Email your legislator, if you’re counting on federal Pell Grants to help you start, or continue, your higher education. The GOP proposes to slash your award by about 15 percent for academic year starting this September. That would be the largest cut in aid in the history of the program. President [...]
In marriage, what’s your biggest financial risk? That your spouse has a secret vice, and I don’t mean playing around with other partners. It’s STD in a different form – “sexually transmitted debt.” Your beloved might be hauling the burden of excess credit card spending or unpaid student loans that have grown from a molehill [...]
What’s one of the country’s top New Year’s resolutions? “Get my personal finances on track.” It competes with “Lose five pounds” and way outdoes “Spend more time with family and friends.” If you get control of your money, you might even find it easier to control other niggling issues (like that extra Christmas weight). Here [...]
Student loans — if unpaid even for a short time — lock you into the only effective debtors’ prison existing in the United States. The government’s collection rights are something a mobster might admire. Late fees and collection fees are ruinous. Student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, so you’ll drag that escalating debt forever. [...]
So you thought your kids were safe from the scourge of credit card debt when you sent them away to college this year? Just because Congress passed a student-protection law?
Wake up to the real world. Credit card issuers found a glide path right through the law’s intent, thanks to their enablers at the Federal Reserve. [...]
