Remarriage and financial aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I saw somewhere that FAFSA does not care about prenup.

This is correct.

I am in the same situation, OP. I have a decent amount of assets but most are in trust. It's questionable whether the terms of the trust would even allow me to make a distribution to pay for a step child's college. But I know it would be included in both FAFSA and CSS. My feeling is, I don't want to pay for his kids' college. So, therefore, I feel like I should not get in the way of them getting financial aid. Either I need to be ok with helping out for college, or I need to not marry the man so I don't screw up his aid.

That said, the FAFSA rules are changing. This is the last year that "custodial parent" - meaning the parent has spent the most nights with out of the past 12 months - is the determining factor. They are changing it so that it is the parent who provides the most financial support. Is that you or your ex?

Also, CSS rules are different plus some schools have their own nuances. Most private schools follow CSS, which typically wants all parents including all step parents no matter who lives with who or provides the most support, though some schools are different. Most but not all (VA being notable exception), public schools follow FAFSA.

Also at 150k, you aren't getting that much grant money anyway unless the kid gets into Harvard.

Also I get your logic re state school. If my boyfriend's youngest kid goes to state school, my feeling is we can be like whatever and get married because he won't be getting much if any aid for state school anyway.

But yeah, read up on this, including all the new rules. If marrying you means he f**ks up your kids' chances at financial aid, then he should consider whether he wants to contribute or delay marriage.

At 150k, Harvard is free. Most top schools are free as well. The tier below will also offer lots of grant aid

Harvard is not free at 150k - you'd pay something like fifteen percent of the costs at that income. But still a great deal. That was my point - the tippy top schools like Harvard and Yale and Princeton have good aid at the 150k income level. But the vast, vast majority of schools, even in the top twnety or thirty, do not.

10%

https://college.harvard.edu/guides/financial-aid-fact-sheet The great schools that have 90k cost of attendance will give you at ton of aid at 150k. It's the schools charge like their are Harvard, but aren't as good and don't have the endowments to match that are stingy with aid

Assets will reduce aid, even at 150k income.

This is a really important factor that is so often overlooked.