Education While You're Still Paying for Yours

One of the biggest fears of our clients with children is that they will still be paying off their own student loans when it's time to start paying for their kids to go to college.

If you use what I'm about to teach you, you can be a hero to your kids by pre-funding their college education and at the same time relieve your stress by paying down your own student loans faster. If you don't use what I'm about to teach you, you could end up living every parent's worst college nightmare, the 11th hour crisis to find the money for college as they struggle to pay back their own student loans.

Common sense tells us that the more goals we are saving for the less we can contribute to each goal. For example, if you have $1,000 each month to put toward your financial goals and you have 10 goals in total, that equals $100 allocated toward each goal right? And if you only have 2 goals you can now save $500 toward each goal. Pretty simple stuff here but the point is, there's only so much money to go around unless you start thinking outside of the box. As you know, the real problem is that student loan debt payments take up such a large portion of your monthly income that there's a big challenge in finding the money to pay bills, loans, housing expenses, save for your retirement and college for your kids. As a result, most families end up sacrificing one or several goals in order to meet others.

There is help, and it's closer than you think

What if you could get friends and family to help you build your children's college fund? Grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, even friends and colleagues, anyone you know can help build the account. All you need are two things to get started: a 529 college savings plan and a 529 plan registry.

The 529 plan

State sponsored college savings plans or 529 plans are named after the section of the tax code that provides for their favorable tax treatment. The 529 plan is an investment account that was designed to help pay for future qualified education expenses including tuition, books, supplies, equipment, and room and board.

There are lots of benefits to using a 529 plan for college savings among them are:

1. Tax benefits - Money going into the plan is after-tax but earnings accrue tax-deferred and distributions made to pay the beneficiaries college costs are federal tax-free. Some states also offer similar tax benefits. Added bonus; there is no tax reporting until the year in which you began taking withdrawals.

2. You retain control of the funds - With very few exceptions, the beneficiary has no rights to the funds. You own the account and you decide when withdrawals are taken and for what purpose. This helps you avoid the Harley versus Harvard dilemma where your kid decides he would rather buy a Harley and see the country than spend four years at Harvard. And if the Harley versus Harvard dilemma does come up you can always change the beneficiary of the account to another child or even yourself if you plan to further your own education.

3. Easy to manage - Once you decide which plan to use, fill out the enrollment paperwork, and make your contributions, the professional managers take over and handle the day-to-day management of the investments for you.

4. Flexible - In most programs you can change investment options, roll over into a different state's plan, or change beneficiaries. You have many options to make sure that the plan remains the best fit for you and your children.

5. Large deposits are allowed - In many state plans contributions of up to $300,000 are permitted.

The 529 plan registry: supercharging your 529 plan

The control, tax benefits, and flexibility of 529 plans are great but if you really want to supercharge the value of the 529 plan, you need to get others to help you fund it and that's where the 529 plan registry comes in.

Once you enroll in a 529 plan you can go to a 529 plan registry website like  that connects friends and family with your child's college fund. A 529 plan registry is similar to a gift registry that you may be familiar with from weddings and baby showers. Here you can sign up and connect with friends and family who can go to a personalized registry page to make a gift donation for your child's college education fund.

There are lots of benefits to using a 529 plan registry for college savings, here are some of the benefits of Freshman Fund:

1. You get a customized webpage - Where friends and family can go to make donations at anytime.

2. The account is free to set up - However, contributions are assessed a small service charge.

3. It's easy to share and get the word out - You have the option of importing your Yahoo, Gmail, Linkedin, or other address book contact information so you can notify those people in your network who might be interested in helping you fund your children's college education.

4. Your children's privacy is protected - Privacy is a big issue and Freshman Fund has a detailed privacy policy that you can view. You have the option to restrict who can view your child's pages and limit viewing only to signed-in users and not the entire internet. And unlike Facebook, if you ever decide to completely delete your child's profile, you can do so.

How do you get started?

The best part is that you can get started in four simple steps:

1. Visit: SavingForCollege.com and select a 529 plan - Here you will be able to get all of your college savings questions answered and select which 529 plan is best for you.

2. Enroll in the 529 plan you have selected - Complete the enrollment process.

3. Visit: FreshmanFund.com - And Sign-up.

4. Get the word out - Use the tools on Freshman Fund's website to customize your friend and family greetings and invite them to help you build a strong financial foundation for your children's future education. Be creative and have fun. There are many ways to share this news, birthdays, holidays, special events, the more you can engage your network the more savings will pour in.

Get the Scoop From a Top Reverse Mortgage Blog

While reverse mortgages sometimes make headlines, consumers can rarely find up-to-date information in their favorite newspapers and magazines. To make up for the lack of mainstream news, seniors can get the latest information by following a reverse mortgage blog. For those who have fallen behind on their favorite reverse mortgage blog, here is the latest news that has the mortgage industry buzzing.
Are Financial Experts Finally Realizing the Full Benefits of Reverse Mortgages?
It is no secret that reverse mortgages have many critics. When Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) first became available in the late 1980's, several lenders did adopt some questionable practices. However, as these loans have matured, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has tightened their regulations. The days when lenders could take advantage of their borrowers are long since over. Unfortunately, it has taken a long time for the industry to shake its negative reputation.
The good news is that the industry is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves. While these loans are not meant to take the place of traditional retirement planning, many esteemed organizations, including the National Council on Aging, now work to educate seniors on these loans.
As many adults are acutely aware, the recent downturn in the economy has impacted retirees' assets and made it harder to save for retirement. An article released by Investment News, an online news source for financial planners, reported that "reverse mortgages should be considered as a very valuable retirement tool by financial advisers of all types." While there will always be critics, many blog owners are noticing this well-deserved change in attitude.
Reverse Mortgage Blog Owners Discuss Possible New Loan Products
Many blogs are also reporting that new loan products might be released in upcoming months. Currently, FHA has extended their $625,500 maximum claim limit on HECMs through 2012. Still, as home values continue to rise, the demand for jumbo propriety loans might also increase. This has reverse mortgage blog owners predicting that a new jumbo product will be released within the year.
However, people interested in a propriety loan should be aware of a few different things. First, these loans will not be insured by the federal government. Since these loans are not insured, it is likely that borrowers will be required to have a great deal of equity in their home to qualify. Still, if and when this product is released, it will be interesting to see how these loans differ from HECMs.
Another interesting piece of information predicted in several reverse mortgage blogs is that one major lender has proposed the idea of using the HECM Saver as a tool to be used by seniors who are not yet eligible for Social Security. While waiting for Social Security benefits, seniors would draw income from a line of credit made available through the HECM Saver. In theory, this would give seniors a low-cost way to turn their home equity into a source of income; thus allowing seniors to wait to claim benefits until they reach full retirement age, which would increase their benefits in the future. Regardless of whether this idea becomes a reality, the constant plans for new products prove that the industry is one driven by innovation and continued development.

There's Bad News And Good News About Weight Loss: Learn How To Diet Now

Good news, bad news. Let's start with the bad. Studies show that when we are overweight or obese we are at greater risk of developing serious illness associated with weight.
Good news? Studies also show that losing only five or ten percent of your body weight will improve your health! Let's put numbers to that. Let's say you weight 200 pounds and the doctor told you that you need to lose 60 pounds. If you lose ten pounds (a mere five percent of your body weight) you will reduce your risk of weight related illnesses dramatically. That's very good news indeed.
So how do we go about losing even ten pounds? Let's look at a few ideas:
• Educate yourself: Information is power. Learn what kinds of foods you should eat and which exercises will benefit you the most (without the exercise taking on a life of its own!).
• Set a realistic goal. Once you decide to start a weight loss program it's easy to become too enthusiastic in goal setting. If you resolve to lose 10 pounds in a week, "it ain't gonna happen". You will be setting yourself up for failure because a big part of that weight loss would be water loss, and the rest of loss would result from such a strict regimen that it is not even healthy for you and it is certainly not a program you are going to keep up. Aim for one or two pounds per week. That's the kind of loss that will "stay lost".
• Exercise every day. Include simple items such as using the stairs instead of the elevator, walking for fifteen to thirty minutes after lunch (and after dinner if you can), play with the kids or the dog, garden, join an exercise class. Figure out what you will be able to stick to and then get started.
• Reduce the amount of all food you take into your mouth...right now. Statistics show us that we're eating two or even three times the amount of food we need. I won't tell you how much to cut your own intake by, you do that. You know how much you really need. (If you weight too much, you're eating more than you need...period.)
• Eliminate drinks that are sweetened with sugar. They are dead and useless calories. (They can easily cause a weight gain of fifteen pounds per year!)
• Get rid of high fat, high sugar, high salt snacks that are sitting around wistfully calling your name. Substitute fruit and vegetable chunks, low fat dips (if you really need a dip), whole wheat crackers, reduced fat cheese chunks, light yogurt...if these foods are available (and "the others" are not), you will be well on your way toward the weight loss you desire.

Sue Bristol, R.N. advises you how to diet safely