Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware 23: Today’s Challenges to College Funds

Saturdays we share tips or cautions to facilitate getting scholarships or avoid problems

Jessica planned on going to college since she was a little girl. Her parents started saving money in a high yield mutual fund. She half-heartedly applied for a few scholarships, but only received a couple thousand dollars. She applied for a Pell Grant, but her parents earned too much money. Luckily, she had the mutual fund savings to help her get through college. Unfortunately, Jessica graduated from high school in 2010, just two years after the recession eliminated 75% of the investment. Jessica’s dream of going to the university of her choice evaporated with the savings. Instead, she started at the local community college and living at home.

Challenges Related to Rising Education Costs

You may encounter several challenges when you enroll in college. Many of these challenges will relate paying for college and its related costs. The rising costs related to getting an education include:

• Rising tuition costs in most private and public colleges
• Increasing costs for textbooks, online subscriptions, and research materials
• Higher housing costs especially as college students demand more amenities
• More expensive transportation costs cause many students to study close to home
• Fewer students cook from scratch, they prefer restaurant and premade meals

All of these reasons and more make going to school more expensive than ever.

Challenges Related to Less Money Available

In addition, you find less financial aid to pay for college.

• Fewer students qualify for Pell Grants because of changes in income requirements and number of semesters you may receive a grant
• Congress increased interest rates on student loans and started the interest clock on graduate loans from the date you receive the loan, not after graduation
• Less scholarship money is available through donors and other sources
• Reduced return on educational savings plans create less money available
• Lower home values eliminated the ability to refinance or pull equity out of the home

Rising costs and less money turn the dream of education into a nightmare.

Tuesday we share SRN Express from Edvisors as a source of financial aid for college

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