Student loan consolidation refers to wraping all your student loans into a single loan with one lender and one repayment plan. You can plan to consolidate your loan like refinancing a home mortgage. The time you consolidate your loan, the balances of your other current loans are paid off, with the total balance playing over into one consolidated loan.
Here are the top 5 benefits of student loan consolidation:
1. Lower monthly payments
By consolidating all your student loans into one loan, you only need to pay off one loan monthly instead of several student loans monthly. Thus, your monthly payment is lower.
2. Pay only one loan monthly instead of several student loans monthly
It is a lot easier if you have to manage only one student loan instead of several student loans with different payment deadlines. Also, sometimes with many student loans, you may end up forgetting to pay one student loan.
3. Low, fixed interest rate
By consolidating your student loans, you will be able to take advantages of low, fixed interest rates
4. No credit check or processing fees
No credit check is required during the application of a student loan consolidation. The payment plans and terms are usually quite flexible in that they can customize it according to your financial standing.
5. Make monthly student loan payment electronically
While it is not necessary to make payment electronically, using direct debit from your bank account will prevent you from forgetting to make a payment.
Speaking of electronic payments it is possible here at Student Financial Advisors to do an online student loan consolidation. Our online student loan consolidation application is convenient, fully automated and secure. You'll have a choice to sign your application electronically ("e-signature"), or to print out your completed application immediately for your signature.
Source:http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=35852&cat=15
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
An eye for service
Making the decision to join the Army Reserves during wartime with a private optometry practice and a family in Mitchell was not an easy one for Dr. Steve Schlegel.
“He’s been out of the National Guard for awhile, but he wanted to do something more,” said Vicky Schlegel, Steve’s wife of 16 years. “He talked about joining the Reserves before. We knew it was risky, being self-employed, and it would pose some challenges, but it’s been a good decision for him.”
That’s because the decision falls in line with Steve’s respect for the military, and it has afforded him the ability to pay off the student loans he accrued after graduating from optometry school in 1997. It has also offered the Mitchell native a new challenge and the ability to continue his patriotic dream.
“I get to put on my uniform, support my country and they pay for my college and I make a little extra money,” Steve said. “It’s a win-win situation. I am very glad I did it. If I get deployed, it’s a challenge we’ll take on.”
Steve joined the Reserves in July. A 1987 graduate of Mitchell High School, he joined the Army immediately after graduation and served for two years. From 1989 to 1994, he served in the Indiana National Guard.
“I wanted to stay in to retire,” he said. “That was my ultimate goal. But I was trying to raise a family and finish optometry school, and it was taking too much time, so I resigned my commission in 1994.
“I’ve always appreciated the military and anyone who has served or is serving, especially the people who are enlisting now. I have the utmost respect for anyone who serves in any branch.”
But joining the Reserves is not without its dangers. The likelihood of deployment or a call to active duty is inevitable for the eye doctor.
“We’ll have everything in place for if and when that happens, and we know it’s a big challenge for us because I am self-employed,” Steve said. “I’m excited — not excited about being deployed — but when that day comes, and it will, it’ll be a good experience for me, something I can look back on years down the road. I’ll be able to look back on what I’ve done and where I’ve been. It’ll be an exciting challenge when that happens.”
But he also knows the toughest challenge will be for his wife and three daughters, who will be left in Mitchell, whether he’s deployed to a combat zone or called to active duty in the United States.
“You have to give so much credit to the spouses in this situation,” Steve said, “because they are the ones left at home. It’s actually somewhat easy (for the Reservist) when you think about what the spouse is left to take care of. If I am activated or deployed, the separation won’t be new to Vicky and me because almost as soon as we started dating, I left for the Army and there were separations like that while we were married and I was in the National Guard. She’s tough, and will have enough going on with the girls to keep her busy. It’s just going to be the support aspect over it. And we haven’t been separated like this since we’ve had a family.”
But, regardless, his family supports his decision to join the Reserves.
“My family has always been 100 percent supportive of my military career,” Steve said. “The girls (his three daughters Jocelyn, Fiona and Audrey) know what’s going on with the war, but they’re not scared. When I got my uniform, for example, they all had to try it on and mock Dad. I told them to get used to it because they’re all going into the military after high school, and they just make faces at me.”
For now, however, it’s life as usual for the Schlegels.
“The only thing I know for a fact right now is that I’m going to an officers’ basic course in Texas for about five weeks this spring,” Steve said. “And, of course, you have to train for two weeks in the summer. I’ve heard talk that we’re going to close the business and move, and that’s absolutely not true. When I am deployed or called to active duty, then we’ll have a plan in place to take care of our patients and make the transition absolutely seamless for them.”
source:http://www.tmnews.com/stories/2008/02/11/news.nw-743835.tms
“He’s been out of the National Guard for awhile, but he wanted to do something more,” said Vicky Schlegel, Steve’s wife of 16 years. “He talked about joining the Reserves before. We knew it was risky, being self-employed, and it would pose some challenges, but it’s been a good decision for him.”
That’s because the decision falls in line with Steve’s respect for the military, and it has afforded him the ability to pay off the student loans he accrued after graduating from optometry school in 1997. It has also offered the Mitchell native a new challenge and the ability to continue his patriotic dream.
“I get to put on my uniform, support my country and they pay for my college and I make a little extra money,” Steve said. “It’s a win-win situation. I am very glad I did it. If I get deployed, it’s a challenge we’ll take on.”
Steve joined the Reserves in July. A 1987 graduate of Mitchell High School, he joined the Army immediately after graduation and served for two years. From 1989 to 1994, he served in the Indiana National Guard.
“I wanted to stay in to retire,” he said. “That was my ultimate goal. But I was trying to raise a family and finish optometry school, and it was taking too much time, so I resigned my commission in 1994.
“I’ve always appreciated the military and anyone who has served or is serving, especially the people who are enlisting now. I have the utmost respect for anyone who serves in any branch.”
But joining the Reserves is not without its dangers. The likelihood of deployment or a call to active duty is inevitable for the eye doctor.
“We’ll have everything in place for if and when that happens, and we know it’s a big challenge for us because I am self-employed,” Steve said. “I’m excited — not excited about being deployed — but when that day comes, and it will, it’ll be a good experience for me, something I can look back on years down the road. I’ll be able to look back on what I’ve done and where I’ve been. It’ll be an exciting challenge when that happens.”
But he also knows the toughest challenge will be for his wife and three daughters, who will be left in Mitchell, whether he’s deployed to a combat zone or called to active duty in the United States.
“You have to give so much credit to the spouses in this situation,” Steve said, “because they are the ones left at home. It’s actually somewhat easy (for the Reservist) when you think about what the spouse is left to take care of. If I am activated or deployed, the separation won’t be new to Vicky and me because almost as soon as we started dating, I left for the Army and there were separations like that while we were married and I was in the National Guard. She’s tough, and will have enough going on with the girls to keep her busy. It’s just going to be the support aspect over it. And we haven’t been separated like this since we’ve had a family.”
But, regardless, his family supports his decision to join the Reserves.
“My family has always been 100 percent supportive of my military career,” Steve said. “The girls (his three daughters Jocelyn, Fiona and Audrey) know what’s going on with the war, but they’re not scared. When I got my uniform, for example, they all had to try it on and mock Dad. I told them to get used to it because they’re all going into the military after high school, and they just make faces at me.”
For now, however, it’s life as usual for the Schlegels.
“The only thing I know for a fact right now is that I’m going to an officers’ basic course in Texas for about five weeks this spring,” Steve said. “And, of course, you have to train for two weeks in the summer. I’ve heard talk that we’re going to close the business and move, and that’s absolutely not true. When I am deployed or called to active duty, then we’ll have a plan in place to take care of our patients and make the transition absolutely seamless for them.”
source:http://www.tmnews.com/stories/2008/02/11/news.nw-743835.tms
Hope student loans get friendlier
The rising interest rates have slowed down the growth in certain interest-sensitive sectors such as auto, real estate, consumer durables, etc. In fact, in the consumer durables sector the growth has been negative. This slow down has been a worry for the Government. While it may not be possible to reduce the interest rates in the immediate future to prime-up these sectors, the Government could rationalise some of the indirect taxes such as excise, value added tax (VAT), etc. to give some relief to such sectors, especially the consumer durables.
Hence, people looking to buy television set, refrigerator, bike, etc. could possibly wait till the budget. The chances of any increase in rates are anyway quite remote.
Kamal Aggarwal of Ernst & Young says…
The budget would not dramatically alter the Customs and Excise duty landscape in respect of consumer goods.
Loan expert Harsh Roongta says…
The already announced education refinance corporation (funded from the education cess that we pay) should be operationalised. This corporation can share risks with the commercial banks as well as provide refinance at rates that can make educational loans as profitable as any other loan business for the banks.
An official mechanism needs to be in place for grading various education courses (based on their ability to increase employability, earnings potential, etc). With this the banks will be able to objectively assess the risk of providing loans for funding a specific course.
A complete revamp of the education loan sector is vital. Today, education loans are essentially being disbursed mainly by the public sector banks because of administrative fiat and not because it makes commercial sense for the banks.
Many students can’t take an education loan because they have no collateral or their parents don’t have enough income to be a guarantor. While this may not affect students who try for the IITs or the IIMs, a vast majority of students are affected by this lack of access to education loans.
source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/news/tax-report/hope-student-loans-get-friendlier/11/00/325484
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