Ultramarina, the colleges only look at the year before your child enters college in terms of income (they certainly do look at the other assets you have accumulated). So starting midway through your child's junior year of high school is when that income starts to be inconvenient in terms of qualifying for need based aid. Of course... that is when your instints tell you that you need to work MORE because tuition is staring you in the face (and there is that nagging retirement account, and you can actually start to see that horizon more clearly as well by the time your kids go to college).

Good move to put the money in your name (colleges consider much less available for their costs from your assets than from your child's assets, and there is no longer any significant tax benefit in keeping assets in your kids' names, either).