2025 & 2026 donut hole families

[Anonymous]

What is definition of donut hole income for DMV? Just curious - I am guessing HHI $200k-$500k?

I have $700k HHI and 3 kids in private; i do. Ot consider myself donut hole - it sucks to have to pay $90k/yr for college but i feel lucky to be able to afford it. It is confusing when i hear peers talk about donut hole, because we are so so lucky to have what we have and i can’t complain.

[Anonymous]

PP - typo - i do not consider myself donut hole

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I need to quit my job. It’s painful to see people paying $40-50k less for the same school with not a big difference in income.

it's because of assets, not income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is definition of donut hole income for DMV? Just curious - I am guessing HHI $200k-$500k?

I have $700k HHI and 3 kids in private; i do. Ot consider myself donut hole - it sucks to have to pay $90k/yr for college but i feel lucky to be able to afford it. It is confusing when i hear peers talk about donut hole, because we are so so lucky to have what we have and i can’t complain.

150-225 is donut hole. maybe 250. not 700 lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is definition of donut hole income for DMV? Just curious - I am guessing HHI $200k-$500k?

I have $700k HHI and 3 kids in private; i do. Ot consider myself donut hole - it sucks to have to pay $90k/yr for college but i feel lucky to be able to afford it. It is confusing when i hear peers talk about donut hole, because we are so so lucky to have what we have and i can’t complain.

150-225 is donut hole. maybe 250. not 700 lol

+1 at someone with $500k+ whining about paying for college. Especially when they are already comfortably paying for private school. That's probably costing you something like $50-$60k, right? So paying $90k/yr for college is the same hit to your pre-college budget as the public school family paying for their in state public college. And I should hope at the income level you have a lot more slack in your budget to pay for it. If not, you must be really bad with money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is definition of donut hole income for DMV? Just curious - I am guessing HHI $200k-$500k?

I have $700k HHI and 3 kids in private; i do. Ot consider myself donut hole - it sucks to have to pay $90k/yr for college but i feel lucky to be able to afford it. It is confusing when i hear peers talk about donut hole, because we are so so lucky to have what we have and i can’t complain.

150-225 is donut hole. maybe 250. not 700 lol

Upthread someone said $214 was too little for donut hole. Now $226 is too much. Maybe there’s no such thing?

[Anonymous]

I am the PP poster - I agree - I am saying I am NOT a donut hole family - and that peers who are whining about colllege at that level are ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a donut hole family? High income nut no savings?

Too rich to get aid. But not rich enough to easily pay $90k a year, especially with multiple kids. Usually live in high cost of living areas.

Many of us have lower incomes and in high cost of living areas. It’s lifestyle choices. It’s insane someone in a million dollar house making what many do feel entitled to aid when the rest of us live poorly to save.

“Living poorly” to be able to be full pay when you would otherwise receive aid is a lifestyle choice. And not a particularly good one.

NP- Yeah, I kind of agree. We would have been better off buying a more expensive house than staying in our starter home. Now we are kind of stuck and not where we want to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a donut hole family? High income nut no savings?

Too rich to get aid. But not rich enough to easily pay $90k a year, especially with multiple kids. Usually live in high cost of living areas.

And also made the choice not to save but instead increase their lifestyle as their income increased. Because even in a "hCOLA" if you have been making $250K for the last 5 years, you could have chosen to save $20-30K/year, and likely for more than 5 years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is a donut hole family? High income nut no savings?

Too rich to get aid. But not rich enough to easily pay $90k a year, especially with multiple kids. Usually live in high cost of living areas.

And also made the choice not to save but instead increase their lifestyle as their income increased. Because even in a "hCOLA" if you have been making $250K for the last 5 years, you could have chosen to save $20-30K/year, and likely for more than 5 years

I've done that and I'm not separating from this money when we can do college without separating from it. it would be utterly stupid when you have more than one child and are not wealthy. Save, save, don't gift it to a greedy overpriced college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the PP poster - I agree - I am saying I am NOT a donut hole family - and that peers who are whining about colllege at that level are ridiculous.

Who is whining about college at 700K? Haven't seen it.

Donut hole depends on number of kids. 300K for 1 kid is a lot different than 300K for 3 or 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not donut hole, I guess.

Harvard, No FA

HHI under 200. Assets 2mm in brokerage, 1mm in retirement, 1mm house (paid off, we bought 25 years ago for 300k), 100k in 529.

We are small business owners and are limited by earned income as to how much we can shift to retirement.

2 younger kids

I think if we had 2mm in retirement and 1mm in brokerage we would have gotten aid.

I dont really understand why colleges care where the money is. Our brokerage includes our retirement money, it's just not tax advantaged.

$1M in broker Means full pay everywhere. Same for $1M in home equity at many schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not donut hole, I guess.

Harvard, No FA

HHI under 200. Assets 2mm in brokerage, 1mm in retirement, 1mm house (paid off, we bought 25 years ago for 300k), 100k in 529.

We are small business owners and are limited by earned income as to how much we can shift to retirement.

2 younger kids

I think if we had 2mm in retirement and 1mm in brokerage we would have gotten aid.

I dont really understand why colleges care where the money is. Our brokerage includes our retirement money, it's just not tax advantaged.

Is PP correct? Is retirement not considered at all when reviewing assets for financial aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not donut hole, I guess.

Harvard, No FA

HHI under 200. Assets 2mm in brokerage, 1mm in retirement, 1mm house (paid off, we bought 25 years ago for 300k), 100k in 529.

We are small business owners and are limited by earned income as to how much we can shift to retirement.

2 younger kids

I think if we had 2mm in retirement and 1mm in brokerage we would have gotten aid.

I dont really understand why colleges care where the money is. Our brokerage includes our retirement money, it's just not tax advantaged.

Is PP correct? Is retirement not considered at all when reviewing assets for financial aid?

Yes, that's correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not donut hole, I guess.

Harvard, No FA

HHI under 200. Assets 2mm in brokerage, 1mm in retirement, 1mm house (paid off, we bought 25 years ago for 300k), 100k in 529.

We are small business owners and are limited by earned income as to how much we can shift to retirement.

2 younger kids

I think if we had 2mm in retirement and 1mm in brokerage we would have gotten aid.

I dont really understand why colleges care where the money is. Our brokerage includes our retirement money, it's just not tax advantaged.

$1M in broker Means full pay everywhere. Same for $1M in home equity at many schools.

1mm in brokerage = about 55k in expected contribution. If you’re making under 200k at very top schools, that may be all you pay. It’s a lot less than 95k