My kids are disparate enough to have Hampton Garden Inn vs Sleep Inn potential and emotional wreckage isn’t based on degree of inequity, any inequity will do, real or imagined.
<<<the op="" says="" he="" has="" $0="" income.="" zero.="" that="" being="" the="" case…how="" can="" afford="" anything="" for="" college="" costs?="">>>
Assets = yesterday’s income banked or invested for decades by 2 reasonably successful people. That’s how I can afford something for college costs.
So you have CC kid and a (safer than CH) UNC. Not a CC and an NYU. I think that is what is challenging in this and your other college trip threads. That there seems to be a disconnect. You have no income, undefined budgetary limits and no guarantee of merit as things stand as outlined.
I have a UNC Greensboro kid and an App State kid. Safeties unless they forget to spell check the common app. Prob both App State. I can send you the Scattergrams. I never said I had an NYU kid. I’ve got a kid who may aspire to NYU but we haven’t gone over the numbers together.
Our HS gives Juniors a week off to visit colleges so we did. We had done no research at the time so went wherever the mood took us, not places that had been vetted for anything academic or financial beyond a casual glance at some book DW bought. We love NY, my best friend lives there, so we went and looked at schools without regard to anything. We had a blast. They got psyched about some schools but we ran the net cost calculator over dinner in little Korea and got a shot of reality. Our more reasonable NC schools are day trips, not week vacations and we weren’t wasting time off for them.
I don’t need current income to send them to UNC. All I asked was if assets counted.
If your income is below $29,000 a year and you meet one of the following…
- Can file a 1040A or EZ (not likely with investment income or a business)
OR
- Are a dislocated worker ( you aren't...you are working)
OR
- Qualify for a means tested benefit like SNAP, or free/reduced lunch, or subsidized housing (do you wpqulify for any of these.)
You would have an automatic $0 EFC and your assets would NOT be counted for FAFSA purposes.
If your income is $49,000 a year or less, and you meet one of the above three other qualifiers, you would qualify for the simplified needs test…and your assets would not be counted.
BUT…this is for FAFSA purposes only. Schools that use the Profile have no auto $0 EFC or Simolofoed needs test…so your assets would count.
Even IF your EFC was $0 and your assets not counted…your max financial aid guaranteed would be you Pell Grant of $5900 and you $5500 Direct Loan for freshman year.
The vast majority of $0 EFC per FAFSA folks are selected for verification. Justifiably, the schools ATE going to want to know how you are paying your day to day loving exoenses. So…in your case, your investment withdrawals will be shown to them.
In your case, it seems to me…that the qualifier you would need to have is number 3 in my example…you would need to be eligible for a means tested benefit like food stamps (SNAP) or free/reduced lunch. Are you eligible for those things?
<<<you would="" need="" to="" be="" eligible="" for="" a="" means="" tested="" benefit="" like="" food="" stamps="" (snap)="" or="" free="" reduced="" lunch.="" are="" you="" those="" things?="">>>
Never occurred to me to look – our school doesn’t offer lunch anyway. SNAP had better not cover my situation with regards to assets.
I don’t need current income to send them to UNC<<<<<<<<
That is great, That is 40K a year, right? two in dorms?
Yes
Pretty sure the mutual funds put you way over SNAP eligibility.
Okay, so you know you can afford a total of 40k. Each girl gets a 20k budget. If, for some reason, one ends up costing a little less than the other, 40 k is still the total you want to pay.
Be cautious about this dream school thing. When our first was applying, DH wanted to believe it all would work out, I had to be CFO. We had fun on trips, too, and he didn’t want to spoil that. He had all sorts of wild ideas about schools. But financial realities are realities. I wouldn’t even want mine to apply to schools like NYU, knowing their record of bad gapping.
My mantra was: no college is a dream school, if we can’t afford it. D1 came to understand that.
SNAP is an income based program. Assets are not included. Many people do lose their jobs and have very reduced incomes, and they qualify even though they own houses and have 401k accounts, many cars, other assets.
And isn’t that what it is for? People who don’t have the cash to buy food for their kids?
Checking for clarity…
You have enough in assets to pay all of your living expenses while you try to get this business off the ground…AND pay $20,000 each…per year for college out of savings of some kind…for twins.
And you think you should get need based aid? And you don’t want the colleges to count your assets?
Yes…I suppose that might be possible…might.
If you qualify for a means tested benefit…and your income is really that low.
But remember…there is NO means tested benefit or auto $0 at UNC-CH. it’s a Profile school.
“Households may have $2,250 in countable resources, such as a bank account…” Home/lot are not counted and rules on cars vary by state. Thing is, the mutual finds are available, not locked into a 401k, with its own rules.
This indicates that SNAP does have assets limits unless things have changed since September 2016.
“…assets must fall below certain limits: households without an elderly or disabled member must have assets of $2,250 or less, and households with an elderly or disabled member must have assets of $3,250 or less.”
http://www.cbpp.org/research/a-quick-guide-to-snap-eligibility-and-benefits
Thing is, the mutual finds are available, not locked into a 401k, with its own rules.<<<<<
Right, and mutual fund holders (with a financial adviser) will have their 401K funded first. So for sure, the MFs are just cash money equivalents. Like anyone's savings/checking accounts.
If the mutual funds are not in qualified retirement accounts, they will need to be reported as an asset, but any withdrawals will not be reported on the income side.
This family is the richest poor people I’ve ever seen.
Another thing for the OP to consider…some Profile schools take primary home equity into consideration when looking at calculations for institutional need based aid.
I believe dividends/interest on mutual funds is reported on the tax forms if the family is taking these out…and is included in the AGI, right?
If this family has THAT much in mutual funds…would their AGI really be able to be $0?
^^^
Yes, dividends and interest on mutual funds that are not in a qualified retirement account would be reported on an income tax form, even if they are reinvested as opposed to being taken out. Also, the capital gain on any shares sold will be a factor.
Dividends, interest, gains or losses all depend on what the fund manager does and how the market performs. Unfortunately, there’s no way to accurately predict these things on a year-to-year basis.
Well, m2ck, there was that multi millionaire living on his interest, deferring most of that, who planned to cry poor, cited the high CoL around NYC.
Free/reduced lunch: " other cash income. Other cash income would include cash amounts received or withdrawn from any source including savings, investments, trust accounts and other resources that would be available to pay the price of a child’s meal."
Fam of 4, from .gov: reduced: 45.5k annual. Free: 32k. These take effect July 1. And of course, could be made tougher or eliminated.
What really strikes me is this isn’t even reflective of what the true poor endure, those with no safety net. I think if I had a substantial amount socked away, enough to fund 40k/year for college (nearly the max those others live on, total,) I couldn’t bring myself to apply for this.