Education Loans – The Great, The Good and The Total Waste
Education is very important factor in self development and enhancement of success. StartupWizz.com best reviews are submitted by students who had startup ideas or started a business and became successful entrepreneurs. The best startups and great companies were founded by college students. Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft founded his company while attending Harvard where he later dropped out to focus on his company. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple also attended college and later dropped out of college to build Apple. We also have to mention Google and Yahoo those great companies that were founded by graduate students.
The U.S education loan system has been a great source for students who don’t have the financial means to achieve their dreams of obtaining their education. Many students who achieved success and established their high paying careers owe their success to the government funded education loans. Education loans are widely available to full time students with good academic standing. Obtaining an education loan is not hard, students first need to get accepted into a program of study to attend as a full time, then fill the proper applications with the financial aide office at their college. Moreover students also apply for the loan online with the department of education. Students have to maintain a full time status and passing grades as a condition to maintain the flow of money from the education loan.
Students can borrow money to pay college tuition and living expenses while attending schools. U.S College education is expensive, and cost has been rising over the rate of inflation for the past 30 years or more. Most colleges estimate the cost of attending their programs between $20,000 to $40,00 per year, and that number can grow higher for some private colleges.
Despite the great benefit of the education loan program for many students, other students didn’t enjoy the same success, even worse they end up with a very bad case of financial ruin. In this article I will try to explain the three categories of students who borrowed money to full fill their dream of obtaining the great education.
The Great
In this category students use the education loan system provided by the department of education to pay for school. The fact that college graduates make more money than those who have high school diplomas makes it wise to finance college education even by taking loans with fixed interest rate. For the long term, students in this category will get a very good return on investment. Soon after graduation they will make more money. College graduates will increase their earnings by an average of one million dollar over their life time.
In this category students study high paying professions such as medicine, law and dentistry. After graduation most doctors and lawyers become high earner and for medical doctors in a high demanding field they will be able to repay their loans and increase their earning over time. Also in this category any one who made a good use of the education and was able to obtain a good paying job with the government or the private sector or those who became successful entrepreneurs.
The Good
This category is any one who borrowed money to finance their education and after graduation they found an average job and start earning more money. They earn enough money to maintain a good standard of living while repaying their education loan. This category of students made a good return on investment from their education because they used their college degree to find a job to earn more money. Examples of majors in this category are Engineering majors, natural sciences and nursing.
The Total Waste
This category are those students who borrowed money to pay for college and after graduation either they were unable to find work, or they were able to find jobs that pay the minimum. In this category those unlucky students borrowed more money to finish their education. Majors of study that belong to this category are fields that have low demand and low paying salaries . Examples in this category are those who studied History, social studies and English majors, or those who went to vocational schools and promised to get rich quick. For those who studied low paying majors and borrowed $100,000 in loans, it will be hard for them to make their loan payments, and that if they were lucky to find jobs. The payed salaries in these fields are $30000/year in average.
What makes things worse also the recession and the high U.S unemployment rate of over 14% which makes it harder for newly graduates in the low demanding fields in this category to find jobs of any kind. Many former students in this category still owe big amount of money on their loans, and they are struggling to find work while the interests are mounting.
How to Manage Your Education loans?
Education is a great investment and also a great self fulfillment.For those students who can’t afford to pay for college education, education loans become their only choice. It is important for students and and their mentors to understand how education loans work. Furthermore they should pay close attention to these points:
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- Education is an investment and as for any investment students should know and research their potions well.
- Students should determine what type of education they really want and how to achieve the best return on investment .
- Students should borrow the minimum and responsibly, and if they have a part time job while attending school they should keep it if they can, and not depend fully on loans.
- Remember there are only six months grace period after graduation, then after that loan repayment will start. The higher your loan is the higher your monthly payment will be.
- Unlike other banks and credit cards loans education loans can’t be erased or forgiven with bankruptcy. These type of loans are directly or indirectly supplied by the government.
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