Product DescriptionThis is the eBook version of the printed book. If the print book includes a CD-ROM, this content is not included within the eBook version. Most people carry debt for most of their adult lives. Yet, most books on debt focus mainly on how to pay it all off, and live forever without it. Too often, following that advice leads only to failure. People either give up, or pay off the wrong kinds of debt. They strand themselves with too little flexibility to survive a financial crisis — and land in bankruptcy court. They neglect saving for retirement, homes, or college, and end up poorer than they might have been. For most people, it’s more realistic — and smarter — to control and manage debt effectively, rather than eliminating it completely. Debt Smart shows how. Award-winning personal finance columnist Liz Weston explains the rules and explodes the myths surrounding debt. Discover the crucial role debt can play in a portfolio, identifying debts that actually contribute to wealth and flexibility, while avoiding or eliminating “toxic” debts. Weston presents effective strategies for evaluating, monitoring, and paying every form of debt, from credit cards and mortgages to student and auto loans. She offers practical guidelines for how much debt one should take on. Find realistic (and often surprising) guidance on everything from home equity loans and 401K borrowing to small business loans.
Deal with Your Debt: The Right Way to Manage Your Bills and Pay Off What You Owe
Why do colleges cost so much? Large capital spending provide the best facilities, faculty, and sport centers and teams to keep wealth alumni donors happy. Universities hope to boost their national ranking by spending on high-speed internet access, new gyms, concert halls, and better student housing.
Faculty salaries are expensive. The median salary for a tenure professor is $76,200. Many colleges are trying to shrink class sizes and reduce class loads so professors can do more research and bring glory to the University.
What type of loans are available? A Perkins loan offers a 5% fixed interest rate and a maximum borrowed amount of $20,000. Stanford loan is a variable rate loan capped at 8. 25% and a 4% upfront fee.
How much should you borrow? None is the correct answer. If you don’t have money then don’t go to college. Save your money then go to college. If you yield to temptation and accept a loan then your loan payments once you graduate shouldn’t exceed 10% of your expected monthly gross. You will have 10 years to repay the student loan. If you earn $40,000 then your payback will be 4,000 a year (10%) or about 340 dollars a month for a $26,000 dollar loan. The average undergraduate loan is about 26k. 50 percent of the student enrolled in college do not graduate and leave the college with heavy student debt. If you graduate making less than 40k the loan repayment amount will be overextended in ratio to earnings. Instead of 10 percent of your wages the loan will represent 15 to 20 percent. The heavier debt loan increases the risk of default.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is very informative. It gives a lot of useful tips as to how to manage your finances and how to actually deal with your debts. I would recommend this book to anyone who is trying to figure out ways to managing their debts.
Rating: 5 / 5
I have known Liz Weston for years as a journalist and have always found her to be very thorough and no-nonsense. This book is no exception. It’s well researched with unbaised and sensible strategies for dealing with debt. I had the opportunity to interview Liz on my internet radio show EverydayWealthRadio recently about the book and she clearly has great advice on this topic. She addresses things like 401k loan, pros and cons of different types of debt, and the common questions I hear from consumers,
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought three debt books the last time I was at Amazon. They were all good, but this was the most comprehensive in easy to read format and sentences that it made things easy to develop a plan from this book. I already passed it on to two other people.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is full of great information on high to prioritize your financial life in terms of debt reduction, retirement saving and other saving. But the advice assumes the reader has a fair amount of discipline (i. e. , ability to budget and constrain extraneous spending). The book goes into great detail on how to balance debt reduction with maintaining financial flexibility, maintaining good FICO scores, etc. But far too many people who are deeply in debt (and seeking help from books like this) have a spending habit that needs more drastic surgery than this book gives. So, I would say this book gives outstanding advice, but only for a subset of the public who have the right discipline. For many folks, the more drastic “surgery” advocated by cheerleaders like Dave Ramsey will be more effective.
Rating: 5 / 5