Financing Education: Expert Guides and Resources

At the traditional length of four years, completing a bachelor's degree is both time consuming and costly. Too many students don’t complete their college degrees or take a longer time to do so. ©michaeljung/Shutterstock.comPrivate nonprofit colleges have an overall six-year graduation rate of just 66 percent; public colleges graduate about 59 percent, and for-profit colleges graduate only 21 percent of their first-time, full-time students within six years.

Student loans to help you pay for college may seem simple. Unfortunately, appearances can be deceiving. Numerous types of federal student loans and repayment plan options and lots of private loans exist. Repayment options and forgiveness of some loan balances are not widely or well understood. How to keep track of your loans During the years of college, you’ll get bombarded with various financial aid forms and financial aid award letters and notices.

When you're ready to start saving for college, check out the different savings plans available so you pick the one best for you. Find out how you can cut wasteful spending from the budget to contribute more to your college saving plans, and be aware of provisions affecting the conditions of the 529 and Coverdell accounts.

If you’re thinking of sending your child to college one day (or attending college yourself), you have a lot of decisions to make: how to save money for college, which colleges may be a good fit, whether an alternative to a four-year college may be a better option, plus seeking financial aid, scholarships, and grants.

The U.S. tax laws are unnecessarily complicated and extensive. But it’s worth taking the time to understand how to make them work for you, because paying for a college education is an expensive undertaking. The tax rules and regulations include numerous breaks for parents of college students and some for young adults as well who have previously incurred college costs and taken out some college loans.

Hopefully you will soon complete your college degree or other desired training. And, even better, you will find a job and become financially independent. Make sure that you set out into the real world with important knowledge regarding managing your money and making the most of the money that you earn. This article highlights ten important things that you should know.

Although high school is a terrific time to teach kids key personal financial concepts before they’re nudged out of the family nest and go to college, you can and should begin to teach kids about money much sooner. The latter preschool and elementary school years, when kids are learning math concepts and getting comfortable with numbers, are an excellent time to lay a solid knowledge base.

Your kids should strive to do their best in school. Their grades do matter. Now, that’s not to say they should stay up past midnight, hole up in their rooms, and toil away to get every point possible on that next test or try to write the perfect paper. Perfection isn’t possible, and kids (and adults) can make themselves miserable trying to attain the impossible.