Balances IN retirement accounts are not listed on ones taxes. Even a savvy Wall Street guy might not know that the balances IN tax deferred accounts IRA or TSA are not included as assets on the FAFSA and Profile (although Profile does ask for those balances but not with regular savings).
If this parent has a million in tax deferred retirement accounts…and included them as regular savings…that would be an error.
But any withdrawals would need to be included…and the OP implied that the parents had made some withdrawals.
I do agree that the student doesn’t likely have a full understanding of the family finances.
@mom2collegekids Yes. Stockton for example will give those stats 9-11K automatic with rolling admission till May 1st
OP can look up RU Rowan and others if interested
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the money that my dad has is in the stock market and retirement funds that he has had to go into. we were just all kind of shocked that the
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I suspect that the student really doesn’t know the details or which funds has been drawn upon. The family may just speak of all their funds as retirement funds, and that’s what the student may be hearing. I doubt he’s drawing from protected retirement funds while he has other stock market investments.
@aserto009
When you did your FAFSA, that EFC was right in the SAR you received…85000. What did you think that meant? And if you weren’t sure…why didn’t you ask THEN?
The FAFSA and Profile were available for filing on October 1, 2017. When did you submit yours?
Take your FAFSA log in information…and open up your submitted FAFSA. It will be very easy to see where the money is!
I didn’t do my own FAFSA, and my dad seemed surprised when I told him what our EFC was when I received my financial aid packet from my first school. @thumper1
He draws from his IRA as well as stock market investments. @mom2collegekids
@aserto009
Do you have your FAFSA ID log in info? You know…younare supposed to keep that yourself.
Your FAFSA EFC? You didn’t need to wait for your first college acceptance to see that number. It was on the SAR when the fafsa was submitted.
There is NO college in this country that costs $85,000 a year…so when you got your acceptances…NO college would have expected a family contribution of $85,000 a year. No college.
To get to an $85,000 a year family contribution…your family either is drawing VERY significant funds from those IRA and investment accounts…and/or has HUGE assets…
With an $85,000 EFC, you are NOT poor…and it doesn’t matter whether your parent is working…or not. That amount is about 1 1/2 times the cost of attendance at the schools on your list. Need based aid…did your family really think they would qualify for this with the investment accounts, and such that they have? Really?
Why has you father not worked in the past 4 years?
Thumper is right. When you fill out the Fafsa, you get back a SAR figure, within a few days. That reflects the Fafsa EFC for the purposes of govt grants. You do not wait for the colleges to offer something/nothing to know what position you are in. That SAR should have shown that high number. It’s straight math. At that point, families first realize what they’re up against. Not when the packages come through (or not.)
Why this thread is going in circles is comments like being surprised when the packets came. It’s like you skipped a step in the awareness and recognition. You still haven’t responded whether there was possibly an error in the Fafsa/CSS you submitted. Did someone check? Nor some idea of what those assets are.
Most of us adults here understand how assets can affect “income,” for both IRS and college FA purposes. We not only did our taxes, we applied for FA (or helped others) and struggled through the concerns, the learning. We’ve plodded through the (Fafsa) formulas, have seen how percentages work. That’s why some here assume his assets are very large. We can see you’re working with too little info- or not providing enough to us, if you do know.
Bottom line: something causes your family to look like you can afford full pay. Your father may not be employed, but a job is far from the sole criteria.
And on top of that, when it comes to aid itself, a college can only offer what it has. There are rich colleges and cash-strapped.
Have you checked that there was no mistake? Painfully slowly line by line?
@aserto009
“I didn’t do my own FAFSA, and my dad seemed surprised when I told him what our EFC was”
Who did your FAFSA if not you and not your dad/parents? Have you taken previous advice yet to go into it and make sure that the correct information is there?
From what the Op has said, it appears that he is not eligible for need based aid no matter how you arrange the figures.
I though OP previously said a parent filled it out.
IF there was a mistake (eg, using QRP/legitimately exempt retirememt plan dollar totals in “asset” reporting,) then MAYBE the asset figure is falsely inflated and the SAR/EFC/college aid calculations are off. But I don’t see OP saying the parent(s) checked for this or other errors. And that’s always the first suggestion we make.
The other thing we don’t know is just how much Dad is cashing in from. eg, IRAs. But OP, you need to either have this conversation with one or both parents or pass on our suggestions to them. Otherwise, you’re in the dark, as are we.
@aserto009
With an $85,000 family contribution per FAFSA…your family is living on a HUGE amount of income and/or assets of some sort annually.
Immediately…you need to have a money talk with your parents. Do they have the money to pay for your college costs…or not? How much can or will they pay annually?
Get this answer.
^… Exactly. But also… If that figure is even correct (a mistake is so easy to make!)
@aserto009 things to check on you financial aid forms.
- Did your parent enter parent income and assets in both the student and parent section?
- Did your parent do an IRA or TSA rollover in 2016 and not indicate that properly? For example, if your parent did a million dollar rollover, and didn’t check the box, and indicate this...it would add $1 million in income to your FAFSA income.
- Look for misplaced zeros...making something like $10,000 be $100,000.
- Look for misplaced decimal points that could make $100.00 look like $10000
These are the most common errors…if there IS an error.
But then realistically, your parent will know their actual income from all the sources…and it is very possible it’s very high.
But find out!!
OP said her dad had a career on Wall St. and made a lot of money. It doesn’t sound like the family thought there was an error. It sounds like they assumed, incorrectly, that the dad being out of work and the mom working part-time would lead schools to discount their income and assets. That doesn’t appear to be the case.
@austinmshauri while that seems to be the case…it’s always worth checking for errors.
But really…the day the fafsa was completed…that $85,000 EFC would have been right on the SAR. This should not have been news that came only after acceptances.
@thumper1 I don’t have the info. When I asked my dad for it he would not give it to me, but he isn’t home so I’m going into his office to get the password and will look through it. My mom and I knew for a fact we wouldn’t get MUCH need based aid but my dad is on a completely different page.
@TomSrOfBoston my dad has not worked because he hasn’t been able to get a job. this is mostly because of his age and his dying field of expertise. however, he just got news that he should be getting an offer soon from a company that he has been doing some work for.
@flatKansas my dad did my fafsa.
I really am not trying to sound unintelligent, I’m just working off of the bits of information that my parents have given me. I’m going to check my fafsa now and report back shortly.
Your dad couldn’t get a high paying job in his field. He could get a job earning much less but would still have provided an income.