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• Food and financial advice for the college-bound

  Posted Aug 19 2008, 04:36 PM by Ryan MacClanathan
  Filed under: College, Debt, Family, Dining, Groceries, Budgeting
  Rating:

  Student loans, fast food, credit card debt, the "freshmen 15," all-night binge drinking/study sessions -- plenty of financial and dietary perils await today's incoming college freshmen.

  For many young adults the first years of college are a time to make mistakes and, hopefully, learn from those mistakes. Unfortunately, some of those errors in judgment can take years to fix. Plenty of adults in their 30s and 40s are struggling to beat down debt accrued in their wilder days. And, of course, there's the old adage: A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. 

  Fortunately, Kris at Cheap Healthy Good has sound, nonjudgmental advice for young student on how to eat healthy and live frugally, both of which go hand in hand.   Read More...

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• It's best to resist family pressure to co-sign a loan

  Posted Nov 05 2007, 08:20 AM by Karen Datko
  Filed under: College, Debt, Credit, Family
  Pardon us while we get a broom. Our hair literally fell out when we read Stacking Pennies ' post about co-signing a family member's loans . She agreed to co-sign student loans for her sister (whose own credit had been damaged by past financial choices) and unwisely allowed the sister to sign Pennies' name on the loan documents. Thus, it was a total surprise when Pennies learned she is obligated to pay off $23,000 in loans if her sister does not make good on the debt. This is a touching story about a sister's desire to help and a wake-up call for anyone considering the same decision . You can go only so far to save other people from their own mistakes. Pennies says she regrets co-signing the loans. "But it is family, and it is money for education, and it is hard for me to turn my back on that," she writes. We can only hope this works out for the best.
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• Parent or child: Who chooses the college?

  Posted Nov 05 2007, 06:40 AM by Karen Datko
  Filed under: College, Debt, Family
  This likely is a dicey question right now in a lot of households. Do parents get to pick which colleges their child applies to, particularly if Mom and Dad will be paying the way? Grad Money Matters examines this question in a thought-provoking post that focuses on a co-worker's dilemma . Her daughter wants a fine-arts degree from a big party school. Mom is worried that her daughter won't end up with a lucrative career . They've reached a compromise: The daughter will study computer animation at the college of her choice, as long as it covers half the tab with financial aid. GMM agrees with this solution: "I believe that if the parents are paying for the education, they have every right to set some ground rules."
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