How Can You Maximize Financial Aid Eligibility?

October 13, 2016

As children apply to colleges this fall, many parents are wondering how they will afford to pay those upcoming bills for tuition, room and board, and books and other supplies. While a lot of what determines your child’s eligibility for aid is out of your control, there are some things you can do to maximize how much aid they can get. Let’s take a look at some of the factors affecting eligibility:

Student Income: The biggest factor is student income which reduces aid by about 50% (over a $6,250 allowance). Most students don’t have much income to report, but be careful of taking money out of 529 plans that are not in the name of you or your child because withdrawals from plans owned by grandparents or other friends or relatives are counted as income to the child. Instead, they may want to wait and use that money for the last year of school after the aid has already been awarded.

Parental Income: Your eligible income reduces aid by 22-47%, with higher reductions typically for household incomes above $50k. It’s based largely on AGI so contributions to pre-tax retirement accounts and HSAs can reduce the eligible income. Many people don’t realize that this income also includes asset sales and withdrawals from retirement accounts. Try to take capital gains before your child’s sophomore year of high school or after their junior year of college or look for investments you can sell at a loss. If you want to use an IRA for education expenses, use it for the last year like a non-parental 529 plan.

Student Assets: Assets in your child’s name can reduce financial aid by about 20%. This is a downside of UGMA/UTMA accounts. One exception is for money in a custodial 529 or a Coverdell Education Savings account so consider moving the child’s money into one of those accounts (plus the earnings are tax-free if used for qualified education expenses). Otherwise, try to spend it as early as possible so it will count against fewer years.

Parental Assets: This only reduces aid by about 5-6%. Retirement accounts don’t count against you and debt won’t reduce your countable assets so it’s one more reason to contribute to retirement accounts and pay off debt.

Your child’s financial aid eligibility isn’t necessarily set in stone. The financial aid impact of your decisions can matter as much or even more than the tax impact. If you’re unsure how to do this, you may want to consider consulting with a qualified and unbiased financial planner.

 

 

How to Teach Financial Adulthood

September 12, 2016

Sex education is required in public schools – and financial education should be as well, wrote CNN journalist Heather Long in a popular article recently. “The American Dream isn’t possible without understanding how to save, invest and use debt wisely,” she noted, “Yet we mostly leave it up to people to figure what to do with their money on their own.” Certainly anyone who’s tried to figure out what health insurance plan is best for them, is struggling with paying off student loans or saving for retirement, or tried to decipher the fine print of a credit card disclosure can attest that they were less than ideally prepared for the labyrinth of modern financial decisions.

While Long isn’t the first person to write about this important issue, the fact that she conflated money and sex ed helps raise the profile of an essential debate. Whose responsibility is it to provide financial education – schools, parents or both? What are the essential financial skills needed for adulthood?

Long writes that, “The reality is rich kids tend to be a lot more financially literate than working class kids. Wealthy kids learn about money at home — or at their private schools. Poor kids do not. It’s yet another reminder why the “friends and family” plan to learn about money is so flawed.”

I think she’s painted way too rosy of a picture. Most Americans, regardless of economic status, feel underprepared to navigate the complexity of financial responsibilities they must shoulder in the 21st century economy. As a nation, we are still a long way from having some kind of uniform financial education that builds financial capability and prepares kids for the economic realities of adulthood. The Common Core state standards adopted by 42 states do not specifically incorporate financial literacy (although certain math standards do have practical applications).

If you’ve got kids, you cannot afford to wait while society tries to figure this out in terms of public policy. The financial and economic world is only becoming more complex. What can parents do right now to promote financial education at school at and home?

Understand what it means to be financially literate

The non-profit Council for Economic Education has developed National Standards for Financial Literacy, a framework for teaching personal finance in kindergarten through 12th grade. The idea is that a young adult who has mastered these elements has a much better chance of making solid decisions about money and to understand the trade-offs between different choices they will face in their financial lives. The standards cover the basics of:

  • Earning Income
  • Buying Goods and Services
  • Using Credit
  • Saving
  • Financial Investing
  • Protecting and Insuring

The CEE has created lessons teachers can use in the classroom. However, you don’t have to be a classroom teacher to benefit from reading and understanding these standards. Parents can download the standards here and use them as a guide for evaluating your children’s financial capabilities and pinpointing where they could use some extra learning opportunities. Additionally, share them with your school principal and your children’s teachers, including the CEE’s suggestions on learning exercises by grade, which correspond to Common Core standards for language arts and math.

Chances are, if you are reading a financial wellness blog, you already have a good handle on the six categories contained in the standards. However, if you find that some are trouble spots for you, consider putting some attention into improving your own financial literacy. The best place to start is your employer, which may have a workplace financial wellness and/or retirement planning education program that you can participate in with workshops, webcasts, online resources and/or one-on-one coaching. There has never been a better time in history to be a student of personal finance. Free resources are everywhere, including helpful personal finance education sites like the AICPA’s Feed the Pig, FINRA’s The Alert Investor and the Khan Academy, just to name a few.

Don’t assume school-based financial education is enough

According to the CEE’s 2016 Survey of the States, only 17 of 50 states have mandated personal financial education courses for high school students, and only 5 of them require at least a semester of personal finance basics. That’s not nearly enough. Entering adulthood without adequate financial education can often lead to unwanted debt and overwhelming financial stress. According to Financial Finesse’s 2016 Financial Stress Research, 85 percent of employees surveyed reported some level of financial stress, and one in four (25 percent) reported experiencing unmanageable (high or overwhelming) financial stress levels.

Just like with sex education, the best way to communicate financial information to your children is to share your values in an age-appropriate way. This is something that should happen throughout your child’s growing up years. Be open about the financial decisions you make every day and spend time as a family talking about money and the economy. As a basic guide, try New York Times’ columnist Ron Lieber’s book about raising financially savvy kids, The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous and Smart About Money. There are also many online resources with age-appropriate personal financial games and lessons, such as kids.gov, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Money As You Grow and practicalmoneyskills.com.

Does your school district have a financial education program? If yes, what do you think of it? Email me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter @cynthiameyer_FF.

 

Managing the High Costs of Your Children’s Sports

August 22, 2016

All over the country during this back-to-school season, American parents are stocking up on school supplies – and on expensive sports equipment and team registration fees. Some are parents of gifted athletes who dream of athletic scholarships. Others just want to give their children the many benefits of regular physical activities or team camaraderie.

As more and more school districts charge families for participation in after school athletic activities, parents find themselves on the hook for an average of $671 annually. In fact, a recent TD Ameritrade survey found that one in five parents spends more than $1000 per child a month on sports activities. What are the consequences? According to the survey, many sports parents are showing greater commitment to their kids’ sports than to their own financial wellbeing:

One third do not contribute regularly to a retirement account;

19 percent have incurred credit card debt from sports costs; and

17 percent plan to work longer or delay retirement.

If you don’t have sports-age kids, it could seem a little nuts! I can tell you from personal experience it adds up. I’ve got one child who plays ice hockey and the other who is on an acrobatic dance team. Both take ice skating lessons.

The participation and lesson fees alone are more than $300 per month. That doesn’t include uniforms, costumes or equipment. However, we manage to keep the costs manageable by doing a few things:

You Can’t Be on Every Team

My kids are 8 and 12. They enjoy their sports, but it’s not reasonable that they play on multiple teams during any given season. Each child gets to pick one team and one additional type of lesson/activity per school term. If they choose a different activity, an existing one has to go.

For example, my son toyed with the idea of playing football this fall. We gave him the choice of sticking with hockey, which he plays now, or trying football for the season. He thought about it and decided to stick with hockey, but it was his choice.

Sports Consignment Shopping

Bats, sticks, pads, helmets, skates, cleats, etc. – all these things can be found used for less than half the cost. There is absolutely no reason to buy most kids’ sports equipment new anyway. Kids outgrow their sports equipment quickly.

Seek out sports consignment shops for big discounts on equipment and clothing. This can save you $500-1000 per season if your child plays an equipment-intensive sport such as football or hockey. When your child grows out of them halfway through the year, trade them in for store credit on a bigger size.

Swap with Friends

No sports consignment shop in your area? Set up your own sports gear swap event with friends or with your schools’ parents association. Each participant who brings an item gets to swap for another item to bring home. See instructions here.  Alternatively, you could set up a “replay” event at school, where you solicit donations of sports gear and then sell them inexpensively, with proceeds going to the team or the school association.

Seek School and Community-Based Options

While the travel baseball team may be right for your baseball-obsessed child who throws a mean curve ball, they can be very expensive. Fortunately, there are other options. For most kids, a local school team or recreational sports sponsored by community organizations like the YMCA offer a balance of learning, competition and reasonable cost.

Volunteer

Giving your time can help defray some costs and is a great way to share your child’s sports experience. You could coach, administer or help raise money for your child’s team. For example, my daughter’s YMCA dance team holds fundraising events throughout the year, which defray most of the costs of their competition entry fees (which would otherwise be close to $1000 per dancer). By volunteering at various events, the dance parents work together to make the program affordable for all the dancers.

Pick a Cheaper Sport?

It’s understandable that the parents of the more than 45 million American children who play sports want their children to succeed at their chosen game. We want our children to pick the activities they love to do and to have fun and grow as people doing them. However, if your child is aiming for a sport which requires a lot of equipment or expensive lessons, make sure it’s something they really, really want to do. If it’s just physical activity they require, consider an organized sport that requires less equipment.

How about you? How much do you spend on your children’s sports? Email me at [email protected] or tweet me at @cynthiameyer_FF.

What To Teach Your Kids Before College

July 26, 2016

This time of the year is brimming with the excitement of future college freshmen over their new adventure. Talking to them is fun – hearing about their hopes, dreams and expectations of their freshman year. The more I started listening, the more my excitement wore off and disbelief settled in. I started to realize that some parents have this expectation that they can teach their kids zero about finances, give them an account with a few thousand in it and expect their kids to become financially responsible and budget properly. Here are some tips to follow instead:

1. Summer jobs are great economic teachers. If your student has a summer job, use it to teach your child invaluable lessons such as what their future careers may be for life if they drop out of college with no plans, that the gross vs. net difference in a paycheck is big and guidance on how to budget their money. Use websites like Mint, YNAB, or even the budgeting tools where you and your family banks to help your child create a budget.

2. Show your child the economic realities of college. Most people think about tuition, books and room and board. To some degree, that is only the beginning.

Every organization, fraternity or sorority your child is thinking about joining may have a fee, some to the tune of over $600 a semester. There are also those pesky fees like student health center fees, student activity fees, orientation fees, new student fees, technology fees and whatever other fees the college thinks up to charge. Use checklists like this one as a guide to possible costs.

3. Come up with an “oops I screwed up plan.” Okay, let’s be honest. None of us were financial wizards when we went to college. A lot of us overspent in our attempt to fit in and alleviate home sickness. Talk to your child before they mess up about how you will handle it the first time and come up with what you will do if they make the same mistake twice.

One of my friend’s parents told her daughter that she would consider the first time she makes a financial mistake a lesson learned. The second financial mistake will result in the “Bank of Mom” shutting down. My friend figured that at worst, her daughter would still have food from the cafeteria to eat, a dorm room bed to sleep in and feet to walk to class.

Don’t wait.Working on a contingency plan now will save you from unnecessary and probably emotionally charged conversations in the future. Take the time to work with your kids on a financial plan for college to not only save your wallet but to save your sanity.

Can a Computer Replace Your Financial Advisor?

June 30, 2016

If driverless cars can replace your Uber driver, should a computer replace your financial advisor too? This isn’t just speculation. Automated investing services called “robo-advisors” are becoming more popular and even your 401(k) plan may offer an online investment advice program. Let’s start by taking a look at some areas that computers do well when it comes to personal finances:

Expense tracking. Many people use computer programs like Mint and Yodlee MoneyCenter to track their expenses. This can be very helpful if you don’t have the time or inclination to do it yourself.

Insurance needs. Since there can be a lot of variables, a computer program can be very helpful calculating how much insurance you need, especially with life insurance.

Debt payoff. Computers programs can also calculate how long it would take to pay off your debt and the effect of making additional payments.

Credit analysis and monitoring. Online programs like CreditKarma, Credit Sesame, and Quizzle can provide you with a free credit score, advice on improving it, and free credit monitoring.

Retirement and education funding projections. As long as the inputs and assumptions used in the calculation are reasonable, a computer program can do an excellent job here too. In fact, any human financial planner will probably NEED a computer program to calculate whether you’re saving enough for retirement or education expenses. Of course, there are a lot of unknowns but a good program can help you determine if you’re in the ballpark and allow you to measure your progress over time.

Asset allocation. Deciding how to optimize your investment mix is another task that financial planners typically use a computer for. It’s also the quintessential service provided by robo-advisors. The ability to customize your investments around not only your time frame but also your personal risk tolerance and possibly even to minimize your taxes and complement your other investments is one of the advantages of a robo-advisor over a more simple asset allocation fund.

Investment management. A robo-advisor can also add value to a portfolio by automatically rebalancing it periodically. Some robo-advisors even sell losing investments in a taxable account so you can use the losses to offset other taxes.

Simple tax preparation. Programs like TurboTax, TaxAct, and TaxCut are widely used for tax preparation. However, I would suggest using a professional tax preparer if you have a rental property or a business since there’s some judgment involved in knowing which category to classify various incomes and expenses.

Basic estate planning. If you just need basic estate planning documents like a simple will, a durable power of attorney, and an advance health care directive, you can use a computer to draft these documents and even store them online at little or no cost. If you have a more complex family or estate situation, you may want to hire an attorney to draft a trust though.

Account aggregation. Finally, if your financial life involves a lot of the above, you might want to use an account aggregation program to compile all the info in one place.

So what are computers NOT good at?

Getting you to use them in the first place. For example, our research shows that 76% of employees who are not on track for retirement haven’t even run a retirement calculator at all. The fanciest workout equipment won’t do you any good if you don’t actually use them. A financial planner can be like the personal trainer that gets you to go to the gym.

Motivating you to take action after the calculation. Many people run a retirement calculator but then never actually increase their savings enough to get on track. Some programs use a gamification model that can turn action steps into a game, but they aren’t always effective. A good financial planner can both get you to the gym and make sure you actually do the workouts.

Stopping you from sabotaging yourself. How many of us are tempted to overspend on something we don’t need, to make a risky bet with money we can’t afford to lose, or to bail out of our investments during a temporary downturn in the market? Just like a personal trainer can keep us from breaking our diet or over-training to the point of injury, stopping you from making costly mistakes is one of the most important functions of a financial planner. Even the most sophisticated investors can benefit from at least having a second opinion to bounce ideas off of.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone needs a financial planner. You do need to be honest with yourself though. How disciplined and motivated are you when it comes to your personal finances? If you just need the right information to make decisions, a computer can certainly provide that. If you need more, you might need an actual human being.

 

 

The Number New College Students Need to Know

May 16, 2016

What’s the most important number for a new college student to know? Is it the Expected Family Contribution calculated based on a family’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid? The number of credit hours needed to graduate? The time the library closes? While all of those are important, the critical number that a student needs to know is the HCC, the “hourly cost of college” or the total amount it costs a student for each hour of school.

Why does this matter? Let me give you a personal example. When I was a freshman at Georgetown University, I had an early morning French class three times per week. The professor was quite strict, and students who were even a few minutes late were locked out of class.

I was an immature 18 year old who spent many evenings my first year of university at fun, social events instead of getting to bed at a reasonable hour. It won’t come as a surprise that I missed my fair share of morning French classes because I did not arrive on time. What exactly did that cost my family even when I didn’t go to class?

Calculating the Hourly Cost of College

Using the credit hour method, the hourly cost of college is calculated by dividing the annual total tuition, room and board, books, fees and other charges by the total credit hours taken per year. Take Georgetown as an example. What would it cost a student who skips an hour of French class today? According to the university website, the total cost of undergraduate attendance in 2016 is $69,770. I did not receive any scholarships, but if any kind of direct aid applied (not loans), you would subtract it from the total.

A student needs at least 120 credit hours to graduate, and it typically takes at least 15 credit hours per semester or 30 credit hours per year. $69,770 divided by 30 is $2,325.67 per credit hour. You’ve paid for it regardless, so if you skip a class, you don’t get what you have purchased. That’s a pretty expensive hour to blow off!

An alternative method is to divide total college costs by the amount of total hours a student spends learning. At my alma mater, students are expected to spend at least 30 hours per week studying for a semester of 14 weeks (12 weeks of classes plus 2 weeks of exams). $69,770 total annual costs divided by 28 learning weeks per school year divided by 45 hours per week is $55.37 per learning hour. In this scenario, it’s not just skipping a class that’s an expensive waste of money. It’s avoiding the library when you should be studying to hang out playing Frisbee on the lawn.

Neither methodology for calculating the HCC changes if a student attends school close to home or goes to a public university or a less expensive private college. There’s an hourly cost of college no matter the school, and it’s important that students know what it is in order to avoid or moderate behavior – like showing up late for French class – which wastes huge amounts of money.

Borrowing Increases Your HCC

Many families who send their students to a university don’t pay the full cost of education out-of-pocket. If your student is borrowing to finance part of the cost of higher education, their HCC will increase. Remember, student loans are not financial aid. They are a financing mechanism, which increases the total cost of education.

Let’s examine what would happen if a student borrowed $20,000 at 6% interest to finance some of the annual costs in our example above. The loan will be repaid monthly over a ten year period beginning after graduation, with total interest paid of $6,645. Using the conservative method of calculating HCC in this scenario, borrowing the $20,000 increases the HCC by $221.50 per credit hour. Using the “learning hour” method, it increases the HCC by $5.27 per learning hour.

Most students aren’t used to thinking of the school experience as a consumer experience, something for which there is a clear financial cost and benefit. By helping your student calculate and understand their HCC, you are teaching them an important lesson about the relationship between their personal behavior and money. In the financial behavior change process, awareness and assessment usually lead to action (going to class instead of sleeping in) and thus are critical first steps for future financial success.

How about you? What was your hourly cost of college?  Email me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter at @cynthiameyer_FF.

 

How to Teach Your Kids About Money

May 04, 2016

A recent survey on kids and money revealed that 4 out of 5 Americans believe that an allowance helps to teach children the value of money and financial responsibility but only 68% actually pay an allowance. With student loan debt growing at an average of over $2,700 PER SECOND, it’s essential that kids enter college with a baseline of knowledge so they know what they’re getting into with this debt. If you’re not modeling good behavior for your kids, you may be setting them up for financial stress down the road. I don’t have kids yet, but I have a lot of plans for how we will ensure that they set themselves up for financial success. Here are some ways to teach your kids (or nieces and nephews) about money before they have to start making important decisions on their own:

Start early: As soon as kids learn how to ask for things (or start throwing themselves screaming on the floor of the grocery store because you won’t buy candy), they can understand the concept that they have to wait to buy something by saving up for it. Instant gratification is a problem that plagues humans for life, but teaching kids how to delay it is a predictor of future success. Whenever your child receives money, have them add it to a jar or piggy bank and consider keeping a paper record to instill banking knowledge as well. Every so often, help her count to see how close she is to her goal. Help keep her eye on the prize by explaining how much closer she is to reaching the goal with each addition.

Explain trade-offs: Once your child enters school, he is ready to learn that when you spend money on one thing, you’ll have less to spend on another. Use grocery shopping as a way to demonstrate this. Give him a budget for his own treats, and then as he’s making his selection, explain how buying expensive yogurt might not allow him enough to also buy his favorite juice boxes. Share your own financial decision making as you’re shopping for the household as well.

There are also a bevy of free web-based money games out there. Try the Great Piglet Challenge or Kids.gov for a variety of fun games. Heck, try them yourself. (I’ve yet to conquer the Great Piglet Challenge!)

Consider an allowance: Whether or not you think kids should “earn” money through household chores or if you consider pitching in to be a part of family life, an allowance is a great way for kids to learn how to spend and save. You can also explain how compound interest works once kids reach the “tweens” stage. Use real numbers and say, “If you save $1 per day starting now, you could have over $26,000 by age 65. But if you wait to save until you’re 30, you’ll only have about $15,000.” This may make it easier to talk your tween out of buying a daily sugary snack at school and instead save the money toward a new video game.

Consider college costs: Whether or not you’ll be able to afford to send your kids to the college of their choice, discuss how their decision will affect you financially. If your child will require financial aid in order to pay for school, share your own struggles with debt as a way to explain the consequences of student loans. And don’t shy away from having them take a part-time job to save toward spending money in college. Understanding how hard it is to earn money will make them appreciate the value and think twice about blowing it all on beer and pizza…just most of it.

Drive their own decisions: Once your teen is ready to start driving, instead of just handing her the keys and crossing your fingers that she’ll drive safely, put some of her skin in the game too. My parents had me take care of my own car insurance when I got my first car, which was a great way for me to learn several money lessons. Instead of doing it for me, my mom had me call their insurance contact to ask to be added to the policy. The agent walked me through the additional costs and I handed over money to my dad each month to pay my share.

If I was late or short paying, my car was parked until I paid up. I not only learned how to budget for my bill, I was empowered to take responsibility and when it came time for me to get my own solo insurance policy, I knew what I was doing. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Most importantly, it’s vital to model good money habits for your kids. We all have our own money stories – our personal frame of reference based on our own experiences growing up around money. For most of us, the biggest influence in our stories came from our parents. Set your kids up for success by rewriting your own story to one of success and financial security.

 

3 Lessons I Learned About Insuring A College Bound Kid

May 03, 2016

I was talking to a group of friends whose kids were going off to college. Since I am a late-in-life parent, I was curious to see how they are handling being empty nesters. I expected some tears and sad stories about their kids leaving the nest. Instead, my friends were high-fiving each other that they survived the teen years and deciding what do with their kids’ rooms. They were even talking about going out and celebrating!

Of course, as the financial professional in the group, I had to burst everyone’s bubble. I asked the group if they had talked to their insurance providers about their kids going to college. I  brought this up because of all the lessons my family learned when my nephew went to college.

Lesson #1: Times have changed. When I was in college, my car, TV and computer were worth about $1,000. Today, a kid is going to college with thousands of dollars of electronics between their smartphones, iPads, X boxes and laptops. When my nephew’s dorm room was burglarized, my brother and his wife learned that their homeowner’s policy extended to my nephew’s dorm room but unfortunately, the extension did not cover the amount that was stolen. Contact your insurance company to make sure you have adequate insurance and consider adding additional coverage.

Lesson #2: Moving off campus is a game changer. The second lesson we learned is that when my nephew moved off campus, my brother’s homeowner’s policy did not provide my nephew with any coverage and in our case, a renter’s insurance policy may be needed. Contact your insurance carrier to see if your child will still be covered under your policy if your child lives off-campus. If not, consider renter’s insurance.

Lesson #3: Always update your auto policy carrier about any changes. If your child is leaving his or her car at home, ask about a discount since they will be driving it significantly less. This could have saved my brother and his wife hundreds of dollars in unnecessary car insurance.

Sometimes you may need to pay more though. After my nephew took his car with him to college, he was involved in a fender bender. When my brother contacted the insurance company, they refused to pay because my nephew was using the car for work to deliver pizzas part-time and we learned that he needed additional coverage.

So what’s the bottom line? Whenever you have a major life event, like a child going to college in this case, contact your insurance carrier to make sure that you have the best insurance for your needs. You don’t want to learn any of these lessons the hard way.

 

Student Loans Are Not Financial Aid

December 28, 2015

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) opens after January 1 for the 2016-2017 school year. Parents and students all over America will begin the difficult, agonizing process of figuring out how to fund an increasingly expensive American college education. In honor of the start of the financial aid season, I’d like to point out the obvious: student loans are NOT financial aid. They are a financing mechanism. Those are two different things. Continue reading “Student Loans Are Not Financial Aid”

How One Woman Got Her College Degree For Free

November 17, 2015

One of the most frequent questions we get from people is how to save money on college education. We understand that for most people, saving to pay for 100% of college costs is unfeasible and that there needs to be a college savings strategy for kids that are close to attending college with limited funds. As I started researching a strategy, my wonderful co-worker, Camille, told us about a book written by Sharla Berry, an educator in Los Angeles called Degree for Free: How To Save Time and Money on Your College Education. Continue reading “How One Woman Got Her College Degree For Free”

Financial Rules Of Thumb: Saving For College

October 07, 2015

Have you ever heard the rule of thumb that says you should wait 30 minutes to swim after eating? Or don’t leave your Christmas lights up past Martin Luther King, Jr. Day? Perhaps you’ve read some of the arguments both for and against the edict to drink 8 glasses of water per day. And of course, there’s the rule that gets a lot of kids in trouble: question authority. But while these rules may not always ring true, generally speaking, they are good guidelines for getting you through life a little easier. Continue reading “Financial Rules Of Thumb: Saving For College”

Here’s Your Next Superhero!

September 25, 2015

I was talking with a young man today who was facing a rather large debt load and was looking for a way to effectively manage that debt so that it doesn’t ruin his life or at least make it difficult to feel anything other than trapped by his debt. He bought a relatively inexpensive ($20,000) car, has around $8,000 in credit card debt and about $80,000 of undergraduate and graduate school loans. His salary today basically allows him to pay rent, his debts and a little bit of discretionary money for entertainment. He said that his life was not very much fun right now and he feels like he is suffocating. He sounded very frustrated and he joked that at this stage, he’d be willing to sell an organ to raise cash to pay off some of the debt.  Continue reading “Here’s Your Next Superhero!”

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble

September 08, 2015

I had a dad who was a huge fan of boxing. Whether it was appropriate or not, some of my earliest memories are of my trying to understand why he is so excited when people hit each other on T.V. but seems to get upset when I do the same thing to my younger brother. Eventually I got the difference (admittedly, I was a little disappointed, especially when he ripped off the head of my favorite Barbie doll) but I actually started to enjoy boxing and hearing Michael Buffer say, “Lets get ready to rumble.” Continue reading “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble”

Just Say No

August 18, 2015

I am a child of the 80s. I grew up on Happy Days, Falcon Crest, and Family Ties. In between these shows, inevitably a commercial would come on with a child being pressured into using drugs, refusing and looking into camera and saying no. Continue reading “Just Say No”

Which Colleges Make The Best Investments?

July 16, 2015

With the rising cost of college, more students and their parents are rightfully looking at their of college in financial terms. In that spirit, I saw this report on the best “value colleges” by “return on investment.” This can be a much more useful measurement than simply looking at a school’s general “ranking” but there are a few thing to keep in mind: Continue reading “Which Colleges Make The Best Investments?”

Un-Crushing Student Loan Debt

June 26, 2015

Very often, I talk to people who have financial concerns that are weighing on them. I’ve noticed a correlation between the age of the person and the concern. Lately, a lot of people who are within a few years of retirement have been concerned about the stock market and relatively new hires who are just establishing a career have been concerned about their level of debt impairing their ability to make progress toward their important life goals.  Those are two mini-trends I’ve been seeing lately.  Continue reading “Un-Crushing Student Loan Debt”

Would You Turn Down All 8 Ivy League Schools?

May 21, 2015

That’s what a high school senior named Ronald Nelson did to accept a free ride at the University of Alabama. While very few students will be in Nelson’s enviable position, many families will have to decide between a more expensive higher-ranked school and a lower-ranked but less expensive school. With both education and student loan debt increasingly important factors to many young people’s financial well-being, this is not always an easy decision to make. Here are some things to consider: Continue reading “Would You Turn Down All 8 Ivy League Schools?”