Saturday, April 02, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Student Loans a Bad Idea
WashingtonPost
Quotes from the article:
Save up for your wants. Spend less than you earn. Despise debt — any of it, including student loans — so that you borrow as little as possible.
Student loans are like no other loans. Lenders and debt collection companies can come after federal loan defaulters with a vengeance. Loan payments can be deducted from a borrower’s wages, income tax refunds can be snatched, or the account can be turned over for collection, which of course means more fees added to the loan. Federal benefit payments for defaulters, including Social Security benefits, can be taken. Borrowers can be sued for the entire amount of the loan, and there is no time limit for collection on federal student loans. They are liable for any collection or court costs; and they might not be able to renew a professional license. On top of this, it’s nearly impossible to erase the debt in bankruptcy.
The report also highlights another distressing fact about student loans. Twenty-three percent of borrowers kept default and delinquency at bay by postponing repayment of their student loans through deferment or forbearance.
A deferment allows borrowers to stop making loan payments if they meet certain criteria, such as an economic hardship. Lenders may also grant a forbearance that gives borrowers permission to stop making payments for a set period of time. But forbearance is generally a more expensive option than deferment because interest continues to accrue, even on federal subsidized loans.
Here’s the moral of this story, the authors of the study say. Their research confirms that far more students than generally recognized begin to pay off their loans but then have to resort to repayment options that increase their overall debt.
USNWR: Best Colleges | Find the Best College for You
Best Colleges | Find the Best College for You | US News Education
Georgia Tech #35 (out of state tuition = $26,926 total = $35K per year ranks 514th for in-state)
U of Florida #53 (in state tuition = $5,020 going up to $5,700 next year about $15K total per year ranks 714th)
Northeastern #69 (tuition = $36,792 about $46k total per year ranks 145th)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Newest Company eNewsletter
I am the author of he front page articles and the Americas regional news:
Friday, February 18, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Quote of the Day -- Cost of College
Instapundit
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: In response to yesterday’s post on Rick Perry’s $10,000 B.A. proposal, reader Steve Schroeder writes:
While visiting with old college friends on New Years’ Eve we did a back of the envelope calculation on the cost and value of our BA degrees in Accounting from 1981. We attended a small well regarded Midwestern liberal arts college from 1977 to 1981. Tuition, room and board was between $3,000 and $4000 per year so around $16000 for our BA. As entry level accountants in public CPA firms we earned a salary of around $17,000 per year. So we earned in salary an amount equal to the cost of a BA degree in our first year of employment. Now that same college, which my youngest daughter is looking at attending costs $42,000 per year. If she earned her BA in Accounting it would cost her $168,000. Her possible first year salary as a CPA? Not even close to $168,000. Maybe around $45,000. What a change in 30 years in the value of that BA in Accounting.
Indeed. Many degrees have seen a similar decline in their return on investment. It’s because the return has (more or less) kept pace with inflation, while the required investment has run wildly ahead.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0
MSE 2.0 is not officially released but is available for download via Microsoft here
With MSE 2, Microsoft is evolving this product in a few meaningful ways. Setup is as simple as ever and retains the same basic UI of its predecessor, with the same Home, Update, History, and Settings tabs.
New features include:
Windows Firewall integration. MSE 2 integrates with the built-in Windows Firewall and will prompt you to enable this integration during Setup. This way, MSE can include firewall monitoring as part of its overall PC health monitoring.
New protection engine. The MSE antimalware engine has been updated to offer enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities with better performance.
Network inspection system. MSE 2 now helps protect against network-based exploits.
Other improvements. MSE 2 includes other important, if hard-to-find, changes. You can specify that CPU usage not exceed a certain limit (the default is 50 percent) during scheduled scans. MSE 2 reports when definitions were checked in addition to when they were updated so that you can be sure it's working properly if a long time has elapsed between definition updates. The real-time protection functionality offers more fine-grained control. You can now auto-remove quarantined files after a specified interval, though that option is disabled by default. And Microsoft now allows you to opt out of Microsoft SpyNet, the online community that ensures that MSE stays up to date; I don't recommend doing this for obvious reasons.
One feature, enhanced protection from web-based threats, was removed very late in the beta. According to Microsoft, this feature was removed for performance reasons.
download the new version.
With MSE 2, Microsoft is evolving this product in a few meaningful ways. Setup is as simple as ever and retains the same basic UI of its predecessor, with the same Home, Update, History, and Settings tabs.
New features include:
Windows Firewall integration. MSE 2 integrates with the built-in Windows Firewall and will prompt you to enable this integration during Setup. This way, MSE can include firewall monitoring as part of its overall PC health monitoring.
New protection engine. The MSE antimalware engine has been updated to offer enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities with better performance.
Network inspection system. MSE 2 now helps protect against network-based exploits.
Other improvements. MSE 2 includes other important, if hard-to-find, changes. You can specify that CPU usage not exceed a certain limit (the default is 50 percent) during scheduled scans. MSE 2 reports when definitions were checked in addition to when they were updated so that you can be sure it's working properly if a long time has elapsed between definition updates. The real-time protection functionality offers more fine-grained control. You can now auto-remove quarantined files after a specified interval, though that option is disabled by default. And Microsoft now allows you to opt out of Microsoft SpyNet, the online community that ensures that MSE stays up to date; I don't recommend doing this for obvious reasons.
One feature, enhanced protection from web-based threats, was removed very late in the beta. According to Microsoft, this feature was removed for performance reasons.
download the new version.
Friday, January 07, 2011
$200K in Student Loans for a BA from Northeastern?
My Very Costly College Education | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy
Yikes! I'm an NU grad and left with my BS in 5 years and $1,200 in student loans. I lived at home while at school and away from home during some very lucrative co-ops. I drove a beat up 10 year old car that finally died during the last weeks of school. I also worked close to 30 hours a week flipping burgers at a Ground Round restaurant for the first three years at NU.
Makes all that sacrifice seem worth it when I left owing $198,800 less than Kelli Space. I hated writing all 12 $100 checks to pay off my student loan. I can't fathom what it must feel like to try to pay off $200K of student loans.
Here's a hint: there is no such thing as "good debt." Debt is debt. You are a fool if you are not carefully considering how you will pay off each and every dollar of your debt before you acquire it.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Monday, January 03, 2011
Best Friends Responds to Obama Praising Michael Vick
When the President Calls About the Vick Dogs | The Best Friends Blog
Read the link above, and here is their Christmas Video:
Obama recently called the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles to praise him for giving Michael Vick a second chance and telling him "what a great arm" Vick has.
The president and co-founder of Best Friends is still waiting for Obama to call thanking him for rescuing the dogs that Vick had fight, electrocuted, stabbed and tortured.
Read the link above, and here is their Christmas Video:
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 06, 2010
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Friday, October 01, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Gmail Supports IMAP4
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/10/gmail-supports-imap.html
OK, this news is a mere 23 months old, but I just learned it today. A great reason to use GMail is it is one of the few (only?) free online e-mail sites to support IMAP4. What's that mean? Well it allows you to use a great E-mail program like Thunderbird from Mozilla while you are at home. Anything you do, like sending messages, deleting messages, etc at home will also be recorded online.
Then when you travel you can still use GMail online. It's the best of both worlds, and the equivalent of how large corporation handle e-mail by keeping your e-mail on a central server that you can access and manipulate just like Outlook.
OK, this news is a mere 23 months old, but I just learned it today. A great reason to use GMail is it is one of the few (only?) free online e-mail sites to support IMAP4. What's that mean? Well it allows you to use a great E-mail program like Thunderbird from Mozilla while you are at home. Anything you do, like sending messages, deleting messages, etc at home will also be recorded online.
Then when you travel you can still use GMail online. It's the best of both worlds, and the equivalent of how large corporation handle e-mail by keeping your e-mail on a central server that you can access and manipulate just like Outlook.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Further thoughts on the higher education bubble |
Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Further thoughts on the higher education bubble | Washington Examiner:
"Right now, people are still borrowing heavily to pay the steadily increasing tuitions levied by higher education. But that borrowing is based on the expectation that students will earn enough to pay off their loans with a portion of the extra income their educations generate. Once people doubt that, the bubble will burst.
So my advice to students faced with choosing colleges (and graduate schools, and law schools) this coming year is simple: Don’t go to colleges or schools that will require you to borrow a lot of money to attend. There’s a good chance you’ll find yourself deep in debt to no purpose. And maybe you should rethink college entirely. "
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