Loan

How are these college students now going to be able to secure a student loan with the new limits on credit? ?

It will now be tougher to tight a student loan, car loan, home loan, and personal loan. What will your candidate do to help?


Please a close fearmongering.

Student Financial Aid remains unchanged. That's what "bailout" means.

Get your facts fair.


Dough college through the amount of time serving your community. Very appropriate.

Problem getting a student loan?

I am 20 years old and planning on unstationary from one community college to a new community college this fall. I have good but limited credit recapitulation (i.e. I have made all my credit card payments and such on time, but have not had the accounts


Have you met with the guide in your Financial Aid office at the school? If, after that you still have no help, contact a local bank to see if they work with college students who impecuniousness loans. You may need to file as an "Independent,"


With bad attribution, already tapping the federal Student loan program, and parents who are unable to help, you have slim options. Your outdo bet to get a part-time job. Most of us had to the same to get through school.

Federal student loan limits

With many college students scrambling to find the rhino they need to complete their education, a new project suggests increasing the amount of ...

Rising tuition, falling aid pose risk

A better storm of rising tuition and falling student aid is choking off access to college, the MD of a national financial aid group said during a Wednesday visit to Vancouver.

Justin Draeger, the president of the Jingoistic Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, spoke during the public affairs lecture series at Washington Hold University Vancouver.

American higher ed is being privatized, Draeger told The Columbian -- not in terms of social versus private schools, but in terms of who’s paying for college.

A gradual gang started taking place perhaps as far back as the 1980s, but certainly in the last 12 years, Draeger said. Higher erudition less and less is subsidized by the public and is instead paid for by individuals and families.

Draeger spoke about these trends on a jingoistic level, but Washington numbers bear out his statements.

The cost of educating a student at WSU has stayed more flat in the last two decades, when adjusted for inflation, Elson Floyd, president of the Washington Glory University system, wrote in a Seattle Times op-ed Wednesday.

But the cost is paid in unheard-of ways now. In 1987, state money covered 84 percent of the sell for of going to WSU and students paid $1,732 per year, Floyd wrote. Under Gov. Chris Gregoire’s latest budget project, the state would pay only 35 percent, which means students would pay $10,874 in tuition, he wrote.

Vancouver’s other open college campus has experienced the same shift. A few years ago, the state paid about 60 percent of Clark College’s operating expenses, Bob Knight, the college’s president, recently said. By the end of this year, the aver is expected to cover less than 40 percent, he said.

These cuts to state budgets have been accompanied by cuts to some federal student aid programs, which makes succeeding to college even more expensive, Draeger said.

It all adds up to a greater burden on students and families, and to more owing, he said.

“We are seeing slight increases in student indebtedness (overall),” Draeger said. “But we’re seeing more students having to bum, particularly low-income students.”

Nationwide, the total amount of outstanding student loans exceeded the outright amount of consumer credit card debt last year, according to national talk reports. The New York Federal Reserve is projecting that total student loan debt will beat $1 trillion this year.

Many states, including Washington, have tried to keep the weigh down on students down by mandating that the schools can only increase tuition by a certain percentage after grandeur budget cuts.

“Unfortunately, that degrades the quality of education for everyone,” Draeger said. “It builds in cantankerous incentives that go against the mission of public schools.”

When states cut appropriations and then limit guidance increases, colleges are left with a budget hole to plug. That incentivizes institutions to look for out-of-stately students who pay higher tuition, which means less access for in-state students, Draeger said. That reduces college access.

The University of Washington last year cut its few of in-state students to make more room for out-of-state applicants. It has reversed that this year after legislation mandating a fixed number of in-state students went into effect.

The cost of going to college was one of the topics brought up in President Barack Obama’s Grandeur of the Union address last month. Obama put colleges on notice about keeping costs under mechanism.

“It’s a laudable goal that everybody buys into,” Draeger said. “Certainly we pauperism to keep the net price of college down. The problem is, sometimes that type of rhetoric places the onus on colleges, when they’re fair subject to all these different dynamics of funding.”

The president basically said schools would get less federal net if they increase tuition.

“It’s pretty stern language,” Draeger said. “The problem is that it exacerbates the obstreperous, particularly for schools that serve high numbers of low-income students.”

The schools that to the highest number of low-income students generally are also the schools that have the least amount of money, Draeger said. Tiring to hold them responsible by reducing federal money ultimately will affect already disadvantaged students in some way, he said.

Draeger had some par to students who seek to change the culture long-term -- talk to legislators.

“Students have a testimony,” he said. “Congressmen are much more apt to listen to students and parents than to lobbyists in D.C. on these issues.”

Jacques Von Lunen: 360-735-4515; jacques.vonlunen@columbian.com; http://tweet.com/col_schools.

Making College More Affordable

Download this big problem brief (pdf)

Read this issue brief in your web browser (Scribd)

Introduction

In a diction at the University of Michigan last month, President Barack Obama outlined his script to make sure every family in America can afford to send their kids to college—a project he first unveiled in his most recent State of the Union address. The president is addressing a grave concern for American families today— 75 percent of Americans say college is too costly.

But colleges have been allowed to raise their tuition unchecked for decades, and until now parents and students—and the federal regulation, through grants and loans to students—were forced to foot the bill. As it’s unimaginable that one federal policy will reverse this trend, the Obama administration must attack the college rate problem from many different angles.

The president’s plan acknowledges this by addressing three principal issues surrounding college affordability: providing financial incentives for colleges to modulate tuition; giving students better information about their college choices; and improving federal pecuniary aid programs. This issue brief explains the highlights of the president’s aim and suggests some other strategies the president should employ.

Incentivizing low tuition

The president spoke straight away to colleges in his State of the Union address: “If you can’t stop preparation from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.” Using federal aid to incentivize savings at colleges is not a new concept—Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) proposed doing so back in 2003. But President Obama’s pattern is gentler than Rep. McKeon’s because it involves a smaller pot of federal money, and it would not soul deprive noncompliant schools of aid.

President Obama’s plan would award colleges that offer lower net tuition and provide a good value to students by giving them more access to campus-based aid—m-study, Perkins Loans, and supplemental grant aid for Pell Grant-appropriate students. Colleges with high tuition would receive less campus-based aid, although it’s not utterly yet just how much less aid they would get. The president also proposes a Race to the Top competitive grant program for status systems that commit to reducing costs and promoting college completion.

The extraordinary price of college tuition is a complicated problem that demands a complex resolution. The White House’s plan relies upon the idea that the threat of losing federal funding—or the assure of gaining more—is a strong incentive for colleges to comply. But there are other steps that must be captivated to encourage colleges to drive down tuition. Here are several.

Provide better ways to decide college quality

With little other information available about college quality, outrageous price is one of the ways a college can signal to potential students that it offers a altered consciousness-quality education. The federal government must offer prospective students speculator ways to gauge college quality if they want schools to drop their prices. One way to purvey better information is to require college accreditors to make public the report they collect on how well colleges do their jobs.

Incentivize colleges to use technology to drive down costs

Some colleges would like to limit their costs, but they don’t grasp how to begin. Technological advances in data management, online courseware, and e-textbooks can dramatically subdue spending but only if implemented well. The federal government must support pilot programs that show colleges how technology can thrust cost down, not up.

Start scrutinizing how colleges spend federal money

In the altercation over for-profit colleges, many legislators were outraged that a school would spend the bulk of the federal folding money it receives on shareholder profits or marketing rather than education. But we actually know very not any about how colleges spend the federal financial aid and research dollars they receive. The president should dilate data collection on how colleges spend their money and consider whether the use of federal monetary aid money should be limited to educational expenses.

Help students acquire college trust for free

Students can engage in college-level learning for free by alluring advantage of open courseware, like the resources offered by the Massachusetts Begin of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University . But to get college credit for this learning, students still have to pay a college to take an inquisition that certifies their knowledge. The federal government should provide examinations or other pathways to support students acquire credit for free for college-level learning they come into possession of through online courseware.

Together these policies would encourage colleges to bring down their tuition rates and liberal up pathways to low-cost degrees for students who cannot afford the high price of a routine college experience. But even these are not enough. The federal government must also give students and their families the information they poverty to make choices that demand lower-cost, higher-quality options from colleges.

Superior information

Every day students decide where to apply to school, what to study, and how to pay, with very little facts on which to base their decisions. Better information is a key to making choices that ensure families aren’t saddled with enlightening debt for the rest of their lives.

The president announced that his administration would develop a college scorecard to act as a adept reference for students on the cost and quality of the colleges they are researching. These scorecards will be hosted on the federal superintendence's College Affordability and Transparency Center website and will include information such as a student’s probability to graduate and repay student loans, average debt upon graduation, and likely calling outcomes.

In addition to the scorecard, the president touted plans to collect college earnings communication and its financial aid shopping sheet —a model disclosure form for economic aid offers.

These information measures will ensure there’s much more available data for students to use in their college settlement-making. But the college scorecard and financial aid shopping sheet are like Christmas ornaments—minute to look at, but they won’t shine without a solid tree to support them. The Obama regulation must work on developing the tree—a comprehensive strategy for providing students with knowledge from college choice to loan repayment—rather than adding more ornaments.

As CAP's issue digest “ Buying College ” argues, a comprehensive policy on college dope must consider what information students need, when they need it, and where they’ll find it. A comprehensive means on college information must include the following ingredients.

“Calorie-upon” information boxes located where students already look

Students distress basic information about colleges that’s placed in locations where they are sure to find it. Decent like the nutrition labels on food, colleges should be required to place a box with fundamental information —including tuition, graduation rates, and average student loan beholden—on the front page of their websites and on admissions and promotional materials.

Mandatory monetary aid comparison sheets

The model financial aid shopping sheet that the Consumer Monetary Protection Bureau and the Education Department developed is an excellent tool. It will alleviate students make accurate side-by-side comparisons among institutions by ensuring all schools closest their financial aid packages in the same way. But it will only truly be helpful if colleges are required to use it, not just encouraged to do so. The president should allege Congress to require colleges and universities to adopt the financial aid shopping veneer.

Teaching students to be better college consumers

To meet the president’s purpose of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, an increasing copy of first-generation students will be applying to college. College is an experiential service, implication that the best way to gain information about it is to experience it firsthand. High- and middle-profits students depend on parents, siblings, and friends who attended college to advise them understand what college is like and what to look for in a “good school.”

But other families essential help learning how to choose a college. The federal government can help families become heartier college consumers through programs like a college ambassadors network , in which college students use federal vocation-study dollars and return to their high schools to act as college advisors.

Bigger communication on student loan repayment

The student loan repayment system is surprisingly hard to navigate. One of the most common questions to the federal command’s student loan ombudsman—an office to assist students that have issues with their student loans—is “Who is my loan servicer?” Another everyday question is “How much do I owe?” And though the federal government offers an income-based repayment program for students who match with their loan payments, the uptake in the program is very low.

The federal government must make the student loan repayment system more drug-friendly by redesigning its communications with students, from better student loan exit counseling to a web-based dashboard that connects students to their loan balances, their loan servicers, and repayment options with the click of a button.

With improve information from college admissions all the way through loan repayment, students can make more meaningful choices and thrust colleges toward offering the high-quality, lower-cost options they have need of. As a final measure the federal government must ensure that it offers financial aid programs that are adequate to help students achieve their educational goals.

new student loan limits - Bookshelf


Federal Student Loans: Patterns in Tuition, Enrollment, and Federal Stafford Loan Borrowing Up to the 2007-8 Loan Limit Increase Federal Student Loans: Patterns in Tuition, Enrollment, and Federal Stafford Loan Borrowing Up to the 2007-8 Loan Limit Increase

... for all loan types, students who borrowed at the new statutory limits accounted for the number of those who borrowed more under the new loan limits. ...

New Zealand Master Tax Guide for Students 2009
1589 pages
New Zealand Master Tax Guide for Students 2009

It does not jacket blanket such matters as the eligibility for loans under the Government's student loan organization, credit limits or draw-down limits. ...

Student loan law, collections, intercepts, deferments, discharges, repayment plans, and trade school abuses
562 pages
Student loan law, collections, intercepts, deferments, discharges, repayment plans, and trade school abuses

I must also stamp a new MPN before receiving a new loan if requested to do so by my ... Loan Limits - The charts on this folio show the maximum Stafford Loan ...

Long overdue . . .

The following post was written just before the earthquake:

I returned from my last trip to Haiti on August 10th.  Why has it taken me this long to update my blog?  While it’s true that I’ve had many things going on: secondary applications to medical school, Biochemistry and Cell Biology classes, tutoring three students, and working on the Bayonnais Peanut Butter Project, it is also true that I’ve had a lot of free time.  It’s uncomfortably honest to reveal that sometimes, and perhaps even often, my friends in Haiti slip to the back of my mind.  Sometimes an anesthetic fog descends on the tension of living here, the comforts of life in the US dulling my response to immediate needs in Haiti.  Then it rises, and pain wakes action.  It looks like this: nestled feet-up in a Lazy-boy chair, I meet eyes with a Haitian child leaning in front of me on a wooden stool.  Nevermind its missing leg; he substitutes one of his own.  As his gaze lowers to the dirt, I struggle to find the handle that drops my feet, struggle to stand from this quick-sandy pillow. . .  Some say the cry of the poor is like the sound of a wooden bell.  In a buzzing, busy culture, we must listen with intention to hear well.

ROAD TO KAZNAV The most important story I have to share from this trip is that of Noncilien and my visit to Kaznav.  Many have heard me talk about the harsh realities of my friends’ lives: beneath the smiles is the fact that most aren’t eating one day of the week, and that may stretch to several during the dry season.  However, none of these friends live as far up the mountains as 19-yr-old Noncilien, a passionate student who showed great interest in my English class.  I started sneaking him Cliff bars when I realized how hungry he was, and one day I learned that he was hiking 2 hrs each way for my pronunciation exercises!  I was shocked.  He proceeded to tell me about waking up before sunrise to get to school in time (8:00 am), about getting home after sunset and stumbling in the darkness.  Can you imagine doing that five times a week?  I asked if he would show me where he lives, and he smiled.

Kaznav is a hike–up, up, and a rocky way that becomes precariously muddy in certain sections.  The trail is so bad donkeys can’t get up it, which limits what people can take to/from the market to what they can carry on their heads.  Noncilien has many hopes for his community, and one is to make a road to Kaznav, but he knows the first step is his education.  Local children fall behind because it generally takes a 12 yr old to make the harsh trek to the nearest school, and money is scarce.  Though there’s a hunger for knowledge, they’re stuck in the fields working for another hunger.  Up here, people may go an entire week without eating a proper meal!  The nearest water source is 45 minutes away and it’s typical to make three trips a day; do the math.  Noncilien’s mother had him when she was 16.  Four of his siblings died at ages 8, 9, 11, and 12.  As we hike, we pass an older woman working in the fields.  Her sons died at 19 and 25. . . I am 25.  I ask her a few questions; it sounds like they died of malaria.  Noncilien tells me she shouldn’t be doing this work, but she has no choice.  (I think of an older friend, frown-faced, tapping his finger to the second as he illustrates a racial theory of overpopulation to justify not sending foreign aid. . . I think he would learn a lot from this woman. . . I think we could all learn a lot from this woman. . . )

We pass a house and Noncilien tells me this is where he asks the time so he can pace his hike to school.  A few houses later his smiling mom comes out to greet us.  After a warm welcome by the whole family, Noncilien begins a tour of his property which supports six different species of mango tree!  He takes me off his land for a moment to an usually flat parcel with a beautiful, panoramic view of the valley.  “This is where I’d like to build a school or community center,”  he said.  “But first we need a road.”  Losing an eye to a goat horn has not affected his vision.  I admire the simplicity of Noncilien’s hopes and plan to help his people: first, get an education; second, make a road; third, build a school. . . Throughout the day he talked a lot about the value of wisdom and education, about how things can’t stay like this, about how things have to change.  My mind goes back to those mango trees. . . Mangoes have huge economic potential in Haiti.  Poor roads damage the fruit and limit exports.  Tons of mangoes rot each year in places like Bayonnais because there is no way to preserve them. . . at least not yet.  I’m looking into whether or not canning jars with rubber septums are sold in Port-au-Prince.  If they are, Noncilien’s family would just need a little loan to start a small jam business–one that could put a new product in the Bayonnais market and funnel money up that rocky path to Kaznav.  Otherwise, readers who like to can, put your thinking caps on.  Can you think of a unique and safe approach that doesn’t involve rubber septum lids?  Do you know of a solar dehydrator that could handle mangoes? . . . and what do mango jam and dried mangoes have in common besides market opportunity?  They both go well with peanut butter!

Before we get to the peanut butter project, however, I must mention a few more things about my visit to Kaznav.  Noncilien’s mother had prepared an extravagant meal for us: noodles, plantains, and fried eggs.  There was a lot of food, and they encouraged me to eat it all, but I know whatever I don’t eat they will eat. . . so I figure a good stopping point that receives their generosity while honoring their hunger.  As we’re getting ready to leave, his mother offers me a large bag of fresh beans.  Thanks, but no thanks.  If she pushes them on me, I’m going to have to draw a line.  She does.  Along with many words of thanks, I say that I’ll be leaving the next day for the US, and laws prohibit me from returning with them.  She understands and, smiling, begins to send us on our way. . . Before we leave, the grandmother looks satisfied as she says, “Li semble vant mwen plen.”  This visit has left her feeling like her stomach is full.  I’d never heard that expression before. . . wow. . . Her grandchild had never seen a white person before.  He couldn’t take his eyes off me for the longest time, and once he warmed up to me, he unwittingly started doing a little dance–a slow version of the salsa minus the hips.  “What’s he doing,” I asked as he shuffled before me, eyes locked on my face.  “He does this when he’s happy,” someone said and we all laughed.  Li semble vant mwen plen tou.  I feel full too.

I gave Noncilien my watch so he’ll worry less about getting to school on time.  He won’t need it though.  OFCB challenged him to make a certain grade in his classes; if he succeeded, he could stay with a family that lives close to the school during the weekdays.  This would eliminate a lot of needless travel and give him more energy and time to study.  They set the bar high, and he jumped right over it.

During this last trip I worked a lot on this project.  I did research on the peanut market in Bayonnais and found its annual price fluctuations.  I talked to women who make homemade peanut butter to sell on sandwiches and determined their average costs.  I emphasized techniques to minimize aphlatoxin contamination to both peanut vendors and the women who make BPBP peanut butter.  Peanut samples from BPBP, analyzed by JLA Global , indicate our sorting techniques are effective.  We built a Full Belly Project sheller whose efficiency allows us to buy peanuts unshelled rather than shelled, in turn lowering our costs.  I talked with agronomists at OFCB and one at Meds and Food for Kids .  If we buy peanuts in bulk in January/February when prices are lowest, storing them in our local food bank, a sustainable project model that doesn’t depend on subsidies may be possible.  (Currently, we have a little less than $3000 of the nearly $4000 needed in start-up capital.)  If BPBP sells 127 containers (32 oz) per month at $3.25, the project will pay for itself, including the labor of the two women who run it.  If BPBP sells 160 containers per month (max production), it will make a $48 monthly profit.  This price tag is 50% cheaper than Port-au-Prince and 35% cheaper than old, inflated BPBP prices before it knew where to set them.  MFK trained one of our agronomists about aphlatoxin prevention and donated a much-needed, high-quality grinder.  Plastic Packaging Corporation has given 1000 containers.  A lot has been happening and it’s very exciting!  Below is a video that shows what goes into making our peanut butter.

“There’s an old man who lives up the mountain.  His name is Benoit.  He lives by himself and I check in on him occasionally.  We met because his face interested me more than most, and I wanted to draw his portrait.  It was one of the more difficult ones to do because of the scruff around his mouth, so I prayed about it a lot.  (It’s embarrassing when you have someone sit for an hour an a half and it looks bad.)  With time we’ve become good friends, the kind who can playfully give each other a hard time.

He’s old.  In fact, nobody, including himself, actually knows how old he is.  He lives by himself in a small thatch-roof hut not much bigger than a closet.  While it is difficult for me to give things away to locals, as doing so invites problems of equity, most people in the area don’t mind my generosity towards Benoit.  It is by no means extravagant: some protein bars or peanut butter here, a shirt there.

Each time I leave Haiti I consider the potential of a last goodbye; I don’t know how much time he has left.  Today, I heard he was sick and reached his house around sunset.  He was sitting quietly on a small white rock by himself.  A smile lit his face when he realized who I was, and I thought about the beauty of unexpected gifts.  However, I didn’t have any gifts besides me at the moment.  “I don’t have anything with me,” I replied to the usual question.  I told him I heard he was sick and that I had come to check on him, but it was my mentioning the word, “friend” that triggered something.  It was subtle, but I noticed it.  He proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t have anyone; there’s no one to look out for him.  Something about my coming to see him as a friend, even and perhaps especially empty-handed, addressed a deep longing.

As I walked away, I could hear him singing. . . Singing.  All I know is that whatever happened during those casual five minutes was divine.

I don’t think either one of us expected God to show up in one another so powerfully this evening.” XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Invest In: A Financial Fitness Plan

It’s absolutely true, and happens more often than not –  It’s like Emily Haines sings in Metric’s Handshakes: “Buy this car to drive to work, drive to work to pay for this car…” , and in my case, it involved a car to get to work, and a blouse to wear at work, and a pair of shoes to wear at work that I could wear out after, and I soon found myself binge spending.

I’ll be the first to admit that there was a time that I would indulge a shopping binge that left my wallet empty.  In fact, sometimes – even with an empty wallet – I would still indulge a shopping binge, racking up debt and interest to stay fashion forward.  A lot of the pressure to stay fashion forward grew from working retail, but if I’d had a financial plan I would have been able to keep myself clothed for work and continue saving.  It didn’t help that being in such a financial mess left me in a foul mood – and what’s more therapeutic than shopping?  As they say, , and I wouldn’t have learned as much about how to provide for myself had I not experienced that scenario.  At the height of my personal finance crisis, I had $15000 “invested” in a car, $6000 in unsecured debt and a small student loan to tackle.

When I left the retail world, I started looking at ways to pay off mountains of debt I’d accrued in my early twenties, as my interest rates soared.  What some call predatory lending gave me large limits I couldn’t keep up with, and locked me into interest rates to the tune of 31%.  My minimum payments barely covered that cost.  I did a lot of research, and finally decided that credit counseling was the way to go.  I could keep up my payments, but my debt stretched before me for what seemed like eternity.  I continued to research, reading Personal Finance blogs, and stumbled across the best inspiration I found: Fabulously “Broke” in the City .

When I became a regular reader, I used her advice to make a fixed financial plan, pay all my debts off early, and to use credit responsibly.  I was able to actually email her, and ask how I should handle my debt, while trying to pay for school.  I learned a LOT by reading her early posts, and the financial information wasn’t boring – she was just like me; a girl who liked to own nice things, but wanted to ensure a financially secure future.

A year after I started reading, I had everything paid off and a small emergency nest egg.  Not only that; halfway through my degree, I have relatively little school-related debt (I do buy school books on credit, but I have credit reserved specifically for that).  Asking a girl who’d eliminated debt as fast as FB did really helped me figure out how to tackle my own, and afford to pay tuition.  I didn’t invest in her spreadsheet – but I think I should, because I know it would STILL be a valuable tool to plan my own finances, but I did take her advice in tracking where my money is.

Hello! *waves*When I first started trying to get out of debt, I created what would be the first draft of the FB Budgeting Sheet.  ( You can read that story here, and specifically, about becoming a recovering shopaholic , here!)I had researched plenty of others online that were suggested to me, namely Mint.com, Pear Budget and MS Money, but each of them posed their own problems.

Mint.com was not good for a paranoid person like me.  If I don’t save or give out my password to all of my banking or investing information online, I am sure as hell not going to let a third party use it.  I am also not willing to provide marketing and analysis data of my transactions and shopping habits to the company for free for any purpose they choose.

Pear Budget and MS Money were good, but too simple. I wanted to track and analyze what I was doing in ways that the sheet and program wouldn’t allow.

And thus, the FB Budgeting Sheet was born!

http://www.fabulouslybroke.com/fb-budgeting-analysis-tool/

It is now in its 4th version, and is the mix of all the great things I liked from all the budgeting sheets I encountered over the past 3 years in its making.  I think it’s pretty much perfect for a beginner or for someone like me who is out of debt but still uses the sheet every single day.

For an example, I posted my 2009 Budget Year End numbers with my December 2009 Budget ending the year.  I find it immensely helpful to track and analyze what I spend during the year, but also if I wanted to look back at old numbers!

Just this morning, BF asked me: “Hey, how much did you spend on that London Fog suitcase last year?”. It took me 2 minutes to pull up my old 2009 spreadsheet, find the month, and give him the exact amount.

The sheet can be re-used over and over again, and I can see how I did from not only month-to-month, but year-to-year, which helps keep me in check.

To celebrate its success for not only myself but for many others, as well as to pay it forward, No need to flip from one section to another. It’s all sorted by month.

You can enter in all of your paycheques on the sheet (lots of room now), including any side jobs, or extra money you may have earned or have been given.

Then it flows into your Budgeting area, where you set up the categories for the year (I have given you pre-set ones, but also ample room to name your own).

And all of your Daily Expense Tracking is automatically calculated against your Budget Categories, so you can see where you stand in terms of your budget at any given time of the month.

3. You can adjust it however you want, to suit your tastes It sounds trite, like I am trying to sell you a pink KitchenAid for Breast Cancer or something, but I found that a great motivator for me to enter in numbers, was to see the results in the pie chart at the end, and to see my yearly spending at the end of the year.

Colours are very important to me, because they help motivate me to open up my “pretty” spreadsheet and have fun entering in expenses and not seeing just black and white.

5. It comes with a lot of built-in calculators You can calculate your retirement nest egg, based on what you save, how often, at what age and growing at what rate, as well as other quick calculators such as compounding interest.

Sure you can find some of them online, but I don’t like having to go back to these online services and keep re-entering numbers based on what has changed.

So that’s it – My FB Budgeting Sheet in a nutshell.

You can visit the FB Budget page to read some testimonials of people who wrote back after buying the sheet.

Remember, I don’t talk ONLY about money on my blog. I consider myself to be a lifestyle blog with some money talk that won’t bore or intimidate you. For example, I posted my 2010 Budgeting Goals in Pictures , to make it more interesting for myself (and hopefully, for you as well).

If you have any questions, comments or just want to chat, drop by and visit the blog!

¤ ¤ ¤

FB’s blog really helped me see where my money was going, and the sometimes ridiculous stuff I spent it on.

It’s important to have a financial fitness plan because it lets you invest in yourself and your future while you’re stashing away mad money for vacations, or shoes, or what-have-you.  Fabulously “Broke” has a lot of great information if you’re trying to sort out your own financial plan, or if you want to know how to find your own “ balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver “.

I’d like to give a huge “ thank you! ” to FB for coming out and talking about her budget tracking tool.  Besides writing on personal finance and lifestyle, she maintains an awesome blog about becoming an eco-friendly minimalist , and a fashion-forward site that you should visit too!

Until next time….

I totally had this moment. Our house sitters have not left yet and they only have one car. So sometimes I take Mrs. House Sitter to the store.

One day she wanted to get a ‘winter purse’ and asked me to take her to the mall. I swear to god, she wouldn’t look at any purse that was under $200!

I got a lecture on how you should only buy “quality” pieces and all I could think was “Quality pieces are nice when you can actually AFFORD them.”

It was like the WASP’s version of expensive rims on Honda Civic.