Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

How parents pay for private school, courtesy of Bankrate.com.

As I’ve mentioned before, I went to a private school. I had financial aid to attend. I was a ’scholarship’ student. I took out a small loan for my junior year of high school, which my mother, thankfully, paid behind my back sometime when I was in college. But most of my tuition was grant money direct from the school and out of my parents’ pocket, particularly because my folks were paying a college tuition for my older sibling at the same time.
The best quote of the whole article? The rule for financial aid: If you need it, ask.

It’s true. We didn’t even know there was an option for financial aid when I first applied and attended. I only found out about it from a friend who was a scholarship student. Boggles the mind how they scraped up $7K for that first year.

All kinds of schools have financial aid, and many elite private schools have endowments that rival small private colleges. During the charitable giving season this year, consider a donation to your alma mater so that they can offer financial aid to someone who deserves it.

Cap on co-signing loans. I bet you can guess his answer.

Free Money Finance on how to earn more money. The short answer? Know thyself. Sure you can go out and get a shiny new degree, but will it be a field you enjoy? Will it give you the other peripheral skills you need to be an effective employee/worker? How well do you communicate with others? Sounds crazy, but having taken 5-years’ worth of support calls, I know that many, many humans out there are ineffective communicators. They can hardly articulate their computer problems with any accuracy and remain ignorant of details. It’s quite sad. Often the folks who succeed in life are those that are effective at getting their point across with clarity. Great leadership excels at this and leadership often leads to great financial rewards. Pause, rewind, repeat. Great leadership excels at this and leadership often leads to great financial rewards.

BeachGirl on the benefits of college work-study. I left a comment there, which I think is pretty good. I should turn it into a post, but perhaps at a later time.

Nicole asks if you’re ready for that? I’d have to agree. One day, I’ll tell you my story on the same issue.

The Frugal Duchess, a day later has another post on the same subject. Are you really sure you’re ready for a home? This post has great questions to consider, because it’s true. I am much more of a homebody now that I have my own place.

Get Rich Slowly has a post about portion control and frugality. I’ll say no more about this now. Dawn also has something about the same topic at Queercents. Click through and answer the question she poses at the beginning of the article. You might find your response very interesting.

Dawn at Frugal for Life has got cheap meal recipes up. What poor man’s meals did you make when you were strapped for cash? I challenge you to eat for less than $3.00 a meal.

SingleMa on saving for education while being a single parent. I really like her rationale when it comes to her priority order for saving. I am not yet maxing my 401k and I am rapidly depleting the Emergency Basket of Cash. But hopefully people I know will stop getting married and this wedding stuff can stop.

IRA points to a great Newsweek story about 15 people who make America great. I’m not sure I agree with all of their choices, but I do appreciate a good inspiring piece. It makes me wonder what will I do in life that is great? What is my mission? I think I know. But do you?