I was over the moon yesterday, my DD dropping her POS boyfriend put me on a natural high that I figured nothing could bring me down from. Then I got home. Skid1 (aka sdnow19) was in tears. She and DH are talking back and forth outside on the porch and she retired to her room still in tears, DH heads to our room obviously not to emotionally happy either.

Shit. There goes my good mood.

So I go talk to DH figuring they had a moment where he had to be a father and be harsh. Skid1 is due to start the local community college within weeks. What I got out of DH was that he was a total failure as a parent and blah blah blah blah.

DH and SD were stressing over her college costs. Apparently while going through doing her FAFSA they determined he could not afford for her to go to college. That one caused me to pause, blink and scratch my head as I KNOW her 529 has about 20k in it that I alone have put in there. He had forgotten about the 529.

He also forgot that we file taxes separately, so no, my income does NOT count on her FAFSA. This was the #2 reason why we file separately! It’s not my responsibility to pay for his kids college so therefore my income should not be factored into their FAFSA. (#1 reason was that BM does not need to know my fianances) I sat down and redid her FAFSA the correct way and low and behold the score is a big fat 0. Aka she is eligible for Pell grants etc. Skid1 went from tears of disappointment to very happy jumping up and down that she could get financial aid and go to college.

Then she found out about the 529 account, and burst back into tears that she could not believe I saved for college for her all these years when she was such a rotten little asshole to me. (Her words not mine.) Let’s face it even in a community college 20k is not going to go far it’s not like I handed her a free ride. I contribute to 6 different 529 accounts, my kids and his kids. My kids are almost done. I will admit that I contribute MORE to my kids than his. When my kids are done with school the $ I contributed to their accounts will be quartered and placed in the skids accounts until they are done with school.

To me it’s a peace of mind investment. If I invest in their education, they should get a degree or training in a field that will allow them to support themselves… which greatly reduces the chance of any of them trying to move back in!