As you finance your education, you’ll want to be sure that you’re well-prepared for life after graduation—when the loans start coming due. You also need to be sure you have adequate funds to meet your current needs.
Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind now and after commencement:
Establish a yearly educational spending plan: Consider all the educational expenses for your program (textbooks, colloquia/residencies, travel, graduation fees).
Borrow only what you need: You may reduce your financial aid award at any time or return a portion or all of your financial aid refund to your lender to pay down your loan balance. Borrowing only what you need for direct educational expenses can maximize and extend your eligibility for financial aid.
Keep track of your loans: Visit the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), a 1-stop overview of all your federal loans and/or grants.
Start repaying your loans while you’re still in school: Even making payments a little as $25 per month toward the principal balance of the loan can significantly reduce the overall costs of your loans.
Take advantage of educational tax benefits: Two of the most prominent tax credits—which reduce your federal income taxes—are the Hope Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit. Some other tax benefits that you can learn more are student loan interest deductions, student loan cancellation and repayment assistance, and the tuition and fees deduction.
Capella provides a free seminar called Financial Literacy that shows participants how to create and maintain a budget and manage debt. Check dates and register for the seminar on iGuide.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 11:58 am and is filed under Learners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
