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Showing posts with label savings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label savings. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

College Graduates Are Being Ignored and We Hate It

I calculated what I'd need to make for a yearly income to healthily afford my student debt. It's about 15 thousand more than what I'm making now. WTF? This calculator doesn't need to tell me that I have a hell of a time making ends meet every month, but seriously, I've never thought that you need so much money just to afford an education.

I've said before, my student debt burden equals that of a small house or condo. Why do people in my situation get ignored when it comes to cutting privately loaned interest rates? Congress and Senate bills are being pushed through that will lower interest on mortgage loans to 3% and allow people to stay in their homes even if they default.

I'm working, paying my loans back (barely) and I haven't heard anything about these people coming to help me out. Working in public service roles for 10 years and having federal loans forgiven is a nice thought, but public service jobs are either ridiculously low paying or bureaucratically stifling creativity killers.

My generation graduated into a shit (excuse my language) economy. I had a terrible time finding a job. I know previous generations (not the past two though) had it tougher and made it through. I'm making it work and constantly scheming how to do better, but there's got to be a better way out there, no?

I feel a literary piece coming out of this.

What do my readers think? I'll listen to those of you who have student debt, whether little or small and even to those of you who didn't have to borrow for college. I just want to know that I'm not crazy for being bitter about getting fleeced each month.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

New Savings Funds

To all my personal finance blogging peeps, I set up two separate accounts with ING. One is a house fund for the down payment I will surely need for any decent mortgage when it comes to buy a house or condo. The second account is a Europe vacation fund. I feel like I'm becoming one of those workers who will never take a vacation unless I am either forced or unless I make it a point. So I've decided to save a bit of money so I can go back to Europe sometime in the next few years and see the things I missed while studying abroad. I'm pretty good about saving money when I put my mind to it. With my expenses dropping considerably at my new apartment I feel that money saved will go to good use in these savings accounts.

I also invested a little money in the stock market as well. That may be a less wise move, but I really have faith in this stock. I still think there is money to be made in the market, even when it's down! Keep and eye on Evergreen Solar (stock symbol: ESLR). It's a local solar panel manufacturer and if they're plans flesh out as they're planning, they're going to be huge. I've also got a couple financials on deck for investment that have performed well for me as well. They didn't buy that poison bad mortgage paper like banks like Lehman and insurers like AIG. I believe in their fundamentals. They're names are ING Group (ING) and Anally Mortgage (NLY).