• Paying For College - An Info Graphic

    A loan repayment calculator can put $27,667 in perspective for students. Graduates with that amount in debt would write a check for nearly $300 per month over the standard 10-year repayment plan, assuming a 5 percent interest rate. That’s not a crippling amount for most graduates, but enough to make them feel the financial sting.
    Comments (-1)

  • US News & World Report summary of sites on Paying For college

    Paying for college can be one of the toughest parts of earning your degree—but it doesn’t have to be. Use our tips, tools, and articles to stay up to date on the best ways to pay for college, including scholarships, savings, grants, loans, and more.
     
    Just one of many sites available.
    Comments (-1)

  • The Basics On Grants & Scholarships

    Financial aid is money lent or given to you to help you pay for college. Grants and scholarships are kinds of financial aid that you don’t have to pay back. That’s why they’re called gift aid.
    All kinds of students get gift aid. Most grants are awarded based on financial need. But a good portion of gift aid is awarded for academic achievement.
    If you’re thinking about going to college, you should definitely apply for grants and scholarships.
    Comments (-1)

  • 12 Inside Tricks To Pay for College

    Is this system nuts, or what? College has gotten insanely expensive, and the tuition aid formulas have gotten insanely complicated. But if you don’t figure them out you will be crushed.  Poor, brilliant students get a free ride at Harvard or Princeton. Rich families don’t care about costs. Everyone else–and that would be about 90% of America–has a problem.
    Comments (-1)

  • What Happens If You Do Not Repay Your Student Loans

    New data shows that 11.3% of student loans were delinquent at the end of 2014 — double the rate just 10 years ago. Loans are considered delinquent when at least one payment is missed.
    I get it — if I had to choose between keeping a roof over my head or keeping student lenders happy, the roof would win every time.
    But ignoring your student loan bills can have serious long-term consequences.
     
    Read on for the consequences
    Comments (-1)

  • Parents: Stop Taking Out Loans For Your Child's College Education

    Read the article before you borrow for your child's college education.  Published by Forbes magazine.
    Comments (-1)

  • Parents, Don't Cosign Loans For College

    A mom asked me if I thought it was a good idea for her to co-sign for the loan with her daughter, as the school was her daughter’s, “dream school” and she didn’t want her to be disappointed if she couldn’t afford to attend the school with savings and scholarships alone. Here’s what I told her:
    Short answer: NO!
    Longer answer: “NOOOOOOOO!”
    Just kidding, my response was much kinder and and hopefully much more helpful than that. All jokes aside, I think that having your parents co-sign your loans (Parent Plus loans, private loans or otherwise) is a terrible idea. Many of my friends’ parents co-signed for their student loans and later regretted their decision to do so.
     
    Read this and many other articles that point out why co-signing a loan is a bad idea for parents.
    Comments (-1)

  • Why Retirement Saving Trumps College tuition

    Many parents give their children financial support to attend college. Helping them to earn a college degree without taking on debt will certainly give your children a great start in their adult life. But too many parents lend support without considering their own financial circumstances, which could turn out to be a huge mistake. While living frugally to pay for college tuition is a worthy goal, it’s not a good idea to fully fund your child's college costs if you need to neglect your retirement savings plan to do so. Here is why you shouldn’t sacrifice your retirement finances to pay for your child's college tuition:
    Teach
    Comments (-1)

  • How Student Loans Almost Ruined My Relationship With My Parents

    Like a lot of high school seniors, Andrew Josuweit wasn't entirely sure where he wanted to go to college, but a mailbox stuffed full of college brochures introduced him to possibilities he'd never considered before. He had been offered some scholarships at local colleges, but there was a private business college in Boston that interested him more. He loved the campus and felt like it was a good fit.
    "It was an emotional decision," he concedes now. The annual cost was about $40,000.
    So Josuweit did what thousands of other college students do: He took out student loans. The difficulty was he couldn't take out the amount he needed from federal loans. He needed private loans as well, and he couldn't get them without co-signers.
     
    Read on---
    Comments (-1)

  • Senior Citizens New financial Problem: Student Loans

    According to government data, compiled by the Treasury Department at the request of
    SmartMoney.com, the federal government is withholding money from a rapidly growing number
    of Social Security recipients who have fallen behind on federal student loans. From January
    through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees' Social Security
    checks on those grounds. That's nearly double the pace of the department's enforcement in 2011;
    it's up from around 60,000 cases in all of 2007 and just 6 cases in 2000.
     
    The amount that the government withholds varies widely, though it runs up to 15%. Assuming
    the average monthly Social Security benefit for a retired worker of $1,234, that could mean a
    monthly haircut of almost $190. "This is going to catch an awful lot of people off guard and
    wreak havoc on their financial lives," says Sheryl Garrett, a financial planner in Eureka Springs,
    Ark.  Many of these retirees aren't even in hock for their own educations. Consumer advocates say that
    in the majority of the cases they've seen, the borrowers went into debt later in life to help defray
    education costs for their children or other dependents.
    Comments (-1)

  • Avoiding Scholarship Scams

    Some unscrupulous companies guarantee that they can get scholarships on behalf of students or award them "scholarships" in exchange for an advance fee. Most offer a "money back guarantee" – but attach conditions that make it impossible to get the refund. Others provide nothing for the student's advance fee – not even a list of potential sources; still others tell students they've been selected as "finalists" for awards that require an up-front fee. Sometimes, these companies ask for a student's checking account to "confirm eligibility," then debit the account without the student's consent. Other companies quote only a relatively small "monthly" or "weekly" fee and then ask for authorization to debit your checking account – for an undetermined length of time.
    Other companies claim they have programs that could make you eligible to receive financial aid, including grants, loans, work-study and other types of aid. For a processing fee, they'll handle all the paperwork. But experts caution: The only application that will determine eligibility for all programs is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) – a form you can complete and submit for free.
    The FTC cautions students to   - - read on
    Comments (-1)