Thursday, January 10, 2008

Some Basic Student Loan Information
Student loans are specifically designed to help students meet the costs of a higher education. For most students loans are necessary, but like any loan, they should only be used as a last resort. Student Loans are obligations that must be repaid. They are often part of student financial aid packages, which assist with paying for their education. Many times student loans are the key to whether a young adult will be able to attend college.
The loans are generally classified into three types: Federal Student Loans for students, Federal Student Loans for parents and Private Student Loans for students or parents, and fall into three main categories, federal loans, private loans, and debt consolidation loans. If college or private school is still several years away, then a good plan is to start saving now. If the last two decades are any indication, the price of two and four-year public and private colleges are exceeding inflation and family income.
Federal Student Loans
Federal student loans are some of the most affordable loans available to students and families, with interest rates lower than most other forms of financing and deferred payments (principal and interest) until after graduation. Federal financial aid is limited and it's no secret that appropriations for aid have not kept up with rising tuition costs and inflation. Federal financial aid and federal student loans are based largely on demonstrated financial need (except for the PLUS loan), and if you fall in the category of “not poor enough for aid, and not rich enough to pay out of pocket"; federal financial aid may be no help at all. It isn't very easy to decide between federal student loans and private student loans. Federal student loans are awarded, according to the needs of the applicants and thus, this guarantees approval even if you have bad credit or no credit at all or if you don’t have a suitable income for affording a private student loan. Federal loans should be the first place you look for funds after you have received scholarship or grant money. Federal loans can be used to pay for tuition, room and board, fees and other education related expenses. Federal Pell grants (not loans) are available for students whose family income is under $40,000. Federal Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) loans are granted to creditworthy parents of dependent, undergraduate students. Federal PLUS loans are loans made to parents, and can be used to cover up to the total cost of your education, excluding any financial aid you receive. Federal PLUS Loans are low-interest loans made to parents of dependent undergraduate students and to graduate or professional students. Federal PLUS loans are not based on financial need.
Private Student Loans
Most student loans are funded by the federal government although they can also be financed through individual institutions and private lenders. Private loans can also be used to supplement federal student loans, when federal loans, grants and other forms of financial aid are not sufficient to cover the full cost of higher education. Unlike government loans, there are fewer controls on the cost and pricing of these private loans. Under current rules, if you were to borrow directly from the government under the Stafford program right now it might cost as much as 4 percent of the amount to be borrowed, or 3 percent if you were borrowing from a private lender subsidized under the Federal Family Education Loan Program FFELP(used by about 80 percent of colleges and universities). Graduate Students can also receive school loans as Private Student Loans to help cover the total cost of college. To use private student loans as a substitution to federal aid, rather than a supplement is short-sighted on the part of the borrower. As reputable private loan sources purport, private student loans are only valuable when filling the gap between total college expenses and a borrower's awarded financial aid.
Indeed private student loans have their advantages. One of the benefits of a private student loan is that you have lots of ways of repaying it. Many financial aid experts will urge prospective students, with conviction, that private student loans are the logical alternative to federal aid in affording higher education. Furthermore, private aid is awarded not on need-based criteria like federal aid, rather on creditworthiness. You do not have to file forms with the federal government in order to apply for a private student loan. Private foundations granted more than $3 billion in scholarships to eligible students. It is best to use private student loans after you have applied for all other available aid sources recommended by your school. Most first-time students will ask a credit-worthy parent or other to co-sign the application in order to qualify for private student college loans. Because private loans are based on the credit history of the applicant, the overhead charge will vary. "Interest rates on private loans can climb to well over 12 percent.
Credit
It is good to have one national card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover) on hand to help you build a positive credit history and to provide security in emergencies. Do you whip out a credit card to pay for your books, or do you apply for a federal or private loan. With a credit card the interest rate can be as high as 21%. This is not to say that credit cards do not have a place in your college life. Students and families with excellent credit will generally receive lower rates and smaller loan origination fees than those with less than perfect credit.
If you don't repay your student loans on time or according to the terms of your promissory note, you might go into default, which will affect your credit rating. Here are some consequences of default: National credit bureaus can be notified of your default, which will harm your credit rating, making it hard to buy a car or a house. The parents have signed the master promissory note to pay and, if they do not do so, it is their credit rating that suffers.
Student Loan Consolidation
A Consolidation Loan allows you to combine all the federal student loans you received to finance your college education into a single loan. Consolidation pays off your original student loans. Consolidation of student loans can be the ideal solution when one requires help to manage their debt. Consolidation allows you to lock-in the lowest possible interest rate. Consolidation offers lower monthly payments by giving borrowers up to 30 years to repay their loans. A lender can provide a new consolidation loan borrower with the lowest statutory weighted average interest rate for loans by using the lower of the weighted average of the interest rates on the loans being consolidated as of July 1 or the date the lender received the borrower's consolidation loan application. A Direct Stafford subsidized or unsubsidized loan or at least one Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program Stafford subsidized or unsubsidized loan will be included in the Consolidation loan. You should keep in mind that although consolidation can simplify loan repayment and lower your monthly payment, it also can significantly increase the total cost of repaying your loans. If you don't need monthly payment relief, you should compare the cost of repaying your unconsolidated loans against the cost of repaying a consolidation loan. Take the time to study your consolidation options before you submit your application. Federally funded loans are administered initially through the US Department of Education's Federal Student Aid programs, and are usually the easiest to get student loan consolidation services for. The rate on your Consolidation Loan will be fixed for the life of your loan. The interest rate on a Consolidation Loan is set according to federal law. There is private loan consolidation, and it's worth looking into--some of the banks offer interest rate discounts and co-borrower release after a few years of consecutive on-time payments.
Student Loan Repayment
Repayment is now defined as not beginning until 6 months and one day after the date the student ceases to carry at least one-half the normal full-time academic workload, as determined by the school. Repayment of Consolidation Loans begins within 60 days of the disbursement of the loan. Think about your repayment options and now might be a good time to consider student loan consolidation. Your monthly payment will depend on the size of your debt and the length of your repayment period. We can't emphasize enough the importance of making your full loan payment on time either monthly (which is usually when you'll pay) or according to your repayment schedule. Student loans are real loans just as real as car loans or mortgages.

Frank Richman: For more information about financing your higher education visit http://www.yourcollegefunding.com


What is Inertia?
All objects resist being pushed around, even if there is little or no friction. Once an object is moving, it takes an equivalent amount of effort to stop it, i.e., to change that state of motion. This is a principle called inertia.
More scientifically, inertia is the principle that an object will maintain its state of motion until acted upon by unbalanced forces, i.e. two or more forces that push against the object in such a way that they do not balance out. Of course, if the forces balance out, the object is not going to change where it is currently going.
An example of balanced forces is when you are sitting inside a car that is traveling at a constant speed along a flat piece of road. The only forces acting on you at that point is the Earth pulling you down onto the seat and the seat pushing up against you. Relative to the Earth, you maintain your motion for as long as the car does not accelerate or decelerate.
Mach's Principle and Einstein's Geodesics
An interesting point about inertia is that nobody is quite sure what its origin is. We take it for granted that it's a property of objects with mass, but how does an object 'know' how it is moving, so that it can resist efforts to change that movement? Both Galileo and Newton thought that an object somehow 'knows' its movement relative to distant matter. In 1863, Ernest Mach published "Die Machanik" in which he formalized this argument of his forerunners. Einstein was greatly influenced by it. In 1918 he named it "Mach's Principle".
Einstein's general relativity took the definition of inertia a step further by showing that all objects move through a continuum called 'spacetime' along spacetime geodesics. This simply means that objects take the path of least action (effort) through spacetime, unless acted upon by forces. The matter of the Universe defines the gravitational field and the gravitational field defines the geodesic paths through spacetime.
The present scientific view is that the distant galaxies emitted virtual gravitons that traveled through space for billions of years before being absorbed by your body as you're sitting in the car. The resistance of your body to acceleration is wholly or partially due to the interaction between your body and virtual gravitons that were originally emitted billions of years ago by 'living' and long 'dead' stars in distant galaxies. Is that weird, or what?
Time-stress the Origin of Inertia?
Presently there is another view that is slightly controversial, but far less weird. It says that when you move freely in empty space, the various parts of your body all record time at the same rate. A scientist would say that 'the temporal (time) relations' between all parts of your body remain constant, or that there is no 'temporal stress' on your body.
As soon as you are being accelerated, the temporal relations are disturbed and the various parts of your body need to run at their own times. This creates temporal stress inside the body and the body's reaction is to resist this disturbance so that the stress is reduced; hence it shows inertia � it wants to follow its spacetime geodesic with the minimum effort and stress.
The beauty of this hypothesis is that it only requires Einstein's rather easy to understand special theory of relativity and not the quite formidable general theory of relativity. Special relativity is mostly about how relative movement influences relative time.
Was Einstein Right?
We know that Einstein was right with his special theory of relativity. It has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. It may however be that Einstein was wrong on the origin of inertia. Maybe inertia has nothing to do with Mach's principle and the matter of the Universe at large, but just with what's going on within every object's temporal relations.
At a 'feet-on-the-ground' level, we are almost continually under stress from the force of gravity and hence our bodies are under constant temporal stress. Yes, the time in our heads do run faster than the time in our feet (unless we are upside down, of course). Add to this the inevitable time-stresses of modern society and it is no wonder that we are all somewhat 'stressed-out'!

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Burt Jordaan writes technical and 'technical-lite' books and articles on relativity and cosmology for non-specialists. For more on inertia, relativity and cosmology, click here => http://www.einsteins-theory-of-relativity-4engineers.com/origin-of-inertia.html


Teleseminars: Five Tips For Getting Your Moneys Worth
Teleseminars are a great way to learn from experts without leaving the comfort of your home. No travel expenses, jet lag or cafeteria food to deal with makes them the perfect way for work-at-home moms to expand their business knowledge and skills.
More and more experts and authors are offering teleseminars on topics such as business, marketing, advertising and more. Many of these subjects are of interest, but can we as business owners really learn enough to make it worth the time and expense? In short, yes. However, there are a few important steps you should take when attending a teleseminar.
Make sure the speaker is qualified.
It’s fairly simple to set up a teleseminar and virtually anyone could put one together. So, before investing in a seminar, do some quick research on the speaker(s) to be sure they are experienced in the areas they will be covering. Search for their name using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo and see what results are returned. Also, if they have authored a book, take a look on Amazon and read any reviews/comments posted there.
Take notes.
If you’re like me, you have multiple projects on your mind, as well as your children, spouse, etc. With all of the information running through my brain, I tend to recall very little of what I hear during the day, even if it’s good information. In order to retain the information given during a teleseminar, don’t just sit and soak it up. Make the effort to listen closely and take notes. You’ll remember more of what was discussed and you’ll be able to refer to your notes in the future if necessary.
Speak up.
A teleseminar is similar to a massive conference call with one main person speaking. Because of the size and the virtual setting, many people feel unsure about speaking up and asking questions. However, you’ll do both yourself and the speaker a favor by voicing your thoughts when appropriate and asking honest questions. Chances are good that others in the group have the same questions and will appreciate you stepping out and asking. Do be careful not to ask too many questions. This isn’t a personal training session and if too many questions are asked, especially by the same person, the speaker doesn’t get to cover all the material they have planned.
Enlist a Friend.
What better way to get the most out of a seminar than to take it with a friend? If you have a friend of colleague that is interested, you can both participate in the teleseminar it will give you a great topic for discussion afterwards. I tend to learn more from discussions post-seminar than I do while listening to the lecture. I think talking it over with another attendee helps me to process the information and see how it applies to my daily life and business.
Follow up.
If a teleseminar is especially helpful to you, send a thank-you to the speaker. Try to send a written note or if this is not possible, an email will do. By making contact with the speaker and showing your appreciation you’re not only providing encouragement, you are networking. You just never know what type of response you might receive and you may even make a new friend or find a mentor.
The key to getting the most out of teleseminars is to find the ones that are by true experts in their field and that interest you the most. So, the next time you find a teleseminar that catches your interest, gather up your pen and paper and tune in. If you can find a colleague that is interested in joining you, you’ll be all the better for it. You’ll learn more and have more fun in the process.

Jill Hart is the founder of Christian Work at Home Moms, CWAHM.com. Jill is a contributing author in The Business Mom Guide Book and I'll Be Home For Christmas and co-author of the upcoming book, Home Based Blessings. Jill has articles published across the web on sites like DrLaura.com and ClubMom.com. Jill and her husband, Allen of CWAHD.com reside in Nebraska with their two children.