<p>* besides eroding our home equity - which is supposed to be for our retirement. </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Home equity does not get counted on FAFSA. If your FAFSA EFC is 99k, then you have other huge assets or you have a very high income. If you have other big assets, why aren’t those for retirement?</p>
<p>Are you self-employed?</p>
<p>If you say that you’re “cash poor,” does that mean that your high income is already “spoken for” with mortgage, debt, etc? Or does that mean that your income is not that high, but your EFC is high because of huge assets…like real estate or stocks/investments? </p>
<p>Your child has applied to pricey elites. Did he apply to any financial safety schools? Since you had to be well-aware of your financial situation (income/assets), how did you think you were going to pay for college when your child was applying? Certainly, with the kind of income/assets that nets a $99k EFC, you had to have known that you wouldn’t qualify for aid. With that much, you wouldn’t even qualify with 2 in college.</p>