Reply to Do families with $250K in income get financial aid? If not, how do they afford college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are at around that income bracket with a highly achieving kid.  We figured that we can cash flow the state flagship (UMD-CP is relatively cheap / subsidized), so we never opened a 529 or anything else that would ever impact our financial aid should the kid get into a top college.   [b]We also restructured our assets and savings to maximize financial aid.  [/b]

We have been paying 30k-50k per year for an Ivy.[/quote]

Can you give some examples of this? I know taking savings and paying off your mortgage is one strategy. Any others?[/quote]

We bought Maryland pre-paid plan for another child after asking the grandmom to open the account.  She put 100 dollars into it and we put in 50K.  Did not have to report those 50K on the CSS profile for the older kid.  We expect we will be in a different income bracket in 10 years for the little one, and will benefit from having a 529 plan of some kind for a modest sum.  Plus, that's our last child.

We prepaid all of our expenses a full year ahead before filing FAFSA/CSS.  I was leasing an office; we paid rent a full year ahead etc.  You need to move cash into invisible assets.

We cash flowed as much of college as possible.  All money went to expenses, retirement savings, or kid's college payments.  We barely maintained a balance in our checking account, but also only took 30K in loans over 4 years.  Balance on a checking account = less favorable CSS profile outcome.  Stupidest thing to do is maintain 50K on the checking account just in case, run up a credit card balance, and borrow to pay for college, unless there is a tangible chance of loan forgiveness.  The goal is to pay less for college.

We paid off a leased car and held onto it for a couple of months.  Filed FAFSA/CSS.  It was not a fancy car and did not tip off any luxury scales.  It was basically a vehicle, so to speak, to contain about 30K. Once financials were awarded, we sold it at a profit since cars appreciated, and used the profit to avoid taking out a loan that semester.

Once kid was accepted to CSS profile meets needs school, I started my own business finally.  My first two years of trials and errors were effectively sponsored by my kid's university.  During that time, in between financial cycles, we sold an old rental property and purchased an office for my business.

None of this will help people with 1/2 million in savings, but it helped us as a normal middle class family.  The fact that the universities can use 5% per year of the 529 account ear-marked for another child is ASININE, so we had to avoid that.  Pay off EVERYTHING, avoid any live money on checking and savings accounts.  Remember retirement savings cannot be used as a part of CSS profile, so maximize those accounts to keep live money off of your checking account.  That's it  [/quote]

CSS now asks if there are any accounts for which student is the beneficiary.  So, they are onto the 529 in other family member's name racket.[/quote]

Believe my ILs did this for my SiL's kids. I was a near total FAFSA kid. Find it so grating how they gamed the system. [/quote]

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