<prompt> Human: How can I position my familys finances to best take advantage of student aid options and the FAFSA equation?On the savings 529 front... kids are 5 and 2, grandparents started 529s and do a 2:1 match up to 1000 from me 2000 from them per year per kid. So we have funds of approx 17K and 7K at the moment. And I want to keep saving aggressively. But should we stay the course on this plan, or should I start my own 529 and ask grandparents to contribute to my 529? I ask specifically because Ive read that grandparent 529s are great because they dont count against you on FAFSA... until the year after you first use them - at which point they actually count against you WORSE than if it had been a 529 I started. So I guess that means, kids can apply as incoming freshman and look great on FAFSA, but as soon as we pay their freshman year with grandparent 529, year 2 recalculates and all of a sudden were worse off? So Im wondering, can I get past this by eating 1-2 years on the front side, try to pay as much out of pocket, or max the student loans for the first year or two? Then just pay years 3-4 with grandparent 529? Or should I ask them if we can flip it, start my own 529 and have them contribute to mine with the goal of the new fund being for years 1-2, and the existing grandparent 529 for years 3-4?Other relevant side-questions... I plan to have my mortgage paid off before the first kid goes off to school. Is that a good idea? I mean, in general I like the idea of paying off the house nice and early in life, but will that screw me on FAFSA and make us look like we have tons of disposable income to pay the school? Location if relevant... were in NC, grandparents started fund while they were also residents here now live out of state.Edit for the archives:I ended up not being able to participate in this conversation as much as I had hoped, apologies for being a shitty OP. I think the takeaway Im getting here is that grandparent 529s dont count against us until we actually use it, so my theory about trying to wait and use them in the later college years is accurate. Ill probably stick with it only because the grandparents have offered to double our contribution, and I dont think they would contribute directly to a ROTH. Although I will ask, as this article in particular resonated with me... use a ROTH for retirement, but you can take withdraws in some circumstances, like college, just the principle without penalty. That seems to allow a lot of options, I have one, but I can more aggressive plan to put money there. Anyway, thanks for all the great commentary!  <response>: Expected Family Contribution EFC is the golden number which determines what kind of financial aid you can get. You can see exactly how the EFC is calculated using this: The formula will be tweaked over the years so use this just to get an idea. 