Think you are planning a chess.

You have to have all in your mind. Before my D went to college, I saved almost 2 years of EFC for her. A lot of people would say this was a bad decision since it increased my EFC. However, I have my plan--how to manage a whole family's everyday life. Really, 50K in cash does not really increase much you EFC, about 3K. However, it gave me a lot of flexibility to arrange, and less worry for my D in case her mom or i lost job.