Selling a Dream: The Trouble With For-Profit Education

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to be a college professor. I dreamt of days sharing the glories of literature with students and nights toiling away grading papers and writing books. There was just one small thing standing in my way: the meager (if not nonexistent) chance an English Lit PhD actually has of actually becoming a professor. My bubble officially burst one day when my youngest professor took it upon herself to explain the realities of...

Over 100k in Student Loans – How We Paid Off 50k in 2 Years!

Today I’m happy to share Jeena Cho’s story with you. She borrowed over 100k for student loans and she’s figured out a way to knock out her debt. Jeena’s top 4 tips are below. “At 21, borrowing $100,000+ for law school seemed like a no-brainer. After all, once I land that job at that fancy law firm, with my fancy office, with my fancy house, car and wardrobe, earning a six-figure salary, repaying $100,000 should be easy. Right? For the first seven years...

Another Addition To the Education Tab: Pre-College Costs

We all know that the expenses that make up the college experience are high… high enough to induce a national student loan debt crisis. But educational spending often starts long before the actual tuition bill arrives. Pre-college costs are not just about buying twin-size bedsheets for the dorm room or a cheap bike for scooting around campus anymore. Parents (and some students) are now pouring money into another funnel: the pre-college standardized...

Is It Getting Easier to Refinance Student Loans?

There are plenty of options when it comes to refinancing a mortgage. Same goes for auto loans. But until fairly recently, refinancing student loan debt was more of an idea than a reality. While a few programs were created to help lower student loan interest rates, these options were limited and mostly geared toward new borrowers. However, there’s now a sliver of good news for those individuals paying off massive student loan debts on high interest rates....

Pros and Cons of Consolidating Student Loans

Once you finish college, you are likely to look at all of your student loan payments and sigh: How are you supposed to keep all of them straight? And how can you afford all those monthly payments? This is when many people start weighing the pros and cons of consolidating student loans. Among the inconveniences of student loans is that each loan that you receive for each school year is often considered a different loan — and it has to be repaid...

Should I Consolidate My Student Loans?

Have you asked yourself, “Should I consolidate my student loans?” If you have student loans, then you probably have. But it can be hard to know what the right answer is. Consolidation is one of those words that conjures images of simplicity, organization, and perhaps even post-clutter serenity. Instead of a mess of bills, a mess of belongings, or a mess of life, you can simply consolidate and deal with less. In the case of student loans, consolidation...

Should I Defer My Student Loans?

Generally, student loans are taken out for each year of school — so if you’re in a four-year undergraduate program, you’ll graduate with at least four separate loans, one for each year. (This is when, and why, loan consolidation comes into the picture.) The reason you don’t have to pay on each loan as it is disbursed is something called deferment, which is an option that allows you to temporarily postpone payments on your loans. For certain types of...

What Happens When You Stop Paying Your Student Loans

Student loans are, for many people, one of the first wake-up calls in Real Adult Life. While we may be used to paying cell phone bills, credit card bills, and even monthly rent, adding another hundreds-of-dollars payment to a monthly budget can feel like a massive smack to the face. And with little to no experience with these sorts of lenders and creditors, there’s temptation to just not pay them. The day I found out my first “real” job came with an...

What Is A Private Student Loan?

Overwhelmed by all the information on student loans out there? We’ve got you covered. ReadyForZero has addressed Federal Student Loans in previous posts on the blog. But a lot of students also have private student loans, and we’ve noticed that there seems to be a lack of unbiased information available about those. For borrowers with private student loans, trying to pin down accurate and helpful information about your loans can be tricky. With so many...

The Pros and Cons of Private Student Loans

We’ve gone over what private student loans are and how to begin researching repayment options. Now let’s get into the basic pros and cons of taking out a private student loan. We hope to help answer your questions if you’re considering taking out a private student loan, or are just curious to see how they differ from other types of student aid: PROS Your education costs will be covered There’s no cap on private student loans – at least theoretically....