Often students earn college degrees to increase their likelihood of future financial stability. Yet, as college costs are rising, students and their parents subsequently are borrowing more to earn said degree, thus students “spend” the equivalent of a few years’ of post-graduation wages while parents may delay retirement, the question is, “Is college worth the cost?” According to a recent…
Tag: Student loan
Ever Wonder Why The Dollars in Your Pocket Are Less?
Wonder no longer…
Tuition Surging at California Public Universities for 2017-18
University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) students will pay more tuition for the 2017-18 school year. For the first time in six years, both the UC and CSU boards have approved tuition and fee increases. At the same time, Governor Jerry Brown proposes to phase out the state-sponsored Middle Class Scholarship program for students starting college for the first…
FAFSA Changes Release Date
The FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the government form required to apply for financial aid at any U.S. college or university, will be released on October 1, 2016. The October date is a full three months earlier than previous years, when the FAFSA was released on January 1. What the earlier release date means: Families will use…
“I Have Student Debt?”
[Sung to the tune of Heigh Ho from Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs] “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go…” Even though I remember singing this refrain in jest, Millennials, the current generation between age 18 – 35 , may not be so light-hearted. According to Bloomberg News in April 2016: A new survey conducted online in…
The Middle Class Squeeze
In the last several years, our middle class clients are being confronted by flattening incomes and college costs that have risen over 1000%. More and more families are finding themselves not only planning to pay for college when their children are quite young, but asking for more financial assistance when their children are ready to enroll in college. With families…
Does a Free Lunch Exist?
Here’s how to borrow $127,000 in student loans, only repay $87,000 over twenty years, and have the U.S. Government pick up the tab for the $450,000 still owed at the end of the repayment period. [Notice the quadrupling effect on the total balance owed because of the interest that accrues in the two decade long repayment period? ]
Where is the “Middle” in Middle Class?
Middle class families can sometimes feel like this: Cartoon credit: Americans for Limited Government, 2015 Especially when considering the annually increasing tuition, and other costs for a college education:
Welcome to the New Adulthood
For most of us, moving out of the parental units’ house is the ultimate signifier of adulthood. So, what’s the threshold defining adulthood for the growing numbers of 25 year olds, who live with their parents (even after moving away for college)? Since 2002, parental co-residence rates have only risen: And, in 2012:
Internships: The New Entry Level Job
Go to college. Then, get a job. The old adage may have passed its time. Now, the meme may be more like, “Compete to get into college. Go to college; work unpaid internships every semester starting your freshman year, and each summer take more internships, then, hopefully, you’ll get a job by graduation.” According to a May 18, 2015 Washington Post article:…