Business and Financial News

Private Student Loans were big business, until 2007-2008.

The number of private loans has grown more than 3 times in the past decade, going from 7% of all loans in 1998 to 23% in 2008. Then the credit crunch hit, and private loans market dried up for a while. Now, private loans are making a come back and this new round is more expensive and harder to get.

Federal loans have fixed rates, and flexible repayment terms, but private loans are often variable rate (usually in the double digits when all is said and done) and are less flexible in repayment.

Because of this, you should avoid private loans where you can by maxing out federal loans first, and then only use private loans sparingly if you cannot avoid them altogether.

4 things to watch for with private student loans.

1.

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Would Bradford artist David Hockney agree it’s grim up north?

They say it’s grim up north.

And according to a quality of life study they are right – apparently people in southern England enjoy a higher quality of life than those in northern regions of the UK.

Banking group Halifax said 28 out of the top 30 local authorities that offer the best quality of life are in southern England, with Rutland and Blaby in Leicester the only places outside of the south to make it on to the list.

Places in the South East accounted for 19 of the top 30 local authorities for quality of life, while there were six in the East of England, two in London and one in the South West.

The highest ranked region in the North East was Castle Morpeth, in Northumberland, which ranked 43rd overall, while Hambleton, in 85th place, was the highest ranked local authority in Yorkshire.

Elmbridge in Surrey topped Halifax’s quality of life survey – which scored local authorities in Great Britain according to a range of factors, such as employment, earnings, home-ownership, the environment, education and health – for the second year running.

The bank said 95% of people in Elmbridge were in good health, people in the area had a high average life expectancy of 81.1 years, higher-than-average weekly earnings of £1,064, while 76% owned their own home.

The area also had above average employment rates, while children got above average GCSE results, and it typically enjoyed a good climate with 32.7 hours of sunshine a week and less than average rainfall.

East Hertfordshire was identified as offering the second highest quality of life, followed by Surrey Heath, Uttlesford in Essex, and Sevenoaks.

No local authorities in Scotland made it into the top 100, with Aberdeenshire the highest ranked area at 153rd.

Wales fared even worse, with the Vale of Glamorgan offering the best quality of life in the region, but coming only 194th overall.

The impact that the twin forces of a deep recession and an aging boomer population is having on increasing disability claims across the country is no news to Frankel & Newfield. The phone calls and emails received in our office over the last six months are from people between a rock and a hard place. In a kinder economic environment, the workplace might have been more flexible with doctor’s appointments and more than usual sick days. Today there’s little room for employees with problems, regardless of circumstances. And once a disabled person is out of work, there are fewer opportunities, and fewer options. A formerly healthy and hardworking person who is out of work and applying for disability because of illness or an accident should not be treated like a slacker.

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Many parents have plundered kids’ savings accounts during the recession. Full Article…

 One of the best gifts anyone ever gave me were savings bonds.
 
I don’t remember their face value. All I know is I redeemed them for far more than grandpa paid out in the early ’70s.
 
They covered most of the cost of the first car I bought, a used Toyota Tercel. That blue aluminum can got me through Indiana winters, an internship in Louisiana and my first newspaper gig in New Mexico.
 
It served me well. But a larger lesson prevailed: How money, properly invested, grows dramatically with time.
 
This holiday, it’s hard to be cheery with so many of us unemployed or underpaid, digging out of debt and still angry about last year’s financial fiasco. What Full Article…