Keble College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford

The cost of higher education is spiraling skyward. At some private schools it now exceeds $50,000 a year. Lagging government support has resulted in steep tuition increases at public universities as well. Little wonder then that educational loans have become as indispensable to college students as low cost loans and extra cash are to the working class.

Different Types of Student Loans

There are three general types of student loans: private loans made by banks and other lenders without any involvement of the government, federal direct loans made by the government itself; and federally guaranteed loans made by banks and other lenders and insured by the government. Additionally, colleges and universities sometimes make educational loans, usually in partnership with banks or other financial institutions.

In the case of federally guaranteed loans, the government pays subsidies to the lenders who make the loans and then guarantees up to 97% of the loans. Lenders are thereby protected from almost all losses on the transactions. The interest rates on federal direct and federally guaranteed loans are fixed rates established by Congress. Private loan terms are typically less favorable than those of government loans, and interest rates on private loans can change over time.

A History of Problems

In recent years, the student loan industry – which finances tens of billions of dollars of educational expenses each year — has been beset with difficulties that have attracted publicity and debate. In 2007, several state attorney generals and lawmakers in Washington exposed questionable dealings involving the endorsement of particular private lenders by college financial aid offices and the siphoning of student-loan applicants to those lenders.

In 2008, the industry was badly shaken by the credit crisis, which threatened to cut off the supply of student loans from private lenders by making it impossible for them to sell loans.  Many student-loan lenders depend on being able to sell the loans they make in order to raise funds for new loans. Investor interest in buying student loans dropped off almost entirely, and it fell to the federal government to keep the industry afloat by stepping in and buying federally-guaranteed loans.

Squeezing Out the Banks

The Obama Administration has now proposed abandoning the guaranteed student loan program entirely so that all federal educational loans would be made directly by the government. Proponents of this change claim that over the next ten years it would save $94 billion in subsidy payments to lenders, which could then be used for Pell grants to students in financial need.

Highly Technical Banking Services . . .

In the recent subprime mortgage crisis Fannie Mae and her good friend Freddie Mac were placed in conservatorship by the US Treasury.

The proposal has ignited a particularly fractious political battle. Although they collect hefty fees on loans that are virtually risk-free, private lenders under the subsidized loan program, like Sallie Mae, Bank of America and Citigroup, argue that they provide valuable services in marketing, customer relations, billing, default prevention, and collection of delinquent loans.

Or a Risk-Free Ride

Critics, however, say that because of the financial crisis, the government is directly or indirectly financing almost all federal student loans and there is no reason to continue a program that was originally intended to inject private capital into the education lending system.

A Few Million Dollars Per Banker . . .

For lenders, the stakes are huge. According to a New York Times report, despite losing $213 million in 2008, student lender Sallie Mae paid its chief executive and its vice chairman a total of $17.8 million in cash and stock. The company, which did not receive money under the federal bailout system and is not subject to pay restrictions, also disbursed cash bonuses of up to $600,000 to other executives.

Or a Few Hundred Dollars Per Student

Under the president’s proposal, the additional Pell grant money that would be available to an individual student probably would not be more than a few hundred dollars. But the money would be distributed to a large group of needy students for whom a little more money may make a big difference.

When my feet found the floor Saturday morning, a vague recollection was already pushing its way through the fog in my head. I shuffled bleary-eyed toward the kitchen. By the time I reached the espresso machine, I was awake enough to notice a crystalline blue sky framed in the window. I pulled the first shot and tried to reflect. Half-way through the second pour it hit me: this was the day for my annual trek north to the Canadian Winter Blues Boogie in Silverton, B.C.

Getting Ready to Go

Thanks to a small online cash advance I’d gotten the week before and already paid back, I had snow tires on the car and was ready to go. I wouldn’t miss this event even if I’d had to get an installment loan. I chugged the second shot, tossed my junk in the back seat, and was off to see Dr. Fun and the Nightcrawlers. Route mapping and other minor details could wait.

Planning My Route Carefully

I knew it was a four-hour drive, but I was hoping that careful route selection would make the trip  much longer than that. I asked the customs agent at the border if he knew the ferry schedule on Kootenay Lake. He handed me a printed schedule and offered me a sly grin that seemed to say, “Beautiful day to be on the lake.” That grin assured me that my careful planning had been worth the extra effort.

Composing a Rocky Mountain Eulogy

People write songs about the Canadian Rockies because they can’t help it. With the sunshine flooding through my sunroof, I was composing some effusively sentimental doggerel of my own, when the mountains rose up on the opposite shore, their likeness mirrored without defect on the placid, blue water.

Starting the Day Later that Night

I climbed over the pass (finally, a reason for the snow tires) and rolled into the parking lot of the Silverton Memorial Hall. It was eight o’clock and the sun had been behind the peaks for hours, but the day was just getting started. The doors of the hall were unlocked and everyone in town was shuffling through the knee-deep snow and up the welcoming steps.

Getting Good Stuff for Free

Inside I noticed a sign on the wall touting “Crystal Clear Glacier Water, Fresh from the Tap – Free.” Same price they charge for smiles. The stage was full of instruments. Dancers loitered on the hardwood floor and the air was charged with anticipation. When the Nightcrawlers hit the first note, the dance floor was instantly packed, and tables and chairs became a waste of floor space. Dr. Fun squeezed his way through the ten other musicians already on the stage and the band tore through the first set.

Getting My Hair Raised

Earlier in the day as I drove through town, I had noticed promotional posters for a special guest, Helen Davis. I wasn’t familiar with the name, but I had learned a long time ago that great and famous rarely have much in common.

I found out later that Helen Davis is part of an award-winning a cappella group called the Euphorics. If you want to hear earnest singing, listen to someone who sings without instruments. That’s how Helen Davis does it.

Davis and the good doctor finished the second set with hair-raising renditions of “Burning Down the House,” “Treat her Right,” “Fever,” and “Think.” The third set started with Dr. Fun looking and acting younger than he ever had in all the many times I’d seen him here.  The dance floor was full before the first song ended and it stayed that way until the last note.

Refusing a Frozen Finale

The party ended with a plunge into the icy lake on Sunday morning. Being warm-blooded, I opted out, but my return trip through the Rockies was an adequately grand finale. The Boogie organizers had promised that this year’s event would be even better than last year’s, and it was. I wouldn’t have believed it could be true, had I not been there to witness it.

Marking Next Year’s Calendar

I shuffled into my kitchen and tossed my junk on the table. I reached for an espresso cup, but changed my mind and reached instead for a pen. I flipped through the months of the calendar hanging on the wall above the espresso machine, found the date for next year’s Boogie, and wrote: Best-Ever Canadian Winter Blues Boogie. Then I ground the coffee.

Bathrooms are right up there with the kitchen when it comes to features that make a house attractive to potential buyers. Sprucing up the bathrooms before you put your home on the market is well worth the effort. If you need to get your house on the market and you’re crunched for cash, it’s worth getting a quick online cash advance or installment loan to help get your bathrooms in tip-top shape.

Bathroom updating can be an expensive undertaking, but you don’t need to take it too far to make a big difference. Some inexpensive improvements combined with lots of scrubbing and polishing can work wonders. The formula for success is one part quick payday loan to three parts physical effort and exertion. Once your bathrooms are clean and bright, you’re ready to move on to updating. Read House Fluffing on a Budget | Making the Bathroom Modern.

Clean, clean, and then clean again!

Your bathrooms may be just as clean as the bathrooms of the potential buyers who will be touring your home. But that’s not clean enough. People get comfortable with their own bathrooms, but they are much more discerning and demanding when they’re looking at someone else’s, especially if they’re thinking about buying the house. Buyers love the idea of a brand new bathrooms that no one else has ever used. A thorough cleaning will go a long way toward making yours seem that way.

• Put on your “buyer’s glasses,” step back, and take an objective look. You may be surprised, for example, at the build-up around the edges of the sink fixtures. Leave no signs of usage such as toothpaste stains and soap scum. Scrub the small, hard-to-reach places with a toothbrush or toothpick.
• Glass shower doors are always a cleaning problem. Remove them and take them outside for cleaning. Use a solution of one part muriatic acid to ten parts water (use protective eyewear when mixing). Scrub the doors with steel wool and rinse them clean. If you’ll be using the bathroom while the house is on the market. Dry the insides of the doors with a soft, absorbent towel after every shower.
• Don’t stop after you’ve cleaned the obvious things. Clean the light fixtures, windows, window sills, base boards, heat vent covers, towel racks, and toilet paper holders. Clean the cabinets and drawers, inside and out.
• Give the tiles a thorough scrubbing. If the grout is discolored use bleach and a tooth brush (wear protective goggles and gloves) or a grout pen to restore the whiteness.

Be firm about decluttering

Bathrooms can be like curiosity shops. Leaving personal items on display is not only unattractive, it’s distracting. Be modest; treat your bathrooms like they belong to someone else.  If you don’t, potential buyers will focus on your lifestyle instead of the room. Too much information is not a good thing, so keep everyday care products and towels out of sight.

Get rid of reading materials.  Pare down wall decorations to an absolute minimum. Invest in some attractive bath oils, scented soaps, or natural candles that will gently infuse the air with a clean but not clinical or highly perfumed scent. Purchase a set of matching towels that work with your color scheme, and use them for show only.

Be prepared for showings

If you’ll be living in your house while it’s on the market, it can be very challenging to keep the bathrooms spotless, especially if you have children. Think about buying some simple wicker baskets, one for every member of the household. Keep everyday toiletries in these baskets. Carry them to the bathrooms when needed and store them away, along with towels, in cupboards or closets when not in use. This, combined with toweling off wet surfaces like shower walls and doors after use and keeping the room well ventilated, will make it easy to have your home ready for a viewing on short notice.

Grocery stores and other retailers have made saving money easier on customers by issuing loyalty cards and eliminating the need to clip coupons. However, those of us who use those cards know that they add up quickly.

That’s where Key Ring Thing comes in. It lets you combine your Ace Hardware card and grocery store card and whatever else you have.

Spreading your loyalty around

You can combine up to six different cards on your Key Ring Thing. All you have to do is sign up online. Gather your cards, and you can enter in your various bar codes at the company’s web site.

The site also says you are entitled to a free gift with your Key Ring Thing. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but it is not a free cash advance.

Common sense

I tried a little experiment to find out which pieces of plastic in my wallet could be converted onto a Key Ring Thing. As expected, it accepted my Safeway and Albertsons cards. It said it could not find “Subway” or my library card in its database. But, hey, I had to try.

No charge?

Well, of course you have to pay for shipping and handling if you want the company to mail your Key Ring Thing. However, you can print out temporary cards for free and use them as you need them. You can also save your Key Ring Thing information to your iPhone.

Other features

Besides getting your current loyalty cards bundled into one, you can also sign up for new programs through the Key Ring Thing web site. If you need  to be loyal to more than six retailers, you can order multiple cards.

One last piece of advice: If you want to take advantage of Key Ring Thing, wait until tomorrow. This little device made it onto Good Morning America, so the web site is “experiencing an unusually high number of requests.”

I was a bit surprised to see the large title “Conservative Viewpoints” splayed across the top of this article about payday loans legislation.

See, all this time I had thought that “conservatives” were all about small government and individual responsibility. Apparently not when it comes to payday loans.

What’s all the fuss about payday loans?

Virginia lawmakers are all up in a tizzy because after they imposed limits on payday loan lenders that would essentially drive them out of business, those lenders found a way to keep their businesses afloat.

Virginia allows “open-end” loans, in which lenders can charge any interest rate they choose after a 25-day grace period. They are now seeking to ban payday loan companies from offering open-end loans. I should think conservatives would balk at the idea of placing such heavy-handed regulations on businesses.

I can take care of myself, thank you

Lawmakers in many states, including Virginia, harp on the payday loans industry, calling it “predatory lending.” They say that by offering open-end loans, payday lenders are “preying on” borrowers.

Excuse me, but those borrowers agree to specific terms beforehand. And payday loans are meant to be short-term. As long as borrowers keep up their end of the agreement and pay back the loan within 25 days they have nothing to fear. Why is it that all of a sudden these lawmakers don’t want people to have consequences for defaulting on an agreement?

An ounce of prevention

Conservatives’ argument against welfare is basically that if you help people too much they won’t help themselves. Why don’t they feel the same way about fiscal responsibility? If we set people’s limits for them, doesn’t that mean they won’t learn responsibility for themselves?

The best idea I’ve seen out of this whole recession ordeal is that financial education should be taught in public schools. I think education is the key, not creating laws that strip responsibility away from people when it comes to payday loans.

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley

Your no fax payday loans source keeps you informed about who is running the country’s finances.

William Dudley, who until now was head of the New York Fed’s markets group, has taken over Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s former post as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York .

Dudley began his new job Tuesday, the day after Geithner was sworn in as Obama’s Treasury secretary. The promotion puts Dudley on the front lines of the battle to straighten out the United States’ credit crisis.

Job description

Among other “perks,” Dudley’s position means he is a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee. That committee is in charge of setting interest rates as well as making other policy decisions.

In addition to aiding with those duties, Dudley will be responsible for carrying out the Fed’s decisions regarding Treasury securities. He will carrying out purchasing and sales of Treasury securities based on federal policies. It is possible that he will be involved in shaping federal policy regarding no fax payday loans.

Get to know your Fed Head

Dudley has been part of the New York Fed since January 2007. Before that he was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co. He served as the company’s chief U.S. economist for 10 years. He also has served the Federal Reserve on a national level.

Dudley earned his bachelor’s degree at New College in Sarasota, Florida. He then went on to get his doctorate degree in economics from University of California at Berkeley.

Check back with your no fax payday loans store to get more updates on who is in charge of the nation’s money.

Some people are resorting to unconventional methods to get jobs.

It’s a trend that is sweeping the nation. As more and more people get laid off from their jobs, and with fewer and fewer jobs available out there, people are taking big pay cuts — many people up to 70 percent.

On the prowl

Glick was applying for a job at a Kohl’s department store. The comopany was opening a new store,  a rare event these days. Looking to hire 150 people, Kohl’s brought in more than 1,200 applicants.

With so many unemployed workers and so few jobs, some people are resorting to desperate measures — such as billboards, fliers and T-shirts — to get jobs. Some people are getting just downright creative. Jacob Share started an e-mail chain. He sent an e-mail with his resume to his family and friends, asked them to forward it along to people they knew, and promised $150 to the person who led him to a job.

Unemployment vs. salary cut

Unemployment generally pays two thirds of a person’s salary, up to a certain amount. In the state of Washington, the cap on unemployment is $5 a week. For many people it is hard to find a job that even pays more than their unemployment.

But eventually everyone has to settle for whatever salary they can get. Unemployment doesn’t last forever, and very few states will pay it for more than a year. Plus, may companies that give out payday loans won’t lend to people on unemployment, so there are few options if they run out of cash.

Mouths to feed

You might be one of those people who has taken on a position that pays significantly less than what you were earning before. If so, you’re not alone. Shaun Chedister used to make $125,000 a year working for Washington Mutual. Now he makes $66,000 working for Ernst & Young.

At first I thought Shaun was lucky to be making $66,000 a year. That ain’t bad at all! But then I read more. Shaun has four kids. Besides struggling to support his wife and children, it’s always a rough adjustment getting used to a new lifestyle. But Shaun had looked for a job for eight months, and he just couldn’t find one that would pay what he was used to.

Jarrod Posner, who now works for University of Phoenix, went from making $110,000 per year to $33,000. Ouch.

Staying put

Another trend that seems to go against the usual American Way is that people aren’t “job hopping” anymore The usual trend of moving from job to job to get more money, power or freedom has been replaced. Now workers are clinging to the jobs they have, even if they are unhappy.

Under normal circumstances, workers usually have an average of 10 jobs before age 42. But now the “quit rate” is at a four-year low. This is partly because many companies have a “last in, first out” policy when it comes to layoffs. That makes it more dangerous to take a new job because the less time you have worked for a company the more chance you have of being laid off.

So for those of you out there who do have jobs, and still have the option of getting payday loans, be glad for what you have.

Welcome back to the payday loans money blog at personalmoneystore.com.

Continuing on yesterday’s topic in the article, “Increasing Income , Decreasing Debt | Payday Loans Blog Resolutions for 2009,” today we will continue the topic by exposing habits we possess that keep us tied to or continuing the cycle of financial debt.

Where Does The Money Go?

Having trouble seeing where your money is going? Follow this excerice to save money and eliminate debt!

Living In A Financial Fog?

Apart from the larger monthly expenses such as your house and car payments, you may be a little foggy as to what consumes the rest of your income. “Where does the money go?” is a question that is usually indicative of poor budgeting and or spending habits.

Know Where Your Money Is Being Spent

If you don’t know where your moneys is being spent, it is difficult to see the areas where you can save.

For one month, devote yourself to recording each and every one of your daily purchases and expenses. At the end of the month, categorize each into their own respective categories such as food, entertainment, home and utilities, etc. By taking a careful inventory of these monthly expenses, you will begin to see some interesting patterns emerge. These patterns will fall into two separate categories that we will call excessive spending and habitual spending.

Meet Daryl, Your Average American Consumer

For this example we are going to use Daryl, a debt burdened consumer, who has completed the above exercise, so that we can illustrate the patterns that you might expect to see when doing this exercise for yourself.

Daryl is an average American consumer with just more than $9,000 in consumer credit card debt. He has found himself paying only his minimum monthly payments at the end of the month due to a shortage of funds and occasionally he has to borrow payday loans to avoid late payment penalties in on his mortgage payment.

Before the above exercise, Daryl said that he occasionally goes out with his friends but does not buy a lot of consumer goods like his friends do. He considers himself a fairly conservative spender. He just can’t seem to make any headway on his debt. He blames his job, saying that he just doesn’t make enough to live on. So we asked Daryl to do the above exercise to see just how conservative he really is.

Daryl’s Spending Habits

Below are some of the habitual spending habits that Daryl found after completing the above exercise.

• Morning double shot espresso purchases two to three times a week before work at a cost of $4.25 each.
• Lunch twice a week at fast food establishments at a cost of $6.50 each.
• Movie once a week with refreshments costing an average of $16 each.

After doing the math, Daryl found that each month he was spending $51 on “wake up” coffee. $52 on lunch outings and $64 on movies and refreshments, for a grand total of $167.

Daryl did a little better in the excessive spending category finding only the following after completing the above exercise. But it was a big one.

• Groceries bill meeting and exceeding $150 dollars a week

This may not seem to be that much of a grocery bill, but considering that Daryl is “Batching it,” or in other words living solo, a grocery bill of $600 per month for one person is extremely excessive.

So between Daryl’s grocery bill and his habitual spending expenses, Daryl was spending $767 dollars each month.

What Could Daryl Do Better?

The advice given to Daryl after he completed the exercise saved him greatly in his monthly expenses. Here is what was suggested to improve his financial out look.

Cutting Out The Coffee

Instead of getting that morning cup of espresso at the drive-through three times a week, cut back to just one espresso a week. Better yet, eliminating these expensive cups of mud altogether by making his own coffee at home.

If coffee is not an acceptable substitute, purchasing an espresso maker would pay for itself rather quickly with the extra cash saved each week and could be considered a viable option as well.

Pack Out, Don’t Take Out!

Instead of indulging in fast food lunches twice a week, making a lunch and bringing it to work with him would save Daryl the extra money and his cardiac health too.

Spendy...and not good for you.

Subtituting the weekly movie and refreshments, with a RedBox or Netflix movie and some cheaper finger food with the friends, would eliminate his monthly dependence on payday loans.

Buy The Groceries, Not The Store

As far as groceries are concerned, Daryl could substantially lower his costs by going to the store with a planned list of needed food items, thus eliminating a lot of the more expensive junk foods he was getting before. This would lower his monthly grocery bill to the more typical average food bill for one person which should be in the neighborhood of $250 to $300 dollars.

The Conclusion

By subscribing to Netflix ($15), purchasing only one espresso each week ($17) and lowering his food bill to the higher end of the average food bill for one person ($300 dollars), Daryl will have room for beer and refreshments for movie night once a week and save $435 dollars each month.

If Daryl Can Do It, You Can Do

Looking at Daryl’s circumstances and the potential outcome,  a very small sacrifice is made for some extraordinary savings.

This shows the importance of implementing a budget or system to track your expenses each month so you can isolate areas where you can save money and regain financial territory lost to consumer credit debt.

Posted courtesy of Personal Money Store, your payday loans source.

Not your usual eBay auction

The bidding started high and fast after Muntadhar al-Zeidi was arrested in Iraq after he hurled his black size 10s at Bush in a defiant act of protest. Technical director of the Iraqi football team Adnan Hamad offered $100,000 for the shoes. But he wasn’t the only one willing to show his support for the man who openly insulted the U.S. President.

As word spread of the incident, one businessman said he’d pay any price for the pair of shoes. But the award for highest bidder currently rests with the Iraqi entrepreneur who offered $10 million for just one shoe. As of today, the location of the highly desired shoes is unknown.

Why all the fuss?

So, why would someone spend $10 million on a single shoe? The football team director who started this trend of offering large sums of money for the shoes said al-Zeidi’s act reflected the attitude of all Iraqis. It seems many people in the nation are coming together to support the symbolic gesture that swiftly summed up their feelings toward Bush.

Al-Zeidi says his actions were the result of years of filming suffering Iraqis. After covering the effects of the war in Iraq on the country’s citizens, Al-Zeidi couldn’t hold in his rage any longer.

The other shoe drops

Back home, citizens in the country Bush has led for eight years are showing support for the shoe thrower. In New York, copycat protesters have started hurling their shoes into trees to show solidarity and express their own frustration toward the president.

“We know a good symbolic act when we see one,” said a shoe thrower in New York City’s Union Square Park. It seems New Yorkers have been searching for a method to display their frustration about the war. Al-Zeidi’s method seems to be hitting home with the president’s critics.

Civil disobedience

Frustrated New Yorkers aren’t the only American citizens having a field day with the incident. Late-night comics including Jay Leno and David Letterman aren’t passing up the opportunity to spin comedic gold. The funny men wasted no time before cracking jokes about the President’s newfound ability to lean to the left.

Amateur YouTube artists got in on the action, making spoof videos and finding creative ways to re-enact what U.S. headlines have called “shoe-icide.” Shoe-icide? I’d think twice before taking out a cash advance to buy a copyright for that one.

Hailed as a hero

After Al-Zeidi was handed over to the Iraqi military and carted off to jail, cries for his release began immediately. Thousands of protesters demonstrated in the streets of Iraq, waving shoes and demanding the release of the man they now consider a national hero.

Iraqis, Americans and at least one ridiculously rich Saudi businessman aren’t the only ones engaging in hero worship. A Lybian charity group has given Al-Zeidi a bravery award. The group also has joined the throng clamoring for his release.

Where are they now?

So who will be the recipient of the millions that have been offered for the shoes? It is speculated that the shoes are either in the custody of Iraqi security service agents or an employee for the Bush administration. It’s reported that if Al-Zeidi is found not guilty he will have the right to claim his shoes.

One thing is for sure, whoever is deemed the rightful owner of the shoes heard ’round the world won’t need a cash advance to end up with some serious extra cash.

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