Excellent financial tips for your child’s education

Is your child ready for college and you are wondering how it would be possible to foot for his educational expenses in such grim scenario. You don’t need to lose hope as here are some great education finances tips which will ensure that your child is not deprived of studying in some of the best colleges.

Check out some of the educational financial tips for your child:

Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants or FSEOGs

Meant for undergraduates this grant is available depending on how much funding a particular school receives. The grant amount ranges between $100 and $4,000.

Pell Grants

Awarded to graduates depending on family and need base the maximum amount granted during 2007-08 was $4,310.

Federal Work Study Program

Under this program award is granted in exchange for work where the work schedule is 12 to 15 hours during the week with government or non profit agencies. You are awarded as per minimum wage.

Stafford Loans

Students eligible under this scheme are able to borrow money at favorable interest rates with flexible loan repayment option. Loans are subsided depending on the financial need.

PLUS or Parents Loans for Undergraduate Students

Parents can get this loan in case they pass the credit check but the loan amount is limited to the actual cost of attendance minus any other financial aid received.

Retirement Planning Tips for Small Business Owners

For small business owners personal financial planning is a big headache as their business and personal financial planning is entangled. Here are some retirement planning tips which would ensure that post retirement you don’t have to struggle in your life.

• Ensure that your personal assets are protected
• If the economic climate is risky it will make sense to move your assets to a holding company
• You must also maintain adequate insurance provisions for your business and yourself.
• Try to keep your tax bill as low as possible.
• Give a thought to individual pension plans if you would like to boost your retirement savings.

Keep these simple yet important retirements planning tips in mind and your retirement will be the best phase of your life.

Things you need to know about 2008 Individual Income Tax Returns

With April 15 deadline fast approaching here are certain things which you must know:

Deductions

• There has been an increase in standard deductions for 2008 to $10,900 for surviving spouses, 5,450 for single filers and married persons filing separate returns and $8,000 for people filing as household heads.

• The maximum IRA deduction per person has been increased to $5,000 in 2008.

• Temporary property tax deduction has been made part of standard deduction.

Exemptions

• The limit for personal exemption in 2008 has been increased to $3,500 per person.

• There has been an increase in AMT exemption to $46,200 for single filers, $69,950 for joint filers and $34,975 for married persons filing separate returns.

Credits

First-time homebuyer can claim credit up to $7,500 and will also be available for first time home buyers purchasing home before July 1, 2009.

Exclusions

• $12,000 can be excluded from amount of gifts per tax payer for 2008.

• Exclusion of amount from estate for estate tax purpose is $2 million for 2008

We can only hire immediate families of our employees at the moment!!

With recession at an all time high, the coffers of most of the blue chips companies is empty and what all they can do is hire their immediate families of their employees as they wont cost a bomb. The irony is that the foolish top management had a good time at the cost of the company hence leading to one of the worst financial crisis of the globe which has lead to suffering of hundreds and thousands of families around the world!!

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Read this if your mortgage application has been rejected

Sad and frustrated that your mortgage application got rejected?? Don’t worry, as per Mortgage Bankers Association around half of the mortgage applicants are turned down by banks and financial institutions. This means you are not alone and it is not the end of the road too.

Consider some of these points below which could help you in securing a loan:

• In case you don’t get approval for mortgage at a lower rate chances are that the financial institution could give you a nod at higher rate of interest or lower mortgage amount.
• If you are just miles away from the eligibility criteria i.e. credit score, you could reapply and get an approval if you are willing to pay the balance on your credit card.
• In case one financial institution rejects you try your hands at the other one. There is a very good chance that the other one may give you the nod. For eg. A local community bank might be flexible in its terms and conditions as compared to a bigger financial institution following stringent norms.
• Keep in mind that a rejection does not lower your credit score but reapplying within a month could lower your credit score by five points

So stay calm and don’t lose hope if your mortgage application gets rejected 

Is 401k a Ponzi scheme?

It might be a bit hard to digest but several workers have seen their 401(k) balances shrivel over the past year and if we believe the estimates of Employee Benefits Research Institute then workers with at least ten years of job tenure have witnessed losses of between 20% and 30% in their account balances since the start of 2008. This makes me feel whether 401(k) plans are just to play havoc with your retirement?

Many of us may feel it is some kind of a Ponzi Scheme but even before 401(k) came into existence a number of companies were offering traditional pension plans which would ensure that they had a comfortable life even after their retirement and it was up to the employer to ensure that workers got the best deal.

Some may feel there is some grand conspiracy behind it and it has some serious flaws which helps the employers to get the monkey off their back but let me tell you at the end of the day you would be better off than some of the traditional pensions as government agencies backing employer pensions are already facing huge deficit and could witness their losses mount in the future. So stay cool as this shall also pass!!

A 100% Ban on UK Mortgages?

Recession is slowly and steadily pouncing on each and every nation around the globe and with no sign of economy picking UK is likely to impose a blanket ban on mortgages in the country

This seems very likely as the PM intends to save the banking system of the country which is already bleeding under the effect of recession, thanks to some senseless steps taken by them to up the business. (Greed has got no dimensions I must say)

Also the country is expected to announce a 500 billion pound bailout package soon which would surely cause a pinch to the taxpayers in these harsh times so a ban on mortgage makes sense at the moment. Dear Prime Minister in these bad times don’t expect people to even cast a look at mortgages as you wont find any takers for it J

My take:

In the good times we tend to forget that it never lasts forever and we only tend to realize when the ship leaves the port. So true when we talk about human nature!!