Name: Katie
Location: Rosemead, CA
Dilemma: “I graduated from college in June of 2008 and I tried to consolidate my student loans after I graduated. I was told by my lender that I couldn’t consolidate my loans until they were in repayment mode (after the 6 month grace period). Now that my grace period is up, my lender isn’t consolidating student loans because of the state of the economy. A woman from their company told me just to Google “loan consolidation” and pick a company to consolidate my loans with. I feel really uneasy about that – I don’t want to just consolidate my loans with anyone, and I want to know I am getting the best interest rates. Right now some of my loans are private and some are from the government and my interest rates are right about 4.21% (one is 6.8%). Do you have any advice?”
Solution: Here are legitimate resources for Katie and anyone else trying to consolidate student loans when lending is as tight as can be.
The federal government has a Web site where you can apply to consolidate your student loans and get info about your options.
FinAid, a reputable private site that has been around for 15 years, has a great page about consolidating student loans that may be helpful.
Student Loan Consolidator is a private company that is part of Edvisors Network, which has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. The site has info about consolidating public and private loans.
To get the best consolidation deal, compare interest rates from at least three lenders before you decide on one. If you cannot consolidate your loans, prioritize paying them off so you attack the one with the highest interest rate first. Good luck, Katie!
What is your financial dilemma? Write me at julia@bargainbabe.com. Read last week’s dilemma about lowering your home’s assessed value.
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It has gotten to the point where we all know someone who has been laid off. Which makes it hard not to think about getting laid off ourselves. Transfer all that job-stress into concrete plans for coping if you do get the ax. A collection of stories from Kiplinger covers the basics.
Keeping your health care while unemployed
What if your employer files for bankruptcy?
More resources from Bargain Babe:
Expenses to cut immediately if you lose your job
A quick way to get ahold of your finances
A recent story from CNNMoney has some great tips on how to reduce a number of household expenses, starting with your cell phone and credit card bill.
Compare your rates to other plans on BillShrink.com, which asks you a few questions about how many minutes you use, if you text and if you have a data plan. Then it spits out a list of similar plans, calculates the yearly savings and shows the signal strength at your home and work zip code. It found a slightly cheaper plan for me, but it does not include texts or data so I think what I have is actually cheaper.
For reduced medical care, the CNN story suggests checking out free Federal medical clinics for basics like immunizations, checkups, dental care and medicine. The Association of Medical Colleges might also be able to help if you are uninsured.
The article’s tips for cutting your car insurance tab were old hat – keep your credit score high because that’s what your rate is based on, ask for discounts based on your profession, and raise your deductible (if you have the savings to cover the difference!).
Later today I am speaking about saving money to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a social/charitable group in Granada Hills. I enjoy speaking to folks about my work and always get a lot of good ideas from the audience!
If you are looking for a speaker for an upcoming meeting, consider hiring me. I’m cheap! And I tailor my talks to the specific interests of your group. I can talk about:
- reducing your grocery bill
- eating out cheaply
- creating a livable monthly budget
- getting travel discounts
- money-saving Web sites
- how to haggle for a deal
Contact me at julia@bargainbabe.com if you are interested. Thanks!
I have never made anywhere close to what Hubby makes. Partly because I chose a profession – journalism – that is low-paying and partly because he has been working up the career ladder seven years longer than me. But we have always pooled our income and had equal rights to spending the total.
Now that I am making next to nothing as a blogger and freelancer (I totaled $6 in my first week), I feel uncomfortable about spending as much as Hubby does.
When I asked Hubby how he felt, he insisted I still had equal rights to our reduced income. But I am not so sure.
After all, I am the one who decided to quit my job and embrace entrepreneurial journalism. Why should I force my career decision, and its fiscal implications, on Hubby? Tell me what you think by voting and leaving a comment.
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I grew up in a house where food was never scarce. To make sure I ate well when I went to college, my mother gave me a credit card to use for all my groceries. “I don’t want you to worry about having enough to eat,” she said.
I am grateful for my mother’s generosity when it comes to food and nearly everything else. But what I had to learn on my own is the idea that everything at the grocery store is a necessity simply because it is food is dead wrong.
I don’t *really* need to buy fresh orange juice, tofutti cuties and organic milk. These are grocery luxuries and it is easy to confuse them with necessities because they go in my belly.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to starve myself. But it’s time for me to be as savvy about food purchases as I am about any other spending category. And that means more than getting the best prices. It means resisting the temptation to buy food that I don’t really need, just like that new T-shirt from J.Crew.
So instead of including food as a necessity in my budget and allotting a set amount of dollars for it, I am including food as a discretionary item in my budget. This way we will carefully consider each food purchase. Is this something we could get cheaper elsewhere? Is this something we could make ourselves? Is this something that will go to waste? At the end of the month I’m guessing we may well be eating out of the freezer.
