Posts Tagged Student loans
10 Jobs that Require No Bachelors Degree
Attention high school grads: You don’t have to rack up a mountain of student loan debt in order to secure a good career. And you don’t have to go to the School of Hard Knocks, either. A recent Yahoo! Hot Jobs article listed ten jobs that require no bachelor’s degree, meaning you’ll keep your education borrowing to a minimum.
Source: Yahoo! Hot Jobs: Good Pay Without a 4-Year Degree
Here’s the list, with the median annual pay for someone with 3-5 years’ experience, plus my two cents worth:
Network installers, network administrators, computer systems administrators - $49,801
This involves computers and wireless networks. Looks like a pretty broad description, as I see these as separate jobs. I know that our network administrators don’t get their hands dirty by pulling cable and lifting ceiling tiles. I wonder what the breakdown is between the different categories.
Police officer - $47,485
Some departments take people right out of high school. A clean record would help speed the acceptance process along. You probably have to pass a standardized test, also. A nice pension and benefits, but the risk of getting shot would move this one down the list for me.
Court reporter - $47,275
As the article says, job security. We live in a litigious society. Is this a fancy name for the stenographer who types every spoken word? I know there must be plenty of downtime due to frequent court recesses, not to mention long lunch hours.
Clinical laboratory technologist - $47,081
I love all of the CSI-type TV shows, but I wouldn’t want to be picking through someone else’s dead flesh and guts. Dressing a deer is one thing, but I don’t think that I’d be comfortable handling human tissue samples.
Heating-ventilation-air conditioning (HVAC) installer - $44,814
I know someone who does this for a living. Crawling around in attics during the summer doesn’t sound appealing. I sweat. Alot. I’d lose enough weight to look like a normal person. I’d probably be healthier, too.
Computer numerical control - $44,629
This one’s good if you like working with robots in a manufacturing environment. I was always amazed by the CAD/CAM workstations at one of my previous jobs, but the noise was deafening. I’ll stick to the office side of manufacturing.
Solar energy systems installer - $44,460
This is a potential boom industry. My company has increased their investment in energy-saving equipment, and the federal stimulus bill has created a demand for these jobs.
Correctional officer - $42,795
I worked with an engineer several years ago who had taken the county corrections officer’s civil service test while he had been between jobs. He was called a few years after taking the test, and wound up accepting the position and going through the academy. His name appeared on the cover of the local paper as one of the top overtime earners in the county. He made close to $100 thousand in overtime in one year!
Security and fire-alarm systems installers - $41,417
As the price of security systems drops, the demand goes up, requiring more installers. Training can be done in two weeks for about $1,000. That’s a quick turnaround time, and allows you to start earning money right away.
Aircraft mechanic - $39,584
This job has better pay than an auto mechanic, and an unending demand for air travel will provide a steady growth in this field. I wonder if they fly for free?
Can you think of any other jobs that weren’t listed in the article that meet this criteria?
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Repeat After Me: Retirement First, College Second
Posted by enrique s in College, Excel, Retirement on May 24th, 2009
A recent U.S. News & World Report article recommended the obvious - fund your retirement accounts before you fund your child’s college education. I agree. While there are many vehicles to pay for education expenses, you are probably the only source of your retirement savings.
I say probably, because unless you’re a civil servant, or your company is still offering a good old-fashioned pension, your 401(k), IRA, or Roth IRA may be your primary retirement savings. It’s a pipe dream to think that you can live on your Social Security benefits. If you put off contributing to your 401(k), you’ll also be missing out on your company’s matching contributions. This is free money that you do not want to pass up.
Let’s look at an example of a 22 year-old with a $30,000/year salary, contributing 10% to his 401(k), with a company match of 50% of his contribution, or 5%. We’ll assume he gets a 3% raise each year, and a growth rate of 8% on principal. We’ll assume he has an epiphany at age 30, and decides to invest in his child’s education for 4 years rather than his own retirement: click here for the Excel file
As you can see in the attached file, the contributions that he didn’t make, plus the company match that he missed out on during the 4 years, total under $25K. However, when you take compounding into account, he’ll have $238K less in his account at age 62.
That’s almost a quarter of a million bucks that he’s passing up by not funding his 401(k) for just 4 years. Quite an opportunity cost! I hope Junior can land a decent job when he graduates.Maybe he’ll become a lawyer.
But, there are other ways to pay for school, without sacrificing your retirement savings:
- First, tell kids what college costs. The college they have in mind may be WAY out of your price range. Plot out a strategy before they have dreams of a 4 year vacation to Sunshine U.
- See what financial aid you can get from the school. Another plus: retirement savings is not part of the calculation when determining financial aid needs, so sock it away in your 401(k). Even with the financial aid, remember to add 10-20% on to college costs if your student is planning to live at the school.
- There are student loans, scholarships, and grants available for education. Apply early so that you get first crack at them.
Finally, look in your own backyard. Students can also live at home and go to state schools to keep costs down. And don’t dismiss community colleges; if you’re willing to learn, you can learn anywhere.
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Going to a State College vs. a Private School
Woo-hoo! My son was accepted to a state college, and I couldn’t be happier. He was pretty excited, too. It was his first choice, and has a great program for his major. What makes it sweeter is the fact that this particular school had a record number of applicants for the next Fall semester, so the competition was fierce. The kid worked his butt off in high school, and didn’t slack off during his senior year, so he definitely earned it.
Some of his friends weren’t so lucky. The college had a record number of applicants due to the bad economy. Many students who would have gone away to a private school elected either to go away to a state school, or live at home and go to a state school. This caused a surplus of empty spots at the private schools, while state schools filled up fast. An article at news-record.com details the phenomenon of private colleges experiencing declining enrollment:
Their biggest fear is that come spring, prospective students frightened by the economic situation will take their money to cheaper public universities and community colleges or stay away from college altogether. And students who do choose private colleges are likely to need more financial aid.
While his friends didn’t get accepted to the state school, many private schools were more than willing to accept them (I hope they’re not part of the dummies and slackers that Tough Money Love wrote about!). As an added benefit, his friends were offered more financial aid. But even with the more-generous-than-usual financial aid packages offered at the private schools, the cost was still much higher than my son’s tuition at the state school. This will translate into more student loans for his friends, while my son’s college tuition shouldn’t leave him with a pile of debt when he graduates.
Hopefully, in four years, when I report back on my son’s progress, he’ll have graduated without incurring a huge student loan debt. I’ll be able to attribute this to his attending a state college instead of a more expensive private school. Then, he’ll just need to find a job.
How about you? Did you attend a state college, and save a bunch on tuition?
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Paid to Stay Home from Work?
How would you like to get paid to stay home from work? If that sounds appealing, perhaps you should look into law school. Many law firms are asking their new hires to stay home - with pay! That’s what’s detailed in this CNNMoney article on Yahoo Finance. Sounds like a sweet deal to me!
The article states that because of the economy, over 100 large firms have delayed the start date for a portion of their first-year associates, in some cases to 2010. This is in contrast to the recession in the early 1990s, when offers to new hires were rescinded.
Some students have been offered hefty stipends of up to $80,000, and even full benefits in some cases.
“The firms want to keep these people and don’t want to lose them,” explained Andy Stettner, deputy director at the National Employment Law Project.
Some 10,000 jobs have been lost in the law sector this year, so this “paid vacation” might look appealing. Not to everyone, apparently. Many of these new lawyers are eager to start their careers in order to start paying off student loans. The $80K may not be enough to cover the cost of living in an expensive city. In some cases, it’s not exactly a vacation, either:
Some have a catch - that incoming associates are required to spend their deferment working at a non-profit or for one of the firm’s pro bono clients.
This gives the students the opportunity to give back to the community. You could look at it as a greater donation of legal services by the law firms to help those less fortunate. I wonder, can the firms get a tax break for saying the now-show money represents the value of the pro bono work?
Personally, I’ve never been paid to not work. In fact, many companies, mine included, require you to work a certain amount of unpaid overtime.
How about you? Have you ever been paid to stay home?
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