<p>"the allowable for retirement (based on the oldest person in the house), "</p>
<p>ah. You want to put away $$ for retirement during the college years. I see.</p>
<p>jym626 - could we make that a double?</p>
<p>You got it, texasmom! Well deserved.</p>
<p>Brooklynborndad - it is the FAFSA formula, not my personal desires. My husband is 50, they assumed we would put $5,000 of our income toward retirement and deducted that from the money left laying around for our EFC…</p>
<p>Shall I make that a triple, texasmom?</p>
<p>But your DH is only 50? Young whippersnapper.</p>
<p>“Lets not work/earn more money b/c then we’ll get less aid”. " </p>
<p>because no one with a higher income ever made a decision based on the marginal economics. hell, an entire political partys main economic policy for the last 30 years has been based on the assertion that affluent people will not work or invest if their marginal income is taxed at above 30% or so a year.</p>
<p>In fact we would have an incentive to earn more money even if it left us with less cash, cause it would reduce DD’s student loan debt. Which matters to me, you know?</p>
<p>However if it WERE to reduce our cash, that would impact our financial planning. It would, I think, be irresponsible of me not to check for that.</p>
<p>But guess what - earning more, it turns out, gives us MORE cash, so the incentive is even stronger. As it happens the incentive is stronger for me to increase my wages than for DW, due to the FICA max. </p>
<p>I appreciate it that you think that folks who after all is said and done, have less than you after taxes and college, who look at the financial implications of their decisions are somehow unethical. Can we call this “begrudging the families who get need based aid”?</p>
<p>and yes Brooklynborndad…I did have visions of maybe saving a bit for retirement, that is why we worked like dogs to get rid of our mortgage. I don’t regret paying off the mortgage it makes these lean times a little easier. But I didn’t really think that the government would then assume all my available cash would then be available for college. I assumed a progression, pay off debt, pay for college while saving a bit for retirement. I know, it was probably silly for me to think I could do that. I am lucky in one sense, D’s tuition is actually less than our EFC (yipee). To top off that - we actually got a refund from her college for first semester tuition as she had more merit aid than her tuition. It won’t remain that way for all 4 years (several one year only scholarships) but we did have a very happy “0” balance on our first tuition bill.</p>
<p>your income minus EFC equaled 32K?</p>
<p>“I don’t regret paying off the mortgage it makes these lean times a little easier.”</p>
<p>its not your cash savings, its your home equity.</p>
<p>I suspect the home equity inclusion has been debated here many times. I can see arguments on both sides.</p>
<p>Brooklynborndad…</p>
<p>Income: $110,000
Minus: taxes 30,000 (remember we paid off our mortgage), allowable living $27,600, medical $12,000, retirement $5,000, EFC $32,000…you are right, I had $3,400 I didn’t report. We are using that to jet off to Paris (as mentioned earlier).</p>
<p>tired of your word games, BBD, especially since you argued the other side of your own argument when saying there was incentive to earn 21 cents. Read your own posts <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065791832-post660.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1065791832-post660.html</a>
Dont bother writing an epistle on how the 21 cents wont be worth it if it lowers your aid. Heard it a million time already. I think you’ve hit 100 posts in this thread. Thats a talent.</p>
<p>BBD, the mentality of some things you post remind me of people who turn down good jobs because they could just sit home and collect 2/3 of the salary amount by collecting unemployment instead of working.</p>
<p>you have that big an EFC because of your home equity, which FAFSA counts as savings, and expects you to use toward the EFC, not becauase they expect you to live in 27k. </p>
<p>It may be a questionable formulation (at a time when HELOCs are particularly difficult to get especially) - i would rather not start that argument.</p>
<p>texasmom-</p>
<p>BU and BC is providing the transportation. Put the $3400 towards an Hermes or Louis Vuitton purse</p>
<p>Was that AGI, texasmom?</p>
<p>^^What, and no shoes? The horror!</p>
<p>"Dont bother writing an epistle on how the 21 cents wont be worth it if it lowers your aid. Heard it a million time already. I think you’ve hit 100 posts in this thread. Thats a talent. "</p>
<p>You have misread me. I did say and MEAN that 21 cents gives an incentive. It does. I said elsewhere that I was checking to see, not if earning more lowers our aid (I know it does) but if it lowers our total cash flow - IOW if the number is not 21 cents positive, but is negative. </p>
<p>There is no contradiction.</p>
<p>I am sorry if speaking precisely, and responding to mischarecterizations of me, are considered word games.</p>
<p>“BBD, the mentality of some things you post remind me of people who turn down good jobs because they could just sit home and collect 2/3 of the salary amount by collecting unemployment instead of working”</p>
<p>No one in my family has turned down a good job. Or will. I do however have to pay for my DD’s college, and it is incumbent on me to analyze the financial implications of decisions we make. I think it would be irresponsible not to, though you may disagree.</p>
<p>Brooklynborndad - you are correct, they expect me to use my house as a source of a loan. Hence I am being punished a little for working a couple of jobs to pay off my mortgage so I could better afford college when the time came. </p>
<p>So while I try not to be bitter, it does irk me a bit that I am considered one of those full pay families that have lazy, bratty kids and made stupid decisions about my money in the past leaving my unable to pay my EFC now. A loan against my house is no different than any other loan - still money that I have to pay back. </p>
<p>Whereas SOME of the FA student families are actually living a little higher on the hog than I (they don’t have my tax burden, they don’t have my EFC and there is no assumption they need to live on $27,600…and some of the $30,000 I pay in annual taxes is in fact used for financial aid). While I like goodness and light and all bright kids to go to college - I want everyone to struggle as much as I am…I should restate that I am expected to live on the $27,600 plus the $3400 they didn’t include in my EFC. Leaving me $31,000 - look out Paris!!!</p>
<p>
try speaking clearly without the wordsmithing. Really. Works wonders.</p>