According to financial reports and speculation, student loan rates are going to get jacked up starting July 1st, because the rates are adjusted every year, dependent on what the 3-month Treasury yield is at the end of May.
What one financial advisor I read about was suggesting was to refinance, or consolidate, your variable rate federal student loan before June 30th, to save on the impending increase in the interest rate.
The expected increase in the student loan interest rate is expected to jum about 2%, which can be a considerable increase in the amount of cash paid out for some larger student loans. It is also the highest jump in the history of the federal student loan program if it does go down that way.
Students who start paying off their student loans right after college graduation, or withint the six month grace period typically allowed, after graduation, they will be paying a lower percentage for that period of time, so it may be in the person’s best interest to try to pay as much in that time span as possible, to avoid paying more at a higher rate later.
I’ve been thinking that my next car might really be a hybrid car. I’m not sure which one I want, whether it would be the Toyota Prius or one of the new hybrid SUV’s by Ford, or maybe even the Honda hybrid, but with all the benefits of the Hybrid cars, including their environmental consciousness, gas savings and now also the tax break that the federal governement is offering as an incentive to purchase one of these cars that are catching on like wildfire.
What’s the tax break deduction for hybrid cars?
Apparently there are exact credit amounts now determined for Fords and Toyotas, but some of the other makes and models are still awaiting a decision on what kind of tax breaks they will get by the feds.
They are actual dollar tax credits—which took effect for the new tax season of 2006 starting January 1st, 2006. It used to be just a reduction of taxable income, whereas now reportedly it is an actual credit - like you’d get for having a child almost, so obviously the federal government is trying to make the purchase and use of hybrid vehicles more appealing for the every day joe, so these cars make us less reliant on oil and gas? Maybe, I guess that’s just speculation on my part, but it seems logical.
The IRS will publish expected credits for other makers besides Ford and Toyota fairly soon as well.
Most online investment programs, such as mine - Sharebuilder, Scottrade, Ameritrade, and Etrade (some of the bigger names, can’t think of others, but there are other companies that offer this too), will let you make your own “watchlists”.
So say if you’re watching your hot stock tips show, like Bulls and Bears, or that crazy stock guy on Mad Money and you want to start tracking some of the stocks they mention, and maybe eventually purchase it if it performs well, you can add it to your tracking list so you don’t forget about it.
I did this with Google stock, and bought it at $283/ share - I ended up making quite a bit on it in the end, although I wasn’t able to invest much - but that was a good example of a stock I’d been watching on my watchlist for a while, that ended up really paying off for me in the end. That’s actually partly how I got out of my credit card debt!
Most online investment sites will also have some sort of money market fund that your money that is not invested will automatically go into, before you invest it. You can also just elect to keep it in the money market account, if you have no stocks you’re interested in buying.
The cool thing about money markets is that they are low risk, and they’re a higher yield than most savings accounts from banks, so they’re a good “middle road” to keep your inactive money in while you’re deciding what to do with it.
These online investment and stock trading websites are pretty cool, I must say. Even if your company doesn’t offer a 401k, or your are self employed, you can open up a self directed retirement plan through most of them, which gives a lot of people the opportunity for tax breaks and savings that they wouldn’t otherwise have.
I’m sure stockbrokers aren’t too happy about these website’s popularity, but I for one am, since it allows me a lot of freedom in addition to the 401k plan that my job offers - and yes I do participate in that too.
But what the online investing does for me is it gives me the opporunity to educate myself about stocks and mutual funds, and I can then invest in them individually, whereas my job’s 401k somewhat limits my choices for diversity and income.
My online investing website of choice is Sharebuilder, but there are lots of other great and reputable websites out there that will allow you to let your money work for you, instead of you working for your money all the time. Some of the benefits and services these online investing sites offer are managing your buying and selling online, many times in real time, as long as the market is open.
They will allow you to (at a premium usually) put a price on your stocks that you want to sell them at, so you don’t lose money if that’s the way you want to go. Many of them offer free stock advice and education or training programs online - almost like quick tutorials to get you up to speed as an intro to their system and investing in general.
I’ll go over some more benefits of online investing programs next time, as I firmly believe it’s an opportunity that everyone should explore, regardless of whether you already participate in a retirement program at your place of employment.
A “low apr” or “low APR” means that you are getting a good deal basically on the amount of revolving interest your chosen credit card charges you for the privelege of using them as a line of credit. APR actually stands for “Annual Percentage Rate” which is the annual percentage that the company is bound to charge you under the terms of the agreement on new purchases you make with their credit card.
We’ll talk more about this later, but I wanted to inform you what that actually stands for, and why it is so important when you’re shopping for a credit card - or a loan.
I have not purchased a house yet, but I am currently saving up for a somewhat hefty downpayment for my first home, and I’ve gotten a lot of good information, and some that I’m not so clear on, from friends, and from financial advice experts whose articles and columns I read.
Does anyone else know anything about the general rule that a 20% or more downpayment can save you a lot in your homeowner’s insurance, and it is something having to do with escrow?
A friend of mine also told me that I should try to build, rather than buy a pre existing home, because she said “everything breaks in ten years anyways” like the big appliances and heating systems etc., so if you start from scratch it helps you in the end with having to replace everything at odd times of the year.
Also, I guess building a home rather than buying a used/lived in home can actually be the more economical way to do it…..I still need more convincing though.
Unfortunately this is an area where I haven’t educated myself enough to go into the mortgage and home buying process with a lot of knowledge under my belt.
I do know it’s a decent home buyer’s market right now, and property values just keep going up and up and up, so I’m anxious to stop wasting money on rent and actually putting something into home and property equity.
I recently read an interesting article about the current state of the economy, and the guy that wrote it thinks that a lot of our economical problems boils down to one fact - that Americans take out more credit than they can handle. This type of get the credit now, worry about the bills later or “spend now, worry later” is what is killing a lot of American families.
In this world of instant gratification and what I feel is a lack of financial education, young people are getting themselves into a world of trouble with credit cards before they even reach the age of 30. This just snowballs into bigger issues down the line since we all know how hard credit cards are to pay off, unless you have a very low interest rate card, or
are extremely adept at playing the credit card game.
The signs are all around that our credit and loans are out of control. CCCS, or Consumer Credit Counseling has a huge book of clients, and every day I hear commercials and see tv ads for new debt management services and get rich quick schemes to “relieve your credit card debt”.
Yet another way your credit score can affect you (as if there weren’t already enough factors your credit score affects) - your car insurance. Yep, that’s right, many insurance companies are now instituting a credit rating factor in the rating and calculation of what insurance rates you will pay.
Why, you ask would insurance companies base your rate on your credit rather than solely on the factors that you think “matter ” like driving record and age?
Well, from an actuarial (complicated way they calculate risk taken for a certain policyholder and likelihood they will have to pay out on a a claim) standpoint, studies and statistics have shown historically that people with better credit tend to have less claims. It’s just one of those things, that if you were to take a million other things and put them in the equation, or even just one more tiny thing, it can skew your results.
I never will understand actuaries - but then again, most of them are bordering on genius to come up with the statistical data they do - all to calculate what kind of risk you’ll be for insurance rates. And we thought there was no such thing as telling the future!
I have a Honda CRV, a 2005 that I purchased back in June of 2005, and I love it. Anyways, I bought the car brand new, and got the special rate of 2.9% financing. I asked during the sale process whether I would be penalized for trying to pay off my car early, and part of what I loved about the deal is that the answer to that was “no” I wouldn’t be.
What the finance officer at Honda told me was to make sure I write two checks, one for the amount of the payment, and then an extra one, for whatever amount I wanted to pay over the minimum due, and write the words “toward principle balance” on the check so that the processors of my payment at Honda would know that it goes toward the principle (call me silly, but I thought that’s what they’d do anyways, but oh well.)
I just got a bill. I paid aobut $200 extra and this bill is reduced by that much - it’s just funny how they do that to you! Assuming you want to pay the minimum always, so they can get more money over the long haul! Of course, I’ll keep paying more than the minimum, but I can’t blame them for trying - that’s how they all stay in business!
I heard another ad this morning on the radio for a different kind of debt management program, or actually a debt relief program is how it was advertised, called “Credit Card Relief”. It was advertised as a complete solution to credit card debt, and is “not like Consumer Credit Counseling” or the other nonprofit organizations which help to consolidate your debt, not is it a high interest consolidation loan, and is not the filing of bankruptcy.
It was advertised as a service that can help you achieve complete freedom from credit card debt in as little as a few months, instead of a few years. I’m not quite sure what the program entails, but the guy on the ad said you would get a consultation with one of their attornies, and it’s only for people who are really serious about getting out of credit card debt.
Since there are more programs popping up like this, I wonder if they just have their attornie negotiate some sort of payoff deal with creditors? It just makes me think along those lines, because usually you don’t need an attorney to just pay off credit cards, or even negotiate lower interest - you can actually do that yourself, or play the credit card game.