<p>I just joined today and I’ve been reading all of the discussions regarding FAFSA. I am a single mom with a son in senior year of High School. I’ve been divorced since 2001. I am planning to married in January 2011 and have to say, I’m very upset reading all of the individuals comments about how marriage is probably the worst thing you can do at this point…
My situation is a little strange but once I remarry, my now husband will not live with us full time. His job is to far from where we live, so he will live in his home close to work and travel every other weekend to see us. I know it is a strange situation but for right now, that is the way it will stay until his transfer period comes up and that will possibly bring him closer to us.
My question is why would my husband to be have to be added to the FAFSA form as a contributor to the household when he doesn’t live with me? He has his own home which is in his name and solely his now and will be after the marriage.</p>
<p>I don’t know whether any adjustment to your EFC would result from maintaining two households, but if you work through the FAFSA formula on paper, you should be able to figure out which factors affect your EFC. Here is the link: <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/111609EFCFormulaGuide20102011.pdf</a></p>
<p>Only you and your future husband can figure out when is the best time for you to get married. It is October now, you still have time to sort things out before your planned wedding date!</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Once you are married, all of his income and assets will become part of the total family resources upon which the FA is based. Doesn’t matter where he lives. Talk to a financial advisor who specializes in college aid, or just email the FA department of a few colleges for verification.</p>
<p>My question is why would my husband to be have to be added to the FAFSA form as a contributor to the household when he doesn’t live with me? He has his own home which is in his name and solely his now and will be after the marriage.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter where he lives. He’ll be your husband and part of your family.</p>
<p>I have to ask…if you’ll be spending sooooo littttttle time with this person, what’s the point of marrying him now??? Why not just continue dating him?</p>
<p>Anyway…his income will count and if he’s not going to contribute then you may want to rethink the wedding plans until your youngest child’s senior year in college…</p>
<p>(and if you each own a home, that’s another issue…a second home is an asset)</p>
<p>Your spouse’s income and assets will be reported on the FAFSA form you file for your son’s sophomore year of college (2012). Your marriage will not have an impact on his financial aid his freshman year because that will be based on your 2010 earnings when you were unmarried and filed taxes as single or head of household.</p>
<p>Run the numbers in the FAFSA formula or an online EFC calculator so that you can go into your marriage with the full knowledge of its financial impact.</p>
<p>Really think about the marriage. Ignore the college financial issues, why now? What benefits are there for you and what benefits for your future husband? With privacy laws you can still designate others to have the right to be involved- check on those aspects. Is he wanting the marriage now or was it your idea? Figure out ways he may benefit that may hurt you in the future. What are you giving up when your two lives are legally bound? Will he gain control over your finances in any way?</p>
<p>You can wait until you two are physically able to live together to formalize your relationship. There should be no pressure to marry to prevent him from leaving the relationship. The very fact that you are questioning your decision is reason enough to wait. You can always decide to go ahead with plans at any future time, but once married you may be in for problems you didn’t think of. Good luck.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s an Expected FAMILY contribution…EFC. So when you get married, your husband is now a member of your family. </p>
<p>First, congratulations on your newfound happiness. This is a wonderful thing for you personally. If you do NOT want to post this person’s information on your son’s FAFSA form, do NOT get married until after you file his final FAFSA the winter of his junior year in college (that’s the one for his senior year in college). Otherwise, your husband’s info is required to be included.</p>
<p>If your fiance is questioning why his income and assets need to be considered for * your son* , that should give you pause.</p>
<p>However this sort of thing is why many seniors, decide to " live in sin" rather than remarry.
;)</p>
<p>FAFSA info for parents’ income is also required if son/daughter will want to qualify for institutional aid for med school and dental school regardless of their age. If they just want loans/unsubsidized then it won’t impact aid package. But if they want grants and scholarships based on need for med/dmd then your household income will count. </p>
<p>So 3rd year of med school is your last FAFSA.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Not only will your new husband’s income and assets count for purposes of calculating EFC, but so will your ex-husband’s if he’s the biological father of your college-bound child. And if your ex-husband is remarried, his new wife’s income and assets will count, too. As far as FAFSA is concerned, you’re all just one big happy family. Not that the college your child chooses to attend can force any of these people to pay even a dime. But it all goes into the hopper for purposes of calculating EFC. Depending on your ex-husband’s income and assets (together with those of his new wife, if any), your EFC may be high even without marrying your fiance, so the timing of the marriage may not matter. As others have suggested, you need to work this all through the FAFSA EFC calculator and see where you end up, with marriage and without. Then maybe you need to have a heart-to-heart with your ex-husband and your fiance and see what, if anything, they’ll actually contribute. </p>
<p>Sorry this is so hard. FAFSA can put divorced and remarried people in a tough spot, but I think there’s a real public policy concern about not letting parents with financial resources evade responsibility for their children’s education, and we certainly wouldn’t want to encourage sham divorces by letting the divorced non-custodial parent off the hook.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This isn’t true, only the custodial parent’s income and assets, plus that of the custodial parent’s spouse, are reportable for FAFSA. Non-custodial parent and his/her spouse do not report anything on FAFSA and their information is not considered.</p>
<p>For some Profile schools and Ivies, non-custodial parent information will be required.</p>
<p>My advice: When in doubt, do without.</p>
<p>This has absolutely nothing to do with implications of your marriage on financial aid for your son. It has everything to do with my belief that if and when you enter into marriage, it should be without any reservations or doubts or second thoughts. If you do not know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you want to be married to this person, you should not marry him.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not for FAFSA only schools. FAFSA schools ONLY use the custodial parent and spouse information, not the non-custodial parent (and spouse).</p>
<p>Now…for Profile…well yes, for that you are ONE big happy family in most cases. EVERYONE’S income and assets get reported in most cases…the custodial parent and spouse on the Profile…and the Noncustodial parent and spouse on the non-custodial parent form. Note…some Profile schools do NOT require the non-custodial parent form. YMMV.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think so…at all. </p>
<p>When you come into a kid’s life when (s)he is a teenager, you really do not owe the kid anything other than civility and non-interference in the relationship between your spouse and the child, in my book. That’s especially true if the non-custodial parent is in the picture (whether or not (s)he will contribute to college costs.) </p>
<p>I’m divorced. Light years ago now, I dated someone who was also divorced. We both had kids. His were older than mine. One was already in college. I never met him because his mother was upset that her ex had a girlfriend. (I assure you that I had zilch to do with the divorce. Her attitude was kind of bizarre because she was the one who had filed for divorce.) </p>
<p>But, if we had married, the college would have counted my income in calculating the fin aid of a young man who was 19 or 20 and had refused to meet me. </p>
<p>There was no way on earth I was willing to pay one cent towards his expenses. My attitude was colored by the fact that I had to pay for my own offspring’s education. I wasn’t going to deplete my assets to pay for his kids’ education. We didn’t marry, so it didn’t matter, but it certainly was one consideration. </p>
<p>On the flip side, my ex did remarry. His wife is far wealthier than I or my ex. She has kids of her own. I didn’t think she had any obligation whatsoever to pay for the education of my child, though my ex did have such an obligation.</p>
<p>When you marry someone with young kids and actually raise them, then maybe it’s different. But, when you acquire stepchildren when they are almost an adult, you aren’t expect to be their mom or dad–especially when their real mom or dad is in the picture. So, as far as I am concerned, you’ve no obligation to pay for their education.</p>
<p>Single parent here. Thumper is right, FAFSA considers custodial parent household only, which includes your legal spouse, the Profile considers dad and his spouse. </p>
<p>So, moral of the story is, look at FAFSA only schools, if you don’t want the dad’s finances considered. OR, maybe your ex, if you have joint custody, has a lower income, and he should be the custodial parent. For many of us with joint custody and 50/50 placement, it is a toss of the coin as to which is custodial for FAFSA purposes, and is more helpful to choose the one with lower income. </p>
<p>If your ex were the custodial parent, your marriage wouldn’t matter for FAFSA purposes, though would for Profile. </p>
<p>Jonri, your reasoning makes very good sense, and I agree. However, financial aid reality says spouse must be considered, and that unfortunately is the bottom line. </p>
<p>OP, good thing you’re exploring these implications of marriage now, rather than after the fact, as happens quite often.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It should not be a “toss of the coin”. The FAFSA guidelines are VERY clear. If the student lives equally with each divorced parent, the parent who provides the MOST support is the one listed. That is the parent with the higher income in most cases (unless you can demonstrate that the parent with the lower income somehow is providing MORE of the support).</p>
<p>Thumper, right again in terms of ‘most support’ I will admit to not having read the guidelines recently, and went back and looked again. Apologies. In most cases, custodial parent is the one the child spent the most time with, and even with 50/50 court placement there tends to be a little more time with one rather than another. </p>
<p>I was speaking from my own situation to an extent, and would think I’m not alone in finding that some of defining ‘most support’ is subjective. Each parent can tend to think that they are doing the most, or sacrificing the most for the children. A lower income parent can prioritize child related expenses as more important part of the budget, and a higher income parent can pay ordered expenses, but spend less on the kids dollar for dollar.</p>
<p>Here’s an idea: Don’t marry. Put the money you’d save in a bank account. Get married exactly 4 years after your currently scheduled wedding date. Use the money for a really nice honeymoon.</p>
<p>Alternatively, get married, but at the same time, get your son a wife.</p>
<p>I was pressured into marriage and have regretted it, just as I thought I would. There was financial fallout and emotional fallout.</p>
<p>As everyone has said, marriage should only be contemplated when there are no reservations.</p>
<p>*So, moral of the story is, look at FAFSA only schools, if you don’t want the dad’s finances considered. *</p>
<p>That’s not the issue…</p>
<p>The issue is the custodial mom is thinking of remarrying and she doesn’t want her new H’s income considered. FAFSA is going to consider that.</p>