The amount of collective student loan debt in America has surpassed $1 Trillion but to bring it closer to home, Finaid says that the rate of college tuition inflation is normally twice that of the regular inflation rate. That means that the cost of college will rise an average of 6% every year. Add to that the fact that wages for most Americans are stagnant, college is quickly becoming much like a home. American families cannot afford it without going in to debt.

How do you plan to pay for your child’s college education? Maybe a large portion of their tuition is covered by academic or athletic scholarships but for the average family, that isn’t the case. Needs based grants will only pay for a portion of the tuition making student loans a reality for many. A recent study by the Associated Press found that one out of every two college graduates either can’t find a job or they’re underemployed working in a field unrelated to their college major. This makes graduating with as little debt as possible a priority.

The 529 plan is the best answer to this problem. Although many plans used to allow for the purchase of years of college at today’s prices, most plans now work like a 401(k) where you invest money in to the plan and choose the mutual funds that fit your objectives. If you start contributing early, the tax advantages allow you to build up enough money to keep applying for student loans and many allow family and friends to contribute to the fund too.

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As somebody who is in the financial advising field, I’m getting a little tired of hearing that all financial advisers are duping their clients out of a lot of money but what I’m far more tired of is the fact that in way too many cases, it’s true. You may have heard about the Goldman Sachs employee who quit by writing this op ed in the New York Times. To sum it up, he was tired of advisers being more concerned about profits than they were about doing what is best for their clients. Maybe the most embarrassing part was his claim that Goldman employees refer to their clients as “Muppets.”

Then there’s this article that spoke of a study where actors were hired to pose as average customers with one of four different types of portfolios. They visited 300 Boston area advisers and the large majority of advisers changed their portfolios to more fee laden options. Seriously?
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It’s the weekend again and if you didn’t read my last post on low or no cost weekend activities, read it here. All of us work hard during the week. The majority of us reach Friday and feel like we deserve a fun, relaxing few days to unwind but we live in an economy where our paychecks are too small and the cost of having fun is too high. We simply can’t afford to take the family out to the traditional dinner and a movie any more.

Luckily, there are plenty of activities that are free, low cost or there are ways to make a high priced activity much more affordable. Today I thought I would look at some of the more traditional activities and how you might be able to cut the price down to reasonable levels.

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There’s a better than average change that you won’t spending your entire adult life working for the same company. Although the BLS wants us to know that the average worker holding seven careers in a lifetime is a myth, it’s possible and even probable that you won’t work for the same company forever and because of this, you may end up having more than one 401(k).

If you’re the hands off kind of investor, keeping these 401(k) accounts as they are, scattered with different investment institutions is allowable but probably a bad idea for a few reasons. First, they’re hard to manage. Just keeping track of a checking and a savings account is hard enough for some people who are constantly on the run. Second, since you’re limited to only a small offering of mutual funds, you can open up the amount of products available to you by consolidating these 401(k)s in to one IRA account. Here’s how.
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If you’re the mother or father of a high school student you’re probably wondering where the time has gone. It seems like only a few years ago they were getting on the bus for their first day of Kindergarten and now they’re going to prom. The time goes by fast but once the nostalgia of the event passes, reality will set in. Prom can cost a lot of money and your, at best, part time employed child probably won’t whip out their credit card for any of those expenses.

Between the cost of the dress or tux, the pictures, the dinner, the prom tickets, and the new hair and makeup, costs will add up fast but there are some ways to lower the cost of the event without sending your child to prom looking like they wearing your hand-me-downs.

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Have you read the other two parts of this series? In the first article we looked at a few weekend activities that cost little or no money. In the second article, we looked at ways to make more costly activities more affordable.

In this article, we’re going to look at 15 ways to have fun without leaving the house. Who said that you have to get in the car and go somewhere in order to have a fun weekend? All of the below 15 activities can easily take place at home or get some friends and family together and make it even better.

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Oh, the good ol’ days. You might remember the days of old when life was simple, credit wasn’t feared like it is today, and if you found yourself in over your head you could move your credit card balance to a card that offered a 0% introductory rate. Then, when the rate was about to expire, you moved it again. Balance transfer offers were plentiful.

It was a great plan that could be used over and over but one thing that never disappeared during the card hopping process was the actual debt and the card companies knew that. If a person had charged up a large credit card balance, why would they suddenly change their habits after they changed cards? Sure, just like we make New year’s Resolutions to lose weight, when we’re given 12 months to pay off our credit card without any interest, we make the resolution to pay it off but the card companies knew that in 12 months, you would likely still hold a balance and they could start making money off of you.

And that money came in the form of some hefty late fees, a high interest rate that was raised even higher, and over the limit fees. They didn’t lose any money by offering you a 0% interest rate for 12 months. They had you right where they wanted you because they knew that most people would not change their spending habits.

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Who pays the bills in your house? Our house isn’t much different from most households around the country. I’m the financial person in the family so I handle all financial matters in our home including paying bills, watching all of our accounts, managing our investments, and corresponding with people regarding financial matters. My wife barely knows what comes in and goes out.

The Suze Ormans, Dave Ramseys, and Clark Howards would probably say that each person in a marriage should take an equal part in financial affairs of the household but over the years I’ve talked to a lot of people and I haven’t found many of my friends that operate differently than my house. Maybe you and the people you know are different but managing the complicated maze of household money isn’t easy and two people can make it more confusing.

That isn’t to say that my wife doesn’t have total access when she wants to look at the accounts but a few years ago I started thinking about the fact that none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow and what if something happened to me? Would she know where to start when she was thrown in to being the financial manager of the house? Because of that, I put the information together for her. Here’s what I gave her.

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