If you’re drowning in student loan debt and don’t know how you’ll ever make those monthly payments, you’re not alone. Many young (and even older) adults just getting out of school are in the same boat as you. Times are tough, and even with exceptionally low student loan interest rates, you may still be saddled with a monthly payment your entry level job at Sears just doesn’t cover.  This may be especially true if you’ve opted to get a place of your own instead of following the majority of your peers back to mom and dad’s house after graduation.  

If those loan payments are keeping you from living the lifestyle you expected once you had your college degree in your hand, you may be in luck!  There ARE options out there to reduce, or even eliminate your student loan debt.  Here are the top scenarios, one of which may be right for you!

The Military – The military has student loan forgiveness programs that will help you get out of debt. The Armed Forces Student Loan Forgiveness program will repay as much as $2,500 worth of student loans to borrowers who served between 9/11/01 and 6/30/06. The National Guard also offers a student loan forgiveness program that will repay as much as $10,000 worth of student loans to each qualifying individual.

Teachers – The Teacher’s Student Loan Forgiveness Programs pays your student loan debt in exchange for you taking on a teaching position in an area that is traditionally short-staffed, such as Math Special Education. This program will repay between $5,000 and $17,500 of your loan after at least 2 years of full-time teaching.

Head Start Staff – If you volunteer in a Head Start program, you may qualify for a very generous loan forgiveness program after a few years in the position.

Serve Your Community or the World – If you join the Peace Corps, Americorps, or VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), you can get at least part of your student loan debt repaid for you.  Of course, you must remain in your chosen volunteer program for a certain period of time to qualify.

Become a Child Care Provider – There is a big push to recruit highly educated early childcare professionals, and the federal government is willing to reward you for working in a child care center by repaying up to 100% of your student loan debt.  Visit http://studentaid.ed.gov for more information on which child care centers qualify for this program.  

This is the first installment in our student loan series. Be sure to check back for updates…

No matter how you look at it, small business health insurance is expensive. What’s even more frustrating is that you know that large corporations can negotiate better rates with the insurance companies, but that businesses with 50 or fewer employees don’t have that kind of influence.

You want to offer health insurance to your employees-of course you do! You need it yourself, and you know your employees need it for themselves and their families. You also know that a major medical catastrophe could keep your valued employees out of work for weeks or longer if they’re not covered by insurance. And, you’re painfully aware that not being able to provide insurance will keep quality people from coming to work for you.

The bottom line is, offering small business health insurance coverage is eating into your profits, and you just don’t know if you can keep your company open and continue to provide benefits. So, what do you do?

The first thing to remember when searching for a good policy to offer your employees is to not take the first package you find. Look around and do your research. Most policies ARE very expensive, but there are also some good bargains out there if you take the time to find them. Don’t be afraid to ask for discounts, either. Just because you’re a small business doesn’t mean the insurance companies won’t negotiate with you, and you’ll never know unless you try.

You can also set up health savings accounts for your employees. These are accounts that your employees fund through payroll deductions that are used to pay co-pays, prescriptions, and other costs not covered by insurance. When you offer these accounts, you can sign up for insurance policies that have larger deductibles, and are therefore less expensive.

Finally, you can split the cost of premiums with your employees. Many employers are doing this nowadays. The typical arrangement is for you to pay half of the monthly premiums, while your employee pays the other half through a payroll deduction. Many people expect to have to do this now, and it will keep your small business health insurance costs down, which is ultimately the best thing for your business. By exploring your options, you can keep both your employees AND your company healthy!

This is the sixth installment in our health insurance series. Be sure to check back for updates…

Health insurance for the self-employed is a major concern for anyone who works for themselves. These days, heath insurance is hard enough to get through an employer.  Premiums are expensive, and getting more so all the time, and employers are reducing and even eliminating their contributions to cut costs. If you’re self-employed, things just keep getting more expensive, as you have to pay full price for a policy. Depending on the policy you get, that could mean $1,000 a month or more out of your pocket.

The most expensive policies of health insurance for the self-employed are those from traditional, well-known insurance carriers, such as Cigna, Blue Cross, and Aetna. However, these are also the policies that are likely to have the best coverage and the most benefits available to policy holders. Unfortunately, these big-name companies know that people are likely to pay more for the security that comes with a well-known name. After all, you can be pretty sure that these companies won’t be here today and gone tomorrow. To cover you, a spouse, and children, however, is going to cost you a lot, maybe even more than your house payment.

Lesser known policies that are designed for the self-employed are more cost effective, for the most part. You can often cover an entire family for less than $500 a month with many of these. However, co-pays and deductibles may be higher than with traditional companies, your in-network physicians list may be smaller, and the benefits offered may be scanty. You can expect a lot more out-of pocket expenses with these policies.

When it comes to health insurance for the self-employed, the choice is really yours. If you shop around, you may very well find a good company with optimal coverage at a reasonable price. After all, insurance policies and prices are changing all the time. The important thing is to get some kind of policy, because having some coverage is better than having none at all. If you don’t have it, you’ll wish you did the very first time you have to go to a doctor without coverage.

This is the fifth installment in our health insurance series. Be sure to check back for updates…