returns to land near Big Sur

Since graduating from UCSB in 1992, Christopher has worked with local individuals and families as a financial planner. He is a Vice President with UBS Financial and holds the CFP, CIMA, and CPWA credentials. He can be reached at christopher.t.gallo@ubs.com or 805-730-3425.

The College Calculator

Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000. Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com In All Fairness

One only has to look at our local higher education to get an indication of the very high expense of a college degree. All-in annual 2020/2021 costs range from the priciest at private schools like Westmont College ($66,200) to mid-level costs at UC public universities like UCSB ($36,900) to relatively less expensive Cal State schools such as Cal Poly ($28,900). Whichever direction your child or grandchild takes, planning for financial aid to maximize your dollars can be crucial.

The first step is to understand that almost all help with college costs begins through the federal financial aid portal: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) found at www.studentaid.gov. The open window to file this application is October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. It is important to understand that federal aid is given on a first-come-first-served basis so the sooner you apply the better. Incoming college freshmen will end up filling out the FAFSA as high school seniors, generally before they know which schools have accepted them. Based on the FAFSA results, your student may receive federal grants, work study, or an option for loans, either subsidized or not.

The FAFSA application also unlocks the State of California financial aid program, the CA Dream Act (CADAA), which closes on March 2, 2021. This is a needs-based grant for in-state public universities only: UCs, CA State schools, and community colleges. In some cases private colleges will also use the FAFSA information, though many major universities use another more in-depth application, the CSS Profile.

If you have a student about to go to college, there is little you can do to change taxes from two years ago. However, you can use this information for practical planning with at least a few years to go.

So what FAFSA formula determines need-based aid for a student? The answer is a complex computation known as the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). At its heart, the EFC is simple: it is the amount that a family and student are expected to contribute to costs for college and it is subtracted from the cost of attendance to arrive at the amount of needs-based financial aid. Simply put, the higher the EFC, the lower the financial aid.

The EFC is calculated using several pages of inputs and a worksheet is available online to help plan (ifap.ed.gov) but the major driver is household income, not assets. The parents’ available income is weighted at up to 47 percent and the students’ income is weighted at 50 percent over $6,840. Available income is the parent’s adjusted gross income from the last tax filing (often two years prior to current year) but you must add back non-taxable income such as alimony, retirement and HSA plan contributions. This number is then reduced by taxes paid and a standard adjustment for number of family members and those in college to arrive at the EFC. Assets fall into two categories in the EFC: The parents’ assets, which are weighted at 5.64 percent and include taxable accounts and 529 plans for the student, and the student’s assets weighted at 20 percent, including savings bonds, minors trusts and UTMAs.

If you have a student about to go to college, there is little you can do to change taxes from two years ago. However, you can use this information for practical planning with at least a few years to go. First, if your student is very young consider funding a 529 to lessen the weighting on the EFC years from now. Note that qualified education distributions from a 529 do not count towards EFC income – a major advantage (this does not work however when grandparents own the 529 – the assets don’t count in the EFC at all but the income does, which is far worse). To the extent you can regulate income, obviously less is better and lastly reducing bank accounts by buying non-counted EFC assets such as real estate can help with the asset formula. •MJ “F air Play,” as I understand it, means abiding by the rules. But what if the rules are unfair? That, in a sense, is the human predicament. No matter how honorable and decent you are, a tornado (which I like to think of as God’s air-raid) can wipe out everything you have, including your life – which is up for grabs anyway, when the unseen umpire blows his whistle.

We are taught that “life is unfair,” as though it were a mantra. But we still punish cheaters and lawbreakers if they are inept enough, or unlucky enough, to get caught. So what is all this about “sportsmanship” and “playing the game”? Another questionable precept is that “all’s fair in love and war.” Is it really fair for lovers to cheat on each other? I never thought so, and was never even tempted – and, when I myself was cheated on, I took it very badly.

As for war, people have been trying to make rules for it for a long time. As far back as 1625, a Dutchman named Hugo Grotius wrote three volumes on The Laws of War and Peace. Places like The Hague and Geneva have given their names to international conferences and agreements attempting to regulate the conduct of war. And even today we cling to the concept of “war crimes” as if war itself were not the greatest of crimes.

There must be some unifying principle behind the ideas of fairness, justice, and rights – but these somehow shade into proper behavior and simple good manners. Plato wrote a whole book – The Republic – on the theme of justice, with the not very surprising conclusion that justice prevails when people get what they deserve.

In quarrels between labor and management, the word that appears most commonly on picket signs is “unfair.” Even on the multitude of TV shows that now simulate courtrooms, with real and supposedly impartial judges deciding actual cases, the “post-mortem” interviews with winners and losers tend to center on the question of whether or not the judge’s decision was “fair.”

Mark Twain’s story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” hinges on an act of atrocious cheating: The champion frog is forcibly fed buckshots until it cannot jump or even move. The author did not condemn this piece of skullduggery – and the public lapped it up. In fact, it made Mark Twain famous.

The British enjoy a worldwide reputation for sportsmanship and for “playing the game.” This of course means more than respecting the rules. It means being a “good loser.” This idea stems partly from the game of cricket, to the point where simply saying “It’s not Cricket!” implies unacceptable conduct. But it also goes back to feudal times – to the days of knighthood and “chivalry.” A knight was supposed to be honorable in his behavior, even towards a defeated foe. In the American Civil War, those who supported the Southern Confederacy were supposed to have been inspired by this ideal. Before that war (in the romanticized “ante-bellum” era) they even used to stage mock tournaments, in imitation of their Medieval British ancestors.

But something happened to warp those chivalrous dreams. The honorable side (which of course was the rebellion) was not supposed to lose – but they did. It was the first time in history that a sizeable group of Anglo-Saxons had to accept permanent defeat. The unfairness of this outcome rankles the minds of many Southerners to this day.

Meanwhile, the game of cricket has spread to many countries that were once part of the British Empire, notably Pakistan and India, where success in cricket has provided an avenue to political office for accomplished players. (In other places, America included, it has been military success that has, a number of times, elevated commanders to the presidency.)

One of my favorite English poems celebrates the ideal of “playing the game,” with the message that the same spirit must carry on from the cricket field at school to the wider world. It’s called “Vitae Lampada” (“The Torch of Life”), written by Henry Newbolt in 1892. I’ll leave you with just one stanza: The sand of the desert is sodden red, Red with the wreck of a square that broke –The Gatling’s jammed, and the Colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke. The river of death has brimmed his banks, And England’s far, and Honor a name –But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks: “Play up! Play up! – and play the game!” •MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL 23