Practical Student Loan Tools and Resources From Happy Go Legal and Heather
Chelsea Callanan of Happy Go Legal interviews Heather to give resources and advice to law students and new lawyers grappling with student loan debt. In this podcast, Chelsea and Heather discuss: Understanding your full financial picture Resources to get on track financially Setting measurable goals and realistic timelines for paying off your student loan debt Here are the links if you just can't wait another minute! National Student Loan Data System for Students: NSLDS.ed.gov Annual Credit Report.com: annualcreditreport.com Student Loan Borrow…
Sorting Out the Income Driven Repayment Options
You say tom-a-to, I say tom-ah-to. But the income driven repayment options are much more different than their names imply. Pay As You Earn (PAYE) gets you the lowest payments and earliest forgiveness, but can't be chosen by people who borrowed before October 1, 2007. Income-Based Repayment is a little more expensive than PAYE but is available to more folks. Income-Contingent Repayment isn't the newest or cheapest option, but if you are a Parent PLUS loan borrower, it's the only available income-driven plan (and only after…
Student Loans and “The Tax Man”
Started getting those tax docments arriving in the mail? Remember that the income-driven repayment plans (like Income-Based Repayment and Pay As You Earn) limit a borrower's student loan payments to an affordable level given his or her income. Monthly payments are determined based on the borrower’s Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and family size. To maximize the allowable reductions or adjustments from your total income: • Save for retirement. The best way to boost your adjustments is to save for retirement. Try…
U.S. Warned on Student Debt Peril, Financial Times Reports
No parent should ever have to endure losing a child. Financial Times' writer Anjli Raval tells us a tragic tale made worse by a private student loan company's insistence that a grieving mother pay for an education that her deceased son will never use. Heather contributed to the article. Below is an excerpt from the article: Four years ago, Ella Edwards lost her 24-year-old-son Jermaine. Depressed and unable to work after the unexpected death of her only child, the 61-year-old retired, hoping to grieve in peace. But Ms Edwards…
Defending Your Liberty, While Waiting On Hold
In November 2001, I deployed into Afghanistan with my fellow Marines of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) to capture or kill those responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and to aid Afghanistan's Northern Alliance in their efforts to defeat the Taliban and rest control of their proud country from that brutal regime. The last thing that I, or any deployed servicemember, wants to think about is the financial security of my family back home. Yet today, according to a recent…
