Graduation Debt

Paying for College CollegeWeekLive Webchat Tonight

Reyna — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:48:20 +0000

Join me for a webchat tonight at 9p EST on paying for college. Register for free at bit.ly/yzUMoE.

Boomer University

Reyna — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:13:38 +0000

When 53-year-old Rochelle Van Driel returned to school after twenty years at the age of 45, she was intimidated. A stay-at-home mom who was raising two kids, now ages 30 and 21, she hadn’t looked at a math problem in over two decades. None of her credits from her short stint
in college were transferable, so she’d have to start as a freshman.

Van Driel enrolled in a program at American Rivers College in Sacramento, Calif., to study Gerontology, and quickly excelled. Today, she’s an assistant to
the chair of Gerontology at American Rivers College and pursuing her master’s in the subject. Her goal is to become a professor.

CollegeWeekLive Paying for College Webcast tonight

Reyna — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:07:08 +0000

Join me at 7p EST tonight for a chat about all aspects of paying for college. Future students, current students and parents welcome. Register for free anytime beforehand.

How College Students Can Forecast Future Income

Reyna — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:47:18 +0000

Gauging future income for college students is crucial for determining how much to borrow. Checkout my guest column on Kiplingers.com.

Make Money Like a Pro: 3 Top Investment Tools

Reyna — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:38:12 +0000

When it comes to your investments, you don’t need a degree in finance to know where you stand
and how to plan for your future. There are now dozens of online tools to help
you dissect the information in a clear, understandable way – and some of them
don’t cost a dime. We picked three of the best free online tools to help you
graduate from investment newbie to pro. XBRL Data in Use, Forcastix and
Calcbench all use data from SEC filings to organize the information in
interesting and accessible ways.

10 Student Loan Terms Explained

Reyna — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:14:19 +0000

Kristen Colella interviewed me and other experts to explain student loan terms. She did a great job and you can now find the link on Graduationdebt.org’s Articles & Resources page.

CollegeWeekLive Resources

Reyna — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:31:41 +0000

Thanks to everyone who attended my CollegeWeekLive Webchat yesterday. For additional information, please visit the articles and resources page for information on calculators, student money management offices and military education benefits.

Checkout these links, too.

Skip Scams, Find Legit Scholarships

Can Finishing School Slower Fast-Track Your Career? | MintLife …

The Benefits Of An Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree

Choosing a College? Consider Your Career Path

Could Your Student Loan Payment Be Zero?

For more on working while in school, follow this link to my November CollegeWeekLive broadcast.

Further questions? Contact me on twitter @reynagobel

Join Me for my Next Student Loan WebChat Today

Reyna — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:55:48 +0000

Want to ask me questions live about student loans, scholarships, college budgeting or internships? Attend my CollegeWeekLive webchat at 6p.

Could Your Student Loan Payment Be Zero?

Reyna — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:22:49 +0000

A federal student loan repayment plan based on income is attractive in a not-so-great economy. This is especially true if you are unemployed, or your income is less than in years past. The question is: How do you know if you qualify, and will your payment remain low?

Qualifying for Income-based Repayment

Everything you need to know about the formula for qualifying for income-based repayment (IBR) can be found on this income-based calculator. If your income level changes, or you experience a life change, such as marriage, divorce, or childbirth, you can recalculate your potential payment to see if you qualify for a reduction. Income-based payments change every year based on your current financial situation.

The income -based calculator is used to determine if you can afford to pay off your loans in 10-years. If you can’t afford to repay your student loans in 10 years, your loan payments may land anywhere between zero dollars to a little less than the 10-year payment. If you are on the plan and your income rises, your calculated income-based payment would be higher than the 10-year payment. Thus, you would revert to the 10-year payment plan for that year because your payment is never allowed to exceed the 10-year standard repayment amount. No matter what your payment is, in most circumstances anything you haven’t paid off in 25 years is forgiven. Additionally, individuals working in public service positions may qualify to have their loans forgiven after 120 payments.

Should You Consolidate Your Federal Student Loans?

Reyna — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:20:36 +0000

It’s indisputable that consolidating all your federal student loans into one loan paid off over an extended time frame eases the monthly burden of student debt payments. However, what if the interest rates of your individual loans vary by several percentage points? Should you avoid consolidating in order to concentrate on paying off the higher rate loans first?

How Consolidated Loan Interest Rates Work

When you consolidate your federal student loans into one loan, your interest rate is an average of all your federal student loans interest rates. For example, say you you earned your Bachelor’s degree in four years and graduated in 2011 . If you borrowed conservatively ($2,500 of subsidized federal Stafford loans per school year), your interest rates are as follows: 2010/11 at 4.5%; 2009/10 at 5.6%; 2008/09 at 6%; and 2007/08 at 6.8%.

Since you borrowed the same amount each year, each interest rate represents an equal amount of money, which is called a weighted average. Thus, you can divide the sum of all your loans by four to get your consolidated rate of 5.725%. If you had different amounts at each interest rate, your interest rate would be based on a fraction of your total new loan. For instance, if you borrowed $3,000 as a freshman at 4.5% and $2,000 as a senior, your consolidated interest rate would drop.