Personal Finance Tip of the Day

If you are eligible, the federal student aid office has a myriad of programs to help parents and students fund their college/university expenses, including grants, campus based aid, Stafford loans, PLUS loans for parents, PLUS loans for graduate/professional degrees and loan consolidation. More detailed information is available on each of these programs at http://studentaid.ed.gov.

Federal Work Study Programs a program that provides part time jobs to students in undergraduate and graduate programs, allowing them to defray the costs of education and gain valuable work experience at the same time. Your institution will pay you directly, and the minimum that you can make must be equal to, or higher than, the federal minimum wage. You are not allowed to earn commissions or fees in this work, and you are limited in the amount that you can earn by the size of your work study grant amount.

College Savings accounts: an account similar to a retirement account, which may offer you investment choices, and choices as to the amounts you wish to invest and the frequency of those investments. Some people like to fund these accounts with several large payments, whereas others may fund it each month, over many years. When your child begins attending college or university, the money can be withdrawn from the account to be used for room, board, tuition, and books.