If you are experiencing financial problems and need to make lower payments on your student loans, you might want to consider the pay as you earn repayment plan. You must demonstrate financial hardship, be a new borrower as of October 1, 2007, and have received a Direct Loan disbursement after October 1, 2011, in order to qualify. This program is available for several types of federal student loans, including: […]
If you cannot afford the more standardized repayment plans but are not eligible for the income-based plan or pay as you earn plan, you might consider the income-contingent plan for repaying your student loans. This program is available for several types of federal student loans, including: Subsidized and Unsubsidized Direct Loans Direct PLUS Loans for graduate or professional students Direct Consolidation Loans (except Direct PLUS Consolidation Loans) […]
A grant differs from a loan in one basic way: it’s free money given to you because you fall into a certain category, have earned it through work, or someone wants to support you in your work. A grant is most often awarded based on financial need and other factors. Grants are based on need, merit, field/work specific, athletics, housing, minority based, educational, or goal-based. There are tons of grants out there you can look at to use to pay off your loan. […]
As tuition costs continue to rise, parents face an increasingly difficult dilemma regarding their children’s college education: should they pay for their children to attend post-secondary studies, and if so, how much is appropriate? Before signing any checks or agreements, parents should consider their own futures. Retirement may seem far away, but resist the urge to take funds out of your long-term savings. Even if borrowing money seems risky, there are loans designed for students to attend college. It is extremely unlikely that a bank will lend you money to retire because the likelihood of repayment is relatively low. Additionally, money taken out of a retirement fund can be considered taxable income. Since it’s viewed as additional income, your family’s eligibility for financial aid can be drastically affected the following year. […]
Get your student loan paid off faster by knowing how loans work and by using these simple tricks: In order to make money (which is, after the purpose for being in business), lenders charge interest on the amount you borrow, called the principal. The principal plus the interest is the total amount of the loan. The longer you have the principal on the books, the more interest you pay, so you are on a merry-go-round for quite some time. […]
The cost of higher education is an enormous factor to consider for anyone thinking about attending college. With ever-rising tuition costs and a troubled economy, going to school can seem like a risky investment. Even if you’ve been unable to save for college, there are options that might reduce or eliminate debt after school. […]
One of the most common pieces of advice offered to college students today is to seek out as much financial aid as possible. Unfortunately, in many cases, student aid packages are still not enough to cover the full cost of tuition, and many are forced to borrow money. When this happens, some students begin to wonder if welfare or other public assistance programs will help pay for college. […]
You can get help if you are worried about paying back the student loans that are mounting with interest and keep growing every time you look at the bills that come in. You make payments, but it doesn’t seem to make much difference. Here are just a few ways focused on careers you may have chosen that can help. If your career doesn’t appear here, investigate further. You may find something that will help you in your particular field as a student loan repayment program: […]
You can get Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP’s) from a variety of sources, often from schools, employers, states and the federal government. How do they work? LRAPs differ from repayment plans, like Income-Based Repayment, and loan forgiveness programs, like PSLF. Rather than lowering your payment amount or providing forgiveness of your educational loans in the future, LRAPs provide funds now to make those monthly payments on your loans. […]