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According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, two-thirds of college students this day leave their alma mater with debt from student loans, and the average student loan debt amount among these graduates is a startling ,186.

These student debt numbers go hand in hand with reports from the College Board that four-year public colleges and universities now charge, on average, about ,600 in annual tuition and fees to in-state undergraduate students and almost ,000 a year to out-of-state students. Private non-profit four-year colleges and universities average more than twice that, costing students about ,300 a year in tuition and fees.

With the average tuition cost of a four-year degree running between ,000 and 8,000 — and that’s without counting non-tuition college costs like room and board, textbooks, transportation, and living expenses — it’s simple to comprehend why student loans have become such a common piece of a student’s financial aid package.

An increasing number of students who graduate with college loans, however, are finding it difficult to repay their student loan debt. Department of Education statistics show that nationally, about 7 percent of borrowers who entered repayment on their federal education loans in 2008 defaulted within the first year of repayment, and almost 14 percent have defaulted within three years. (2008 is the last full year for which student loan default statistics are available.)

As consumer and student advocacy groups like The Project on Student Debt and the Institute for College Access & Success call attention to the spreading problem of ballooning student loan debt, spiking default rates, and the growing number of current graduates who find themselves in need of debt help, some students are looking for ways to pay for college without taking on debt from school loans.

Graduating from college debt-free is certainly possible, but it can require some careful planning, creative financing, and potentially some adjustments in your college plans.

1) Pay as You Go

If your school offers tuition payment plans, think about eschewing student loans in favor of a “pay-as-you-go” model. By taking advantage of a school payment plan, you can pay for college in smaller installments, rather than as one huge chunk all at once.

Many colleges and universities now offer monthly payment plans that grant you to spread out the cost of your tuition and fees over the course of the semester and pay for your college costs in monthly installments. You might be charged a small one-time or monthly fee when you opt for a tuition payment plan, but once you’ve attained your degree, you’ll be healthy to leave school with no student loan debt.

2) Scholarships & Grants

Spend some time apiece month searching for college scholarships and grants. There are several online scholarship search engines that grant you to search databases of awards for free. Scholarships and allows wage “free money” for college that, unlike student loans, you won’t need to pay back.

With the millions of private and public scholarship programs available, application deadlines start year-round. To maximize the number of awards you can apply for, make sure to search continually throughout the year and not just during the summer, right before tuition bills come due and when your competition will be steepest.

3) Refusing Student Loans Awards

To remember for federal grants, you’ll need to apply for federal college financial aid apiece year. When you apply for federal student aid, you’re likely to be awarded federal student loans as well.

Know that you’re not required to accept any student loans you’re offered. When you receive your financial aid package from your school, you can simply accept those awards you want — grants, scholarships, work-study — and refuse the loans you don’t.

Just keep in mind that refusing your federal college loans can have its drawbacks. Since federal student aid funds are limited and are often distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, once rejected, a school loan might not be acquirable to you later that semester or year. If you run into a situation where you’re looking for financial aid mid-semester because expected scholarships or a part-time job didn’t materialize or you’re saddled with unexpected expenses and suddenly don’t have enough cash to make your monthly tuition payment, the federal loans you rejected at the beginning of the semester might no longer be acquirable to you if you decide later on that you need them.

4) Avoiding Private Student Loans

In an emergency situation, if you need money for college and your federal loan options have dried up, you can still opt to take on private student loans to cover any remaining college costs you have. Private student loans are non-federal, credit-based loans issued by banks, credit unions, and other private lenders rather than by the government.

Private student loans don’t have the advantages of a fixed interest rate or the flexible repayment options that federal student loans do, but private loans are generally acquirable year-round, as long as you remember for the loan. However, given their often pricier and riskier terms, private loans should be used only as a last resort, when savings, scholarships, and federal college loans aren’t enough to cover your college costs.

5) Slicing College Costs

Reducing your cost of attending college will also reduce your need for financial aid and college loans. To save thousands of dollars on your college bill, think about attending a two-year community college before transferring to a four-year institution to complete your degree.

Your diploma will still carry the study of the four-year school you finish at, but you’ll have saved two years’ worth of higher tuition and fees. The average annual cost of a two-year public college is about ,700, a significant savings over the ,600 in-state rate at a four-year public institution, not to mention over the ,000 out-of-state rate.

If spending a full two years at a community college doesn’t appeal to you but you still want to minimize the possibility of needing school loans, you can compromise by taking at least some basic classes and required survey courses affordably at a community college and then transferring those credits to your four-year institution. If you’re considering this approach, make sure you work closely with academic advisors at both schools to ensure that all the credits you acquire as a commuter student at the community college will be applied to your primary four-year degree program.

student loans, private student loans, scholarships, The Project on Student Debt, debt help

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Starting a business and/or expanding one for less than $10,000 without conventional loans and financing might be easier than you think. Many people are looking for ways to control their financial future due to this economic mess. Many Americans have either lost their job, have their pay reduced or think they are in danger of losing their job in the near future.

This economic recession is world wide and hasn’t discriminated. From banks and lenders, to Wall Street, to well known businesses, this recession has stripped Americans of not only cash flow or earnings but the equities they own in stocks, bonds, real estate and other investments.

Not only has unemployment rate has reached or exceeded 10% depending upon the state, the real unemployment, including part time and applicants not looking for a job anymore, the rates might have exceeded 20%. Many says have seen real estate loses up to 50% of their value since 2006. California, Arizona, Florida, New York and Nevada have gone through major job and real estate market changes.

In this recession, many lenders have tightened their conventional lending standards and have prefabricated it nearly completely impossible to obtain financing. Additionally, if they will finance your project, the restrictions could be immense and monies acquirable limited to economic times.

Additionally, begin businesses have more obstacles to overcome and therefore U. S economic growth and/or expansion has been limited.

What does this mean to the company employee, the business mortal and/or the established business. This recession has created a tremendous opportunity to begin and/or expand a business for under a $10,000 investment. The types of industries we will address include construction, trucking, transportation and all small business niches.

Since the lenders and banks have tightened their lending models, secondary lending markets have been created. The amount of repossessions and off lease products the lenders have taken back in this economic upheaval hasn’t been paralleled since the Great Depression.

Banks are sitting on repossessed real estate, construction equipment and trucking, transportation vehicles, medical, and tons of other commercial items that we will describe later…. These lenders must move these inventories as swift as doable to free up cash flow and working capital. These lenders are working with local and/or regional dealerships, liquidators, auction houses and other eligible celebrations to move these inventories.

As part of the liquidation process, these lenders are offering simple limiting to prospective begin up and seasoned businesses in order to move these items.   Simple limiting can be in the form of the price and financing. We have seen minimum individualized credit score qualifications as low as 500 with down payments starting at zero. In some lending markets, there are no credit check programs, no individualized credit is pulled. This includes begin up businesses as well. .

Based upon this information, we have seen numerous examples of construction trucks, semi trucks, construction equipment, limousines, medical equipment etc being financed as low as a couple of thousand dollars down…Once again, this is based upon sub standard credit lending practices.  .

The financing described above is in the form of leasing. The lender will lease the equipment, truck etc to the applicant, whether a begin up or not, and offer a purchase out option at the end of lease period. This buyout could be offered out at a $1. 00, 10 %, 20%, clean market value etc…. . Obviously, these buyout formulas will have an impact on the monthly payments. . These leases usually run from 24 to 60 months depending upon the age of the equipment being financed. .

Lets recap at this stage, the most important investment step can be obtained with marginal credit, the down payment is minimal and now we have at our disposal a income producing asset……Lets review some numbers,

Cost of asset……………………     $50,000

Amount of down payment………… $4000

Lease Term…………………………  48 months

Estimated Monthly payment

Including taxes……………………. . $1400

Residual Buyout ……………………. . 10%

Based upon these assumptions, we need to come with a small budget to project out our monthly expenses. Advertising, Gasoline, Telephone, Utilities, Product Costs, Insurance, Financing payment, etc. Each business is different but a budget is a budget to come up with monthly expenditures. Once we have come up with these monthly expenses, we need to look at the revenue stream. Whether it is based upon a signed contract, an estimate based upon projections, the revenue stream must cover the expenses to make sure the investment is worth it. The front money for these other expenses should be minimal, a deposit maybe for rent, insurance, utilities, etc should run around $1000-5000 depending upon the business…….

Based upon the combination of the down payment on the quality we acquired, see above, and the monies required to get the business running, $1000-5000, we are up and running for under $10,000 without conventional financing.

The next question the begin up or seasoned business is asking, is where are all these great items I can acquire without good credit. The answer is through contacting lenders for bank repos and off lease lists, world wide web search inquiries, contacting lease and financing brokers etc.

Check out world wide web through Google, Yahoo etc and enter off lease repos for sale, off lease semi trucks for sale, off lease construction trucks or equipment  in the search entry area. You will find a starting point for the items for sale. The world wide web search for auctions and liquidators would be another great source of items for sale.

The world wide web is a great way to create and run a business. Not only can you find the right equipment, trucks, etc to acquire without conventional financing. The world wide web is a marketing highway to generate income without another major investment. The following are ways to minimize your advertising through the following special methods:

Paid per Click, Blogs, Article Marketing, Video Marketing, Social Bookmarking, RSS Feeds, Forums, etc…

It is good intent that a website should be designed and updated monthly by a webmaster. The upfront costs on this area could run you $200-$1000. This website should be keyword intensive describing your business, services etc. Once this is established, then the marketing methods above can be utilized to drive traffic and generate income from your website.

Even though paid per click isn’t free through Google, Yahoo, etc, it will automatically generate traffic to your website. The other traffic methods mentioned above can drive tons of traffic to your site for free. ( blogs, rss feeds, social bookmarking, forums and article marketing )

The search engines love good content to post on the left of their search engines for free. Good content is driven by matching keyword content, videos, press releases, to a well written and designed website.   The search engines love videos and some are posted to their search engines for free within a hour of creation……. Check out this area, the cost is minimal.

The most important thing that this article is going to present to you is opportunity in a messed up economy to acquire a income producing asset. Bad credit can be worked around and minimum paperwork stipulations for approval can be obtained.

By : Rick Reed

Over the past few years, the world has become concerned with China and its growth. Just recently China has overtaken Nihon as the second largest economy in the world and it won’t be long until it trails closely behind the United States. Over the last few years alone we’ve literally seen cities like Shanghai and Beijing go from “rags to riches”. More millionaires are created apiece day then any other country in the world, and it seems that everyone is cashing in on the China dream. There’s just one problem though. It’s virtually impossible to invest in China unless you’re Chinese or you have the connections needed to get you in on the wealth.

Unlike most countries, China restricts foreign nationals from investing directly into the stock market. For example, only the Chinese are healthy to invest in the Shanghai A Share market which means that unless you are a Chinese national, you’re not granted in on the action. The only way to go about this is to trust a Chinese friend or family member to invest for you in their study (NOT advised for obvious reasons). Another way to invest in China is to convert your money to RMB and take advantage of the capital appreciation the yuan is predicted to experience over the next few years, but with an annual limit of $50,000 per year and a very complicated process to convert RMB back to a foreign currency, this too is highly advised against. You can invest in the property market, but unless you got in five years ago, you missed that opportunity. Besides, the profit margins aren’t as captivating as they used to be and according to the China Business News, experts are predicting a 20-30 percent decline in the second half of this year. Another way to invest in China is begin a company, but unless you are willing to go through the most complicated process ever imaginable, forget it! It’s costs thousands of dollars, a tremendous amount of energy and time, and unless you have the connections to get you through the begin of phase of your business, the odds are seriously stacked against you.

So how do you invest in China? How do you take advantage of the most cash rich economy in the world without jumping through a million and one hoops just to make a dollar? The answer to this question is simple. Invest in China without investing in China. First, forget about the property market, forget about starting a local business, and forget about the local Shanghai A Share market for reasons mentioned above. I’m going to show you a very simple and simple way to get your money in to the markets, make a tremendous profit, and get your money back as simple as you got it in.

Remember, investing is supposed to be an easy, efficient and comfortable process. It doesn’t have to be complicated nor should it be. The most important bourgeois you need to take into consideration when investing in China or any developing country for that matter is SAFETY! Now don’t get me wrong, China is a wonderful place to live and it presents itself with more opportunities then most countries have to offer today. If you know what you’re doing and you have the right people on your team, you can accomplish huge things. I’ve lived in Shanghai myself for six years now and have a great team working for me who have helped get my business to where it needs to be today. But this is only one way I have invested in China.

From Jan 2006 – October 2007, the Shanghai A Share market rallied almost 500%. Everybody was making money during that time period including the taxi drivers and Ayi’s (Chinese maids) who were lining up at the bank to place their entire life savings into the markets. As a financial services company we knew it was not sustainable and strongly advised our clients to NOT get caught up in the hype. However, at the same time, we needed to come up with a way to get them in on the action without taking on the local risks involved. So, we turned to international stock exchanges such as the Hang Seng and began investing our clients’ cash into funds that held Chinese companies that were sure to see tremendous growth during that time period. For example, HSBC’s China Equity Fund was a huge part of our portfolio during those two years and our client’s experienced an 82. 8% return in 06′ and further 55. 4% in 07′. The cumulative return over those two years was a staggering 138. 2% and the ideal part about this was that their money was safely invested through the Hang Seng market in Hong Kong. Our client’s were healthy to and continue to be healthy to take advantage of China’s growth by investing in funds through international markets that hold the same exact companies that the Chinese are investing into locally.

But mutual funds aren’t the only way to invest in China without actually investing in China. Purchasing stocks directly in one particular company is another way to invest in Chinese companies that are predicted to yield phenomenal returns over the next couple of years. Savvy investors willing to take on the risk of investing directly into Chinese stocks can do so by investing via American Depository Receipts (ADR’s). An ADR represents ownership of shares in a foreign company, but it can be bought and sold just like any U. S. stock, allowing investors to diversify their portfolios with foreign assets, but skip the hassle of a foreign brokerage account. For example, a couple of years ago, I saw the direction the telecom industry in China was headed. With only two companies, China Mobile and China Telecom, I place two and two together and figured that when 1. 6 billion people are forced to selected between just two companies that there was no other direction these companies could go but up. So I did my research and concluded that between the two, China Mobile (CHL) was going to be my telecom play. But I couldn’t invest directly in China Mobile via the Shanghai A share market so I looked up the ADR on the NYSE and bought it that way. Over the same time period between 2006 – 2007, the stock price went from $25 per share to just over $100 per share. The cumulative return: 303. 03%.

Now, returns like the ones mentioned above are obviously not sustainable and I would never recommend otherwise, but the point is that when the markets rally locally here in China, there are plenty of innocuous and reliable ways to take advantage of the growth and cash in on the opportunities presented. China Mobile and HSBC’s Chinese Equity Fund are only two examples of how to invest in China without investing in China, but there are hundreds of funds and companies that you would be healthy to invest in using the same approach. ADR’s and mutual funds listed on reputable and established stock exchanges mentioned above are great ways to capitalize on the growth China is expected to experience over the many years to come.

By : Matthew Clark

Your automobile or a automobile is not only a pleasure to drive, but is a tool to get a loan as well. And while you can take a loan against your whole car, there are still ideal options in the form of logbook loans that have been approved against the logbook of the car. The logbook loans are considered loans fast. This is because there is no minute assessment of the automobile involved in the logbook provides loans and the approval of nearly instantaneous. Also credit problems are rarely an impediment to the book loans.

The logbooks are essentially guaranteed loans and loans were approved against the logbook of the automobile from the borrower. The logbook is a crucial and the base document of car. The logbook of a automobile contains details of the holder as a vital vehicle, the owner of the automobile being registered trademark, chassis number, engine number, model and color details on the vehicle, etc. being so important document of the car, just the lenders continue to detain for as long as the loan amount approved hand, it is absolutely returned. So, all you have to take a loan against your automobile is to offer its log book as security to the lender. In the meantime, you can go on your automobile as usual. The amount approved such loan book depends on the value of the car, less the amount owed to the car.

For a automobile owner, Log Book Loans are ideal suited if he has bad credit. That’s because logbook loans were approved with no credit check on the borrower and the people are too poor credit loans approved book in a harmonious. However, before applying it to a lender, logbook apiece individual borrowing should ensure that it meets certain requirements.

The lender must approve logbook loans only if the logbook is in the study of the borrower. The automobile must be free of any payments due. So you have to eliminate all contributions to the automobile before requesting loans logbook. Note that the automobile must not be more than 8 years older and only then will its lender logbook as collateral. Also lenders like logbook provides loans on the insured vehicle. Proof of the borrower is also steady income that most lenders would like to see logbook for loan approval. So, make sure you have these stipulations in place for the loan.

You can logbook source loans from various lending institutions, but for the speedy approval of the pros and like to apply to a lender online. You can find many providers logbook loans online to compare their conditions – conditions for a superior understanding.

Your automobile or a automobile is not only a driving pleasure, but is a tool to get a loan as well. And while you can take a loan against your whole car, it is still ideal option in the form of logbook loans approved that are against the logbook of the car. Logbook loans are swiftly deemed suitable. This is because there is no minute assessment of the automobile involved in the supply of loans and logbook to the approval nearly immediately. Also credit problems are rarely an impediment to the newspaper loans.

Logbooks are essentially loans and loan guarantees were approved against the logbook of the automobile from the borrower. The logbook is a fundamental and essential car. The logbook contains a car’s vital details as keeper of the vehicle, the automobile owner, the registration mark today, the chassis number, engine number, model and color details on the automobile is so important and so document of the car, just the lenders to hold as long as the amount of the loan against approved, it is absolutely returned. So, all you have to take a loan behalf of your automobile is to offer its logbook as security to the lender. In the meantime you can go to the driving your automobile as usual. The amount of loans approved as a logbook depends on the value of the car, less the amount owed on the car. Usually lenders approve £ 500 to £ 50000.

For a automobile owner, logbook loans are superior suited if he has bad credit. Because loans are approved newspaper without any credit check on the borrower and people too poor credit are approved in the journey loans smoothly. However, before applying it to a lender, the logbook of apiece loan individual should ensure that they meet certain requirements.

Lender newspaper approves loans only if the newspaper is in the study of the borrower. The automobile should be free of any debts due. So you have to eliminate all taxes on the automobile before applying for logbook loans. Note that the automobile must not be more than 8 years older and then lender will take logbook as security. Also preferred lenders offering loans on the logbook insured vehicle. Proof of the borrower as regular income, which is what most lenders would like to see logbook for loan approval. So make sure you have these conditions in place for the loan.

You can logbook source loans from various lending institutions, but also for the speedy approval of the pros and like to apply to a lender online. There are dozens of providers of loans logbook online to compare their terms of conditions for a superior deal.