College Students: Pass Up That “Free” iPod

College Students: Pass Up That “Free” iPod

Welcome to campus. College is going to be absolutely fantastic.

But no, the credit-card company isn’t offering you a “free” iPod.

Trust me when I say it’s going to work out a lot cheaper if you go and buy your own iPod and then throw the credit card application in the trash.

It may, in fact, be cheaper even if you buy 10 iPods and throw nine of them in the trash as well.

(You don’t believe me? Ask anyone over 40. They’ll look at you and say: “Only nine?”)

“There’s a lot of temptation with the credit-card companies coming onto campus,” says Curtis Chen, a financial planner in San Francisco. “It starts the freshman year. And it’s not just the student loans, it’s the credit-card debt, that leaves a lot of students behind the eight ball when they graduate.”

“A lot of kids have problems with credit-card debt,” agrees Becky Wilder Ruthven, a financial planner in Houston “The card companies are approaching these kids with all sorts of freebies.”

It’s ironic that as the United States tries to extricate itself from the last credit crisis, on campuses around the country we are about to start working on the next one.

Bad habits learned young can be hard to undo – at least, that’s what lenders hope.

Many students are ripe for picking. This is the first time they’ve been away from home and on their own. They may never have managed a budget, balanced a checkbook, or handled credit before.

Ms. Ruthven thinks it’s crazy that we drop kids straight into the deep end like this. No wonder so many get into trouble. She thinks parents should use this time to teach their children how to manage finances.

Mr. Chen warns that it isn’t just credit cards. Debit cards may be even worse, he says. They make it just as easy to spend money, and they can also be vulnerable to fraud.

Freshmen face a lot of decisions as they settle in. The simplest, easiest one they can make to help their finances is probably to shun cards altogether.

Set a weekly budget, get the money from the bank, and pay cash.

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Distance Learning Statistics

How many
postsecondary institutions offer distance learning
programs?

In the 2006–07 academic year,
66 percent of the 4,160 2-year and 4-year Title IV
degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the nation
offered college-level distance education courses. The overall
percentage includes 97 percent of public 2-year institutions,
18 percent of private for-profit 2-year institutions, 89
percent of public 4-year institutions, 53 percent of private
not-for-profit institutions, and 70 percent of private
for-profit 4-year institutions.

Sixty-five percent of the
institutions reported college-level credit-granting distance
education courses, and 23 percent reported noncredit distance
education courses. There was a total of an estimated 12.2
million enrollments (or registrations) in college-level
credit-granting distance education courses in 2006–07. Of these
enrollments, 77 percent were reported in online courses, 12
percent were reported in hybrid/blended online courses, and 10
percent were reported in other types of distance education
courses.

In 2006–07, there were
approximately 11,200 college-level programs that were designed
to be completed totally through distance education; 66 percent
of these programs were reported as degree programs and the
remaining 34 percent were reported as certificate
programs.

Total number of 2-year and -year Title IV degree-granting postsecondary institutions, and percent that offered distance education courses, by course type and institutional type: 2006-07
Institution type	Total number of institutions	Percent offered any distance education courses	Percent offered college-level credit-granting distance education courses	Percent offered noncredit distance education courses
All institutions	4,200	66	65	23
Institution type
Public 2-year	1,000	97	97	50
Private for-profit 2-year	500	18	16	‡
Public 4-year	600	89	88	42
Private not-for-profit 4-year	1,500	53	53	10
Private for-profit 4-year	300	70	70	2

‡ Reporting standards not met.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics (2008). Distance Education at
Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions: 2006–07 (NCES
2009-044), Table 1

Your 5 Step Guide to Shopping for the Best Term Life Insurance Rate

Term life insurance is an effective way to make sure your survivors will be well provided for without a hefty cost to you in premiums. It is very straight forward too: You get a term life insurance quote online or with your local term life insurance company and then buy a certain $$ amount of insurance for a "term" of time (such as 10 or 20 years) for a specified monthly, quarterly, or yearly premium. Although term life seems simple enough, here are some term life shopping hints to help you save money and get the best term life insurance rate:
1. Find a guaranteed renewable policy. For example, say you purchase a 10 year term life insurance policy. After the 10 years are up you want to make sure you can renew that policy for as long as you want, regardless of your health.

2. Make sure you get a fixed premium. Most term life premiums are fixed, but some term life insurance companies may offer a fixed premium for the first few years but then the premium may increase. Hint: If the premium seems drastically lower than those found at other companies, ask them if the premium is fixed for the life of the term.

3. Shop around before you choose a term life insurance company. Term life insurance is everywhere, from mail-order companies to television ads. Premium prices and the term of the policy can vary dramatically. Look for a company that is willing to give you a quote first, before they must meet with you. Getting a term life insurance quote online is a quick and easy way to compare term life insurance company prices in the privacy of your home and since you will be able to compare many different companies you will be able to choose the term life insurance rate that best suits your budget.

4. Don't get a policy that offers more insurance if you become deceased in a certain manner. Your survivors need the same amount of financial support regardless of how you die, and policies such as these may have an added cost to them.

5. Know your term life insurance company's financial strength! Yes, insurance companies sometimes cannot pay their bills, which is why they are rated by independent companies such as Best's.

Life Insurance

Life insurance can protect your business and provide additional incentives for skilled employees to join your business. Life insurance insures the life of the policy holder and pays a benefit to the beneficiary. This beneficiary can be your business in the case of a key employee, partner, or co-owner.
There are two types of life insurance policies:

Term Insurance

Term insurance is the easiest form of life insurance to understand. It pays only if death occurs during the “term” of the policy, which can be up to thirty years. After the “term”, no matter the premiums paid over the term of the policy, the policy is terminated.


There are two basic types of term life insurance policies:
Level term means that the death benefit stays the same throughout the duration of the policy.
Decreasing term means that the death benefit drops over the course of the policy’s term.
Whole Life Insurance
Whole Life Insurance is life insurance that continues as long as premiums are paid. The way this works is the insurer looks at your current age and health and reviews longevity charts that predict your length of life. The insurer creates a monthly level premium that is much higher than necessary when you are young, but much lower than necessary when you are old. This levels out the premium over the course of many years.
There are three varieties of whole life that offer investment options or variable premiums. These options: variable life, universal life, and variable-universal life; may be good options for your employees to consider or in your personal financial plan, but for purposes of business insurance, these options are not necessary. Also, insurers offer convertible term insurance that can be converted into whole life insurance. But, these types of policies are also beyond the scope of consideration as business insurance.

Source: http://businessinsure.about.com/od/lifeanddisability/a/lifeinsintro.htm