<p>Lots of ugly judgments here with little basis on which to base them.</p>
<p>But maybe I’m a bit more sympathetic because in my household the breadwinner has been out of work for almost 10 months with no job in sight, and the not-breadwinner has been able to pick up more hours but still is far from turning a part-time position into a full-time one. I can easily see where a job might be worth pursuing for longer-term career opportunities, but still be one that means there won’t be any new cash left over to put toward college expenses - especially when accepting that job means maintaining a separate household for the person who has that new job.</p>
<p>aa9922 came here with a very specific question concerning FAFSA and gladly volunteered all information necessary to facilitate an accurate answer. The result? He was sliced and diced by contributors to this thread who seem to have rushed to judgment without even reading his posts!</p>
<p>The facts:</p>
<p>(1) aa9922 lost his job.</p>
<p>(2) aa9922 and his wife separated.</p>
<p>(3) aa9922’s only apparent job offer isn’t going to pay well.</p>
<p>It sounds like the answer to his question is that mom files the FAFSA and indicates that Dad is no longer a member of the household. As noted, the parents’ current separated status won’t be reflected on their most recent tax return, but it is, nonetheless, accurate.</p>
<p>The outcome would be different only if, as kelsmom suggested, aa9922 and his wife are separated not by choice, but solely for work opportunities, in which case they would be deemed still to be married, despite their less than ideal living situation.</p>
<p>One suggestion, though: FAFSA comes out on January 1, and some forms of aid are available on a first come - first served basis only . . . so I’d suggest completing the FAFSA as soon as possible after it becomes available. Don’t wait until February.</p>
<p>Thank you, dodgersmom, for your insight. I stumbled upon this forum just a few days ago looking for answers to my conundrum. I did not expect people to pass judgement on my current predicament and even accuse me of gaming the system. I am not asking for handouts from taxpayers but a solution for funding my daughter’s college education. She applied to private (and some public) colleges and we were told our FAFSA application will determine her financial aid from public and private money. </p>
<p>You see I was making good money as a director in an IT firm which went bankrupt earlier this year and I have funded my two older boys’ college without help. I am new to FAFSA because I never bothered to fill one out with my two older boys. Let me make this clear: I am not abandoning my daughter. I will do whatever it takes to assure her a bright future just as I have done to my two older boys who have now a bright future of their own in another state. My mortgage is paid off so my wife and my daughter will not be left homeless. I just want to maximize financial aid before tapping into my retirement account. I have little or no money left in my savings from being unemployed for quite some time. The company I will be working with abroad is a start-up so there is no guarantee that I can help with my daughter’s education in the near term. So there.</p>
<p>Do make sure you run each college’s Net Price Calculator (NPC) now. Don’t wait until spring to try to figure out which schools will be affordable. Unlike with your two older children, this year your finances really do need to determine which schools your daughter applies to. If she gets her heart set on a school that’s clearly unaffordable, that’s only going to lead to heartbreak next spring. So, run those NPC’s!</p>
<p>And also take a look at the schools listed in the automatic merit aid and competitive merit aid threads that are “stickied” at the top of the forum. (For the “automatic merit” schools, you can just go straight to the final post - that has the most current info.)</p>
<p>You should encourage your daughter to look at in-state publics, privates that offer either good merit or good financial aid (depending on which she’ll qualify for), and the publics that offer automatic merit aid. With the exception of the “automatic merit” schools, out-of-state publics will generally be unaffordable and probably shouldn’t be on her list at all.</p>
<p>Take note of kelsmom’s post. In your first post you said you and your wife “are separating” rather than “have separated” which would be the case if you moved out in August for, per the terminology used above, the marriage is in trouble reasons. The point is that if you moved to your sister’s house in August for work reasons only, to be closer to a place where you could find work for example, then fafsa would be filed as married and both incomes would be included. If the marriage is “in trouble” and you would continue to live separately for marital reasons even if you found a job in the same area as your wife and daughter reside between now and March, then the advice about including only your wife’s income, support, share of the assets etc. applies.</p>
<p>I believe the test here is…do you intend to get back together or not?</p>
<p>It sounds like your own income has been low since you’ve been unemployed for so long. Filing as married - if indeed you are getting back together when the work crisis passes - may not affect your D’s aid much anyway, at least not for this year.</p>
<p>Many people have had to live separately in the past few years because they need to go where the jobs are. They are not “separated” in the pending-divorce sense; they are separated because they need to be so in order to earn money. I did not read anything to lead me to believe it was anything other than this situation in the OP.</p>
<p>If this is actually a pre-divorce type of separation, the rules are exactly as they are for divorced people. The IRS rules for being considered unmarried are not relevant here (they influence allowable filing status). The income and assets of the parent with whom the student has resided for the most recent 12 months as of the date the FAFSA is files are used. The tax return from the base year, if filed jointly, is reworked to include only the FAFSA-parent’s income, one-half of any non-work income/deductions/credits (and if the amount of itemized deductions does not exceed the standard deduction for that parent in the new situation, the standard deduction is used) - and the deductions and filing status on the form must be reworked to reflect the new situation. If the other parent paid child support or alimony, those amounts must be reported in untaxed income.</p>