Queercents

It’s January, which means it’s time to begin filling out your FAFSA (free application for federal student aid). The sooner you file your FAFSA, the better off you’ll be because you will qualify for more free money, like Pell Grants. If you wait, you will still qualify for loans. But why go into student loan debt if you can avoid it?

The online FAFSA is a bit time consuming to fill out, but if you’ve done it before, it saves your information for you. In order to start, however, you’re going to need your tax return or at the very least your W-2 form(s). So if you haven’t already received yours, start doing some detective work to find out when you can expect it.

Many people are probably worried about the state of the student loan business in the wake of all the financial implosions in the Fall. Student loans from private lenders have certainly become harder to obtain (along with car loans and credit cards), but money from scholarships, grants, and federal loans will still be available. And this is the money you want to chase anyhow. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, my darling new graduate, it’s actually going to suck as much as you think it will.

Oh, I’m just kidding! Well, no, I’m not. The unique terror of student debt is borrowing against your future - an income and budget you’re probably just establishing - and trying to figure out how that will fit.

But your grace period is going to end whether you want it to or not - I’m reminded of this as I have a whole new batch of ‘08 friends facing down repayment in November and December. (Um, happy holidays?) And my intuition - I have no stats, just personal experience - is that more people are facing down the staggering levels of debt you used to associate with law or med school, just for the bachelor’s or master’s degrees. And that the insecure market isn’t catching them like it was.

Exit counseling and loan education focus on consolidation, deferment and forbearance, options everyone with student debt should understand. On top of that, here is some advice from the trenches, for those about to enter repayment…. Read the rest of this entry »

Making the rounds of my accounts this week, I was pleased to discover that after a few months on a regular prepayment plan, the minimum payment on my private student loan has dropped a sweet twenty bucks.

Twenty bucks! That’s like a happy hour and a half a month! Or six empanadas! I mean, of course I’m going to keep funneling the same amount towards the debt, but it’s nice to watch my cash flow swing a little bit in my favor–and to know that more of the money I give Sallie Mae each month is a choice, instead of a desperate attempt to keep them from garnishing my wages. I’m also delighted because for some reason I thought prepayments meant that I shortened the term of my loan, rather than lowering the minimums–it’s nice that the extra payments have a more immediate effect on my cash flow.

Saving less hasn’t been as bad as I feared. The only time I’ve gone into my savings since I struck out on my own was to pay for my dental surgery, and that was lower than I’ve expected, so they’ve come along pretty nicely. Once I get my tax return, a third paycheck in May, and then my stimulus check, I’ll have a fully stocked emergency fund and enough in short-term savings to cover my spring and summer travel. (Although I’m thinking I might use the stimulus to buy formal dresses for work. Besides that I’ll need them, I heard if I put that check in the bank the terrorists win….) Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t even talk to me about those resolutions I posted. You’d think it was halfway through the year, how much has changed in a month:

• I changed vacation plans and now it’s only going to cost about a fifth of the $2,000 I’d projected. (Yay!) Because I’m doing the sensible thing, and visiting someone I love instead of jetting off for the beach.
• My dad fixed the turn signals on my car, and now I’m thinking maybe I’ll just replace the windshield and not think about getting a new vehicle–so the savings goal is smaller but more urgent. Also I realized I’m past due for an oil change. I hate driving. (Though it’s much less scary when you actually have turn signals.)
• I got–as I mentioned–my wisdom teeth out. I have absolutely no concept of how much I’m going to owe and am waiting with bated breath for the bill.
• Our gas bill was bananas, and my discretionary spending was way, way over budget in January. There are some extenuating circumstances around that, I have plenty of cushion to cover it, and I know that sometimes I go over and under and that’s how it evens out. However, I’m having a total life crisis about my cash flow because of it, and there’s nothing to do but try it another month and see if I can actually manage at the limit I set.

But more important than all of these things, I’m changing plans regarding The Burden I Carry, That Terrible Weight, My Cross To Bear: the effin’ student loans. Read the rest of this entry »

Moorea pointed out in a recent post on going to beauty school that a recession is the perfect time to take out a student loan. Still, it hurt when I signed that promissory note so that I could go to career school and become a massage therapist.

We have an entire course in massage school dedicated to self-care and professional development. The class’s goal is to teach us how to take care of ourselves so that we have long, happy careers, and avoid burnout. At the last class, our teacher told us that the average time for a massage therapist to work in that field is eight years. Injury, money issues, and emotional exhaustion can pile up for massage therapists and cause us to lose interest, burn out, and move on. Our teacher questioned aloud whether our significant investment (roughly $10k) was worth it for a career that only lasted such a short time. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, I did an interview with the Geezeo blog about life after graduation.  One of the questions asked was what financial advice I had for current college students preparing to graduate, and my first thought was save a bunch of money.  I suppose just about anything goes better with $3,000 in the bank, but I thought I’d break down some of the expenses I didn’t think about after graduation.  Graduating from college is basically losing your job–so this is the classic emergency fund situation in action.

If you’d asked me 12 months ago what I’d be doing right now, the answer would have been grad school.  I was terrified of graduating and decided to stay in college forever (no, literally forever–I was going to go into Higher Education Administration).  It wasn’t until spring that I decided to brave the mysterious land of rent and debt repayment.  Then, in July, I decided to quit my summer job and move back to DC three weeks early for the safety of my mental health.

Are you doing the math?  That means I needed more money and made less. Read the rest of this entry »

I am now less than two weeks away from my thirtieth birthday. Thirty is a big, fat, round number. And since I’m coming up on this big fat round number, it’s a good time to figure out where the heck my life is going.

So many things in my life are intentional: my wonderful partner of 8 years, our choice to live in Maine’s largest city, our small-but-perfect apartment with a view of sunrise over the water. I even have good friends I’ve chosen as family. But my career in computer programming was not intentional; it was something I’d fallen into during college because the money was good. And my job in corporate IT for a well-known Maine outdoor retailer/behemoth was uninteresting, had no advancement potential, and was stressful enough that it was affecting my overall quality of life.

I realized I needed to leave when I was chatting at a cocktail party and felt ashamed to tell another guest what I did for a living. I actually felt boring.

So screw that, I decided, I’m going to massage school. Read the rest of this entry »

I made the first payment against my student loans this week.

My grace period is up and the first payment was due December 1. If I don’t make pay down aggressively, I’ll be making my last payment in 25 years. I’ll be 47. My mother is 47. As I have not even been alive for 25 years, I can’t really wrap my head around that amount of time–maybe it’s not such a big deal after all. Until I graduated, everything happened in four-year (or smaller) increments, so thinking in terms of retirement contributions and 25-year loans is a bit of a psychological adjustment.

One of the most difficult things about adjusting to the loan payments is that it’s the opposite of delayed gratification. I’m very good at delaying gratification with my money, saving for something until I can afford it–then again, that’s easy when the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought is a $500 Jamaican vacation. (My car–my poor, miserable beater of a car–was all hand-me-down, as my computers have been.) I just got my credit card, so the only thing I’ve bought on credit is one tank of gas. Which is all to say that loan payments are a boring way to spend your money. I’m used to handing over the cash and getting some sort of awesome thing to play with, or at least the joy of watching a bank balance rise–even a rent check is fun when it’s still novel and cool to be in your own apartment.
Read the rest of this entry »

“All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.” – Martin H. Fischer

I’ve often wondered who has the time and money to get their MBA. I’m not alone in pondering the ROI when it comes to business school as noted by John in his post. The verdict is still out on its value especially if the degree isn’t from a top tier school like Wharton but merely an MBA.

However, that’s an opinion dished out wearing my US-centric thinking cap. Although the first European university offering the MBA degree popped up in the late 1950s, the Financial Times recently explained the benefits and newfound popularity of heading abroad:

European business schools are riding high as students are queuing up for courses. Furthermore, even better times may be on the way. Business schools tend to do well in rocky economic times, and the subprime housing loans debacle in the US may result in an increase in applications because executives often opt to acquire an MBA instead of working through a recession. Read the rest of this entry »

First of all–hello, Queercents! It’s wonderful to meet you. Preparing my first post, scheduled to go up right at Thanksgiving, no less, was proving pretty daunting. How to adequately introduce myself, say something wise about personal finance, and be classy about the holiday? Luckily, as I was brainstorming and stressing, the telephone rang: my darling roommate, who found her way to a Maryland liquor store on the way home from a conference.

roommate: Tell me how you feel about a handle of Tanqueray for 30 dollars.
me: A handle?
roommate: Of Tanqueray.
me: For 30 dollars?
roommate: Well, 33, but that’s still really good.
me: Yeah it is….

(Pause while my heart overflows.) Read the rest of this entry »