FAFSA -- Divorced parents with 2 kids- whose income

[Later2021]

If each parent contributed to $20,000 for 401k’s…

Final Mom’s income $110,000 and Dad’s income $130,000.

Kid Is in New Jersey.

@thumper1

For colleges that consider only custodial parent information, the parental income will be $130k or $150k.

Didn’t the OP say these did NOT include contributions to 401K? If so, those contributions will be added back in as income when the FAFSA EFC is calculated. So if each parent contributed $20,000…it would be $150,000 or $170,000.

@ucbalumnus

What colleges is the student interested in applying to? The vast majority of colleges don’t meet full need for all accepted students. This is why I asked if the family expected to get need based aid. They would not qualify for any federally funded grant money. Incomes are too high. States that award need based grants…ditto like NY and CA.

What is this student’s home state?

Have the two parents agreed on an amount the will contribute annually towards college? Is this money in a 529 account?

Does this student have sufficiently high stats to perhaps qualify for merit aid someplace?

The elder student is looking at colleges now. What schools? Are you being realistic in terms of what you can afford to pay annually?

The net price calculators won’t be accurate for you most likely. Even if you add both incomes together, you should view this as a very gross estimate of your net costs. But you don’t even need to do that for FAFSA schools because they don’t use non-custodial parent financial information, but with only a couple of exceptions, they also don’t meet full need for all.