Will my high income hurt my fiancé's twins' FAFSA if his assets are already substantial?

my wife and i went thru this exact thing last year. heres what matters: once you get married BOTH of your incomes and assets count on FAFSA for all your kids (yours and his). doesnt matter whose name stuff is in. all goes in one big pot for the SAI calculation. his savings will already hurt the twins aid but your income will make it worse for sure. might wanna wait til after college apps are done to get married honestly

Congrats on your engagement!! My husband and I went through something sort of similar with our kids. We timed our wedding for right after my stepdaughter graduated college lol. Smart planning for thinking about this early!

The FAFSA's SAI formula considers both income and assets, but they're weighted differently. Income is typically weighted much more heavily (up to 47% of parent income can be considered available for college costs) while assets are protected by an Asset Protection Allowance and then assessed at a maximum of 5.64%. With your fiancé's assets at $320K plus property, they're certainly reducing aid eligibility already. However, your combined income of $203K would likely have an even bigger impact on the SAI calculation. To estimate this impact, you can use the Federal Student Aid Estimator tool. Run one scenario with just your fiancé's information and another with your combined finances. The difference would show you the potential impact of your marriage on their aid eligibility. Keep in mind that the vacation property may or may not count depending on how it's used and reported. Investment properties typically count, but a second home used only by the family might be excluded.

just wanted to say my sister waited 2 yrs to marry her guy bcuz of this exact reason!!! his kid was in college and she made wayyyy more $ than him and would have screwed up the financial aid. sometimes u gotta be practical about these things lol

I'm in a similar situation and the FAFSA changes have me SO CONFUSED. Anyone else feel like they keep moving the goalposts? First they said they were simplifying everything with the new FAFSA, but then they delayed it, and now I'm more confused than ever!! I can't even figure out which year's tax returns they'll be looking at for 2028-29 aid. Is it still 2 years prior or did that change too??

Here's a practical approach: Check if your fiancé's twins would qualify for any need-based aid with his current finances alone. Since his assets are substantial ($320K + property), they might already be limited to merit scholarships and loans regardless of your income. For a quick check, the Federal Student Aid Estimator tool will give you an approximate SAI. Run it with just your fiancé's information. If it already shows an SAI above ~15000, adding your income won't change much practically speaking - they're already unlikely to get significant need-based aid. Another factor to consider is your own child's situation. Your marriage could impact their aid eligibility by adding your fiancé's assets to your financial profile. Since you mentioned having few countable assets, this could be a bigger percentage change for your child's aid eligibility than the income change for the twins. Many families in your situation find that merit scholarships (which aren't affected by family finances) become their primary focus rather than need-based aid.

I spent HOURS trying to get through to someone at Federal Student Aid last month with questions about our blended family situation. The wait times were ridiculous, and I kept getting disconnected. Finally I found Claimyr.com which got me through to an actual FSA agent in about 20 minutes. They have this system that basically waits on hold for you and calls when an agent is available. There's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The FSA agent was able to answer all my blended family questions and even ran some example scenarios for us. Definitely worth it because the online calculators weren't giving us clear answers for our complicated situation.

u should also look into if any of the colleges the twins might go to require the CSS Profile!!! that form counts a LOT more things as assets than FAFSA does!!!

This whole system is RIGGED against families trying to do the right thing!!! My husband and I actually postponed our wedding for 2 years because of FAFSA implications for his kids. The whole time I felt like we were being PUNISHED for wanting to get married! Why should the government basically force people to choose between marriage and affordable education for their kids? It's absolutely INSANE that getting married can cost your children tens of thousands in financial aid!!

To clarify something important regarding the wedding timing: Your 2026 income would indeed affect aid for the twins starting in their 2028-29 freshman year, as FAFSA uses prior-prior year tax information. If you're married in 2026 or earlier, your income will be counted on their freshman year FAFSA. However, if you wait to marry until 2027, your income wouldn't impact their financial aid until sophomore year. This could be a compromise approach - not delaying marriage until after college, but postponing it just enough to give them one year of potentially higher aid. Regarding your original question about assets vs. income: With $320K in non-retirement assets plus a vacation property, your fiancé's assets are substantial. After the Asset Protection Allowance (which is quite low these days, often under $10K for parents in their 40s-50s), the remaining assets are assessed at 5.64%. Basically, a rough estimation shows his assets might already be adding approximately $17,000-18,000 to their SAI. Your additional income could add considerably more, potentially pushing them well beyond the threshold for need-based aid at many public universities. I'd recommend consulting with a financial aid professional who specializes in divorce/remarriage situations to get personalized guidance.