I listened to a story on NPR’s All Things Considered on the drive home Tuesday about the rising cost of Medical School.  The first person they talked to was horrified that her daughter would be paying 8.5% interest on her federally backed student loan and wanted the government to cut that rate in half to match the interest rate they just received on their refinanced mortgage.  They said she was going to have to borrow a total of $300,000 (the entire cost of her education.)

For some reason, this grabbed me in a similar way to the story last year about the health care executive (not a CEO or President, just an executive) who had paid $18 million for the largest yacht ever built, but it was sitting half completed at a bankrupt shipyard.  I had a hard time feeling any empathy.

Yes, she is going to be saddled with that debt for a long time.  Yes, the interest rate is higher than that for a mortgage, but with a mortgage, you have collateral.  What are you going to put up to back a student loan?  And while $300,000 is a lot of money, how much is the house she is going to buy to live in, as a doctor, going to cost?  It seems a matter of scale, a scale that most people in middle America are not going to deal with and maybe since I don’t have any sort of connection, I can’t relate to her situation.

If you don’t want to pay interest on that amount, there are several things you can do, like, say, not borrow.  Plus, she will not have to pay more than 15% of her income towards the loan, and there is talk of lowering that down to 10%.  I think she is going to survive.

NPR — Cost Of Medical School Rises In Recession

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Uncategorized education, money, npr, recession, student loan

The thing that spurred me to start posting again [get it -- spurred...] isn’t a thing, but a who:  My wifey.  She decided to start her own blog, Emmylyn.com, mostly so she can post recipes.  She is a great cook and an excellent baker.  I’m not sure if anything I post here is interesting to anyone else, or even valid, but it seems that the process, such as thinking about a subject or idea, then putting it down in words, helps me improve, maybe even develop a healthy narcissism.  But you should go visit my wife’s blog, give in to my nepotism, and help build her a healthy narcissism on top of it.  What does this have to do with personal finance?  Let’s see if I can make a connection.  You will definitely save money by cooking her recipes as opposed to dining out, so there is that, plus you will be eating delicious food.  How’s that?

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Uncategorized Gene Autry, narcissism, nepotism, recipes, wifey

Last year I resolved to quit letting the IRS hold onto my money and give it back at the end of the year, and instead to have access to that money right away.  So I adjusted my withholding so we should have gotten about $200 back after filing our return.  You can probably see where this is going.  Last weekend I sat down and started on our taxes using TurboTax Online, which works really well.  Our taxes are not to complicated, but needs more than a 1040A.  So, cutting to the chase, we owe $510.  I’m confident I can come up with that amount before April 15th without dipping into our current savings, but any sort of set back is a little disheartening.

Oh, and I adjusted my withholdings again this year.  We’ll see how good my figurin’ and cipherin’ is once again.

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Uncategorized irs, taxes, TurboTax

We’re not dead. We’re feeling much better! I’ve ignored this blog for about 14 months now, but it’s time to get back on track.  We’ve totally blown our debt reduction goals.  Some in part to unforeseen expenses, but a lot due to over spending.  But we have made progress.  We have a little more than $1,200 in credit card debt left to pay, a couple medical bills, and then we will be debt free save the mortgage, but that should be paid off within 10 years even without any extra going towards it (bi-weekly payments rock.)

So my resolution for March is to post to this blog more.  Which, considering one post in 14 months, shouldn’t be too time consuming!

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Uncategorized credit card debt, debt reduction, Goals, zombies