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Simple Guides for Fresh Graduates
Going to college is no easy feat. Great parties and long holidays aside, it is one of the hardest times young people have to go through. During these times, their finances are tested to the limits. They also get to take their first dip into the world of personal loans in the form of student loans. So when graduation comes, students cant help but feel finally relieved to be free from their studies.
But not for long though. As soon as the caps tossed up in the air, the reality of the real world sets in. As graduates, they are now on their own and the responsibilities are much harder than before. In the real world, they have to worry about finding a career, managing expenses, transport,living, savings, the list goes on and on. So heres a quick guide for graduates on how to get started in the real-world.
Job
In finding a job, one must try to stick to his or her field. This is going to be worth it in the long run because it will allow them to move forward in their career. A job that pays higher but is unrelated is surely tempting. However, it can possibly cause dissatisfaction and career stagnation in the future.
Income
With a full time job one must refrain from mindlessly spending all of their pay check. They must learn how to budget and save. If they have student loans, now is the best time to pay them off. Student loans are low rate interest loans so they should be easy to pay off slowly.
New Place
New employment, sometimes requires one to move cities. They can opt to rent with a friend or someone who is looking for the same deal. This will enable them to save on rent money. Another good way of saving is subletting.
In most cases, a landlord would require money-orders or checks as deposits. Therefore opening a bank account (if a person is new to the city) is important. Keeping money in the bank acts as security for any financially independent individual.
New Car
Taking a car loan is a crucial decision. Fresh graduates must be able to afford at least a 20% down payment. This way paying it off from salary becomes easier. Having good insurance for the vehicle is also a must. This should be researched efficiently to get the best insurance deal.
These are only a few but essential things to consider in the real world. However, expenses do not stop there. As ones income increases, so does their financial responsibilities such as taxes, mortgage, health care and so on. Budgeting, saving and careful research is the key. When all three are managed well, theyll support themselves just fine in the world.
The first step – Finding out about college loan consolidation (Page 1 of 2)
We might think that for a regular college student the main concern is to attend classes, study for exams and turn in the papers before the deadlines. However, this is not the case in North America. The students in the United States and Canada have to deal with quite complicated financial decisions throughout their years of higher education. The reason is that higher education in these countries is provided by private institutions, which offer quality education but at quite spicy costs. In these conditions, students and their families have to face tough financial decisions when they choose a college to attend. For most of them, the fees are too expensive so the first step is to try obtaining a full scholarship or partial financial aid. For the rest of the expenses, there is the widespread option of contracting a college loan.
Students can contract more than one college loan during their four years of college. If they also pursue graduate studies, it is likely that they will end up with a collection of college loans that they end up paying back for many years after graduation. It thus turns out that a college loan is not something you leave behind at graduation, along with all the other college stories, but it is a life-long commitment. The practice of contracting a college loan is so common that an entire business has developed around it covering financial and legal services for the loan contractors.
A college loan can be offered by either a governmental agency or by a private company that takes care of such financial services. If the student contracts all his student loans from the government, than he can use the option of college loan consolidation. College loan consolidation is extremely advantageous because it actually means replacing a whole set of different loans with various interest rates with just one loan having a unique rate. The main benefit of college loan consolidation is that it gives the chance to lock in the interest rate at its current value (the value at the time when the consolidation is made) thus offsetting changes in interest rates taking place over the next years, when the loan is being repaid. Nowadays, all recent graduates are advised to pursue college loan consolidation as soon as they can because rates for college loans are at an all time low and they will not remain so for too lone. Doing college loan consolidation now means that the student makes sure he or she will pay the same low rate for the following ten or more years, although interest rates for college loans may increase by 10% or more in this period.
College loan consolidation is most commonly done by recent graduates, who are starting to face the difficulties of starting to pay back the loans. Usually, during the college years, the government will subsidize the payment of the rates for students. During the first six months after graduation, young people can still be saved the trouble of having to think about college loan consolidation because they are given a grace period during which no payments should be made. The wisest of them start thinking about college loan consolidation in this time though. They consider alternative options and decide which scheme for college loan consolidation is most beneficial for them. College loan consolidation may be a tough decision to make, the financial packages offered include details that may be tedious to follow and understand. That is why recent graduates may end up postponing thinking about it. However, they are being pressured more and more to become responsible and do college loan consolidation now because of the low interest rates they should be taking advantage of.