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65.7% of college students have to get student loans to pay for college, and the average student loan debt is $19,237 for a graduating senior in the United States according to the National Post Secondary Student Aid Study. This is no surprise considering that the rate of tuition increases 7% per year, and in some of the more prestigious colleges, students will have to pay well into six figures just to get their education. Even in-state rates for South Dakota, which is comparatively very cheap to practically everything else, students are still paying $40,000 for their education when one factors in dorm living and a meal plan. Most students will need to borrow some money on a student loan to get through school, but how does one know if they’re borrowing too much on a student loan in college? Is there an acceptable amount of money to borrow on student loans? Let’s find out.

There are a few times that you shouldn’t borrow money on a student loan. If you have a lot of any amount of money more than $1000 in the bank, you should use that to pay for college before getting student loans. You wouldn’t borrow money on a student loan to put money into savings. The mathematics are exactly the same as borrowing money while you have a pile of cash in savings. Additionally, if you have a very decent job in college, and can afford to pay cash for your courses semester by semester, you absolutely should. If you’re living the high-life and spending all of money you get in, you need a serious reality check. The money you’re wasting could be used to have much less student loan debt. In addition, you should never borrow on a student loan to pay for an apartment or general living expenses while in college. An undergraduate education is not the hardest thing in the world to do, you have time to work.

So let’s say that you use your savings, are working diligently while in school, have a few scholarships, but there’s still a bit of financial need left over and you’re considering borrowing money on a student loan. How much is okay to borrow? A good rule of thumb is that you should never borrow more than half of your expected annual income after graduation in student loans. If you’re a computer science major who can reasonably make $50,000 after college, it would probably be okay to get $25,000 in student loan debt. If you borrow more than that, you’re digging yourself into a deeper hole, and it will literally take decades to pay it off.

If you’re in a point where you borrow more on a student loan than you’d make in a year at your job, you need to quit school or find a way to borrow less money. Take a semester off and work if you have to. Borrowing money up to your eyeballs and beyond just so you can graduate on time is not a winning game plan. You’ll be in such a deep hole in student loans when you start out that you won’t be able to make any traction and move forward.

When you’re in college, borrow as little of money as possible on a student loan. You might have to work a bit more, and watch your spending here and there, but that’s okay! You might not have the most fun while in college, but afterwards, you’ll be miles ahead of your classmates.

If you do have to brorrow from a student loan, make sure to get the best deal. Do your research whether you’re trying to get a student loan in Florida or a student loan in alaska.

Life insurance is the one insurance policy that you should happily pay even though you hope that the policy never has to pay off. Having good quality life insurance will make sure that your family and loved ones aren’t in a dire financial situation in the event that you pass away. It may cost a little bit of cash, but the peace of mind knowing that your family is taken care of in the event of your death is well worth it. You can now have that peace of mind for half of what you could have a decade ago.

There was recently a study on the cost of term life insurance, the cost of individual vision insurance plans, and individual health insurance and it found that the average price of a term life insurance policy has dropped by 50% of what you would have paid 10 years ago for the same amount of coverage. This means that if you purchased a level-term life insurance policy a decade ago, chances are you can find a new life insurance policy that will provide the same amount of coverage and you’ll be writing much smaller checks each month.

The explanation for this dramatic decrease in prices is two-fold. The first is that the internet has made it much easier for consumers to find the lowest prices and allowed companies to create policies and sell them with a lot lower overhead. The second explanation that prices are decreasing is that people are living longer and out-living the term of their policies, meaning that insurance companies are paying out less meaning that they can pass those savings on to their customers.

In order to re-shop your policies, including things like dental insurance plans, the best place to look is online. A simple Google search will reveal a number of different tools which will compare life insurance companies. It’s okay to go with the cheapest, but make sure it’s on the up and up. A company called AM Best rates insurance policies and other financial institutions and informs consumers as to which companies offer the best deals and are the most financially sound. You’ll want to make sure the company that you are considering is rated A+ or A++ by AM best.

When searching for insurance, make sure that you get level-term insurance over a period of 20 or 30 years. If someone offers you universal life, whole life, or variable life insurance and provides you a pitch about how your policy will be an investment and build you cash value, just say no. These policies are much more expensive than traditional term insurance and you will end up paying a very-high fee to invest your cash inside of your life insurance policy. In addition, if you were to die, your loved ones would lose all of the cash value inside of the policy and only be paid the face amount.

One of the hardest things for people to do today is to save money for their future needs.  Many individuals have been conditioned to spend, spend, spend because of what they’ve seen on TV and a national culture of having to have the latest and greatest things.  But there is still hope for these individuals because it is never too late to begin an aggressive savings plan.

1.  Pay Your Savings Account First
One of the easiest ways to get more money into your savings account is to put money into it as soon as you get paid.  If the money is not burning a hole in your pocket, you are much less likely to spend it on something that you do not really need.

2.  Trim Unnecessary Purchases From Your Daily Expenses
Every wonder how much that morning latte from the coffee shop is costing you?  How about eating lunch out every workday?  The average individual has dozens of purchases that they could do without and the money that is saved by reducing these spending habits will add up to hundreds of dollars over the course of the year.

3.  Make Some Extra Money
There are dozens of ways that a person can earn some extra money on the side without jeopardizing their regular job.  Some individuals sell the things in their home that they do not need while others begin a side business that interests them.  The money made in this manner should be immediately placed into the savings account.

4.  Stop Paying Interest And Fees
Interest payments and fees have become a very popular way for banks and credit card companies to make money and many of the processes that they have adopted in the past few years are designed to maximize the amount of money that they make from these items.  In the last few years, the average fee for going over your credit limit or your bank account balance has jumped from $10 total to $35 per instance and they are more than willing to let you make as many faulty transactions as you wish, leading to hundreds of dollars in fees.

5.  Avoid Impulse Purchases
Many people would be amazed at the amount of money that they spend on items that they had absolutely no intention of purchasing.  Stores know this and employ dozens of tricks to entice you into spending money on other items in their store.  The best way to avoid impulse purchases, especially at the grocery store where the tricks are notorious, is to make a list of what you intend to purchase and stick to the list while shopping.

Do you have a jar of pennies at home? They do seem to multiply, and most people don’t want to cart around a jar of pennies when they’re shopping!

In order to reduce the amount of pennies you carry around with you or stash in a jar to roll later, just keep four pennies in your wallet at all times. That way, you can give the pennies when you make purchases and you’ll always get silver coins back. (Then you can roll the silver and make bigger deposits!) If your coffee and danish comes to $2.86 at the local convenient store, hand over a five dollar bill and a penny, and you’ll get $2 and instead of pennies, a nickle and a dime. At the end of the day, put all of your silver into a jar for your “rainy day” fund, and add four more pennies! Once you get a decent amount of change, you can take it to the bank and really buy silver.

Bargain shopping online! Many people shop online- and especially during the holiday season. Don’t take the first total you get during your online checkout as the final word! Check around the net for coupon codes that will let you save shipping and/or 10% off your order. You’d be surprised how easy it is to find these codes (if you don’t do it already that is!) Using bargain shopping sites like fatwallet.com, bondrewards.com, Froogle, MyBargainbuddy.com and dealnews.com will help you stretch your online shopping dollars a little further, that’ll help you buy silver.

Use the credit card company’s grace period. As long as you pay your credit card off in full each month, you can take advantage of the interest-free grace period and get yourself an interest free loan for a month. If your statement closes on the 22^nd of the month, you would buy your item on the 23^rd. The item won’t show up on the statement until the following month, and you usually have 10-20 days of “grace” period which means you get about 45 days of interest-free borrowing. Just be sure you know when the closing date is if you use this method.

All the non-monthly expenses need to be dealt with. Figure out how much you spend on the big, non-monthly expenses in a year’s time- things like holiday shopping, birthdays, property and school taxes, home owners insurance, auto insurance, vacation, car and home maintenance, etc. Take the total number and divide by the number of paychecks you get a year, and transfer that amount automatically (before your greedy mitts have a chance to use it!) to a high interest account, like ING Direct, with no minimums or fees. When it comes time to pay one of these non-monthly expenses, you should have the money available! If you don’t have enough money to pay your monthly expenses and these non-monthly expenses, you need to rework your budget!

Antoher tip is to keep your finances diversified. The American dollar is continually beign de-evaluated because of the government’s over-spending. It might be a good time to buy silver or invest in companies overseas in addition to your domestic investments.

One of the worst feelings in the world is working hard all week long, only to watch your paycheck completely disappear as you write checks to pay your bills.  If you’re tired of living paycheck to paycheck and never having any extra money around to save or take a holiday, there are a few things you may be overlooking that could help you stretch the money you make while reducing the amount you have to pay each month:

1. Set a goal.  When you have something specific to work towards, it can make it easier to find ways to make it happen.  Be very specific when defining your goal, and write it down.  You might have a goal to save £300 in your rainy day fund, or something as simple as having an extra £50 available to go to the movies or dinner.
2. Determine where your money is going.  For one month, keep a notebook at your side at all times, and record every penny you spend and what you purchased with it.  This will show you where you could cut back on unnecessary spending, and give you an accurate picture of what you really do with your money.  You may not realize how much those quick stops at the store on the way home from work add up – and on snacks and items you don’t really need.
3. Consolidate your debts. If you have substantial outstanding debts, it might be worth considering a consolidation loan. This is a low cost loan that you use to pay off all of your expensive credit cards and loans, then pay off through one more manageable monthly payment. For a table of the cheapest loans available in the UK, take a look at Beatthatquote.com, while you can work out what you can afford easily by using Alliance and Leicester’s loans calculator.
4. Pay on time.  Make every effort to pay your bills before they are due to avoid extra fees and charges.  It will also prevent your interest rates from being raised.
5. Create a budget.  Armed with your notes from a month’s worth of spending and bill paying, figure out a budget that will work for your family. Remember the goal you set?  Create the budget to accommodate that goal as well as you’re spending and expense needs – it will make it easier to stick to the budget. Moneysavingexpert.com has a very useful budget planner on its website.
6. Clean out!  Everyone has stuff they don’t need or use any more.  What are you saving it for?  Sell it in a yard sale or on eBay and generate some extra cash for the things collecting dust around the house.
7. Participate in a work savings plan.  With your budget in hand, and your newly trimmed spending habits, you may be able to join an employer sponsored savings plan and contribute pre-tax money to an account.  If your employer doesn’t have any type of savings plan, set up a direct deposit into a separate savings account of a certain amount each pay period.
8. Consider a second job.  Most people don’t enjoy working two jobs, but if you’re dedicated to paying off your debts, a second job can speed up the process and get your financial situation back in check.

Many of the financial disasters that people experience today are because of their own actions or inaction on certain financial decisions in their lives.  In some cases, this is because of ignorance of basic financial principals, which allows others to take advantage of them and drive them into financial distress.  In other cases, it is because the person has been lax with their financial responsibilities and now it will take a lot more work to dig them out of the financial hole that they are in.

There are ways to recognize that you are heading for a financial disaster and once these signs have been recognized, aggressive steps will need to be taken to avoid the looming disaster.  By learning these signs and the steps that can be taken to avoid the financial hardship that will result, you will increase your financial footing and reduce your risk of falling victim to a financial disaster in the future.

Tip #1 – Have A Savings Account
One of the biggest indicators that a person is headed for a financial disaster is that they do not have any savings in the bank for a rainy day.  With the days of easy credit and nearly everyone in the country having a credit card, many individuals have neglected to create a savings account, believing that they could tap into their credit at any given time to finance everything that they need.  In today’s world of tightening lending standards and high prices, credit may not always be available to fund purchases or emergencies leaving the individual without options to get what they need.

Tip #2 – Keep Careful Records And Review Them Regularly
Often the first signal of a looming financial disaster is a surprising credit card or bank statement and the individual does not know where the money has gone.  Individuals that spend money without tracking where that money is going or without keeping a ledger of the money removed from a bank account is at great risk of going over their credit limit or their bank balance.  Overlimit charges on either account can be quite expensive for each instance of going over the limit and the person’s credit score may be damaged as well.

Tip #3 – Budget Money Wisely
The individuals that are at the greatest risk of a financial disaster are the individuals whose paycheck is spent before it ever reaches their hands.  If the person has no discretionary income because all of their income is going toward bills, it is time to sit down and reevaluation which items are necessary and which items you can do without in order to save money each month.

Tip #4 – Avoid Using Credit To Pay Other Creditors
Borrowing from one lender to pay another lender is a surefire way to invite a financial disaster.  The balances on the accounts will not go down but the amount of interest owed will continue to rise, increasing the total amount owed.  Eventually, the interest owed to each lender will max out the amount of available credit and the person will be in a much worse situation than if they had sacrificed to pay off one or both of the lenders in a timely manner.

Tip #5 – Avoid Taking Out A Payday Loan At All Costs
Payday lenders charge individuals a triple digit interest rate on their short term loans and expect that those loans will be paid back within two weeks, which is often not long enough to find the extra money to pay off the loan.  This typically results in the individual getting trapped into a cycle of debt with the payday lender, taking out new loans to pay off the old and being charged that triple digit interest rate for each loan.  Many individuals have found that it can take months, and hundreds of dollars in interest payments, to break free of the payday lending trap.

The Carnival of Personal Finance #155 was hosted by Moolanomy.

• Money Lessons for Generation X, at American Consumer News.
• Graduating? Calculate Your Tax Withholding, at Poorer than you.
• The Hidden Costs of Growing Up, by One Chance to Live.
• Looking for Extra Money to Pay off Debts? Here are 10 Things You Can Do To Free up Money, by DestroyDebt

Incorrect credit histories are much more common than many people would imagine.  Some experts estimate that nearly one-quarter, or 25%, of adult individuals have mistakes on their credit reports through no fault of their own.  This is not difficult to imagine when you realize that the huge volume of credit information available on each individual with a credit history is handled by the three main credit bureaus of the nation, Equifax, Experian, and Trans-Union.

To fix incorrect information that has been issued to your credit report, there are several things that need to be kept in mind.

Tip 1 – Review All Three Credit Reports On A Regular Basis
Not checking your credit report is one of the biggest financial mistakes that you can make and the neglect could be costing you a great deal of money.  Incorrect items on your credit report can cause your credit score to drop, resulting in higher interest rates and the denial of credit in some cases.  Not all of the credit reports from the three credit reporting bureaus will reflect the same information so it is really important to check all three to make sure that none of them have any mistakes on them.

Tip 2 – Be Professional At All Times
The old saying that “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” holds very true in the case of an incorrect entry on your credit history.  You will want the person that you talk to about the issue to help you and that person will be more inclined to help you if you are nice and non-confrontational than if you call the company ranting and cursing about how they made a mistake and that they better fix it.  By speaking in a calm, clear manner, you will be better able to explain why you believe that the information in your credit report is inaccurate and will be able to understand which steps you will need to take to correct the situation.

Tip 3 – Keep Track Of All Steps Taken
When dealing with companies and creditors, an accurate log of whom you communicated with and when could be an invaluable asset.  Every time that you talking to a person about the incorrect information on your credit report, you should write down their name, position, way to contact them again, and when you talked to them.  If sending correspondence by mail, be use to request a delivery receipt so that you know when the information was received and who signed for it.

Tip 4 – Verify The Information To The Best Of Your Ability
In some cases, the information that has been reported to the credit bureau is accurate and it is the individual’s records that are flawed.  If you do not remember missing a payment on an account or you believe that a payment was not applied to the account, check your records first for confirmation before you call the credit bureau or the creditor and alert them to the situation.  If you do find that the credit report is accurate and the mistake was on your part, try to fix the mistake as soon as possible, by either paying the amount owed on the account or talking with the creditor to create a repayment plan for account balances that are large.

Tip 5 – Be Prepared To Take Your Case To Court
Although no one would like the situation to get this far, sometimes it is necessary to go to court to plead your case about removing incorrect items from your credit report.  Having accurate records of the steps that you have taken to correct the situation will be very beneficial if you are called to testify in court about the situation and will go a long way towards proving your case, as records show that you tried to resolve the situation by other means before going to court.