Student Loans

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White House Task Force to Improve Jobs, Student Loans & Retirement for the Middle Class

Vice President Joe Biden is the chairman of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class, which released its annual report last week that examines the state of the American middle class. The report, which was presented to President Obama on Friday, discusses steps that the Administration is taking to combat the challenges facing the largest socio-economic class in the country: joblessness, childcare costs, care-giving for the elderly or those with disabilities, student loan payments, and retirement security.

Key Proposals

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Student Loan IBR Income Based Repayment Plans

A few weeks ago I asked newsletter subscribers to email me with the things that concerned them. Many readers told me that the cost of higher education, specifically the college and university level, and their student loans were some of the things on their mind.

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Citi Student Loan Rebate Reward Price Increase

I’ve been doing research on the various reward catalogs of credit card companies when I discovered my favorite reward, a student loan rebate check from the Citi ThankYou Network, had gone up in price. I would routinely cite that reward as one of the main reasons I kept using my Citi card. A few short months ago, for 10,000 points, you could get a $100 check written to your student loan servicer. That came out to each point being valued at 1ยข.

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Four Rules of Thumb In Need of Refreshing

Rules of thumb are great. They teach you a little nugget of wisdom and have been vetted by generations of experience. Don’t swim thirty minutes after eating, don’t mix hard liquor and beer, and don’t date your relatives. Follow those rules of thumb and you’ll live a happy and healthy life.

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Best 529 College Savings Plans

My weekend financial project is to shore up the kids’ 529 college savings accounts. With my oldest child a mere eight years from starting college, and us dreadfully behind in accumulating savings, I have decided it is time to move college savings up the list of priorities a bit.

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Income-Based Repayment of Federal Student Loan Debt Starts July 1st

If you have a student loan debt balance that is close to or exceeds your annual income, this is for you. Income-Based Repayment (IBR) is a new way to lower your federal student loan payments starting July 1, 2009. It caps monthly payments and forgives remaining debt and interest after 25 years. And if you’re a teacher or work in government, nonprofit, or other public service jobs, you could have your federal loans forgiven after just 10 years.
Here’s an animated video about the topic from IBRinfo.org:

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Changes to Student Loans Coming July 1

While it’s great to avoid debt whenever possible, if you have to deal with federal student loans, including Stafford and PLUS loans, you might qualify for some better deals starting July 1.
Interest rates will be at the lowest rates in years. If you can consolidate, lock in rates after July 1. They will be at the lowest levels since the inception of the federal student loan program. The interest rate for graduates who are in a grace period is 2.00%.

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When Going Into Debt is Worthwhile

On a macro level, debt was a force behind the incredible economic expansion over the past two centuries, and the availability of debt at the family level played a role as well. Despite all that debt has brought society, many financial gurus and authors vilify debt and explicitly call the idea of borrowing money “evil.” Typical mass-produced financial advice often calls for avoiding debt as much as possible. Is this a realistic goal in economically developed nations in the twenty-first century?

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Is College Worth the Cost of Tuition? Yes.

Earlier this year I finished writing an article in which I tried to find the salary breakeven point for private vs. public college graduates, a task that was impossible because I couldn’t find enough publicly available information at the time. I was trying to figure out whether college was “worth it” and if so, whether public or private college was a better value.

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