Student Loan Relief

The College Cost Reduction and Access Act is providing individuals who have high amounts of Federal Student Loan debt relief through two new programs.

Income-Based Repayment is a program in which loans for undergraduate and postgraduate work are consolidated, monthly payments are capped based on income and family size, and after a certain number of years of repayment (I don't know that number, sorry!) the balance of your loans are forgiven. Yup. Completely forgiven. Written off. Null and void. Cool, huh. You can now afford that doctorate!

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is the one I am most excited about (since I am a government employee when not blogging.) In this program, individuals working full time in the "public service" arena (a 501(c)3 organization, any federal, state, local, or tribal governmental entity, military, public schools and colleges, AmeriCorps or Peace Corps position) will have the balance of their student loans forgiven after 10 years of eligible payments. (Please forgive me while I do my two second whine/correction of public perception thing: Contrary to popular belief, not all government employees make a ton of money and have good benefits. As a local government employee, I make approximately $7,000 - $10,000 a year less than a similar position in corporate America. Additionally, while I do have some benefits, local Governments in Minnesota are not required to even offer health insurance to employees. As such, it costs me $469.84 each month for health insurance for my children. My husband is not covered as adding him would result in another $450 (approximate) per month which would result in half my take-home salary being used to pay for medical insurance. Eeks! Anyhoo...)

For more information about these and other student loan forgiveness/reduction, visit IBRinfo, a nonpartisan, nonprofit project on student debt.

A Little Bubbly on a Hot Summer Day

Summer is all about having fun, relaxing, and playing and blowing bubbles is a perfect way to do this. Unfortunately, those little bubble containers are messy, don’t last very long and don’t allow for a lot of experimentation. Large containers are inordinately expensive. For example, a 64 ounce container of Gazillion Bubbles mix costs $9.99 at Target. Why not make tons of the stuff yourself and treat the whole neighborhood to a bubble blast?

Simply mix 2/3 cup Joy or Dawn dishwashing liquid with 1 gallon of water and 3 Tablespoons of corn syrup. (Yes, most recipes say to mix it with glycerin but corn syrup works just as well and you probably have it on hand.) Mix it together gently and let it sit overnight uncovered (or covered lightly with a clean dishtowel to prevent dust, pet hair etc from getting into it). Make bubble wands out of pipe cleaners, wire coat hangers, Tupperware lids, strings and straws, found items etc. If you have older kids who are curious about the science of bubbles, check out the San Francisco Exploratorium on-line.

National Parks - FREE family fun!

In an effort to boost tourism for neighboring communities, the National Park Service announced today that entrance fees for all National Parks will be waived for one weekend each month this summer. So, mark your calendars for June 20 - 21, 2009, July 18 - 19, 2009 and August 15 - 16, 2009. Drag out your tent (camping fees start at $8 per night) and break out the marshmellows!

Pulling the Plug

The connector cord for my son's electric guitar had a broken wire. Although he could technically play his guitar, he couldn't connect it to the amplifier to hear what he was playing. At one time, this would have been a really good thing in our house. However, he recently expanded his repertoire to include more songs than just "Bad to the Bone" and is getting fun to listen to. When you are 13 years old and are practicing for your rock debut (as long as no one looks at you), not being able to connect to your amplifier and shake the windows is a very big deal. We examined the cord thinking it might be possible to remove the broken section and splice the plug back in. Unfortunately, we determined that the wire break was in the center of the cord. Unless he wanted a two foot connection, this wouldn't work. We took a field trip to the Guitar Center and found that a six foot 1/4" male to male amplifier cable (what he had) was $34.95. A ten foot 1/4" male to male cable (his desired cable) was $39.95. We left the cords there and continued on to Radio Shack. Radio Shack had an eighteen foot 1/4" male to male cable for only $23.99. Unfortunately, on-line product reviews indicated that the available cable had a $23.99 sound with a lot of extra pickup noise and feedback. I remembered someone in one of our Financial Peace University classes had mentioned that pawn shops could be a good place to get electronics. So we continued on our way to the local pawn shop where we found the same cord Radio Shack carried for $14.95. I get enough extra noise and unwanted feedback at home. I did not want or need any more even if it was now in the price range. The pawn shop employee recommended that we check on-line as sometimes the cable manufacturers will ship directly to the customer, eliminating the middle man and reducing the price. With some on-line research (about 15 minutes), we were able to find, on eBay from a seller with a 99-percent satisfaction rating over a five year selling history, the same brand of cable the Guitar Center sold. We bid the minimum bid and won it. My son received in the mail last week, two ten-foot 1/4" male to male cables with a dynamic sound and no feedback to speak of. My total bill for both cables including shipping direct from Hong Kong was $8.98. My house is filled once again with the sound of happy teenage son (Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Metallica's "One," and the occasional "Bad to the Bone.")