Kudos to Wade Henderson, Founding Board Member, Center for Responsible Lending, for this insightful view of the student loan crisis...as published in the Los Angeles Sentinel.
"From attacks on voting rights to police killings of unarmed civilians and growing inequities in earnings and wealth, the civil rights gains of the past six decades are facing threat after threat. But one front in the fight for full equality—meaningful access to higher education—is particularly urgent. With 65 percent of jobs soon requiring more than a high school diploma, the need is greater than ever, especially for African Americans and other communities of ...
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Job Polarization Forcing More Baby Boomers Out of Job Market
Men in their prime working years have left the labor force at an astonishing rate and they may never return if the state of the U.S. job market holds, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. This does not bode well for those approaching retirement and still carrying debt obligations. This may cause bankruptcy filings to spike in the 55-64 age group.
A decline in demand for middle-skilled work — a phenomenon dubbed “job polarization,” because more positions are concentrated at the higher and lower ends — has played a role in keeping prime-age men out of the job market an economist at the Kansas City Fed, ...
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Don’t Ignore Your Credit Report
It pays to be familiar with your credit report. The information it contains determines your credit score, your ability to access credit and loans, and even your chances of landing a job or signing a lease. It's a good idea to check your credit report on at least an annual basis. In certain scenarios, however, you should closely monitor your credit report no matter when you last checked it. Here are six times you need to check your credit report.
Debt Collectors are Calling
If you're getting calls from debt collectors regarding unpaid bills, you may need to do some damage control. Whether the debt in question is valid or not, it could ...
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Have You Been Rejected for a Mortgage? Get a Grip and Fight Back
How many Americans are rejected for a mortgage loan on an annual basis?
Data are scarce on the topic, but a Federal Reserve study shows that one in eight Americans were turned down for a mortgage in 2015 -- and overextended credit was at the top of the list of reasons lenders used to reject mortgage applicants. The Federal Reserve study pointed out that a high debt-to-income ratio -- i.e., the amount of money you borrow against the amount of money you make -- was a top credit-based reason for mortgage rejections.
If you've been turned down on a mortgage loan due to bad credit, get a grip and fight back.
Sure, the bad news is that ...
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Trading Social Security Benefits for Student Loan Forgiveness? – An “E” For Effort
There's a debt crisis in America right now, and it centers on the cost of education. Roughly 45 million people owe a total of more than $1.4 trillion in student loan debt, working out to an average of about $30,000 per borrower. Starting from such a huge hole, it's hard for today's millennials to chart a reasonable course forward for their finances, and the impact throughout the U.S. economy has been apparent for years.
One lawmaker is seeking to address that crisis, introducing a revolutionary new program that would allow young people to trade Social Security benefits for student loan forgiveness. Unfortunately, the program comes at a ...
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Income Based Repayment of Student Loans Still Better Than Doing Nothing At All
There's a dangerous trend I've seen repeatedly with individuals in income-based repayment (IBR) plans for their student loans, and it's clear to me there's a critical piece of information missing from our general understanding of how these programs work.
Income-based repayment (IBR) plans are offered on federal subsidized and un-subsidized student loans in an attempt to make high student loan debt more manageable to pay off. They extend the repayment term from the standard 10 years to either 20 or 25 years, and cap monthly payments at 10% or 15% of discretionary income depending on the program. However, two other features of these plans ...
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Two Personal Finance Issues That Are Not Going Away in 2018
It's a new year and, unfortunately, many of us continue to grapple with financial issues that do not want to go away. Here are two to think about:
Not savings enough for retirement.
I have encountered countless clients who, although having worked for years, have accumulated little or no retirement savings. They have allowed debt to control their lives and have sacrificed savings opportunities in the process. This perspective must change.
Bankruptcy can be a first step toward achieving financial security. Did you know that retirement savings are fully protected from your creditors - even in bankruptcy? Whether you have one ...
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Four Signs You Are Headed Towards Bankruptcy
There is hardly anyone in the world that does not face a financial crisis at one point or another in their lives. Unless you were born a millionaire and have a stellar team managing your finances, you may find yourself caught up in the debt spiral.
The good thing is that financial crisis does not come unannounced. There are warning signs and signals that essentially point towards a possible downturn in your finances. While most people tend to ignore them, the smarter ones identify them, take a step back and reevaluate their spending habits to change the course of their finances.
We’d like you to be smart about it too. If you are ...
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Navient Corp. Investigated for Consumer Abuse
More than a dozen state attorney generals have attacked one of the biggest companies for student loans in the US, Navient Corporation, citing abusive, unfair practices and violation of state laws. It is alleged by the high-ranking law officials that the company paid its call center workers based on their ability to end conversations as fast as possible with borrowers who were finding it hard to make ends meet.
The allegations are a result of over two years of investigations launched in 2013 by different states across the US. The findings of the report continue to be confidential, with the investigation taking a look at over 4000 complaints ...
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The New York Fed and Mortgage Industry Wake Up to Student Loan Impact on Housing
As I have been touting on this blog for two years sometime it takes longer to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
In April 2013, the New York Fed finally reported found that student loans were preventing many recent graduates from buying their first home. More recently, another study that reaches a similar conclusion, and it doesn't come from the federal government, but from the home loan industry itself.
MainSt.com reported that an analysis by the Mortgage Bankers Association found that loan applications for home purchases have slipped nearly 20% in the last four months of 2013 compared with the same period a year earlier. This is ...
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