Get Smart Money Answers Through Sallie Mae’s Chat Thursday Night, Jan. 27, 9-10 P.M. EST

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saving for college and don’t know where to start? Looking to improve your credit score? Juggling multiple financial goals? Join Sallie Mae’s live chat to pose these and other questions to financial experts from the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) on Thursday night, Jan. 27, from 9 to 10 p.m. EST.

“Whatever your life situation, this is a great opportunity to connect with financial planning experts who can provide relevant assistance and information.”

The free chat, which is open to the public through Sallie Mae’s Facebook page, will feature two expert practitioners with a combined 30 years experience in helping people make smart money decisions. Ken Robinson, CFP®, senior planner at the Monitor Group, Inc., in McLean, Va., is active in pro bono financial planning efforts and Junior Achievement financial literacy programs for local schools. Catherine Seeber, CFP®, principal financial advisor for Wescott Financial Advisory Group, LLC in Philadelphia, leads area FPA members in their efforts to teach financial literacy in the community.

“The beginning of a new year is always a good time to re-examine financial goals,” says Marty Kurtz, CFP®, AIFA®, 2011 president of the nonprofit Financial Planning Association. “Whatever your life situation, this is a great opportunity to connect with financial planning experts who can provide relevant assistance and information.”

To participate in the chat on Thursday night or submit a question in advance, visit www.Facebook.com/SallieMae.

To learn more about Sallie Mae’s smart money tips for 2011, including resources to make completing the FAFSA financial aid application easier, visit www.SallieMae.com/SmartMoney2011. Sallie Mae also invites you to share your smart money tips—between now and Jan. 30—for a chance to win a Samsung 40-inch 3D TV through its Smart Money Tips Giveaway.

Note: Smart Money Tips giveaway requires no purchase. Void where prohibited. For a complete set of sweepstakes rules, visit www.SallieMae.com/SmartMoney2011.

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The Sallie Mae Fund, Sallie Mae Celebrate Financial Literacy Day on Capitol Hill with Resources That Help Families Save, Plan and Pay for College

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading saving, planning, and paying for college company, will join the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, JA Worldwide and the Council for Economic Education in celebrating Financial Literacy Day on Capitol Hill tomorrow, April 27. The event concludes a month-long education campaign encouraging effective money management among young people around the country. The Sallie Mae Fund will provide members of Congress, their staff, and other attendees with its recently updated “Mission: Possible!” toolkit.

Through a special U.S. Senate resolution introduced by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), April was again declared national Financial Literacy Month. Senator Akaka, along with Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), will be on hand to commemorate the occasion and better understand how Sallie Mae and more than 60 other representatives from the national personal finance education community, including federal agencies, not-for-profit organizations and corporations, promote financial literacy to consumers of all ages.

The “Mission: Possible!” toolkit is a free, 25-page step-by-step guide that helps families save, plan and pay for college. It provides students and families with college prep timelines for middle school and high school, a breakdown of higher education options, information on the admissions and financial aid processes, an overview of college costs and financial aid, and a glossary of terms. The toolkit is handed out at The Sallie Mae Fund’s free “Saving, Planning and Paying for College” seminars, and can be downloaded online at www.SallieMaeFund.org.

“By learning financial literacy fundamentals now, aspiring college students lay the foundation for successful money management in the future,” says Erin Korsvall, director of community relations, Sallie Mae. “Mission: Possible!, along with other free resources, empower families to make wise decisions about saving, planning and paying for college.”

The Sallie Mae Fund is a nonprofit foundation sponsored by Sallie Mae that increases access to higher education and supports communities where Sallie Mae employees live and work. Since 2001, The Fund has contributed more than $123 million to address key barriers to college access and support the community.

Sallie Mae is committed to promoting financial literacy and smart money management. Through a range of saving for college programs, free planning tools, interest-free tuition payment plans and responsible student loans, the company helps families make the investment in college wisely. For example, Sallie Mae’s Smart Option Student Loan, which features interest-only payments while in school, helps customers graduate with less student loan debt and pay off faster after graduation.

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Piedmont Financial, LLC, MassMutual Announce Scholarship Program For Local Multicultural College Students

/PRNewswire/ -- Local multicultural college students from the metro area of Atlanta will have a chance to win scholarships and internship opportunities in the financial services field as part of a newly-expanded scholarship program sponsored by Piedmont Financial, LLC, a general agency of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual).

Students of African-American/Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, or Hispanic descent who reside in the state of Georgia can apply for one of three $5,000 college scholarships. Applicants must meet certain academic criteria, such as having concentrations in the fields of business, economics, finance, financial planning, management, marketing or sales.

Nationally, MassMutual is making $135,000 in scholarships available in nine metropolitan areas as part of the program.

"We've always been committed to attracting talented professionals to the field of financial services, and in particular to supporting people of diverse backgrounds, both as agents and as clients," said William Brill, General Agent of Piedmont Financial. "These scholarships and internship opportunities will, ultimately, help us better serve Georgia's increasingly diverse community."

This marks the second consecutive year that MassMutual Piedmont Financial has participated in the scholarship program with MassMutual. This year, MassMutual is expanding the scholarship program, which began in 2009 with four metropolitan areas, to nine.

"Our scholarship program is a very important part of our commitment to diversity and education, and because of it and our other efforts, we're already making a big difference in the lives of the communities we serve," said Nick Fyntrilakis, assistant vice president of Community Responsibility for MassMutual.

The scholarship program's application deadline is May 30, and winners will be notified in late summer.

To be eligible, applicants must:
-- Be of African American/Black, Asian/Pacific Islander or Hispanic
decent.
-- Be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident with a permanent
resident card or passport stamped I-551 (not expired).
-- Have a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 on a 4.0
scale.
-- Have plans to attend FULL-TIME, a degree-seeking program at a U.S.
accredited institution in the U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands
or Guam during the 2010-2011 academic year.
-- Be entering their sophomore, junior, senior or 5th year senior year at
a four-year university or be a community college student.
-- Reside or plan to attend an institution in one of the following
metropolitan areas: Atlanta, GA; Denver, CO; Houston, TX; Los Angeles,
CA; San Francisco, CA; Central New Jersey; Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; or
San Antonio, TX.
-- Be majoring in business, economics, finance, financial planning,
management, marketing or sales.
-- Demonstrate leadership and extra curricular activities.
-- Must apply for federal financial aid by completing the Free
Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)


For more information on how to apply or to obtain an application, visit www.hsf.net/massmutual.aspx.

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Make your family's education as debt-free as possible

(ARA) - Whether you intend to send your child off to college or plan to pursue an academic or vocational path for yourself, reducing student debt load makes good financial sense, especially since the sticker shock of almost all kinds of post-secondary education can be daunting.

The net price of four-year colleges has risen rapidly since 2002 and the average increase in tuition and fees at public four-year colleges in 2008-2009 was 6.5 percent, according to the College Board. Twenty percent of students attending colleges and universities experienced an increase of 9 percent or more.

Unfortunately, this has occurred against the backdrop of the current recession, which has meant the elimination of many scholarship programs. According to U.S. News and World Report, financial aid will get tougher for anyone hoping for free money from any of the three main sources of scholarships: governments; charities, foundations and corporations; and schools.

Now is the time to learn the ins and outs of funding a post-secondary education. Here are some tips to help you get "smart" about paying for education costs.

* Start an education savings plan. If your children are quite young, or if you are making plans of your own, you may want to consider putting savings aside, taking out a prepaid tuition plan or establishing a 529 plan. Your relatives and friends may also want to participate in your family's savings strategy by contributing to your education savings as part of their holiday gift-giving, or to mark special occasions such as a marriage, anniversary or birth of a child. Or, you can decide to set aside any such cash gifts and keep them in an education savings account to redeem later, when needed.

* Check out scholarships. Beyond scholarships offered by individual colleges and universities, look for scholarships in unusual places. Community foundations, civic groups, religious groups, chambers of commerce, charitable trusts, public companies and private organizations also offer scholarships. For example, Foresters provides members with innovative life insurance products and benefits of membership such as a competitive scholarship program for its members, their spouses and dependent children. The scholarships, which recognize volunteering and community service in equal measure to good grades, are designed to encourage and support those who make volunteering an important part of their lives. Up to 350 scholarships are available for many kinds of post-secondary education, including vocational and trade schools, colleges and universities, and, unlike many other scholarship and loan programs, can be applied to tuition as well as room and board. It's also important to familiarize yourself with tax considerations related to scholarships, as scholarships are tax-free on certain qualifying tuition and fee (but not room and board) costs.

* Consider the impact of inflation. College prices today are not going to be the same as they will be in the year 2027, when children born in 2009 will likely begin their freshman year. The College Board reports that published college prices rise more rapidly than other goods and services, a trend that has persisted for more than 30 years. Continuing this compounding trend forward 18 years, this could result in four-year education expenses costing literally tens of thousands of dollars more than an equivalent education today. So it is important to budget and save in accordance with the cost of education in the future and not simply base a savings plan on the cost of an education today.

* Plan for the long term. Having a life insurance plan can add financial security for your family's education. If you haven't put a life insurance plan in place, now is a good time to do so. For example, should your heirs need financial assistance after you've passed away, a life insurance benefit could be used to help pay for their post-secondary education.

By taking these steps and seeking help from qualified financial advisors, you have a better chance of making your family members' post-secondary education as debt-free as possible.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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Financial health of new Georgia charter schools falters

Charter schools in Georgia, the majority of which are in metro Atlanta, may be outscoring their public school peers on testing but many are not making the grade when it comes to financial health, according to a new Georgia State University study.

Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Professor Cynthia S. Searcy, co-author of the study, said that more than 40 percent of start-up charter schools in Georgia operated with deficits or in the red during the 2006-2007 school year, the latest dates the data was available at the time of the study. During the timeframe of the study, two charter schools closed, including one for financial difficulties.

“If we don’t know how these start-ups are faring financially, how can we detect financial stress early to help keep their doors open,” said Searcy. “Given the budget crisis all schools are facing, we need to have more conversations on how to help charter schools reduce costs or enhance revenues if we expect to use them as vehicles for educational innovation.”

Among the other findings: few opportunities exist for economies of size for these small, independent schools and size directly correlates to charter school financial health.

“Small enrollments can put schools at risk of closure because they have less per-pupil revenue to spread over their fixed costs,” Searcy said. “Since charter start-ups spend $1 of every $8 on management and administration costs, they might benefit from shared services with their local school district or other charter schools.”

Additionally, because there are no uniform practices of reporting financial information or specific deadlines, it closes the opportunity to develop any meaningful financial indicator system to detect financial stress early in a school’s operation, the study found.

Searcy, along with the study’s co-author William D. Duncombe, a professor at Syracuse University, studied audited financial statements from 25 Georgia start-up schools in the 2006-2007 school year. Since 1998, 34 start-up charter schools have opened and dozens of others have been authorized. Up to 2007, a total of five had closed.

Recent legislation authorized the creation of entire charter school districts and a total of 115 charter schools are or will be open this school year.

“Georgia is on the cusp of expanding the number of charter schools,” Searcy said. “Understanding their financial health is more important than ever.”

For a complete copy of the study, please go to http://aysps.gsu.edu/frc/3007.html.

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Emory Financial Aid: Resources Remain Strong

Emory University remains committed to "need blind" admissions and to meeting the full, demonstrated financial need for dependent, traditional undergraduate students during these challenging financial times.

"Emory, like all institutions and businesses, is having to adjust to a new economic reality and this will impact the budget in a variety of ways. However, financial aid is among our top priorities and we expect to devote more – not fewer – resources to financial aid in the coming years to ensure that all students who are admitted can attend independent of economic background," says Santa Ono, senior vice provost for undergraduate education.

Emory also is increasing accessibility for low- and middle-income students through the Emory Advantage grant and loan relief program as well as other financial aid programs. Overall, Emory's Office of Financial Aid is seeing increased demand for assistance due to the recent economic downturn. The financial aid staff is urging parents and students (prospective and current) to plan ahead to determine their budgets, apply early for aid and carefully weigh options.

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University of Georgia Budget Update

University of Georgia Budget Update
President Michael F. Adams

I would like to begin my comments on the budget situation with words of praise for the people who have spent countless hours working to ensure the long-term financial stability of the University of Georgia. The credit for our careful management of the budget crisis to date goes to the many faculty and staff who have taken on extra responsibility in areas where there are unfilled positions. The credit also goes to the leadership team in the budget area: Arnett Mace; Tom Landrum; and Tim Burgess, with the help of the many dedicated staff in Finance and Administration; and of course the deans, vice presidents, directors, and department heads who face the greatest challenge of managing these budget reductions at the school, college, and departmental levels.

We are facing an economic crisis of a magnitude unprecedented since WWII. My belief has been that we must manage very conservatively during these times, doing all that we can to preserve faculty and staff jobs—which remains my top priority—so that we can continue to carry out our missions of teaching, research and service. To date, we have been able to avoid the worst of this economic recession because of the planning by our budget team that began about this time last year. But we do not yet know how much the fiscal year 2009 budget ultimately will be cut and what the funding levels will look like for 2010.

As you will recall, at their October meeting the Board of Regents directed that we reduce our FY 09 budget by 6%. This action led to a reduction to UGA's state-appropriated funds of over $29.7 million, with $24 million being reduced from our Resident Instruction budget and $5.7 million from our B Units, the experiment station and extension units that extend our research and outreach missions throughout the state.

Although the University System has not received specific budget instructions from the state regarding further budget reductions, the Board of Regents yesterday took prudent action to prepare for a likely budget reduction of 8%. Increasing the FY 2009 budget reduction to 8% would increase the reduction to UGA's state-appropriated funds from $29.7 million to about $39.7 million, with $32.1 million being reduced from our Resident Instruction budget and $7.6 million from our B Units.

Given the budget challenges facing all public colleges and universities in Georgia, the Board of Regents took the following three actions yesterday in a special called meeting.

First, the Regents voted to reduce the employer contribution rate for the PPO and HMO health insurance plans from 75% to 70%. This action increases the employee cost for these and the Indemnity health plans, if the employee does not opt to move to a lower-cost plan. Importantly, the open enrollment period has been reopened until December 15th to allow faculty, staff, and retirees to make different choices should they wish to do so, in light of the change in premiums.

Second, the Regents voted to waive BOR policy 704.021 on mandatory student fee. This is the policy that outlines the standard timetable and procedures by which mandatory fees are typically set by the Board of Regents, usually in April.

Third, they voted to institute a mandatory fee of $100 per semester at research universities and the largest comprehensive universities, $75 at the other comprehensive universities, and $50 at access institutions.

Each of these actions is part of a tiered approach that has been followed over several months by the System to address the changing budget situation. I would like to speak to these items in more detail.

First, the health care action. As UGA faculty and staff will receive the merit salary increases approved for January 1, 2009, these raises will help mitigate the health insurance cost increases that System employees are being asked to bear. At UGA, we have made concerted attempts to address salary concerns in specific targeted areas over the past months and years. As of January 1, 2009, we will have been able to move the minimum salary to $21,000 after steady steps in that direction over several years. Along with raising the minimum salary, we also allocated funds to mitigate staff salary compression issues that are associated with raising the minimum hiring rate. Likewise, we have allocated over $1.8 million additional funds in this fiscal year alone to help bring faculty salaries more in line with our competitors, with $1.3 million of this funding being targeted at the associate professor level. This is the fourth year that we have allocated funds to supplement the merit salary increase pool. In addition to these targeted salary increase allocations, we also provided funds to add an additional ½% to the 2.5% merit pool provided by the state to ensure that all faculty and staff are receiving a minimum ½% salary increase to help mitigate the impact of the growing cost and inflationary pressures that are confronting all of us.

Such efforts would not have been possible without a shared commitment to these efforts among the senior leadership team, and the belief that such actions were important to the future of the institution. It is not easy to watch progress in salaries diluted by the very real pressures of this economic recession, but the Chancellor and the Board of Regents have been clear in indicating that at this stage of budget reductions, all employees have a role to play in helping address the budget crisis.

While other state agencies and other universities outside of Georgia are taking steps to furlough employees, furloughs are not being considered for University System employees at this time. We are also not yet taking steps towards hard layoffs across the University for full-time positions. However, the pain of the current level of cuts has already had a direct effect on positions. Vacancies are not being filled, and some part-time contracts have not been renewed that would otherwise have been renewed in better times. This is real pain, and real function being lost at this institution.

In total, the budget reductions are forcing UGA to defer filling 167 faculty positions, 183 staff positions, 47 graduate assistant positions, and 52 student worker positions across the institution. These vacancies translate to class sections that are not offered, student course needs that go unmet, and programs that are canceled.

Second, the issue of the Special Spring Semester ‘09 fee. The action taken by the board places a mandatory fee of $100 at the research universities, $75 at the comprehensive universities, and $50 at the access institutions for Spring 2009 in order to sustain academic quality. The Board will, in the normal course of business, set fees for the next fiscal year in April. The Board of Regents will make decisions about tuition and fees for fiscal year 2010 at that time.

Just as employees are being asked to help significantly in these challenging budget times, students are being asked to step up and help to ensure that the academic quality of this institution remains strong. We will continue to do everything possible to achieve greater efficiency in our operations so that we retain as much flexibility as possible in meeting our academic mission.

I have said before that I believe UGA’s tuition is too low; one has only to look at tuition at the other states in the Southern region to see this underscored. The $4,395 in tuition that UGA is assessing to in-state undergraduates (Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semesters) is $1,033 below the median of $5,428 and $1,412 below the average of $5,807 for tuition being assessed by UGA's peers in the Southern region. The national discrepancies are even larger. As recently as last week, the governor of Florida, one state whose tuition has historically been lower than ours, announced his support for tuition increases of up to 15% to help struggling public colleges and universities.

In taking this action to implement a mandatory fee midyear, the Chancellor and the Regents have acknowledged that maintenance of academic programs depends upon such funds. Georgia’s students receive an excellent education at UGA, and as much as I regret increases, I do believe that they are justified to ensure that we can continue to provide appropriate academic offerings to our students that are of the quality that our students demand and deserve and that the state expects from its flagship institution.

Please understand that this is December 4th, and there is still a possibility that the budget reduction will go higher than 8%. This is a fluid, ever-changing situation, and we do not yet know how Georgia will fare in the coming months. I also want to be forthright in saying that we do not yet know the prospects for a pay raise in 2010, but I believe it to be slim. We will continue to work closely with the System officials and with our legislative leadership in our planning as we move through these challenging times.

Like almost every higher education institution in the nation, we are facing the challenges of a national economic downturn. Our neighboring states have these same issues. For my part, I remain grateful that UGA is located in Athens, with its strong sense of community and its good quality of life, for I think in difficult economic times such factors become increasingly important.

While we do not know the economic course of the next several months, we will continue to keep the campus informed of additional actions that impact our budget. I remain confident that the day-to-day work that we do to serve students as well as the citizens of Georgia is the best means to provide a bright future for this state. This institution has faced many difficult times in its 223-year history and has survived, each time to grow to a stronger and more expansive level of service. I am confident we will do so again and that there will be improvement in the next 12-18 months. I am truly grateful to all of our faculty, staff, and students for their shared sense of commitment to the University and its academic programs.

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