Here are the best articles from around the web this week talking about student loans…
For the week ending Friday May 10, 2013
Student Loan News:
1. Used Wisely, Student Loans Can Improve Your Life:
Student loans changed my life, but in a different way than most. I started school at a community college in the Bay Area after going through a divorce and finding myself with custody of my two sons, 3 and 4.
I was a full-time dad, and worked full-time while taking up to 20 units per semester at my local community college. I received subsidized daycare and dropped my boys there on the way to class, and picked them up on the way home. My mom would watch my boys when I went to work in the evenings as a waiter at a local steak house. I ran a window-cleaning service on weekends when I wasn't working at the restaurant, and I managed to avoid student loans for the first four years of college. View full story: http://news.yahoo.com/used-wisely-student-loans-improve-life-212500339.html
Student Loans
2. Student-Loan Debt: Time to Get Serious:
If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times from my Republican colleagues: we have to stop passing debt onto the backs of future generations. There's plenty of room to debate how best to achieve that goal but not enough attention is being given to the crushing debt being placed on the backs of future generations from student loans.
Last month marked the one year anniversary of student loan debt crossing the $1 trillion mark — making it second only to mortgage debt. Americans now owe more in student loan debt then credit card or automobile debt with the past 10 years showing a staggering 511 percent increase. Details here: http://www.theroot.com/buzz/student-loan-debt-time-get-serious
3. A better approach to student loans:
Student loan interest rates are going to double in July. And, no, that’s not nearly as terrible as it sounds.
Last year, President Obama promised to prevent such a scary-sounding outcome to whip up enthusiasm for his reelection campaign. In fact, only some rates were set to increase from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, and that would have been only on new loans, not existing ones. And even if certain rates had ratcheted up, the government still would have been giving students — risky borrowers, that is — a tremendous deal, and with very generous repayment terms to boot. Nevertheless, cowed lawmakers agreed to keep the lower rates in place for another year, cobbling together $6 billion to pay for it. Read more: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-05/opinions/39048179_1_student-loan-rates-president-obama-government
Student Loan Blog Posts:
1. Washington looks for ways to ease student loan debt:
The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday suggested possible ways to make private student loans more affordable and easier to refinance.
The bureau’s report was based on some 28,000 comments from members of the public about private student loans. The contributors described their own difficulties and suggested ways to make student loan debt more manageable. The consumer agency analyzed the comments and highlighted some of the pros and cons in a report. Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/05/08/3477687/washington-looks-for-ways-to-ease.html
2. How Student Loans Can Keep You From Buying a Home:
As student loans take on an increasing presence among the 20-something generation of college graduates — who have traditionally made up a high proportion of first-time homebuyers — the impact of student loan debt on a mortgage application becomes increasingly important. That's especially because about two-thirds of college seniors who graduated in 2011 had student loan debt averaging $26,600.
While credit scores, cash reserves and income have always been important factors in mortgage underwriting, student loan borrowers — and their spouses/partners — face another critical factor that is driving college graduates with good jobs away from the starter home market, despite mortgage payments being less than rent in many regions. That factor is the debt-to-income ratio, or DTI. Learn more: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/05/03/student-loans-buying-home/
3. Refinancing Student Loans Would Help Low-Income Borrowers:
Campus Progress is pushing for game-changing solutions to tackle the student debt crisis.
One way we've suggested to lessen the burden for millions of Americans is to allow borrowers to refinance their student loans. The idea is simple: Give student borrowers the same benefits that mortgage and credit-card borrowers have enjoyed recently. Allow them to refinance their loans to better interest rates. This would help lower monthly payments, giving graduates the ability to actually pay off those debts and put more money into the struggling economy. Browse more: http://campusprogress.org/articles/refinancing_student_loans_would_help_low-income_borrowers/
PayMyStudentLoans.com Around The Web:
2. http://thisthatandthemba.com/2013/05/yakezie-blog-carnival-happy-cinco-de-mayo/
3. http://fatguyskinnywallet.com/finance-carnival-for-young-adults-cinco-de-mayo-edition/
4. http://myuniversitymoney.com/carnival-of-financial-camaraderie-80/
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