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Student Loans Need an Overhaul, Not Small Changes
Student loan debt is the elephant in America’s living room, and with good reason. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics, the...
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Why Gov’t Doesn’t Need to Raise Student Loan Rates
I worked in Manhattan many years ago—at a time when 3-Card Monte was the hot ticket on the streets. As good as you thought you were at eyeballing the elusive ace that danced from palm to palm, you...
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CFPB Report Needs a Brighter Light on Private Student Loans
This past Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its report on private student loans (PSLs). It describes how PSL growth exploded during the run-up to the 2008 collapse—and even...
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Student Loan Rate Deal: Spared, Then Stung
As it turns out, Congress was able to get enough of its act together to resolve the subsidized student loan rate impasse—at least until next summer—but with a catch. It used to be that eligible...
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Four Years of College for the Price of Three?
Suppose for a moment that the student loan crisis is painstakingly addressed the way it should, the ideological debate about interest rates—subsidized or not—is exposed as the sham it is, and folks...
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Don’t Let Your Student Loan Debt Keep You From Buying a House
When I was about to graduate college, one of my dad’s friends put his arm around my shoulder to pass along a few words of wisdom: “Never spend as much as you make, kid.” We get lots of advice when...
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Searching for Solutions in a Sea of Confounding Student Loan Statistics
Lately there have been some powerful articles profiling college grads and others who are struggling to make their student loan payments. While all of the reporting does a great job of personalizing the...
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Bad Credit? A Boss’ Advice for Getting the Job
It’s been a rough several years, and while the employment outlook is slowly turning hopeful, those who’ve been through hell and back because of unemployment and underemployment, not to mention the...
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Why Privatization Won’t Solve the Student Loan Problem
The cost of financing higher education has long been a sticking point among lawmakers. In fact, the unnecessary fight over the continuation of the government’s subsidized Stafford Loan program rates...
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A Revealing Pre-Election Look at the Budget Deficit
I’m a visual learner—I don’t get it unless I can see it or read it. Perhaps this is why I find politics and punditry so frustrating. Facts and figures in sound bite format without the benefit of...
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The Hidden High Cost of Strategic Default
If you’re one of the 28% of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage that’s higher than your house is currently worth, is it time to toss the keys to your lender and walk away? According to Zillow’s third...
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6 Loans You Can Get & How to Use Them Wisely
There are lots of cash-strapped consumers out there who, for all practical purposes, are closed out of many traditional credit product offerings because of the high default risk they’re presumed to...
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The Pitfalls of No-Interest Financing
The New Year has come and gone, which means it’s time for the torrent of resolution-related ads for diet aids, exercise equipment and home products — furniture in particular. No doubt, you’ve heard the...
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The Student Debt Business: A Way Forward
My daughter works for a nonprofit organization. The pay’s not great but she loves what she does. So much so that she’s now ready to take the next step in her personal career development plan — graduate...
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How to Work Through $150,000 in Student Loan Debt
In a recent article, I wrote about a former student who was struggling with more than $100,000 of student loan debt. He’s not the only one. About two hours after my article hit the wire, I received an...
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4 Ways to Deal with Student Loan Collection Companies
At the beginning of March, I authored an opinion piece in which I proposed radical changes to the higher education business model. I also put forth a plan to address the nation’s staggering student...
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The Big Profits Behind Student Loan Interest Rates
If insanity is defined as repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result, the student loan interest rate throwdown that’s about to be reprised in Washington, D.C., warrants an...
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Higher Ed Overhaul: Sell the Buildings, Lease the Land!
The student loan crisis deserves all the attention it has attracted — and more — especially if we’re serious about tackling this trillion-dollar tragedy in a comprehensive way. But let’s not make the...
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Why the Smarter Solution for Students Act Fails Our Kids
Last week, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1911, the Smarter Solutions for Students Act. Unfortunately, it’s neither smart, nor a solution. The legislation pegs all...
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A Tentative Step in the Right Direction on Student Loans
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) recently introduced the Federal Student Loan Refinancing Act, a piece of legislation that calls for the refinancing of all higher-rate Federal Direct and Federal Family...
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