OP here. Thank you everyone for the thoughtful comments. Let me address some issues.
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I do understand that I should not base my financial decisions about retirement income based on what would “look best” on the FASFA. Nor will I make any changes to my retirement based on the information I get from an online forum. I am just looking for ideas to present to my financial advisor.
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I do understand that no matter what the EFC turns out to be, my kids will be getting or not getting financial aid is based on more than just the EFC. What college or university, grades, further unknown changes to the rules, etc. OTOH, if I can tweak my retirement income that helps with the EFC and is in line with optimizing my retirement plan, is it not worth it to look at?
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I understand that each kid will want the standard I have set with the first to college.
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I understand from some of the replies that it looks like I have some information from this thread that I can pass along to my advisor. I should look into spending down my non-retirement saving first. It sounds like there FASFA treats earned and unearned income differently, though I am not sure to what degree and the effect on EFC. Maybe if I can find out how this income is treated, I can pass that information along too (assuming it is relevant).
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I understand that many of you want more specific information. We live in Virginia. My oldest just completed an AS at the community college and will be transferring to an engineering school. The engineering schools in Virginia either did not accept him (he did not get one of the degrees that automatically allows transfer) or others he had no interest in. He has been accepted to a variety of private schools outside of Virginia. Other than a PTK scholarship, a lot of these schools provide minimal merit scholarships to transfers. He has agreed to work during school and will be doing COOPS or internships to help pay down loans.
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My second oldest is a HS junior. He has started looking and fortunately one of his top choices is a state school (but not his actual top choice;-) He has good grades and a decent, but not extraordinary SAT.
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My third child is currently in 8th grade. He doesn’t have a clue where he wants to go.
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Financially, our advisor has always recommended that we maximize our retirement portfolio and worry about paying for college on the “back end” We have some 529’s, but they are minuscule compared to the expected college tuition and compared to our retirement portfolio. About 20% Roth IRA, 50% 403(b), 5% non-retirement securities, remaining 20% SS and pension.
If anyone has any additional ideas on tweaking our portfolio to maximize financial aid, I would welcome it. I’d prefer not to get “advice” that comments on what I should or should not have done in the past, since I cannot change that (ie. “you should have saved more on 529s”.). I can add to existing 529s, but it would be hard to make up for all that lost time.