Make Up for College Savings Shortfalls

Whether your savings failed to keep pace with the cost of your child's college dreams or you forgot to save at all, you still have options for funding a college education.

Even parents who started saving while they were paying for diapers and baby food sometimes lack the funds needed to cover college costs that outpaced inflation over the past 10 years, according to the College Board in New York, a nonprofit association of colleges and universities.

Including room and board plus other expenses, the College Board puts the average annual cost of attending a private college at $32,307 for 2007-2008, while a public university cost $13,589 for in-state students and $24,044 for out-of-state students.

To cover those costs, consider these steps:

* Start saving now. Every dollar deposited by you or your student now can help cover college expenses later. To avoid being penalized by the financial aid process, keep all or most savings in the parent's name.

* If you have several years or more to build savings, check into programs designed to help fund education. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts and 529 savings plans can offer significant tax benefits.

* Remember that you'll be able to reallocate costs within your current budget. Money now spent on high school fees, activities, senior photos, and other expenses can be set aside for college costs once your student clears high school.

* Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), provided online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. The FAFSA tells the parents and student what type of aid they can expect to receive and what their options are for accessing loan programs. Roughly two-thirds of students receive some form of financial aid.

* Visit the Mapping Your Future Website (http://mapping-your-future.org) for information about student loans and other funding options.

* Get your student to help. Earning good grades helps students get scholarships, while taking advanced placement or foreign language courses helps students "test out" of college coursework, which can save money by reducing the time required to complete a degree. Students also can work part-time to build savings or help cover costs while in college.

* Consider attending a community college for the first one or two years of college. Average tuition and fees at a community college are less than half of those charged by a four-year public university, according to the College Board.

* Call CCSD FCU today for information about student loans, home equity loans, or other loans you can use to help pay for the high cost of education. 
 

Medical ID Theft: An Awareness Alert

What if your credit card bill includes charges that aren't yours? You report it to your card issuer, put a fraud alert on your credit file, and dispute the errors. It can take months--plus angst. But, like most victims of financial identity theft, you probably can clear it up.

But if you get a hospital bill for an operation you never had because someone used your identity for the purpose of getting medical care, you won't clear it up in a few months or even years. This is medical ID theft. Instead of your credit card, someone has used your identity to get that medical care. It's a crime against which we have little legal protection or recourse.

A person many steal your identity for his or her own use. More often, the thieves work for health-care providers and steal hundreds of records at a time.

The cost to the victims is incalculable. The unpaid medical bill causes the same havoc--or worse--as other financial identity theft. There are medical consequences, too. After the ID theft, your medical records are no longer your own because some of the information in them belongs to the thief. That information could kill you if it results in your getting improper medical treatment. And it's almost impossible for you to remove it.

To correct your files, you need to see them. No law helps you do that, not even the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

HIPAA was enacted to protect your health information from abuse. Two things limit that protection. First, once you prove that your record includes someone else's information, the law says you can't touch it. Second, the federal government has done little to enforce the rule. Health and Human Services (HHS) prefers to work with offenders to correct shortcomings, not punish them.

So protect yourself. Start with common sense: Don't give your Social Security number, driver's license, or medical ID to anyone without asking why. Don't carry your Social Security card with you unless you need it that day. Then take these additional steps:

* Review your medical records and insurance claims once a year.
* Question your health-care providers about their data security. Remember that most information is stolen by people who work for these organizations. Lobby for change. Get the law working for you. Tell Congressional representatives that you want HIPAA enforced, and amended to protect victims of identity theft.


  

Many of us are familiar with the suburban junk pile, strategically placed at the curb with a FREE sign placed on top of the mess. All sorts of items reach this orphanage for the once-loved but now-useless: basketball hoops, bed frames, microwaves, televisions, and pieces of furniture.
These "free piles" don't always work the way we want them to, and sometimes we're at a loss for options other than the dumpster.

When planning to get rid of stuff, there are three options: Sell, give, or scrap.

When selling possessions, we're no longer limited to yard sales, pawn shops, swap meets, and newspaper classifieds. We now have Internet resources like eBay, the online auction site; Amazon, whose online Marketplace makes selling a much easier task; and Craig's List, a newer site that collects online classifieds to make local sales more efficient.

Charities like Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, and the Salvation Army and their donation centers offer another good way to get rid of unwanted odds and ends. You also can donate larger items like cars, furniture, and some appliances, if you contact the right agencies. Many donations are tax-deductible, so donating can be a win-win situation.

If you can't sell or donate your items, you can try free giveaways on Freecycle or craigslist.

You can hire scrapping services like 1-800-GOT-JUNK to get rid of items for you. They will handle most of the labor, including removal and cleanup. If you'd rather do it yourself, contact a local dumpster rental agency and toss your junk on your own.

Resources
Amazon.com
craigslist.com
freecycle.org
ebay.com
goodwill.org
salvationarmyusa.org
svdpusa.org (St. Vincent de Paul)
1-800-GOT-JUNK
junk-yard.org