When Congress recently compromised on balancing the budget, it chose to “save” Pell grants for undergraduates by throwing Stafford Loan for graduate students under the bus. It is unclear why this particular horse trade was necessary, and I am not even saying it was the wrong thing to do, but I do think people who might care (students, professors) should at least know about the change.

According to a recent article out of the University of Illinois, federal Stafford loans for graduate and professional students will no longer include an interest subsidy, which in the past kept interest from accumulating while students were in school. Students can still defer paying interest until after they graduate, but it will accumulate in the meantime.

As the number of family members providing care for aging parents increases, the solutions to find help with loss of income because of time off from employment for caregiving has become a major concern for many.

The demands on both the time and energy required to provide the needed care can make it impossible to maintain both a full time job with full time caregiving.

Seeing a need to give support to family caregivers the federal government Administration on Aging created the National Family Caregiver Support Program.

State Area on Aging division manages this program on the state and community level to offer support services that include:

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is basically a consumer or business liquidation. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a consumer reorganization of debts. There are certain requirements and restrictions on both types of bankruptcy.

BASIC CHAPTER 7

In order to file a Chapter 7, the consumer must meet a “means test” which sets the total amount of income you can make to qualify. The amount varies by the number of people in your household and the entire household income is included in the calculations regardless of whether only one member files bankruptcy. For instance, as of November 1, 2011, the basic qualifying gross income (before taxes and withholding) in Florida is: