About the authors: For over 25 years, Cynthia S. Meyers, CFP®, MBA, has assisted people with their Lifetime Financial Planning–helping to build and preserve wealth in every area of life. Jenny Hood, CFP® has been a paraplanner with Cynthia S. Meyers for five years and enjoys being a part of the financial planning process. They offer…
Tag: Expense
California’s Prop 30 and Possible CSU Tuition Increase
If Proposition 30, a tax increase initiative on the November ballot, doesn’t pass, CSU students and their families could be faced with an additional 5% tuition increase mid-school year, on top of the 5% increase that was instituted for before the Fall 2012 school year started. Similarly, UC students and their families are facing a…
What?!? Colleges Possibly Going Bankrupt?
The changes to higher education and its price in California are partially in response to the recent state funding cuts. Students (and their families) are being asked to shoulder more of the costs of their education–in the form of increased tuition and fees, parking costs, per campus student activity fees etc. At the same time,…
Student Debt = Future Income Spent Today
Know the terms (i.e. repayment, interest rates) and possible consequences of taking student loans for college–essentially bringing future income into the present. (FYI: colleges are not obligated to disclose the terms of the loan BEFORE accepting them as part of a student aid package. Students MUST ASK. Also, students are not forced to accept student…
“Why Do You Want to Go To College?” Has New Meaning
“How do employers look at college names?” is a typical question parents ask us, when trying to narrow their senior’s choices for application. Two meanings emerge from this question: What’s the value of a college degree? How, if at all, is value different for different colleges? The value in college question will be answered differently…
Changes to Subsidized Direct Student Loans for Fall 2012
For Fall 2012 and future Fall 2013 Subsidized Direct Loan Borrowers: The Federal Government will no longer withhold interest during the six-month grace period before loans go into repayment. According to Federal Student Aid, “the interest will be capitalized (added to the principal amount of your loan) when the grace period ends.” Borrowers do not need…
Guilt? I Didn’t See that On My College Bill
Without understanding the value of a college degree, students can sense, what they often term, “guilt.” They may not confidently understand why their families, and increasingly themselves (in the form of student loans), are paying the thousands of dollars (and rising each year) that a college degree costs. Listen to the following podcast, featuring Julie…
CA College Tuition = UP; College Value = ?
California ranks among the top five states in the nation for the greatest tuition increases in their public universities. (Wall Street Journal, 8/14/2012) Not only do current UC students face a possible additional 20% increase mid-school year, if the November tax increase does not pass, the budget reductions can mean more cuts to courses…
Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 5): What I Am Worth
Now that we understand income, expense and net income–which we arrive at by subtracting expenses from income in any given period–we are now ready to look at the balance sheet, which few understand, but is essential when trying to get a truer understanding of one’s net worth. Everyone’s fiscal interactions with others, which happens everyday…
Thinking Outside the Box to Pay for College
What are you willing to risk to pay for college? Would you seriously consider these alternative methods of paying for college? If it sounds too good to be true, definitely take a second (or a third) look. From the Wall Street Journal, 7/31/2012
UC Tuition and Fees: Up, Up and Away
Anyone involved in the University of California over the past thirty years knows one thing for sure: The tuition and fees for the UC has gone in one direction–UP.
Rising Seniors: Talk is Cheap
Why invest many dollars, actual or borrowed, into a college that will expect students to learn, yet holds itself to another standard when it comes to expanding horizons? Rising seniors and their parents who seek a valuable degree, consistently ask us questions about the value of a degree from X college or university over another.…
“Hidden in Plain Sight” Costs of College
Healthcare is one of those “in plain sight, but not at the top of the list of expenses, yet can be significant in the college budget.” Many colleges require students to be covered by health insurance–either their parents’ policy or an individual policy bought through the university. The recent confirmation of the Healthcare Law by…
CA Budget Affects Cal Grants for Private, Non Profit Colleges
Proposed reductions in funding for the Cal Grant program, in the current 2013 Fiscal budget plan, would reduce private, non-profit university student’s grants by 17% by 2014 to $8,056 per year. (Examples of private non-profit colleges are the University of Pacific or University of Southern California.) Current Cal Grants for private, non-profit university students are…
Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 3):You can’t always get what you want
In the third part of my ongoing series on Prudent Fiscal Planning, let’s discuss the often bugaboo topic of expenses. After following the suggestions from the last article in the series, you should now have drafted at least your income scenarios for the short, immediate, and long term. Now, you are ready to look at the other…