Living in America is much more expensive than before. Young people start falling into debt in their college years, later they need to wait for a long time to pass some other adulthood challenges like taking a mortgage and a car loan, getting married, having children etc. The good news is there are many hacks that can help people to struggle with some of these financial hardships and applying them to your situation will leave you more money to spend on yourself and the people you care about.
Student Loan Hacks
There are plenty of ways in which college graduates can pay their federal student loans faster. There are a number of programs that are provided by the government made to forgive loan payments to some categories of debtors. These include: teachers, public servants and people who declared personal bankruptcy. The Perkins loan can be fully or partially forgiven to people who volunteer, work for the US Army, law enforcement, child or family services, etc.
In addition to this, some states, counties and government agencies offer additional student loan repayment benefits for candidates who apply. Some of these programs are: the Kansas Rural Opportunity Zone (for permanently settling in one of this state’s rural opportunity zones), the New York Young Farmers Loan Forgiveness Program (for maintaining a farm longer than 5 years in the New York state), the USDA Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (for working as a veterinary medicine practitioner in a designated area for more than 3 years) and the City of Niagara Falls program (which offers $7,000 for post-graduates who want to settle in this community).
If deciding to pay off your student loan in some of the traditional ways it is advisable to try to qualify for the Income Based Repayment Plans. This can reduce student loan payments depending on the previous month’s income of the debtor and if the debtor has an income that’s below the poverty line, his/her monthly payment for next month will be subsidized by the government.
Mortgage Hacks
Mortgage payments are one of the biggest drags, and for people who’d like to live in their own home or invest money in real estate these are the prime necessity. Loaners figured out the ways to stop all kinds of small hacks that can cut their interest rates, but there are still some things that debtors can do to make mortgage payments a little bit less painful.
A lot of people decide to switch to bi-weekly payment plans. These plans provide one additional payment annually and when it comes to 20 or 30 year payment plans this can result in paying off the full mortgage two, three or four years earlier. Rounding up monthly payments is another great idea, since giving an additional $30 or $40 won’t hurt a debtor’s budget, and when it comes to mortgage payments every dollar is meaningful. Also, any kind of unexpected revenue should be directed towards paying off the mortgage, since this money was not expected and it’s definitely not going to damage the debtor’s everyday budget.
Car Hacks
One of the best things to do before buying a new car is giving the old one to charity. With this practice many Americans earn tax deductions and can use the money they saved for giving some extra payments towards their new car loan. Used car owners need to carefully pick the organization. Only 501(c) (3) organizations can provide owners with paperwork that will enable them to apply for tax deductions. Charity organization can sell a used vehicle, and if so they need to ask for the donor’s approval. Donors also need to file a form to the state DMV to terminate his/her liability over the vehicle and file an IRS 8283 form to get the tax deduction.
Supermarket Hacks
Using coupons for shopping is another great hack that can significantly cut everyday grocery costs. People can find coupons in Sunday newspapers or online and use them in numerous supermarket stores nationwide. Coupons can be combined and sometimes this can result in taking completely free goods directly from the store. The Extreme Couponing TV show, that was aired on TLC, brought this practice into the American public’s spotlight and now there are plenty of useful blogs that can help people to find the best couponing deals.
