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How to finance your college without money?

Uncle Sam offers many perks, programs to help student paying for higher education such as

Pell grants , Perkins loans or Student Stafford student loan
First what you have to do is fill out FAFSA application, which can be obtained online, from

a high school counselor or by calling (800) 4-FED-AID. You should meet the minimum

requirement such as be U.S citizen or have a green card. No felony, court orders, or any

illegal drugs selling, Complete high school education through a state approved home

schooling programs (your local high school in your town were you living) . You should

progress once in school. After you've proved that you fulfill all these requirements and

you submit your FAFSA, the government will consider you for the aid programs they offer.

You can either receive free money such as Pell grants or Stafford loan with you have to pay

back but interest rates are much lower than private student loan. There are two kind of

loans that you may obtain beside private student loans.
Pell Grant come in varying amounts -- depending on your need and the cost of attendance

and whether you attend full time or part time -- from several hundred to several thousand

dollars.
FSEOGs go to students with exceptional financial need. As with Pell Grants, FSEOG-award

amounts range from several hundred dollars to several thousand a year, depending on the

student's financial need. Students who receive Pell grants also are at the top of the

priority list for receiving FSEOGs.

How to deal with a tight budget?

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When you own money to creditors, and creditors is still calling to you and asking to pay

your obligation then you may be in trouble. Some people panic and borrow money from bank because they

own money to other creditors . This is what most people doing without even

thinking or exercises their right and obligation to creditors. What you have to do when you

have a problem with your budget is to find out what is your current budget your expenses and your income

when reduce household expenses with your family, plan reductions in household expenses to

stay within your budget. You should cut food costs , plan less expensive meal menus use

leftovers and prepare snacks from scratch , adjust your buying habit only shop when you

need to , make a list and compare prices and brands use coupons, also consider other

shopping options food co-operatives, farmers markets or going to a farm and picking your

own this will save your few dollars, to cut your telephone bills, switch to a money savings

rate plan, eliminate unnecessary calls measured services charges for calls by length and

time of day , make fewer long distance calls, take advantage of lower evening and weekend

rates, cancel electronic phone features like call waiting and discontinue cell phones,

e-mail services and pagers, to cut your energy and fuel cost this is what you should do and

remember you should stick with your budget, turn off lights, TV and appliances when not in

use( you should turn off most appliance during night so it will save some energy), cut back

on the use of power hogs like hair dryers because it eat a lot of energy, lower the

thermostat on your hot water heater and furnace and turn up your air conditioner, and dress

accordingly, as well you should thing about washing and during only full loads of clothes

or dishes don’t use dishwasher as is eat a lot of power and energy. Eliminate unnecessary

car trips if you don’t have to go or you want to go somewhere else, just don’t go as it

only waste your time and car consumption and of course gas and one of the most important

fact that you should do is consult with your local consumer credit counseling services to

help you getting out of debt! What other items should I taking care of? You need to sell

what you don’t need or just very seldom use, Consider selling that extra vehicle or the

boat and trailer you rarely use. Look at your possessions to see which items could be sold

or traded without really changing the way you live. If this possible ask landlord to lower

you monthly payment and ask if you can do a job for him such as cut lawmaker. You should

also check with other financial resources such as life insurance, if you have a

supplemental life insurance then you can talk to your insurance agent to see whether you

can borrow against your policy as well talk to your union representative or employer to see

whether you are owed a refund on your pension fund contribution or from other company funds

as you know you may be able to borrow money from your 401k but don’t withdraw money from

your 401k as your will pay taxes and penalty on it!

How to save on tax

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Average Taxpayer doesn’t pay attention to taxes until April 15 rolls around. April 15 is deadline for filing your tax return unless you notify IRS and take appropriate action and fill out for extension but you need to remember that IRS may decline your extension if you don’t have enough and good reason why you need extension you need to provide good reason! Taxes affect us daily, whether we are working shopping or saving for important milestones like retirement, 401k retirement plan, first home or buying our dream car. As it turns out, fall is the perfect time to trim taxes. This year, 15 states have already or soon will sponsor reprieves from sales taxes as part of back-to-school shopping this is great opportunity to save on tax! How to save on taxes of course if you work for somebody then you are employee and employee don’t have a lot of opportunity to “ cut taxes” only employer and self employee can deduct expenses. If you are employer you know that all employee expense are tax deductible and all company expenses are tax deductible. You can have 401k with profit sharing plan integrated as well other pension plan non-qualified benefits. You can also defer your competition until retirement so it will avoid taxes and will double because those money in invested on stock exchange. There are many venues to saves taxes but those venues can only be applied to self employs and employers. There are also many different way to save on taxes such as Snag the first time home buyer credit. Individuals who buy a home from April 9,2008 to July 1,2008 and who haven’t had owned a primary residence for the previous three years can claim a new credit, that worth 10% of your home purchase or up to $7,500 whatever is lower. The break phases out for joint tax filers with incomes of $150,000 (or $75,000 for individuals). It's important to note that these credits are structured more like interest-free loans than true tax breaks. There are also Tax credit for education and tax credit for those people that have assistance from government. How to skip taxes? There is no way to skip taxes you may defer your taxes but you still have to pay tax some day, let say you are in age of 30 and you work for x company earning $60,000 a year you are marries and your love earn $70,000 dollars a year then combined earning is $130,000 annually you guys both can deduct up to $9,000 for your 401k retirement account and $5,000 dollar each for IRA Roth or Traditional with is saving of $19,000 only for retirement then you can deduct as much as $4,000 for kids education with will lower your total tax obligation of $23,000 dollars then you can have some other non-qualify competition plan such as earning deferred where you can defer up to certain dollars amount for your retirement or you may have pension plan where you can deduct those from your gross income. Health Insurance is also deductable from your income so there are many venue to save on tax what you have to do is read more about saving tax online and you will be happy that you save on tax !

How to setup 401K plan?

If you are employer and want to establish 401k Retirement plan for your employee you should

be aware of the benefit and disadvantage of all 401k retirement plans. As you may know that

to become employer it takes time and effort and of course capital because you have to pay

your employee for a job that they performed. In today’s day more and more employees are

investing in their futures through 401k retirement plan and you need to provide that plan

to your employee if you want to retain your employee in job. Employees who participate in

401k plans assume responsibility for their retirement income by contributing part of their

salary and, in many instances, by directing their own investments. What is your

responsibility as employer? Of course deduct portion of your employee income and put into

401k plans. You have to open 401k plan in banks, or financial institution and financial

institution will managing your 401k plan. Most employee wish to invest money by their own

on stock market by stock, bonds, mutual funds and other financial product but in realistic

they can’t invest money on their own they can only choose with mutual funds they wish to

have on their portfolio. Consider fee when you open 401K for your employee!

In a 401(k) plan, your account balance will determine the amount of retirement income you

will receive from the plan and of course if you negotiate fee with your account

administrator then you will gain more value on your account!. While contributions to your

account and the earnings on your investments will increase your retirement income, fees and

expenses paid by your plan may substantially reduce the growth in your account. I would

like to show example how fee may affect investing on your 401k retirement account. Assume

that you are an employee with 40 years until retirement and a current 401(k) account

balance of $50,000. If returns on investments in your account over the next 40 years

average 12 percent and fees and expenses reduce your average returns by 0.5 percent, your

account balance will grow almost 2 million at retirement, even if there are no further

contributions to your account. If fees and expenses are 1.5 percent, however, your account

balance will be less of $200 thousand dollars.
401K fee
Plan Administration Fees - The day-to-day operation of a 401(k) plan involves expenses for

basic administrative services -- such as plan record keeping, accounting, legal and trustee

services -- that are necessary for administering the plan as a whole
Investment Fees - By far the largest component of 401(k) plan fees and expenses is

associated with managing plan investments. Fees for investment management and other

investment-related services generally are assessed as a percentage of assets invested. You

should pay attention to these fees. You pay for them in the form of an indirect charge

against your account because they are deducted directly from your investment returns. Your

net total return is your return after these fees have been deducted. For this reason, these

fees, which are not specifically identified on statements of investments, may not be

immediately apparent.
Individual Service Fees - In addition to overall administrative expenses, there may be

individual service fees associated with optional features offered under a 401(k) plan.

Taking a charge of your Personal Finances

alt Many people don’t know how to get around with finance and spending more than they earning and they dip their self into financial trouble, and have a lot of outstanding balances that they don’t know how to pay off because interest rates is rock up and they have much more to give back than they borrow. People need to take care of their personal finances if they want to live debt free and here are few tips that they can follow up to became debt free
1. Prepare a Complete household budget – getting control of your personal finances is important to service unemployment. Use a household budget worksheet to see where you spend your money and where you can save. Do this as family project. Your budgeted expenses should include
- Fixed expenses – mortgage , rent, taxes, insurance, loans, installment payments credit card payments, child support and other fixed monthly payments and other financial obligation that are fixed each month such as gas and power bill payment or your internet and TVs bills, most of those bills is not change month to month so that why it call fixed expenses.
- Variable monthly expenses- food , gas, repairs, dues, prescriptions, recreation and utilities and child care
- Future expenses- income property tax and other outstanding debts
2. What your budget income should include?
• Income, Savings, Severance pay ( let say you have insurance than pay you severance each month for your emergency items) or some other financial aid from government, union strike assistance if your company is striking and your employer is paying you each week you should also add this as a budget, Unemployment compensation if you are not working and collecting unemployment, accrued vacation pay if you have not take your vacation this year and you can change your vacation package for cash
• Refund from pension funds or if you collect social security so you should add those to your income budget
3. Third steps is a List Assets
• Cash Value of insurance policies
• Prepaid burial or funeral policies
• Equity in your home the difference between the value of your home and the amount you owe on your home to banks
• Resale value of items you have fixed on tangible such as computer, domains, vehicles, board , RVs or other items that can be sale quick also stock, bonds, mutual funds and other financial securities that is trading on stock market can be liquid and count as assets
Next steps is to set priority you should list all your expenses first and what is important for you and then make a complete list of creditors, list should contain information such as name, address, and phone number of a contact person account number and total amount owed and payment schedule and amount and interest rates. If you have financial problems you should notify creditors that you have financial problem so creditor will working with you to find good resolution and help you get out of debt. They will lower your interest rates and make a better repayment option.