Weekly Round Up – December 13, 2013

Before we get to the good reads!

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A Few Good Reads

Here are a few of my favorite reads from the past week.

1. A Snapshot of How Much Debt 12 Boston-Area Colleges are Saddling Students With:

Student loan debt is, unsurprisingly, on the rise again. After all, the financial burden has been weighing graduates down by an increased six percent year over year — a hike that’s led to the eventual $29,400 the Class of 2012 is, on average, saddled with.

The sad statistics are based on a recently-shared report released by the Project on Student Debt at The Institute for College Access & Success. The nonprofit provided data, both by state and by college, to determine how borrowing breaks down. Open this article

2. Another Debt Ceiling Approaches:

It seems like just yesterday the government shutdown ended, and here we are already talking about the debt ceiling again. But it’s essential because wise investors always look ahead and plan for future investments.

To refresh your memory, when the government shutdown ended, Congress and the House came to an agreement to pick up where they left off in 2014.

Since the government reopened, Congress’ negotiators have been trying to come up with a short-term budget deal. This deal could possibly put an end to fiscal cliffs for good. It could also stop the threats of government shutdowns and spending cuts. Open this article

3. Destination: a debt free new year

Since the last time I wrote to all of you about our debt free journey, Christopher and I hit a few personal milestones. The first is that in November we passed the $100,000 mark in debt paid off. Hooray! (That number is both liberating and terrifying to admit).

The second, which might actually be more meaningful as far as our day to day lives go, is that we had a true emergency come up recently and we were able to handle it. One frosty cold morning my husband found himself stranded in the grocery store parking lot thanks to a busted fuel pump. As (rotten) luck would have it, on the same morning our car was dead in the driveway. Not our best day. Open this article

4. Govt shares national debt figures in first official handbook:

The Finance Ministry today released a document detailing government debt and issuance of securities over the past ten years. “This first issue of the Handbook presents time-series data covering outstanding debt, primary issuance of bills and bonds, and secondary market transactions in government securities.

The data goes back to at least 10 years,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in the foreword of the handbook. The government had set up the Middle Office (MO) in the Ministry of Finance after the 2007-08 budget to establish an independent Debt Management Office. Open this article

5. Employee debt status affects workplaces:

“Did you ever think that if you made the place where you spend most of your day pleasant, because you improved your debt situation and so you no longer face the fear of creditors visiting your workplace with threats or demands, resulting in your employer becoming aware of your dire situation with an outcome of a job loss? Wouldn’t you love to have the same peace of mind you had when you first arrived or started your employment?” Open this article