<p>Mystic Dad: May I ask why you married? It sounds as though you maintain two homes and have separate finances and health insurance coverages. What am I missing?</p>
<p>DIdn’t you think about this before you got married? With 2 kids already in college, the FAFSA and CSS would not be unfamiliar.</p>
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Your new wife must make some very good money. Being able to save a few hundred dollars a month would be a major event for many families. In my experience being in different locations doesn’t make it more complicated. You each get your own insurance cards.</p>
<p>Back to the original question, in your case it MIGHT make more financial sense to get divorced. I just hope your wife will want to get remarried in another four years.</p>
<p>Big question? Did your ex-wife remarry? If so HER spouse’s income and assets count.</p>
<p>If you haven’t been married for very long, can you just get an annulment in your state?</p>
<p>Why did we get married? Because we want to be partners and spend the rest of our lives with each other. We’ll get around to living together, most likely, but the marriage is about commitment. This whole money thing didn’t seem important.</p>
<p>My wife actually doesn’t make that much money. She owns rental properties which she maintains and collects rent from. Her actual taxable income is similar to mine, but because she owns the buildings outright, they count as assets and the formula assumes that you can “spend” 5% of your assets on college costs each year. That plus the income puts her out of range of an financial aid. </p>
<p>My ex has not remarried, so no help there.</p>
<p>It appears that some colleges do primarily consider the resources of biological parents. A NY Times article mentions Tufts as one. Anyone know of any others?</p>
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<p>By this do you mean only the two biological parents’ assets, leaving aside their spouses’ assets (if remarried)? Any school that requires FAFSA (ie the vast majority) will require the income/asset information from both the custodial parent and his or her spouse. FAFSA does not require income/asset from noncustodial parents.</p>
<p>About a third of the Profile colleges require both custodial and noncustodial parents to report their income/assets; the other two thirds only require custodial parents to file. In both cases the spouse’s income/assets are included. The participating Profile schools and whether they require noncustodial financial information is here:</p>
<p><a href=“https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv[/url]”>https://profileonline.collegeboard.com/prf/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet/PXRemotePartInstitutionServlet.srv</a></p>
<p>I haven’t heard of any college that will split out the bio parent’s assets from his or her spouse. Can you link or quote the article?</p>
<p>Suggest being committed as an unmarried couple with extra funds for college, then re-marry when your daughter is super-close to graduation in four years. Your long-term relationship will have a better chance of survival this way than if one person feels unduly burdened by putting someone else’s child through college. The number one cause of divorce is financial stress.</p>
<p>Just my two cents. YMMV.</p>
<p>This is the NY Times article that has the best read on this particular situation:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/education/edlife/spending.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/education/edlife/spending.html</a></p>
<p>The College Board has also weighed in. They recommend that only biological parents be responsible and have a formula that absolves stepparents of responsibility. Among other things, their policy says:</p>
<ol>
<li>The standard family contribution calculation for applicants with separated or divorced parents involves two parents, not three or four. </li>
<li>A contribution from a parent who has remarried is proportional to the financial strength of that parent as compared to the combined resources of the parent and stepparent. This principle applies to the parent in either the custodial or noncustodial household.</li>
</ol>
<p><a href=“Financial Aid Services”>Financial Aid Services;
<p>It would be really helpful to know which colleges have adopted this methodology. I suppose it is time to start making phone calls to the financial aid offices of the colleges my daughter is interested in.</p>
<p>Mom4college: You make a very good point. I posted here because this discussion has already been stressful and we’re still more than a year away. The marriage certificate is less important than the relationship.</p>
<p>*then re-marry when your daughter is super-close to graduation in four years. *</p>
<p>I think you can remarry right after filing FA paperwork during your child’s junior year.</p>
<p>I know this issue has been discussed ad naseum over the years, but I have to say that I think it is a really sad system that would require this wife to pay for her step-child’s education, but FAFSA schools absolve non custodial BIOLOGICAL parents of the same responsibility. </p>
<p>My sister and her ex are both equally involved in parenting my niece. When they divorced, the ex purchased a home in the same development so that niece could conveniently go between her homes. The divorce was 14 years ago; neither parent has remarried. My sister is the custodial parent but niece spends a LOT of time with her dad every week. At the time of divorce, child support was set at $300, and although the ex’s income has increased SUBSTANTIALLY, my sister has never attempted to have the support increased. Their relationship is more or less amicable and ex pays for clothes, car insurance and other incidentals as needed. Together their income is more than mine and DH’s but since the ex’s income is not a factor at FAFSA schools, my nieces EFC is roughly 1/3 of my son’s. </p>
<p>No provisions were made in the divorce settlement/court orders for tuition from either parent. </p>
<p>Here, the new step-mother has to buck up. Neices financially secure, very involved FATHER does not. </p>
<p>What a scam. I can’t believe the federal government STILL has not closed this glaringly unjust loophole.</p>
<p>scubasue: </p>
<p>Your niece’s parents did not remarry. Had your niece’s mother (custodial parent) re-married, then her EFC would likely reflect mom and step-dad’s income. What is the loophole? If their attorneys both failed to include college tuition in the divorce setttlement, then they hired the wrong guys! </p>
<p>The OP remarried and with his new wife’s assets, their household has more resources. I guess FA’s reason that what is his is hers and that there is not any separate marital property. It’s just one big piggy bank and all of the kids belong to both. Does the OP’s daughter live with him or with her bio mom? </p>
<p>Before divorcing, mysticdad, I would talk to an attorney to learn about any potential issues that may arise regarding a domestic partner who is not your legal spouse and look into, for example, power of attorney documents. Think worst case scenario. It is possible we are overlooking some ramification here that would leave you and your wife (for now – hee hee!) vulnerable.</p>
<p>People seem to think that a child should receive federal aide, rather than help from a new family member. Keeping in mind that financial aide is a form of welfare, why is it more fair that the rest of us should pitch in rather than a step parent? Are the same people in favor of folks working to get fired so they can collect unemployment? The money comes form the same place.</p>