for those.
Thank you. I am the mother :), and he will be living with me (abroad) most of the summers. My income from online work will be in US dollars so there shouldn’t be any problems for converting other currencies into US $. My taxes will be still filed.
I am familiar with FAFSA/CSS as I filed them already 3 years in a row for my daughter.
I haven’t realized the impact on state schools (good to add as safety net as happymomof1 says. Good reminder!
You’ll still be the custodial parent for FAFSA purposed.
For the first time you file, you’ll use the income from the prior tax year (so if file in 2020, you’ll use the 2019 taxes). The first one for the year after you move to another country will probably for his jr year in college. It may make very little difference at all.
Yes, you are right - there will be 2 years of filing left when I move.
Maybe it is not as bad as I thought - I have been concerned for a while now (months) about this and I don’t want him to end up with tons of student debt because of me not being able to do this type of life anymore…
With my D I can cover the EFC from the job/income I have now, but if I move to Mexico and teach English online for $15 an hour, I’ll make poverty level income - based on US standards. I can still cover my S living expenses (transportation, food, clothes, summers wit me) from savings but not much more than that…
But Vandy is rather unique that it meets néed, uses CSS, but doesn’t require NCP info. Likely the schools your son will be applying to will require NCP info to get aid. Will his NCP provide info and help pay?
Yes, he has been helping some with D, I assume he will with S too. I haven’t brought my plans up to him yet, we are still a couple years from it… But I should do this rather sooner than later since he will most likely get involved as NCP like you say…Thank you for helping me think through all this!
Your residence on the FAFSA and Profile is as of the date of filing.
If your son is attending a public university instate where you reside now, you need to check their policies regarding residency when the parents move. Some schools view you as OOS once you move. Some allow your same residency to remain for the student all four years even if the parents move.
If your student attends a private university, none of this will matter.
You say you will be able to cover room/board. Are you expecting a full tuition scholarship for your son?
And lastly, he would not be able to have huge debt unless you co-sign loans with him.
I guess I don’t know what to expect, that’s why I have been so concerned. We will apply to about 7-10 schools (as for D) and pick the best option available. But what that option will entail I don’t know.
One of my worries in writing this post was that if my residency is abroad (and it seems now that my S’s will also be abroad) - then they won’t consider him for scholarships etc, that he won’t have the same opportunities to get at least some help.
But it seems this is not true, from all the posts I read here, which makes me feel better.
The more I think about I am not as concerned about the residency for the public university option - he will definitely prefer other larger state universities than the overpriced one in our state. But that would mean lots of loans (for him and myself), since not many public universities cover the need with grants. Usually it costs 50K/year for OOS and when my D applied the most she got at several of them was 12.5K/year (merit) - the rest was “covered” with loans.
So we will probably have to steer more towards private universities, hoping/assuming they will cover more of the gap.
I will also save more for S while working, maximize everything I can on my end, he also is saving, starting summer jobs, etc.
If your kids are U.S. citizens, they will be considered for the same aid as other U.S. citizens.
The only thing they might not be considered for is scholarship money that is only awarded to instate students from your state.
There’s a middle ground between continuing at a high pace/burnout job and working for X dollars an hour. I know lots of people who have retired, moved to a lower cost location with a low paying job to “cover” things, and discovered that they needed more money AND more intellectual stimulation. Many of them have found their way back to a job with less stress and responsibility but still a professional level salary.
Maybe an option? It certainly helps ease the anxiety over college tuition when you’ve got a bigger cash flow for the years he’s in school… seems like you’ve got a lot of unknowns here…
Blossom, yes, I already did that - changed careers several years ago to do what I liked, went back to school for it to get certified, got a job that paid 1/3 of what I make now. It was so painful because of starting over at an older age - I sent out dozens of resumes to get that low paying job, which I loved and did for 5 yrs.
So I guess I’m already the person you mention. Then I went back to the higher paying IT job so I can afford traveling to see my D in college, taking vacations with kids, etc. I found that I still hate this job I’m doing now… My other job was teaching, which is immensely rewarding to me.
The other things is that we downsized 3 times already, and I am perfectly fine living within simple means. I know exactly what I need to live on and if the healthcare if taken care of (like it would be in Mexico where you are not going bankrupt for a small surgery), then I’m good to go.
Living with the stress of a high deductible insurance plan as we age and get into 50s, 60s and seeing the nightmare of the elderly parents care issues that my friends go through, I am convinced that staying here long term is not the solution.
We looked (researched many hours, talked to people that do it etc) into RV living, moving to lower cost states in US, etc. Nothing works better than Mexico in terms of healthcare, walkability index, being close to a beach, eating organic/non-GMO food, social values (family/friends).
So the plan is to go there, teach online, have healthcare covered very cheaply by the governments insurance, have my own schedule, be able to go to the beach several times a week, and just have a slower pace of life. There are many volunteering opportunities with kids over there that I would enjoy doing and people are very friendly (news propaganda is so biased!).
Mexico has cheap health insurance for resident aliens?
Hurry up with your dream - front page news article in the Washington Post today about all of the Americans retiring to Mexico!