Innovative ways to pay off student loans

Posts Tagged ‘Student Loans’

Innovative ways to pay off student loans

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When it comes to paying off student loans, desperate times call for desperate measures.

That’s the growing sentiment among cash-strapped Americans throughout the country who are taking drastic steps to eliminate college debt.

The typical U.S. college graduate now leaves school with more than $20,000 in student loan debt, and it takes an average of 15 years to pay off student loans, according to the College Board. Overall in America, roughly $730 billion in federal and private student loans are outstanding, according to FinAid.org. Of that total, only 40 percent of all student loans are being repaid; the rest of the loans are in default, or in deferment or forbearance.

Sacrificing freedom
For 29-year-old Rich Saunders (pictured) of Hartford, Conn., getting a handle on his student loans has meant swallowing his pride and sacrificing some personal freedoms.

Saunders attended Boston University and earned an English degree in 2004. After a year-long bout of unemployment in 2006, his $120,000 in student loans became unbearable. That’s when the relentless collection calls from his private lenders intensified.

Continue reading College grads take extreme measures to repay student loans

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How can I complete school if I run out of financial aid?

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Author: The Money Coach

Q: How can I complete school if I run out of financial aid? Should I get a private loan?

A: Well, the answer to this question is somewhat of a complex one and for those of you who don’t know, I have written a whole book about student loans and essentially how to pay them off. It is called “Zero Debt for College Grads: From Student Loans to Financial Freedom.”

When I went to graduate school, I came out of school with about $40, 000 in student loan debt, so I know what’s it like to have to get loans in order to finance your college education.

But to answer the question directly, no, I don’t think that running out of aid in and of itself is a pure obstacle to you completing school. I think a lot of times people haven’t considered all of the alternatives to loans when it comes to paying for their college cost, and there are five alternatives to loans.

One certainly is scholarships, two is grants, three is paid internships, four is work study programs and then five is whatever family resources you can marshal up.

By family resources, if it is not your own money, maybe mom and dad can kick in some money, maybe grandma, uncle Joe, whoever might be willing to throw some dollars your way to help pay for books, tuition, fees, computer, supplies, room and board, tuition, whatever it is that you have run short of in terms of having the money to pay.

On the scholarships and grants front, far too few people really aggressively seek out scholarships. I tell students that you should put in three to four weeks worth of search effort; 20 to 30, maybe even as much as 40 hours over the course of those three or four weeks.

I know it sounds like a full time job, but trust me, you are going to get a great payoff down the road. And the payoff is, you won’t have to borrow so much in student loans and you will save yourself potentially as much 15 years worth of repaying that college debt. And 15 years by the way is in fact the average repayment period right now for student loans according to the College Board.

A great resource is FastWeb.com, which is a search engine that will let you seek out the billions and billions of dollars in scholarships that are out there that are available for students. You enter some information about yourself, your background, your educational interests, your academic pursuits, etc., and it will match you up for scholarships for which you qualified.

The scholarships are based on a whole host of things, everything from, again, how well you have done in school and your grade point average to your ethnicity or background, your gender, perhaps your parents’ job, where you live, your career interests, etc, a whole host of criteria. But do aggressively seek out those scholarships and grants.

Regarding your question about the private loans, I always tell people to seek out federal student loans first. And, of course President Barack Obama earlier in 2010 signed Student Loan Reform as part of the Healthcare Reform Bill. Essentially, it means that a lot of people are going to go direct to the government to borrow for college as opposed to going to private lenders.

The reason I suggest federal loans first before private loans is that federal loans typically have lower interest rates. You will be able to get one right now for maybe 6.5 percent or less as opposed to some private loans, which might be 8, 10, 12 percent or so depending on your credit and whether or not you have a co-signer.

Federal loans also have lower fees. They have better loan forgiveness options, better forbearance options, and better deferment options if down the road when you are supposed to be in repayment, you need to put off those student loan payments.

If after you have pursued federal student loans and you have maxed out those federal loans and then you still need to get loans, then that’s the time that you should go ahead and seek out those private loans.

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How to Pay Off Student Loans

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Author: The Money Coach

Higher education costs in the U.S. are increasing. State funding to aid college students is on the decline. And a growing number of university and college students in America are taking on loans to foot their tuition bills and other expenses. Add it all up and the results are scary: In addition to racking up massive amounts of credit card debt, college students in the U.S. are now graduating with record levels of student loans as well.

Nationwide, the median student loan debt for undergraduates currently stands at close to $20,000. Those who attend graduate school wind up with an additional $32,000 in debt on average, according to Nellie Mae, the nations largest student loan provider. The upside to all this debt is that people with Bachelors or graduate and professional degrees stand to earn substantially greater incomes than those without degrees. In the meantime, though, millions of people like you still need help in managing those enormous student loans.

In this session you’ll learn:

How student loans impact your credit
How to bring past-due loans out of default status in 3 months or less
The ins and outs of loan rehabilitation programs
Whether you’re eligible for a student loan cancellation and may not even know it
How to seek and get a deferment on repaying student loans
When to request forbearance
How to ease your financial burdens with a graduated repayment program
How to get your lender to agree to an extended repayment option
The pros and cons of paying loans based on an income contingent plan
When to consider student loan consolidation and MORE!

*Note: Some information in the How to Pay Off Student Loans audio is outdated due to the passage of the Student Loan Reform Bill in 2010 and other changes in the student loan industry. However, the majority of the tips and advice herein will be beneficial to anyone with student loans.

Length – 60 minutes
Format MP3 Audio
Click to download for just $5.99

Are there any government grants that will help me pay off personal debt?

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Author: KPadilla

Q: Are there any personal government grants that I could apply for that will help me pay off personal debt?

A: There are different kinds of government grants which you can apply for. If you are looking for help to pay off your student loans, you can read this post, and this article too. More information can also be found on this post.

If you are a first-time homebuyer, you can find more information about grants which you can avail of in this article.

You can also read this article on the Best Place to Find Grants, Loans and Financing for Entrepreneurs if you are seeking information about grants for business owners.

Are There Any Programs That Can Help Pay Off My Student Loans? (askthemoneycoach.com)
Get Financial Coaching With The Zero Debt Kit (askthemoneycoach.com)

Ask The Money Coach

Posts Tagged ‘Student Loans’