Story Archives of 'Personal Finance'

The recession is encouraging a record number of Americans to attend or return to college. Enrollment reached a record 11.5 million last fall. With unemployment on the rise, that number is expected to climb.

For-profit colleges are aiming to fill the demand. Many students drawn in by promises of close personal attention and immediate career growth agree to take on high interest loans, often times unaware of what they’re signing. On graduation day they face the real world saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

In many cases private student loans come with variable interest rates that can top twenty percent. In addition, a number of recent graduates contend that the education they paid for included sub-par labs, mediocre instructors, and fell short of the quality education that was advertised. The New America Foundation’s Stephen Burd has been investigating the for-profit college industry for The Washington Monthly and joins us with more on what he found.

The Washington Monthly: The Subprime Student Loan Racket

Marketplace: Allegations Against U of Phoenix Persist

Schools like the ones we discussed are often described as "diploma mills." Well, some skeptics proved just how easy it is to walk away with a degree - by enrolling their cats. Now users of Wikipedia have posted a list of several such accomplished felines. Like Colby Nolan. Undercover agents enrolled the housecat at Trinity Southern University in Dallas, which earned him an MBA degree. And science journalist Ben Goldacre was able to score a diploma in nutrition from the American Association of Nutritional Consultants for his dead cat, Henrietta.

(Photo by BdwayDiva1 via Flickr/Creative Commons)

Concern about a possible case of identity fraud has uncovered a computer glitch at the Small Business Administration.

A New Hampshire woman learned she was on the hook for over seven thousand dollars on a defaulted loan.

A collection agency demanded the money, because the Micronesian man who had taken out an emergency SBA loan had her social security number.

NHPR’s David Darman has more.

For centuries, New Hampshire Yankees have always been known for being resourceful. Now, with a recession and many people either losing their jobs or thousands of dollars from their retirement savings, Granite Staters have begun to return to these dime-stretching ways. They are shopping smarter, finding money-saving deals and reacquainting themselves with old school cost cutting measures. Today we’ll look at this trend, what some are doing to cut costs and if this trend will continue when good economic times come back.

(This program was originally broadcast April 15, 2009)

Guests

• Garen Daly, executive producer of FrugalYankee.com, and the “Frugal Yankee” a bi-weekly radio show on WNTN, Newton, MA and a weekly television show on NE Cable News
• Amy Schmidt, Associate Professor of Economics and Business at Saint Anselm College

We'll also be joined by

• Wendy Thomas, author of a weekly column in the Nashua Telegraph called “Simple Thrift”. She's also started a blog called Simple Thrift, where she post tips and experiences about having 6 kids and being thrifty.
• Melody Polakow, a recently laid off vegetarian chef living in Portsmouth; she writes the blog Melomeals, on creative and inexpensive vegetarian recipes on $3.33 a day or less

The Federal Bankruptcy Bill of 2005 caused a sharp drop in the number of bankruptcies, but current economic conditions are causing that number to rise once again. In New Hampshire it’s gone up by 32 percent in the past year. We’ll dig into the numbers and into bankruptcy policy, including a hotly-debated proposal to give judges more say on mortgage-related bankruptcies.

Guests

• Peter Wright, director of Clinical Programs at Franklin Pierce Law School and a bankruptcy attorney representing borrowers
• Charlie Gallagher, Laconia bankruptcy lawyer specializing in creditor’s rights
• David Darman, NHPR's business reporter

It's supposed to be a time of leisure, when the worries of work are behind you, the kids are out on their own and you can live smartly on all that you’ve saved. But things have changed for many of New Hampshire’s retired population. The rise in fuel costs, the dropout in the housing market and severe dips on Wall Street have left many with deep monetary losses and extra costs. The result: some retirees have been forced to go back to work, others to sell their homes and live with relatives and still others to live much more inexpensively then they ever thought they would have had to. We’ll look at New Hampshire’s retired population and how hard the economic times have hit them.

Guests

• Ally McNair, Volunteer State President of the New Hampshire AARP
• Kathleen Otte, bureau chief at the state of New Hampshire's Bureau of Adult and Elderly Services

We'll also hear from

• Joanne Dodge, a retiree from the Seacoast who is trying to return to the workforce
• Priscilla Malcolm, Exchange volunteer who's been retired since 2004
• Mel Speirer, founder of Pocket Book Therapy, a Manchester program that helps lower-income elderly residents with financial issues