Financial Literacy

 Literacy is not just about academics as most people think. Financial literacy is very important. Schools should implement teaching financial literacy in the curriculum.





















 

How to Survive Student Loan Debt

By Deborah Williams

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Many students cannot fund their college educations without taking out student loans.  Most students have no difficulty getting a student loan, but after graduation, that looming debt can be overwhelming.  Kristin Kloberdanz penned an article, “8 Ways to Keep Your Student Loan Debt From Crushing You,” on the Take Part website with tips for making sure that students don’t get in over their heads.  Here are tips that Kloberdanz learned after interviewing Lauren Asher, the president of the Institute for College Access & Success, which runs the non-profit Project on Student Debt.  Here are her tips:

1. Know your loans. Make sure you know how much you owe, what kinds of loans you have, and where you are to send your payment.  Private lenders are not required to carry protections and forgiveness like federal loans.
2. Stay in touch with your lender. Inform the lender if you move so that you can stay out of trouble with your debt.  If you have more than one loan, check on the possibility of consolidating them into one loan, but don’t consolidate private loans with federal because you will lose your federal protections.
3. Review your repayment options. If you are not able to manage your payments, consider repayment options that are based on your income.  The Project on Student Debt created a site for federal loans, consider what’s available at http://www.ibrinfo.org.
4. Contain the cost of your loan. Ask the lender about lowering the principal by including a written request each time you send extra money to ensure that it is being applied to the principal rather than future payments because those include fees and interest.  If you can pay off a loan, pay off the most expensive one first and the private ones.  If your employer offers loan forgiveness, be sure to take advantage of that.
5. Stay out of trouble. Make all payments on time.

If you’ve missed a payment:

1. Talk to your lender. Be upfront with the lender to discuss options that you may not know about.  If yours is a federal loan, you can learn more about those options from those websites.
2. Explore other options. Check out other options apart from the lender.  Two places to begin are www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org and www.studentaid.gov.    Reports from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can inform you of complaints about your lender as well.
3. Time is of the essence. Although you might have late payments and you haven’t defaulted on a federal loan, you have time to straighten things out and save your credit rating.  A bad credit rating can mean it’s difficult to get an apartment, a car loan, or a job.  Additionally, tax refunds can be claimed, your wages can be garnished, or your Social Security benefits can be reduced if you default on a federal loa