Roth is after tax, so it was never deducted. But it would not be counted as asset either.
Mommdc said: **Last year I had bank account balances all ready, but all FAFSA asked was if we had over $33,000 or some number like that, in assets.
And we made more than OP.** Yes… ME too… it was not required to be reported… and I remember always having that information at hand when I filled this out… (for 1st son -those 4 yrs of his college)…
Also pretty much every year we were selected to do the “verifying” of income… getting our Tax transcript and all that… but yeah… that’s the line I am referring to on the Fafsa …
So now it’s not that amount… but it will be as low as $8,000… but then it sounds depending on AGE…and all that… I am still confused… I am sorry !
For some reason when I was on another computer… I couldn’t log in… strange… it kept saying “ooops. there is an Error”… but my laptop still had me logged in… so I am back now.
We do not have a Roth IRA… we have a 401K at his work… and about $500 in a IRA …I always heard Roths are expensive… I know so little about this sort of thing… god help us when we need to get money out of either of those.
We pay extra to have that 401K managed cause we have no idea what we are doing… I’ve always heard that is a huge rip off and we should do it ourselves… I don’t know.
How old are you and your husband? I gave you the link to the document to look up the asset protection amount but you apparently need some help.
Madison85 said: CAN YOU TONE DOWN THE BOLD and / or CAPS?
This seems to bother a # of people … it’s not something I personally understand… it’s just my way of pointing out something in the sentence. I am not screaming or anything like this… I suppose others read it that way… but it’s not my intent…
It’s just my way of expressing myself… I like to emphasize now & then… I will try to not do it . but probably take more time now to bold what I would normally cap - since it is bothering…
No, we do not have any 529 plans… I only mentioned this in the start of the thread as I was confused if it was mainly those who were in these 529 plans being penalized or this was also meaning any cash /checking/ savings (liquid) - for family emergencies. etc…
Is the son who graduates high school in Spring 2016 applying for Questbridge?
I do not know what Questbridge is ?
What is the **AGE ** of whomever is **OLDER ** between **YOU ** and **your SPOUSE **?
I think it is because if you itemize, then you have to file 1040 (and not 1040A or 1040EZ) so simplified needs doesn’t apply.
I have no idea what our Tax man used…(some years it was 1040… other years it was 1040A)… how do we even know this… It’s probably listed on the TAX transcript I got -and saved a copy from last year – is this listed??
I don’t think they do much itemizing with us… Pretty simple taxes really.
Any non-retirement assets from what I understand. That’s why I said if your savings exceeded the asset protection allowance you could put some in a Roth IRA because it seems that it’s easier to withdraw from Roth than from 401k for example. But it appears that since your APA is going to be around $20k and your current savings total $15k you should be fine the way things are now.
@overrunmama, You can set text apart by using quote symbols, like this:
(QUOTE)I think it is because if you itemize, then you have to file 1040 (and not 1040A or 1040EZ) so simplified needs doesn’t apply.(/QUOTE)
Except use these brackets instead of these ( ). It will look like this:
How old are you and your husband? I gave you the link to the document to look up the asset protection amount but you apparently need some help.
Yes. I did look at this… but I still did not understand that page… it seemed to be about the student… his age… not mentioning the parents … all these different ages… and different figures…
** What is the AGE of whomever is OLDER between YOU and your SPOUSE ?**
I will be 49… and husband will be 52 when we fill out these (2) fafsa’s in Feb 2016 .
sounds like they raised this a good $12,000 in a few months then… after this hit the press… going from $8,000 up to $20,000 … thankfully… It just seems people can’t even get ahead by saving responsibly anymore… I think having something on hand so we don’t have to take out loans for every little thing is very important to a growing family.
This country can’t keep paying all the college debt though. this is going to crash & burn… I don’t have the answers , that’s for sure. …then if our kids don’t go… its almost like asking for poverty. It’s sad in many ways.
Thank you Austinmshauri …I do use the quote feature a lot on another forum… it has the “quote” reply button doing it automatically… . wish it did that here… we also have colors & emoticons we can use… kinda miss those features here .
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-08-03/html/2015-18991.htm
Link in Post #8
Parents of dependent students
Age 52 of older married parent yields an **APA of $20,700.
I must have missed that link!.. (so sorry)…I was thinking of another link that I clicked on earlier where it spoke of a B-12 page or something (?) … maybe that was on another thread… I’m obviously confused. … but yeah… this link lays it out…
Thank you for posting it again… 
The amount of assets allowed by FAFSA will vary based on the income. A higher income will assume higher assets and a lower income, lower assets. Parents ages and marital status will affect the amount allowed as well.
What does this mean? Where is this in the FAFSA instructions?
[Quote]
The amount of assets allowed by FAFSA will vary based on the income.
@Madison85 I’m wrong. Asset protection for FAFSA is not based on income. Not on the actual FAFSA insutructions, but elsewhere, I’ve read that assets are allowable if consistent with the level of income. Wish posts were able to be edited for longer than just 15 minutes.
No. The asset protection is only related to age.
Yep, she realized she was wrong.
Moving my post that I put in the wrong thread about S3’s NPC results from Geneva…
[QUOTE=""]
It never listed anything about a Pell Grant of any sort in the results on 3rd son's when I used that page.. just what I listed on that other thread ...about the Alumni at $12,000, $4.000 in state grants and gift aid at $1,200....(period) ...nothing more ...that's why the figures end up costing over $11,000 per son....
[/QUOTE]
It is possible this calculator just doesn’t get THAT involved until the fafsa is actually completed…then determine what they call a “CSS/Financial Aid Profile” to what a family can afford …
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
Geneva DOES put a Pell Grant estimate in their aid pkg.
I just ran their NPC using the info you’ve provided, and included “2 in college,” and got the below result.
Since you mentioned about $20k in aid without Pell, what is different in your results than below?
Costs<br>
Financial Aid Gift Aid
Alumni Scholarship $12,000
Pell Grant $4,780
State Grant(s) $4,000
Estimated Total Gift Aid $20,780
Once you add a student loan, and maybe some “summer work money”, maybe this will be more affordable especially if they give that add’l merit award and Perkins.
And…hopefully, S3 will get some of those other scholarships that S2 received.
I ran it again… and Yes… that Pell grant is NOW listed… but I swear it wasn’t the last 2 times… this is the result I got now… I don’t know how to do a screen shot of this… well my kids helped me do that… but you can’t do that on this forum , right .
When it came to asking income… I get confused on which to enter… before they take out 401K or after … on this one -I listed AFTER -income being $58,550… (what it has on last years tax transcript for “total income” which it also has listed as Adjusted Gross income)…
(I think last time I put in there $65,000)…