Help!!!! My EFC leaves no money for foodx__x

Paying for College
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<p>uhh...right now I still haven't figured out the problem. Dad is calling lots of people to ask. A lot of the replies so far are going over my head. But one thing I'm fairly certain now is that retirement does not effect EFC right? (my parents' retirement is in 401b?)</p>

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<p>Right - you should not include retirement accounts under assets.</p>

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<p>First I agree with everyone else...go over every line of your FAFSA. If you didn't do the FAFSA worksheet FIRST...go back, print it out, and do it. The explanations on the sheet are excellent and very much help do the form. Also...make sure you are using correct line #s for the 2006 income taxes. If you filed now, you are using estimates, and the item #s on the 2006 tax return are different than the 2005 one. Go to <a href="http://www.irs.gov%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.irs.gov&lt;/a> and print out the 2006 tax form that is the same as what you filed last year (1040, 1040EZ etc). That way you can see what the item IS and get the right amount.</p>

<p>Now...having said that...please don't think this is harsh, but the FAFSA does not consider your family's mortgage payment or bills in its calculation (other than there is an assumption that there are some living expenses). If you have a high mortgage payment and lots of bills, that is not a factor in considering your EFC using the FAFSA. Schools using the Profile do consider home value, payments and equity...but not the FAFSA. </p>

<p>The amount you put forth seems VERY high to me. Our income is twice what you have and our EFC is about $42,000. We really have no assets, savings, etc of substance. Our kids have NO college savings. If your family has any bank accounts, CDs, or any other non-retirement savings, this could impact your EFC. The amount of money IN an IRA, 401k, 403B or like accounts does not count as savings. HOWEVER the amount that your parents contributed to that account counts as income for the tax year of the FAFSA (so the contributions made during 2006 count as income for 2006...but the money IN the accounts does not get tapped...does that make sense). So if your parents are contributing a large amount to their retirement accounts, that is still considered income for FAFSA purposes in the year it is contributed.</p>

<p>And most important...do you (the student) have ANY assets....because the amount expected to be contributed by you is a high percentage of what you have in savings.</p>

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<p>Chedva, I thought the same thing with the "your spouse's income" part. It does get very confusing to keep the parent part separate from the student part.
Sakura, check your part of the FAFSA to make sure that you have not included any of your parents' assets in your section.</p>