I may have mentioned before that I have been tasked with researching financial literacy programs and resources for college students and beginning the process of developing a program and iniatives tailored to Ole Miss students and alumni. This is a daunting task. There are so many questions to answer...what should we be teaching? How can we format it so that there's at least a CHANCE it'll sink in? How should it be organized?
So, just for research purposes, I thought I'd ask anyone who has a minute to answer a couple of questions for me. Feel free to answer in the form of a comment, or if you'd rather not share with everyone, just shoot me an email.
1. What do you wish you'd been told about financial aid or finances in general when you were an entering freshman? (Examples might be "what interest on a loan is," or "how the debt I'm taking out now will affect purchases I'll want to make in the future, like a home or a car," etc.)
2. How do you think an instructor could have given you the above information so that you'd actually pay attention and digest it?
1 comment:
Okay, so you know I am going to comment, being that I have student loans and had NO IDEA what I was doing with money after college. I knew enough to pay bills/rent/food and such, but saving...ha...not exactly, I didn't have the funds for that. Meanwhile, my loans were deferred and you guessed it, earning more and more interest. Finally I felt I was at a place where I could consolidate and begin paying them off...should have started earlier, but oh well.
I am not sure how to get it to sink in, it took me finally seeing how much I owed and realizing this had to end and I had to start saving to really get started on paying things off. In my case, I graduated with about 40K in loans after undergrad. That is really not bad considering what the cost of tuition can be. If a student is presented with their own loan summary (kind of like you are presented with when you buy a house) with the approx. total owed at the end of college, based on the loans they are taking out, it may help them see what they will be responsible for once they graduate. I also feel that it would have helped me to see the options I had for repayment prior to being released out into the job market. I eventually did quite a bit of calling and research to figure out that I needed to consolidate and then make larger payments on top of my minimum to get things paid off sooner. Now for some, this may be a natural instinct, but for me, I had to learn all of this, no one ever told me. Also, students who may not be able to pay the loans right away can still pay the interest to keep from compounding what they will owe when they can pay (Charlotte did this while still in college).
Not sure if this helps and I may have not been exact enough in my descriptions. Let me know if I need to clarify. Suffice it to say though, with paying more on my payments each month I do anticipate my loans being paid off in 7-8 years versus 25...huge difference! Jeff made a table in Excel that we use to determine how much time we have left to pay. Very helpful. Also, I found with my loan payment, if I do automatic debit, they knock off additional interest. They also lower it every few years if you have not had a late payment. Every little bit helps!
Whew! GOOD LUCK!!
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