Discussions
Explore the latest discussions related to this domain.
What are the pro & cons when comparing staking vs lending?
Main Post:
I'm currently staking my Tezos (XTZ) and Cardano (ADA) via my Ledger cold storage wallet but I saw that lending yields a lot higher percentages so I was thinking if it might be better to switch to lending instead to gain higher profits because the compound adding up will add up quite a bit over the year(s) to come.
What would be arguments for or against doing so?
Surely staking is a lot safer if you do it through your cold wallet but I imagine most services that offer lending want to make sure their customers are protected as well as they can.
Top Comment: I'm currently staking my Tezos (XTZ) and Cardano (ADA) via my Ledger cold storage wallet but I saw that lending yields a lot higher percentages so I...
Fifa 20 career mode pro loan
Main Post:
I haven't played a FIFA game since 1997, so have a pretty basic question. I hope nobody minds.
Started a new player career with Chelsea, created my character and so on and set it to beginner.
I scored a total of 37 individual goals in the pre season tournament, the only player to score in any of the games for either team. I thought that would be enough for any manager, but apparently not.
Following the tournament win, the manager put me on loan to Bradford City, where I now appear to be stuck. Upping the difficulty has made things more interesting, but if I'd wanted to play for Bradford, I'd have chosen Bradford at the outset.
Is being put on loan inevitable in the first season if you join a true top flight team like Chelsea etc? Is it just a case of battling through the season?
I think I'm rated 73 overall now after a few games.
Thanks
Top Comment:
Yeah they’ll pretty much always send you on loan at the start. If you scored 37 goals in preseason you really should up the difficulty tho or it’ll get boring fast.
Getting through college without loans. Pro tips and How To's!
Main Post:
Howdy,
This is a big wall of text. I am very thorough.
I received my BBA/MBA in Finance this week (that's a masters level). I am 23 years old. My family made over $200k a year every year that I attended school and I was paying $700 a semester for grad level classes. I am here to provide advice and tips on how to get through college with no debt!
DISCLAIMER: You don't have to do everything and if you haven't done something, don't worry about it. Start where you are. Every little thing makes a difference.
High School
I attended a public high school. I took a bunch of AP classes. Every class was free and my AP tests were subsidized. I passed every AP test (some with better grades than others!). Going into college I had 25 credit hours. If you do well in high school, you will be rewarded later on.
AP isn't even the best way to get credits. CLEP tests are by far the easiest way to receive college credit for classes. Basically, this is a program that allows you to test out of classes and receive college credit without taking the classes. They have 33 exams in 5 subject areas. If you are serious about your college education, you should be serious about CLEP. College Algebra can be studies online via dozens of resources (Khan academy) for free! The exams cost $80 and will give you 3 credit hours if you pass. That's about $27 a credit hour.
Look at it this way... If you are determined enough to go to college, you should be determined enough to study on your own. If you can study on your own and push yourself, you can get rid of the first year of college for under $1,000 and never have to attend a pointless class. This should be your starting point.
Choosing a University
Pro tip: Do not go to an out of state college. Your in state college is just as good unless you are going to an Ivy League school or technical school for a specific degree.
- Community College Route
Community college is a great place to start. Everyone I know knocks on them, but they are cheap and easy. Whenever you graduate from your 4 year school the name on the diploma isn't a community college. They are cheaper than any other school as well.
Once you finish your 2 year degree, transfer to a 4 year public college nearby and graduate with a full degree. 2 year degrees are great if you don't know what you want to do. Most freshmen don't know what they want to do. 80% of students will change their major at least once while in college. What most people don't realize is that people get into debt and graduate in 5-6 years instead of 4 years because of changing their major and/or transferring. Nothing feels worse than taking a class that you did not need that you did not enjoy and spending lots of money doing it.
- 4 Year Public Route
If you can get into a 4 year university right from the start, you might want to do that! There is only one reason to attend a 4 year university over community college right out of high school: scholarships.
The first thing you need to realize about 4 year public institutions is that there are deadlines... lots of deadlines. The university does not make exceptions. If you apply for scholarships early there is a decent chance that you will be able to receive them. Some scholarships will last your entire 4 years and are renewed every year. You are only eligible to receive them upon entering university.
- 4 Year Private Route
This might surprise you but this is the route that I took. Annual expenses were estimated at $32K a year, but I paid $1.5K. There are numerous scholarships available at these types of universities. You will receive a large amount for grades that is guaranteed at most (10-15K is average next year). Those scholarships last the entire 4 years. You are also eligible to receive extra scholarships for a slew of reasons. Eagle scouts, religious, race/ethnicity, first generation... I am not lying when I say the list goes on and on.
You may disagree with me, but this is Reddit so who cares! 4 Year Private Colleges that charge you $25K+ a year are a scam. Your education does not cost that much. They are paying for more administration, rampant inflationary spending, and unnecessary things that you probably won't even take advantage of. College isn't a vacation or an experience. College is a place that you go to learn. The price of education is rising because we are moving away from learning and moving toward an experience. You have to ask yourself... is the experience of this college worth $100,000? Probably not.
The average debt of a student who graduates from my university is $26K. Don't be those people.
How To Get MONEY!
To start this process you need to fill out a FAFSA. This is the US governments way to ensure your income is what you say it is and see if you need money. You are ineligible for financial aid until you fill this out.
You might want to google financial aid FAQ for simple questions?
Always apply for financial aid. My roommate received $1,000 just for filling out his FAFSA at the local community college he attends. If you are need based, you will receive thousands of dollars more!
You should go talk to a financial aid counselor during your application process. Don't wait. They should be happy to assist you and talk to you about potential aid. Every university is different and every place has their own scholarships. Ask about anything that makes you unique. Do not take no for an answer. I was told that there was nothing available 6 times before I received over $35K in a grant that they failed to mention to me. Determination is key. Don't be belligerent or demand aid, but keep asking at all times of the year.
The financial aid system is just that, a system. They have specific deadlines that you probably don't know about. Between a quarter and halfway through each semester they will receive a large sum of money back from the government. Basically, some money is returned to the government every semester and then redistributed based on certain criteria. That means that if you go into the office on the right day, there will be hundreds of thousands of dollars that just entered their account that they need to disperse to students. You might get lucky for no other reason.
Visit one of these websites. They are your states higher education agency. These agencies will have information on grants and loans that are guaranteed to you based on criteria. In Texas there was a grant in which if you graduated in 4 years you would receive an extra $25,000 in financial aid. At certain public universities less than 4% of students took part in it. Keep in mind, this was a 0% interest loan if you failed to meet the criteria. People were passing up a no interest loan because they simply did not know!
Government AID
This section is going to make many users cringe, but you need to know it anyways.
If you can become an independent, you can receive thousands of dollars extra in financial aid and government assistance for housing and living expenses.
Independents who are attending university are entitled to food stamps, section 8 housing, and medicaid. That means that your food, housing, and health insurance are all covered for free.
Not only do you get that stuff for free, but you will also almost assuredly receive more financial aid. Because financial aid is need based, an independent with no job or a minimum wage job will receive more government assistance than someone whose parent's incomes are considered. In this instance, it pays to be poor.
Cringeworthy example: I am 20 years old and my parents make too much for me to get scholarships, but they don't want to pay for my college. I can find anyone I know and get legally married to that person (maybe a roommate?) in December. I am now legally independent. The following year I will be eligible for extra financial aid and welfare. This is especially useful if I am currently unemployed.
Many people will be upset about this example. I am extremely upset that this is possible. Government reform needs to happen. However, it is 100% legal and will save you thousands of dollars if you are in need. If student loans are piling up, DO IT!
TLDR
Earn credits before college from AP and CLEP
Community College>everything else (not counting possible scholarships)
Apply for financial aid and work hard at the process
Don't be shy to get government assistance if you are an independent. You deserve it and pay for it in your taxes.
Top Comment:
Thank you for posting this. Off the top of my head, here are a few things I would add:
- In high school, you can also take dual enrollment classes (college classes that also satisfy high school credit), actually where I live - you can go to college full time as a high school student for free, you graduate with both your high school diploma and an AA degree.
- I like community colleges, but you have to be careful about the classes you take, they like to tell you to take classes you don't need so that you stay with them longer.
- To save on housing costs consider becoming an Resident Hall Assistant.
- Consider ROTC, the branch is up to you, but I recommend air force since they have a lot of jobs that are useful in the real world as well.
- Get a paid internship/job. The experience will help you get full-time employment after graduating. It is not unheard of for work places to pay for graduate school.
As a side note, you should take your student catalog and start a spreadsheet workbook that has all of the majors that you are personally interested in. Indicate which ones are required for the major, which ones satisfy the minor, what is a prerequisite to which class, and which ones satisfy the most majors.
It will take effort to do, but it is totally worth it! For your BA, you have to take a lot of general education courses, so if you can wrangle a minor out of it, it is a more efficient use of time. If you take the classes that are prerequisites first, you'll have more flexibility with what classes you can take later. After that, take the classes that satisfy the minor of the major you are in first, that way even if you switch you'll have something to show for it!
I work as an advocate for people with student loans. Ask me anything.
Main Post:
Update 3:45 PM EST Wow - I can't believe how many great questions we got. I'm sorry I couldn't get to them all today. Please read the ones I did get to in case it also addresses your question. I'll answer as many new, unique, questions as I can the beginning of next week.
Update 2:30 PM EST I'm back for another hour or two - will answer as many questions as I can but will try and get to the ones where folks are asking for advice on their student loans first. Whatever I don't get to today I will try to get to next week. Thank you all for participating!!***
Update Going to take a break and rest my poor typing fingers for an hour or so. I'll come back this afternoon for an hour or more then close this out. Whatever questions I don't get to today I will answer as many as I can by Monday *****
Helping people with student loans is my job. My name is Betsy, and I’m the director of regulatory compliance for American Student Assistance. For over 50 years, ASA has been a nonprofit devoted to helping people with student loans. We give students and alumni the financial know-how they need to gain the most return on their investment in education. And with a new membership program called SALT, we’re helping students and families learn how to minimize college debt at the outset, successfully manage debt, and build money skills for life. My team at ASA makes sure that we follow both the letter and the spirit of higher education rules. We also help schools and lenders do the same, and advocate on behalf of borrowers for improved and clarified loan regulations. Finally, we run outreach programs to help borrowers directly through our ombudsman’s office, through our website’s “Ask American Student Assistance” feature, and online at places like boston.com... and Reddit. I’m new to Reddit, but I’ll be happy to answer just about any questions about student loans and many about financial aid in general. I’ll do my best to give advice in a realistic, candid way, not just list the rules.
Proof - that's me doing the Boston Globe chat http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/08/07/student_loan_chat_with_betsy_mayotte/
Top Comment:
Life would be so much better without spending all my money every month on paying student loans.
I went to college to get a job so I could pay for college.
Why are the people over at r/studentloans so infuriated with PSLF?
Main Post:
I've been over there and the comments are nothing but incendiary and vitriolic. They're railing against having to pay for people asking for money to get an education to better themselves but yet are totally fine with our taxes being dumped into the military to build drones and weapons that could wipe out millions with a single press of a button.
They're "insulted" that they paid theirs off and now current debtors get loans forgiven. It doesn't affect them, right? Why the outrage? Or worse yet, the people who chose not to go to college and now are pissed about their taxes going towards forgiving student loans.
Wouldn't it be a collective sigh for EVERYONE once they do away with student loans and everyone can move on with our lives and pursue financial goals that we had to set aside? How is that not a win-win for everyone???
Top Comment:
So this explains 47% of the looks and comments I get when I tell everyone and their mother that I got my loans forgiven.... Bitches, I paid into this broken student loan system. Made a low wage for most of my 10 years. If you can’t celebrate that someone’s gotten out from under the interest, capitalized interest, and feeling of never being able to pay off the loans, then go suck an egg.
[Request] What were the terms of this loan?!
Main Post: [Request] What were the terms of this loan?!
Top Comment:
General Discussion Thread
This is a [Request] post. If you would like to submit a comment that does not either attempt to answer the question, ask for clarification, or explain why it would be infeasible to answer, you must post your comment as a reply to this one. Top level (directly replying to the OP) comments that do not do one of those things will be removed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Pro tip for anyone with over $30K in Federal student loans
Main Post:
I was on the standard repayment plan of 10 years for all my loans. My total monthly payment was almost $500.
I called Navient and asked them if they could increase my loan term to more than 10 years. I was able to increase the loan terms to 25 years while keeping my interest rates the same.
Now my minimum monthly payment is just over $260. Now I have an extra $240ish dollars to avalanche and hit my highest interest loans first.
Warning! Do not do this if you do not have the discipline to pay more than the new minimum. If you pay the new minimum, you are screwing yourself and will have to pay dramatically more in repayments.
Warning! Loan service companies have numerous repayment options. Make sure you get one with fixed payments and interest rates. There are some plans that you pay $150ish a month for 2 years then the payments increase dramatically. When in doubt, ask for plans in writing so you can double check or ask someone else.
Edit: Forgot to mention that this is not typically possible with private loans because rates are usually higher on loans that will last longer time periods.
Top Comment:
agreed! you could pay less in interest this way as well.
4/2/22 Updates
Main Post:
- Blanket loan forgiveness: No change from last week. This may or may not happen and, if it does, we don't know how it will operate or how it will affect any given borrower. SoFi's CEO recently spoke in favor of blanket federal forgiveness of $10,000 (though no mention of whether SoFi would follow suit for its private loans).
- PSLF Waivers: No change from last week. FedLoan is still struggling with the huge growth of participation in the PSLF program spurred by the temporary waivers announced last October. Wait times are very long to reach customer service and processing times are also much longer than even a year ago, but movement is happening and borrowers are getting forgiveness. If you were told in the past that PSLF wasn't available to you because you had the wrong loan type, were on the wrong repayment plan, were on a military deferment, or had reset your payment counter by consolidating, then these waivers may apply to you and it's worth taking another look at the program. We have more coverage at r/PSLF.
- Pandemic forbearance: No change from last week. Despite speculation from many sources that the pandemic forbearance would be extended, there has been no formal announcement one way or the other. As of now, federal Direct loan borrowers should plan for their loans to return to repayment and resume accruing interest on May 2nd. (This likely means that May 2 is the earliest that bills will be generated and sent out, with actual payments due starting in late May or June.) This topic is getting more contentious, as some private lenders are more openly lobbying the government to not extend the forbearance any further.
Top Comment:
If Biden was planning not to extend forbearance he would probably just stay silent, to avoid the negative press. It would be supremely cowardly, and honestly impact who I might vote for in the future, but it would reduce the political hit of continuing payments.
How old are y’all?
Main Post:
I’m 51 and still saddled with $179,000 student loan debt. This has been a source of shame to me and something that I thought makes me a loser in life. But the more I ask, the more I find that many people my age who are successful professionals still have loans just like me. Anyone else notice this? And how am I supposed to save for my kids’ college education so this doesn’t repeat?
Top Comment:
63. 70,000 and none of us are losers. We just weren’t privileged enough to be born wealthy.
DO NOT GET A PERSONAL LOAN WITH UPSTART
Main Post:
I am so disappointed in AH for advertising Upstart in the Hitman 3 video today, and presumably more videos I haven't seen. The McElroys were recently under scrutiny for the same issue, and the facts about Upstart are laid out brilliantly in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/TAZCirclejerk/comments/mnlrne/psa_please_do_not_get_a_personal_loan_even_if_the/
The simple facts are: personal loans are predatory and leave you in significantly more debt than you start with. People have had experiences taking 10+ years to pay off loans of only a few thousand dollars, and being stalked by the people they are in debt to. Please upvote this to raise awareness and put pressure on the RT and AH folks to sever ties with this shitty company. Sorry if this is against any rules, thanks for the read.(edit: spelling)
Edit: going to address a couple things in the comments. Personal loan companies like Upstart aren't the only ways to get a personal loan, banks also do and are more reputable. In any case, do research before making any large financial decision. Also, while it is true that taking financial advice/utilising any service from a YouTube Ad is risky and not the smartest, people who fall for it don't deserve any hardship that comes their way because of it. This company targets poor and disadvantaged people and RT are a part of that whether they are aware of it or not. Thanks for the support on this post and all insight in the comments.
Top Comment:
In general, advertised services and products are less than ideal anyway. Upstart, for example, has interest rates up to 35.99% which is frankly ridiculous.
If you aren't already in the market for a loan then you should ignore any advertising for it. If you are in the market for a loan you should be working with reputable and established lenders (which does not necessarily mean big banks) and doing lots of research beforehand.
Financial decisions should never be impulsive.