Stafford Loan

Are you starting college within the next year? If you are, you are probably frantically looking for ways to pay for it. You should be applying to every college scholarship you can find, working as many hours at your part time job as you can to save up some cash, and talking to your parents about any possible college fund they have and if there is any money they can give you towards college. College costs have only gone up in recent years, much faster than the cost of almost everything else.

Some people are lucky enough to be born into a rich family or have parents that were able to set aside money in a college fund. Others are super smart and able to land a full ride scholarship to the college of their choice. For the rest of us, we have to come up with the money on our own. Even after attending a community college or going to a state school, getting all the scholarships we can, and saving up all the money we can, some of us will still come up short. Those who do have to take out loans.

For some, 'loan' sounds like a dirty word, but in fact, even a mortgage is a loan, and most people will have to take out a mortgage if they ever want to buy a house. If you want to college education, taking out some loans as a last resort will not kill you. If used correctly, it will give you a huge career boost and help you later in life.

The first place you should look when getting a loan is with the government. Most other personal loans have much higher interest rates. You could even pay with a credit card if you want, but they will charge you a huge interest rate that you must avoid at all costs to save a lot of money. The first government student loan you should look at is the Stafford Loan.

The Stafford loan is an affordable loan that can be used for college tuition at a two or four year college, university, or trade school. You can borrow up to $4,000 a year to a maximum of $20,000 total. There are two different types of Stafford loans, the subsidized loan and the unsubsidized loan. If you are in great financial need, you can get the subsidized loan in which the government will pay the interest on the loan until six months after you graduate. If you don't show great financial need, you can still get the unsubsidized loan in which the government won't pay any interest.

If you need to take out a loan for college, the Stafford loan should be the first place you look. It can help considerably. Just make sure you know you will have to pay it back and that you have a plan to do so.

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