FAP787: Using LinkedIn To Build Your Personal Network

April 30, 2008

News You Can Use
+ A session I did about LinkedIn, from PodCamp NYC.
+ Find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/cspenn

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Reminders
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+ Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com.
+ Free scholarship search secrets eBook at StudentScholarshipSearch.com/ebook
+ Open an FDIC-insured savings account today!
+ Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com
+ Student credit card information at StudentPlatinum.com
+ FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com
+ Grad student? Get graduate financial aid information at the GradLoans.com blog!
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network.

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

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Rent or Own?

April 30, 2008

I had written an entry a few entries ago about now being a great time to buy because some homes are priced at what I believe is the bottom of the market. For those of you who read, I'll let you know that I still believe this is a great time to buy. Now of course this doesn't apply to all properties. You have to work to find the well priced REO's and short sales. I'm working on a purchase money transaction in Moreno Valley where the mortgage payment including taxes, insurance, and payments to principle are a little over $1,600. The house is a 3 bedroom home with a 2 car garage. Last time I checked a decent apartment in the same city can cost $1,550 for 2 bedrooms and there is no garage and you can't deduct any portion of the payments on your tax return.

That is why I know that some homes are priced at the bottom. Now yes, all homes aren't priced that low, but there are several out there. If you are curious to find them, give me a call (951-515-2120) or shoot me an email (InlandEmpireLender@mac.com) , because they are out there. I know they are because I'm working on 3 transactions that are just like this one right now.

Comments?

Mortgage Payment or Credit Card Payment?

April 29, 2008

In the United States, most Americans are juggling several different forms of debt at once and many will reach a point where they simply cannot afford to pay all of them. Each month, you might have five credit card payments, a car payment, a mortgage, and possibly a loan. That’s eight different payments each month and some people could easily have double that. When it comes time to choose which payment doesn’t get made, it’s surprising how many people are choosing their mortgage. Though statistics clearly show home foreclosure rates on the rise, it’s unknown why most people continue to make their credit card payments while ignoring their mortgage. A recent survey by Capital One showed that 70% of people who have mortgages at least 90 days overdue still make their credit card payments on time. Statistics like these beg the question of why some people see their credit cards as being more important than their home. Is it because they’re stuck in a bad mortgage and would rather face a home foreclosure than lose their credit cards? Traditionally, most people would never pay their credit cards over their mortgages. Clearly, times have changed and the statistics are showing that.

Credit Card and Mortgage Statistics

About 70% of homeowners are paying for their home through a mortgage.
Of that 70%, nearly a quarter of them have a second mortgage or home equity line of credit.
More than 230,000 homeowners are facing some form of foreclosure, which comes out to nearly 1 out of every 500 people.
Foreclosure filings have more than doubled since a year ago.
The total US revolving debt is over $900 billion.
The average household carries $8,500 in credit card debt, however the median balance is just $2,200.
1 in 6 families pay only the minimum credit card payment each month.
Of every $100 spent in the US, almost $40 is spent in a form other than cash or check.

credit card debt, Foreclosures, Mortgage, Mortgage Payments, mortgage payments vs. credit card payments, mortgage questions, mortgages

FAP786: How much student loan debt is too much?

April 29, 2008

FAP786: How much student loan debt is too much?

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Chronicle: If Congress wants more low-income students to enroll in college, it should provide larger Pell Grants to the poorest of them, says a new report out today.
+ The report, “Window of Opportunity: Targeting Federal Grant Aid to Students With the Lowest Incomes,” asks lawmakers to give up to $750 in additional aid to students whose families are so needy that their expected contribution to tuition is a negative number. Under current law, such students receive the same-size Pell Grant as higher-income students whose expected family contribution, or EFC, is zero.
+ Inside Higher Ed: When the University of Central Florida’s medical school opens next year, every member of the inaugural class will receive a full scholarship. The university, citing the Association of American Medical Colleges, said that no other medical school has awarded full scholarships to every member of a class. There will be 40 students admitted for the first class, and each will receive scholarships worth $160,000 over four years — half for tuition and half for living expenses and fees.
+ NASFAA: “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today unveiled a sweeping plan to ensure that students are not left without money for college as a result of the withdrawal of dozens of lenders from the guaranteed-student-loan program,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. “The release said Mrs. Clinton is urging the Bush administration to act quickly and support her plan, which includes: Creating a way for colleges to quickly transfer from the guaranteed-student-loan program to the direct-loan program… Giving breaks to parents who now run the risk of being denied access to federally guaranteed low-interest loans for their children as a result of defaulting on a mortgage or being 90 days late in repaying such debts… Authorizing the Education Department to advance money to state or private entities that ensure student loans and to purchase federally guaranteed loans from lenders who are no longer able to handle them.”

Scholarship Update
+ Sterling Scholarship Directory for Utah
+ Great compilation of scholarships, many of them full tuition, for colleges in Utah
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Mail Bag
+ Felicia writes: How much debt should a student accrue for a college education? When is it too much?
+ It becomes too much when you know you won’t be able to afford to repay it
+ One model is to not borrow more than your first year’s salary
+ As Justin Draeger mentioned in our roundtable, under 10% of income is good - 15% - 17% is when defaults spike
+ If you don’t know what you’ll be doing after college, find BLS or other stats for average salary for your MSA
+ Borrow as a last resort after non-loan options have been exhausted
+ Federal student loans are the best choice
+ Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com
+ PLUS loans at ParentPLUSLoan.com
+ Graduate student loans at GradLoans.com
+ Only after scholarships and federal loans should you borrow private student loans
+ Private student loans at AlternativeStudentLoan.com

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
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Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

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FAP785: The Missing Free Stuff, Student loan troubles

April 28, 2008

FAP785: The Missing Free Stuff, Student loan troubles

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Student Financial Aid News
+ Back from PodCamp NYC
+ Chronicle: Rarely does a president devote a national address to a higher-education issue; several experts could not remember one since a televised speech on student aid by President Nixon. But on Saturday, Mr. Bush reaffirmed recent comments by other administration officials on the need to protect student loans from the national credit crunch. And the president even more strongly supported a bill the House of Representatives passed this month.
+ That bill (HR 5715) seeks to stem the withdrawal of lenders from the government’s guaranteed-student-loan program, which dozens of them have left in recent weeks. It would allow the secretary of education to buy packages of student loans that companies have struggled to sell to investors, thereby giving those companies money for new loans to students.
+ NASFAA: “More than $9 billion of auction- rate bonds sold by student-loan agencies in states from Pennsylvania to Utah have trapped investors in debt that’s not paying interest,” Bloomberg reports. “The collapse of the auction-rate market drove interest costs paid by states, hospitals and student-lending agencies as high as 20 percent, and froze investors in securities they couldn’t sell. Now, holders of student-loan debt are stuck with bonds paying less than the 0.76 percent rate on the one-month Treasury bill. The bonds pay nothing because of a formula designed to ensure that borrowers don’t pay more interest on their debt than they receive from their student-loan clients.”
+ NASFAA: “Two months ago, as a sense of crisis descended upon the student-loan industry, JP Morgan Chase & Company stood up and said that it not only would continue to supply government-backed loans, but would do so at a discount,” The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. “‘It sounds so self-serving,’ a company spokesman, Thomas A. Kelly, said at the time, ‘but if you are doing business with a major bank doing student lending, they’re going to be there tomorrow.’ That was two months ago. Last week the bank’s student-loan division, Chase Education Finance, announced that because of higher financing costs and lower federal subsidy rates, it would no longer offer government-backed loans at colleges with high-risk borrowers. And today officials at Chase are telephoning the colleges that the bank is still willing to serve to tell them that the discounts it promised in February to maintain - reimbursing students for both the borrower origination fee and the default fee that are required under the federal program - will no longer be paid by Chase on the borrower’s behalf.”

Scholarship Update
+ $958,510 in music scholarships from the New England Conservatory of Music
+ Details at our free college scholarship search site

Free Stuff - Bonus Segment
+ 32 things to save the earth and money
+ Places that have free shipping
+ How did no one tell me about the Bargainist?
+ BitRipper DVD converter
+ Beer Menus

Did you enjoy today’s show? If so, please consider subscribing for free to get it delivered to you. Subscribing for free means you don’t have to remember to download it every day.
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Direct MP3 file download: Click here to download the MP3

I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast {at} gmail {dot} com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208.

Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast

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Loan Topics

FAP787: Using LinkedIn To Build Your Personal Network

Rent or Own?

Mortgage Payment or Credit Card Payment?

Credit Card and Mortgage Statistics

Related:

FAP786: How much student loan debt is too much?

FAP785: The Missing Free Stuff, Student loan troubles

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