5 Hard Questions You Should Answer Before Starting a New Project

These are some great ideas everyone should think of before starting that new project. First you get a serge of inspiration, and then you check yourself to make sure you're not biting off more then you can chew. Read More... http://www.bwebcentral.com/blog/2/669

Help Bella win a $25,000 Scholarship from LeapFrog

Here is a cute video I recieved from a collegue. Leapfrog Enterprises is holding a contest in the US. $25,000 to the video that gets the most votes of their child enjoying Leapfrog toys. Please check out the video, and give it a vote and help Bella win some of her education. (Which can be very $ive in the US) Read More... http://www.bwebcentral.com/blog/2/661

Student Loans Anticipated Earnings vs Actual Earnings

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and I don't pretend to be, the opions stated within are just that my opinions (which I strongly believe to be correct). Consider the information below and make your own decision accordingly.

I recently had a conversation regarding student loans. In particular a section entitled "Anticipated Earnings". Here are some Q&A to consider whenever filling out a student loan application or pre-study report.

Q:Why do student loans request this information?

A: The student loan process attempts to gather information about the monies you have collected (or will collect) in order to minimize your student loan. Believe it or not this is a GOOD thing. If you get by with less of a student loan DO IT. You'll thank me later when you have to start re-paying it !

Q: What are anticipated earnings?

A: I found it quite difficult to get an actual definition on the idea of "Anticipated Earnings". However as a common sense concept, this is the amount that you can expect to make over the period requested. If for example, you plan to work part time while in university it is not unreasonable to anticipate you will be paid (ie: have earnings from this job). Most (if not all) of this money will be used for your living expenses and education, thus you will not need as much student loan and you will have less to pay back later. By some 'magic formula' you student loan will be decreased by the amount that you anticipate earning.

Q: Do I have to report my part time job earnings?

A: This is the crux of the question discussed. You cannot lie on your student loan application (or any other application for that matter). If you know that you will be recieving money you must declare it. For example, if you recieve Canada Pension benefits you must put this on your application (this may be in a different section). If you know (100% sure beyond a shadow of a doubt) that you will work part time and you will be paid for it, and you know fore sure how much you will be paid then report it. Why? because then you will have a much smaller loan which means it wil lbe easier to pay back in the future

Q: What if I'm not sure?

If you are working at a part time job, you may not be sure if you can continue it and you may have to quit and focus on your studies. Some jobs (eg: Teaching Assistants/ TA) do not know how much they will be paid and do not recieve monies until the end of the year. Especially if it is your first job, you cannot reasonably anticipate the earnings you will have during the school year.

If you are looking for a summer job, you can reasonably anticipate you will work at least for minimum wage for the 16 week period that you are not in school. (And if you don't anticipate it, the student loan folks will anyway, so you better be looking) So take minimum wage * 16 weeks, then perhaps multiple by about 80% since it might take a few weeks to find a job, and to account for living expenses, and put that as your "anticipated earnings".

Anticipated Earnings are an estimate -> whenever you provide an estimate you set a corresponding 'expectation' to the party recieving an estimate. This is true in everything you do from student loan applicatinos, to running your own business. A common mistake most of us make is to "over estimate" and "under deliver". Always be very carefull of the expectations you set for yourself, and be sure to set expectations that are reasonably achievable.

Q: Will I get "in trouble" for reporting incorrect anticipated earnings?

A: Here are some reasonable expectations:

1) If you report false information for an actual amount $:

a) You could be denied studen loan alltogether
b) Your student loan application could be delayed
c) You could be charged with fraud
d) You could spend time in Jail
e) You may be unable to afford your continuing education
f) You could have it on your criminal record

2) If the information reported for an "anticipated" earning turns out to be incorrect

a)Your student loan application could be delayed (because it might a little while to
re-calculate with the actuals)

b) You could receive less money on future loans (because it is antcipated you need less of a loan (which is a GOOD thing) because you've made money working

c) Someone at the loan office may question why you were so bad at estimating and may call you to ask a few questions

d) You may dissapoint yourself, or the person you have given the information too for not living up to your expectations. Possibly overdrawing on your emotional bank account.

e) A really uninformed individual of the student loan staff may believe it is okay for them to threaten you and scare you with words like fraud however they do not have the authority to do this, nor is any of it true, it's just a scare tactic and form of intimidation. Not everyone is nice in this world.

Bottom Line: Never (ever ever ever) put a false actual on any form that you fill out. It is an offense to give false actual information

Estimates are just that, estimates nothing more and nothing less. Always report what you believe you can expect of yourself and live up to. Don't report what you are not prepared to live up to.

Life Lesson: It is often better to under-estimate and over-deliver, then vice-versa

Watch out if passing pagerank for money

Google is restricting page rank? I don't think this is really new, it was just a matter of time. I think the articles here make a good point. I certainly would not want to be confused when researching something I know nothing about by possible misleading ads. I would be interested to know how many advertisers that pay for posts, actually expect to pass page rank. Not all pages in a blog have high PR, and the PR number on the toolbar isn't real anyway. The highest PR is usually it's just the main page. Once I've written say 20 entries, there isn't really any more google juice being passed is there?

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