<p>alamemom,</p>
<p>Your characterization of me is way off base. I grew up poor. I know what is like to do without. I do not consider myself poor nor rich, just average. Our income is not high and we watch our pennies.</p>
<p>I do realize fafsa does not care where a family lives. My high COLA occurred well after we bought our home. I could not afford to buy my house on our family income today. </p>
<p>It is not possible to pick up and move a family to a lower cost of living area when there are jobs waiting for us. Many ccers respond with “just move” which is not a realistic option.</p>
<p>The only point I was trying to make is the 53k number puts the family in the poor house. A more realistic number in a high cost area would be closer to 80 to 90k. Trust me when I tell you we watch our pennies.</p>
<p>I think if you compare salaries to a lower cost of living area, you will find the standard of living will be the same even though we make more money. Standard of living is what is more important not actual dollar amount which can be very deceiving.</p>