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Posted
Jul 20 2009, 11:11 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from "vh" at Funny about Money.
Tina, my associate editor on the day job and my moonlight business partner, sent a link to this interesting discussion. The main post itself has several links to relevant, equally interesting posts and conversations.
Given the astonishing burden of student loans that too many young people are saddled with -- my son's roommate's girlfriend, for example, remarked that she will graduate from a top-quality institution with a master's degree in international business and $1,400-a-month student loan payments -- assessing the "value" of graduate education is not a crass or pointless exercise.
It's well and good to love learning for learning's sake and so to feel that the graduate school experience is irrelevant to one's vocational prospects. However, once that graduate school experience ends, you still have to pay for it. You still have to keep a roof over your head, put food on your table, and foot the considerable cost of raising a family. When young people are saddled with five- and six-figure student loan debt, they should reasonably expect the financial investment in graduate education to pay off with jobs that will support them.
That, unfortunately, is too often not the case.
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Posted
Dec 09 2008, 06:48 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
He's no stranger to controversy, that "Mr. ToughMoneyLove." Whether it's help for homeowners in default -- he called that post "Homeowner bailouts destined to fail" -- or sympathy for a particular 54-year-old GM retiree -- "It's second-career time, my friend, and quit the whining," he said -- he's never shy with his opinions. Recently, he blamed free-spending universities for teaching impressionable minds that it's OK to carry huge debt. Try this quote on for size, from his post "The college student debt machine: A national disgrace" at Tough Money Love.
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Posted
Oct 06 2008, 07:50 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The front-page headline in Sunday's Seattle Times was an attention-grabber: "Young, educated and drowning in debt." The accompanying article told some scary, scary stories. One young couple in med school will finish with more than half a million dollars in loans between them. A man who graduated with $152,000 in debt finds that monthly payments eat up one-third of his salary -- and he has a good job. Gargantuan loans taken out with no clear idea of how they'll be repaid. Sound familiar?
Actually, there's a crucial difference between subprime mortgages and student loans. You can't return your diploma to the school and walk away from college debt. In fact, such debt can't even be discharged in a bankruptcy. Student loans are with you until you pay them back.
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Posted
Aug 06 2008, 06:23 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Silicon Valley Blogger at The Digerati Life. We live with them all the time -- those money leaks that burn holes in our pockets ever so slowly. Often, we find ourselves spending a little bit here and there, and before we know it, we're scratching our heads wondering where our money went. But it could be worse: Our credit card bills can grow to the point when they can be unmanageable, a situation we should all try to avoid before debt becomes too overwhelming to handle. At my household, we're trying much harder to be economical as we face financial uncertainties over the next few years. Both my husband and I are now self-employed and facing a short-term income shortfall until we get our business ventures off the ground. This has prompted us to work on optimizing our family budget much more carefully and to keep a closer eye on those extra costs that add up. In doing so, I've realized something -- that money leaks don't just lead to growing debt. It has dawned on me that even if we can seemingly afford these small outlays -- what's an extra $2 for a pack of gum and a bottle of Calistoga? -- the money we spend actually has an opportunity cost, which in itself can be quite huge.
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Posted
Jul 07 2009, 12:57 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What can you expect to earn after graduating with a bachelor's degree in history from Podunk U? Would that income increase if you had the same degree from an Ivy League school? How about if you had a journalism or engineering degree?
A peer-to-peer private student loan service called People Capital has devised a way of estimating the earning potential of college graduates based on a number of variables, like major, college or university attended, and academic performance. The result, called the Human Capital Score, is presented as an alternative to the FICO score for people who haven't used credit long enough to have a meaningful credit history.
Even if you're not in the market for student loans, this could make for interesting conversation -- particularly if you get a good score. So let's try this out.
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Posted
May 18 2009, 11:50 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Looking for the best Web resources for bargains, coupons, cheap travel, personal-finance tools and other ways to save money?
One excellent list is Liz Pulliam Weston's "The 100 most useful Web sites," posted at MSN Money. Now our partner blog Wise Bread, whose bloggers recently authored the entertaining "10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget," has produced a similar effort -- "190 best ways to save money online."
There is some overlap. For instance, everyone loves RetailMeNot and one of our favorite sites, Bankrate. And both Liz and the Wise Bread folks are fans of Tim Ferriss, Zen Habits' Leo Babauta and Smart Spending. (We are honored.)
But each list has its own strengths. Here's how to make the best use of both.
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Posted
May 28 2009, 11:56 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Lots of factors are squeezing college students these days -- higher tuition and surcharges, to name just a few, Studenomics reports. In other bad news, The New York Times says that state programs to forgive student loan debt are being severely cut back.
Aren't community colleges suddenly looking more attractive? Are they an acceptable alternative to a four-year university degree?
For answers, we checked with "Studenomist," who started his post-high-school education at a community college before moving on to a much larger school.
It all depends, he says in two posts at Studenomics.
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Posted
Aug 04 2009, 03:27 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Forget a job on Wall Street. If you want to make money when you get out of college, engineering is the current hot choice.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers released its 2009 ranking of the top 10 average starting salaries for new college grads, and petroleum engineering was No. 1, at a cool $83,121. Nine of the top 10 jobs have "engineering" in the title.
But does that mean you should change your major immediately? Hold on, said Darwin at Darwin's Finance. Not so fast.
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Posted
Apr 15 2009, 11:02 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The times they are a-changing for many credit cardholders, who are reducing their dependence on plastic and paying off debt. Hopefully that includes college students, who last year used credit cards more than ever -- and not just for pizza and beer.
Put tuition on the card? Amazingly, about 30% did, according to a new study by Sallie Mae, up from 24% in 2004, the last time the study was done. About 92% used plastic for other educational expenses.
The average balance has grown to $3,173, and increases to $4,100 by graduation.
It gets worse, folks. A press release from Sallie Mae reports:
Sixty percent experienced surprise at how high their balance had reached, and 40% said they have charged items knowing they did not have the money to pay the bill. Only 17% percent said they regularly paid off all cards each month.
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Posted
Aug 04 2009, 09:00 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The Post-9/11 GI Bill that took effect with much fanfare will provide many veterans and military members with expanded educational opportunities.
Contrary to some reports, the older Montgomery GI Bill isn't going away with the advent of the new bill and, in some cases, may still be the better option. But for many, the new law will cover the full cost of a college degree.
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