<p>My wife has been at her job for 40 years (she got hired on her 18th birthday). She is tired and wants to retire, our combined family income is about $130,000. If she retires it will be about $110,000 with her pension. If our income goes down by $20,000 will we get more aid than if we are at $130,000? If she works we can contribute to my S college but even then it would be hard, to take a cut of $20,000 salary and having an EFC of close to the same amount as we did if she worked is just too much. Should she just tough it out for another 6 years? One plan we have is to have S attend community college and then a UC school, but even then our EFC is high. Any advice?</p>
<p>It’s unlikely you will get more aid if your income falls to $110k. Your EFC may go down a $1000 or so, but since most schools do not meet the need over the EFC, it just means the gap you are expected to fill is larger. Most families making over $100k are not getting much need based aid. </p>
<p>Pick a school and run the NPC with the old family income and the new expected income. Any difference?</p>
<p>It depends. If your child gets accepted at one of the very generous top universities, with very generous need based policies, your child might get more aid. </p>
<p>At colleges that are not in that list of six or seven schools, this income change will not net you a huge difference in aid.</p>
<p>Why don’t you run some estimates both way with the FAFSA EFC estimator and NPCs of various colleges. GEt famiilar with the CA state money and where the cut offs are so you don’t miss them by just a few dollars, because there are awards out there that are all of nothing, so that if you income is $X, you lose a big chunk right there instead of the phasing things out so that you just lose a couple hundred or so when you just cross the line. Get comfortable with the formulas and see if there isn’t any sweet spot you can reach. I suggest also that you compromise and start putting away your wife’s paycheck in a 529 or other vehicle AS IF she had retired and have her work and extra year or so. That gives your family a leeway in cutting down in costs, putting away some money before the real thing happens, rather than for her to quit all of a sudden and having to cut back right then and there. When you all have to live on that reduced amount, you can feel that impact and your wife may reconsider or maybe do something part time, or you might be able to do just fine and have that extra savings in there. But while you do it, learn the ins and outs of financial aid so that you can maximize the awards and pick the schools where there is the most likelihood of affording it. </p>
<p>You need to run the NPCs either way. </p>
<p>How are your son’s stats? If they’re high enough, then target schools that would give him merit aid. </p>
<p>I wouldnt just plan on the CC to UC route because that excludes most merit scholarships. Some of the lower UCs will offer merit to higher stats students to entice them away from the top UCs.</p>
<p>Is he an only child? If so, with a family of 3, the EFC will likely be high even with the reduced income. What about savings/investments? those will get considered as well.</p>
<p>If getting aid will be unlikely either way, then why not have your wife work a couple more years and bank that difference in income (get used to living with less), and then you’ll have that savings to put towards college.</p>
<p>another option since your wife is tired is for her to look for a part-time job to go to after she retires from this job. Going from a 40 hr work week to a 20 hr work week will give her some more rest time, but also bring in money.</p>
<p>or explore other ways to bring in more money. H and I are now semi-retired. H retired 2 weeks ago, but since we’re both in our 50s, we knew that just being home would get “old” really quick. We have rental property, which keeps us busy and supplements retirement income. We don’t “work” 40 hours a week. </p>
<p>58 is just too young to be doing nothing at home…lol. </p>
<p>You had another thread with this same question a month ago. You need to keep in mind that your wife’s pension will not get hit with working-related taxes, etc, if she’s retired. No FICA contributions, etc.</p>
<p>Also…there is a “cost of working”…professional clothes, professional grooming, purchased lunches, convenience meals, etc. If your wife isn’t working or isn’t working full-time, then some of her time can be spent making more economical meals, etc.</p>
<p>I know that once I stopped going to “a job”, my expenses went way down. For many women, going to a job costs a lot of money…hair, nails, professional clothes, accessories, shoes, meals, gasoline, wear and tear on my car, etc. </p>
<p>My wife retired on 1/31/14. My D starts college in the fall and received a nice initial award offer. I contacted the FA office and provided them with our “projected” earnings for 2014 since my FAFSA was based on 2013. They evaluated my D’s package and provided her with an additional $3K of grant money from the college which is renewable for 4 years. So I’d say give it a shot. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Agree with the others that it varies by school and that the best thing to do is run the NPCs with various financial scenarios.</p>
<p>I retired partway through D1s soph year and her college increased our FA package the final two years; however, it is a school known for very generous FA.</p>
<p>As others have said, run the Net Price Calculators on various colleges’ web sites (including UCs and CSUs that are under consideration) to get an idea of what the financial aid will look like at the various levels of income.</p>
<p>If the student has high stats, there may be various merit scholarships up to full rides available (but mostly outside of California).</p>
<p>Also, I hope your retirement savings are in IRAs, 401(k)s, etc. vs. regular savings accounts and securities. Retirement accounts are not counted as assets for FA purposes.</p>
<p>I should have posted that I did run the NPC’s and one thing the sites said was the the amounts may change based on how much money the schools actually have (or something along those lines). I just wanted to see what peoples experiences were. Thank you everyone for your input. </p>
<p>Yes, the amounts will change especially at schools that do not guarantee to meet need. But it gives you some idea. If you run the numbers at a school like Cornell or Colgate that guarantee to meet need, you will get an idea of best case institutional scenario of what you can get Your estimated FAFSA EFC will generally be the LEAST you will be expected to pay. So that gives you a good minimum/maximum range.</p>
<p>If your wife can put off her retirement by just a few months even, bank the excess money between pay and pension. Get used to living off that lower amount before it actually happens and you’ll also have that banked amount to use.</p>