<p>I don't have all of the details at the moment, but I figured I'd throw this out there and see what everyone else has to say.</p>
<p>My mother's income is about $19000. No other assets. No savings. My father's retired and receives Social Security as well as about $3000 a month from his pension. We don't own a home. I don't work and I'm a dependent. No other kids in college.</p>
<p>Our EFC is over $33k. Does that sound correct? I'm not entirely sure...</p>
<p>Depends on how high the SS is. The pension is $36,000, plus what your mom makes totals $55,000 a year. If he is making about $2000 a month in SS (not out of the question) then perhaps that EFC is correct.</p>
<p>Your dad’s income may be about $60k. Your mom’s is $19k</p>
<p>So, their income may be about $80.</p>
<p>How many people are in your family?</p>
<p>If it’s just you and your parents, and their earnings are about $80k, then I don’t think your EFC should be that high. I think it should be less than $20k.</p>
<p>Can you go back and check, because maybe you don’t have some info right. Maybe there is another income source or other assets. Or, maybe some of your parents income was accidentally listed at your income.</p>
<p>I’m thinking we screwed something up. His SS is $2160 a month. His pension is actually $1200 (I was wrong there). And he has an IRA (amount there unknown).</p>
<p>There’s just the three of us in the household. I’ll have to check when I get home because since I received my SAR, it didn’t seem quite correct to me…</p>
<p>*And he has an IRA (amount there unknown).
*</p>
<p>Is he getting annual payouts from his IRA?</p>
<p>Is this your FAFSA EFC or is this what a college is expecting you to pay? (I’m assuming it’s your FAFSA EFC since you mentioned SAR.)</p>
<p>Go over your FAFSA info and see if there is a mistake somewhere.</p>
<p>Where did you apply?</p>
<p>FAFSA EFC, yes. And he’s paid monthly from his IRA.</p>
<p>So yeah, I’m going to check again… I think we messed up somewhere clearly.</p>
<p>I applied to Fordham, NYU, Stony Brook (accepted), and Columbia.</p>
<p>Remember that any UNTAXED social security is not reported. If it’s on the tax return, it’s already reported as part of the AGI. Make sure that you don’t double-count anything. Also make sure the value of the IRA is not reported as an asset (although if he took a distribution that is not reported in the AGI, that is reported as untaxed income).</p>
<p>It might help if you post what you reported on the FAFSA for these parent items: Income from work (1040, line 7), Business income (if any - it would be on Schedule C, line 12), Untaxed IRA distributions - if any (line 15a-15b), untaxed pensions and annuities - if any (line 16a-16b), Education tax credits - if any (line 49), taxes paid (line 55). And AGI (line 37).</p>
<p>Do remember that ANY withdrawals from the IRA is counted as income. I’ve known several people who have not taken that into account because they took out funds for a specific purpose.</p>
<p>My mother told me she might have accidentally included the total value of Dad’s IRA instead of simply the total amount he received that year (which, duh, is SIGNIFICANTLY less). Does that sound possible?</p>
<p>The balance IN that IRA should not be included at all. Only the amount received as a distribution in 2010 should be on the FAFSA. An EFC of $33K sounds MORE than a little high to me.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that’s what she did wrong… I wasn’t there when she filled everything out but I’m nearly positive that she put the entire balance as opposed to just the amount received as a distribution… And believe me, I looked at the EFC and died inside. $33K? It was like I sensed a disturbance in the Force or something… Didn’t seem right.</p>
<p>That very well may be what happened. Have her check into it, and make any necessary adjustments. Let us know how it works out!</p>
<p>*And he’s paid monthly from his IRA.
*</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Is that in ADDITION to his pension and social security? If so, we hadn’t counted that above. We only counted: Pension, Social Security, and mom’s income. If he’s also getting IRA payments, we need to count that in as well. How much does he get each month from his IRA payouts?</p>
<p>either way, your mom needs to review what she put in.</p>
<p>Sorry. I was just repeating what my father said (which makes this all a bit more difficult. He had a stroke a number of years ago so he does become confused and he has some trouble communicating at times). Definitely makes it hard to figure out all his business. He claims his IRA IS his pension - $1200. Hope that clears it up. It’s just his SS, pension, and mom’s income.</p>
<p>So … assuming all of his social security is taxed, the AGI might be somewhere around $59-60K. That would not yield a $33k EFC without significant assets. Ask your parents to make sure they correctly reported assets. Your EFC will probably be too high for Pell, but $33k is maybe double what I might expect it to be.</p>
<p>Kelsmom is right…</p>
<p>your EFC should probably be below $15k per year, since you said that you don’t have any assets.</p>
<p>Somehow, a wrong number was put in…perhaps your mom put in your dad’s entire IRA savings acct.</p>
<p>Go over it with your mom, you’ll find the mistake. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>