How much can we afford to contribute?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How far removed from daycare are you? If it hasn’t been too long, that may be a good starting point. We applied to private preK, so we said we could afford to pay what we paid for daycare.

This is what I did too. I took what we pay monthly for pre-school and multiplied it by 10 to get the annual contribution, as the school's payment plan is 10 months. It might be lower than they think we can pay, but after a rough year, it's more in line with what we're willing to pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

Even if you liquidated your 529, 60K could pay for what? A year and a half of tutition? So no, I don't that rules you out of financial aid. They are looking to see if you can pay tutition for 12 years (if starting in K), not if you can pay for one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

Even if you liquidated your 529, 60K could pay for what? A year and a half of tutition? So no, I don't that rules you out of financial aid. They are looking to see if you can pay tutition for 12 years (if starting in K), not if you can pay for one year.

I thought we could draw 10k only for K-12? I put in our 529 but wasn't sure how the schools use it in the calculations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

No aid. You could use the 529 for tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The forms get pretty personal, so if there are large assets at all, regardless of Annual HHI, you aren't going to get much/won't get aid.

We thought we might get *something* based on our HHI. When I called and asked the Financial Aid person, she said the mere presence of assets that could cover tuition basically disqualified us.

as they should. many people are not saving as much as they would like for retirement because they pay full tuition. this is a no brainer. we found out several people were getting a lot of aid and had much more expensive homes than us and we reduced our annual fund contributions drastically.

DP. Sure, but your comment kind of assumes similar HHI which didn't sound like it was the case for PP. I can see both sides of this. A family with a lower HHI presumably has much lower earning potential and ability to fund college and retirement if those assets are drained. A family with a higher HHI that hasn't saved presumably has a much higher ability to make up for "lost" savings time.

[Anonymous]

Unless your child is a URM, gifted and from a family who received public assistance, they are going to expect you to pony up a significant amount of money (40-50 percent of tuition). And that's for a K-8 school. High schools don't give out nearly as much financial aid, unless your child is a superstar athlete or freakishly talented in some other way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

You want aid with that much income?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

You want aid with that much income?

PP had 3 kids. With one kid, def not tho

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

You want aid with that much income?

PP had 3 kids. With one kid, def not tho

Even with 3. I get that it would be very hard to afford 3…. But most people cannot afford private school. It seems like a crazy income bracket to qualify for aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

You want aid with that much income?

PP had 3 kids. With one kid, def not tho

Even with 3. I get that it would be very hard to afford 3…. But most people cannot afford private school. It seems like a crazy income bracket to qualify for aid.

So they're supposed to pay $165K out of $300K pre-tax?
Lol.
So let's say they take home $200K (which is about reality on a $300K income). Then they live off $35K and pay $165K to the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

You want aid with that much income?

PP had 3 kids. With one kid, def not tho

Even with 3. I get that it would be very hard to afford 3…. But most people cannot afford private school. It seems like a crazy income bracket to qualify for aid.

So they're supposed to pay $165K out of $300K pre-tax?
Lol.
So let's say they take home $200K (which is about reality on a $300K income). Then they live off $35K and pay $165K to the school?

Most people cannot afford private school even with aid. I do think it is kind of wild to give aid to a family making that much money, since that family still falls in at least the top 10% of income earners. (I have 3 kids and our HHI is much much less than that.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much in college savings are they looking at? We have 3 kids, no cash savings, but the kids have 529s (just abt $60k each).

No aid for us I assume?

What is your income and expenses? It sounds like you cannot afford on in private let alone three.

$300k+ HHI One paid off car, $3000 mortgage, house is worth $600k

$300k plus? Personally I hope not, but I don’t know.

You want aid with that much income?

PP had 3 kids. With one kid, def not tho

Even with 3. I get that it would be very hard to afford 3…. But most people cannot afford private school. It seems like a crazy income bracket to qualify for aid.

So they're supposed to pay $165K out of $300K pre-tax?
Lol.
So let's say they take home $200K (which is about reality on a $300K income). Then they live off $35K and pay $165K to the school?

If they choose private and three kids, yes.