Tonight’s story focused on a new problem financial planning offices are facing: unemployed families and students who need more financial assistance then their FAFSA shows. The government has news policies out there that eliminate unemployment from a families income and could help students apply for more Pell grants.
The amount of money a student recieved is usually based on a student’s, or a student’s family’s, income in the previous yea. But since there are so many out there who have lost their jobs jobs or suffered pay cuts there is a greater flexibility being allowed to college financial aid offices. They are able to adjust a students income based on the cirucmstances. Thus making more federal money available to students. It’s something most offices have never had to do for such a large number of students. Tim Kremer - Dean of Student Financial Planning at the University of Dubuque admits that this the worst he’s seen it in his 20 years in financial planning. He’s been busy all this week with students calling and stopping by to get mroe assistance.
Which is why he also says now more than ever it’s important to teach the importance of budgeting and saving. It’s becoming a part of the loan education process. I found some good information here on the Dupaco website about other options.
I’ve never been one to be good with numbers. And that’s okay. But I have recently (in the last 8 months) discovered a tool to help me organize my spending and debt.
It’s called Mint.com and it works with my bank and my loan, credit card companies, and loan companies to tell me how I am spending my money and how much I owe on various bills. For those of you who have used Microsoft Money or Quicken, it’s very similar…just free and right here on the internet.
Don’t worry it’s secure too! The program downloads and categorizes your balances and transactions automatically. Everyday! Which makes it almost effortless (which I love) to see what your spending, in graphs and lists. You can see you income, balances and net worth.
You can also follow Mint.com on Twitter. They often give good tips on saving and budgeting.
One other way of managing and saving, that I recommend, is something called SmartyPig. It’s an online savings account that is separate from your bank. You can put money in it each month and keep it saving and accruing interest each month. It’s FDIC insured and helps keep money saved without temping you to take it out. The catch is that it takes 3 business days to take the money out of the account and put it somewhere else. So…it’s easy enough to take out if you need it but not easy enough to just transfer funds from one account to the next in a second.
SmartyPig was put together by a group in Iowa and the money is at West Bank in West Des Moines, Iowa. One neat things about SmartyPig is that it also allows you to share your goals with friends, who can contribute to your goals too. It’s always easier to do something if someone else is holding you accoutable.
I should note that I used both of these sites to help me plan and save. Of course there are alot of others out there and I am certainly interested in what else is offered to help manage money.
I am no financial expert, but in light of tonight’s story about college financial aid and the growing number of students trying to pay for college in a touch economy, Mint.com and SmartyPig are great ways to both manage and save in a way that is easy and convinant. I am curious what you think too. I know there are several banks in Dubuque that can help with savings and loan management. Most of them have online banking and money management already built into their programs. Either way, given all we’ve been through in the financial world, and the on going struggle it is to pay for college, save, find a job and just get by…saving and managing is NOW more than ever….sooo important.
Feel free to leave you comments and advice below.
Lauren~
Posted under Dubuque, Money
This post was written by lsquires on August 25, 2009
