Comments on: College Money Tip #8: Know What You Owe

By: Mike @ Toronto Painters

Mike @ Toronto Painters — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:06:58 +0000

I think the biggest reason why most people don’t know, is because they don’t want to know…

They have enough stress from tests, their thesis, dating and everything else.

Not the wisest course of action to ignore it, but the reasoning behind it isn’t to hard to figure out.

By: Maverick

Maverick — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:02:20 +0000

I think the idea that “everything will just work out ok” is a fallacy for many students with big loans in today’s economy. More and more, a hard financial look about risk-reward will be necessary I think to prevent early bankruptcies …..

By: Andy @ Retire at 40

Andy @ Retire at 40 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:10:51 +0000

You’re right, it’s a little crazy that students don’t know what they owe, but in reality, most of them won’t think about it (rightly or wrongly) until after college when they have to start paying it back.

As well, all you can do is educate and advise. Hopefully this will help some people though I suspect still only a small percentage of students.

By: College Finance 101 » Blog Archive » Suggest Reading From The College Money Network

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:04:19 +0000

[...] you’re paying back money, don’t forget College Money Tip #8: Know What You Owe, by Poorer Than [...]

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:27:51 +0000

Short, simple, and straight to the point. I wish I had had the foresight to start monitoring (and paying down) my student debt when I was still a student. As it stands, I graduated nearly three years ago, and only started really paying attention to my student loans last year. Luckily, I’ve paid them down pretty well, but it’s still my biggest debt.

By: Weekly Roundup: Blogging In Public Edition — Broke Grad Student

Weekly Roundup: Blogging In Public Edition — Broke Grad Student — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:21:23 +0000

[...] College Money Tip #8: Know What You Owe at Poorer Than You [...]

By: What I loved Reading | Financial Independence in Your 20s | Studenomics

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:08:59 +0000

[...] at Poorer Than You tells young people that they should know how much they owe. Some very excellent points touched upon here with the main theme being that students should always [...]

By: studenomics

studenomics — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:59:41 +0000

Just the other day I was talking with one of my friends. He is graduating in two months from an accounting program with $20,000 worth of student loans. We were talking about life after graduation and he said he may take some time off to travel or relax. I found this to be mind boggling and I told him he needs to focus on paying off those loans. He is not worried because he thinks he will be earning so much money that he can pay them off within a few months. Oh man I pointed to him to a few great pf blogs and now he’s mad at me. I’d rather be realistic now as opposed to in a few years when it hits me that I am still in debt.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:53:14 +0000

Nicely put!!! It’s wonderful seeing you get the message out to help people before it’s too late one of the best parts about blogging! (comments are another in my opinion)….so glad i get to leave one

enjoy the weekend!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:47:59 +0000

@brista – You do have a lot of questions! That’s alright – I’m really glad to see someone in your position asking these questions, instead of blindly flying into it. Kudos!

First of all, you can always call your future-college’s financial aid office and set up a meeting, or a time to talk to one of their counselors on the phone. This may be a good idea, if you still have questions before you sign.

Secondly, yes, you can make repayments on your loan while you’re in school. A few weeks ago, I sent a rather large check to my loans, to pay off the interest that’s built up on my unsubsidized loans. You can do this at any time, and it doesn’t hurt you any (with federal loans).

If you receive a scholarship after you’ve taken out your loans, what will usually happen is that the money will be applied to your student account, and you will have the opportunity to get a “refund” issued to you as a check, so you can use that money on books or supplies. This would be something to check with your particular school, though – this is something that has to do with their policies, it’s not universal across all colleges.

Room and board: that covers the cost of the room, electricity, internet, phone, probably cable, and your meal plan at the dining hall. I don’t have a lot of information to go on, but I’d say that number is probably average, $900/month. My college is charging $1040 per month for that same thing for the 2008-2009 school year. The meal plan accounts for nearly half of that. Also, our dorms are awful: ugly, small rooms with bad lighting. But I loved them… I really loved living with all of these great people within walking distance, and food within walking distance… it was a great community, and totally worth the cost, for me personally.

Long questions, long answer!