Underutilized Options Could Ease Student Loan Crisis
As many of you who follow our blog know, the student loan repayment system is overly complicated. Heather has dedicated her professional life to trying to make sense of the stacks upon stacks of legislation, sometimes arcane student loan laws, and overly cumbersome student loan repayment eligibility requirements to translate them into more user-friendly forms that student loan borrowers can understand. While there certainly could be more and better student loan repayment assistance and education programs implemented in the future, the…
Like Your Employer?
Some of us are fortunate enough to work for companies that value our contributions, provide us with meaningful work and opportunities to grow professionally while advancing to higher positions of responsibility. If you are really lucky, you also have a 401K retirement plan with matching contributions from your employer. Now, if you work for Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp, your employer will not only match your contributions to your 401K retirement account, they will match your contributions to a specific 529 college savings plan…
5 Things to Consider Before Taking On a Student Loan, Compliments of the WSJ
In Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, columnist Josh Mitchell offered potential student loan borrowers 5 things they need to know before signing on the dotted line: 1. Research what aid is available to you - including scholarships, state and federal grants, and then federal student loans. 2. Know the terms of your loan(s)- including interest rate, repayment period, when payments begin, etc. 3. Loans are debts that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy - when you sign on the dotted line, those debts will not go away until you pay them. 4. Research…
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…
Introducing the New “Pay As You Earn” Student Loan Repayment Plan
Final regulations implementing the President's “Pay As You Earn” repayment initiative have just been published. The regulations provide for reduced payments for some federal student loan borrowers and improve the federal student loan disability discharge process. Highlights include: Eligible borrowers: Must not owe a balance on a federal loan as of October 1, 2007; AND Must receive a disbursement of a federal loan after October 1, 2011. Payments will be 10% of discretionary income with forgiveness after 20 years…
