Ed.gov - Student loan consolidation options

Good news for students and potential students! There are new loan rules in effect as of today (July 1, 2008). While it's a confusing system, the deals are better now than those that existed under the previous student loan rules.

Under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA), it really pays to be a freshmen this year or shortly after. That's because the interest rate goes down each year over the next several years. While it's 6% right now, next year it will be 5.6%. By 2010, the rate dips to 4.5% and then to 3.4% in 2011. If Congress doesn't act after 2011, the rate will then double back up!

Debt forgiveness is also a new feature of the CCRAA. Those who choose to go into public service can enjoy full loan forgiveness after making 10 years of monthly payments on their federal loans. For the complete scoop, check out Clark's CCRAA guide. Finally, if you are out of school and want to consolidate your loans, check your options at Ed.gov.

Several states are doing some things that Clark sees as a sign of the times.

Hawaii is banning traditional water heaters in all new construction. The Aloha State is now requiring solar water heaters. While solar water heaters cost about 7 times what a traditional heater does, you can make your money back in a couple of years. This move should save homeowners $50/month on average.

But there's so much more we can do. Clark read a very disturbing story in Business Week that detailed how the coal industry is trying to use political influence to virtually outlaw windmills in the Great Plains states.

We as a nation should not allow dirty money to prevent us from having clean sources of energy.

The Business Week story focused on a Kansas rancher who overcame dirty money to get a windmill operation up and running. Clark salutes this determination to make a change.

Meanwhile, California is putting stickers on cars that provide a smog rating and a global warming rating. Whether you believe in global warming or not, no one can deny that smog exists.

Under the current system, a score of 10 represents the lowest levels of pollution and a score of 1 the highest.

Car manufacturers are obviously not happy about this -- unless they make what are called "super ultra low-emission vehicles." For example, the Honda Civic Hybrid has a smog rating of 9 and a global warming rating of 10.

These stickers are voluntary for now until next January when a law mandating them throughout the Golden State goes into effect.

Frequent flyer miles are supposed to be all about loyalty. You get free exotic trips all around the globe for flying one particular airline, right?

Wrong. The airlines have duped us and things are getting even worse. One example of this is those fake award charts. They advertise that you can go somewhere for X amount of miles, but you have to use double the miles if you want to go where you really want to go! And that's if you can find the seats.

Clark used to value frequent flyer miles at around a penny per mile, but now that's down to less than half a cent per mile.

To add insult to injury, airlines are now feeing you to death when you use your miles. There's usually a fee to book the miles and then a fuel surcharge on top of that. For example, Christa recently redeemed some of her husband's frequent flyer miles and wound up paying $75 per ticket in junk fees alone.

So Clark's advice is to burn through your miles now as he's doing. In the future, fly the airline with the best deal or the one that's the most convenient for you. Don't waste any effort chasing frequent flyer miles, which are like fool's gold.

Clark has been trying to cut down his cell phone usage. In the last month alone he's managed to go from 5000 to 232 minutes, and he hopes to do even better next month. This initiative came about after almost getting hit on his scooter by a driver who was chatting on her cell. Cell phone distraction has become a real problem today. He notices that most people go into a "zone" and just don't pay enough attention to the road when driving and talking. Wireless bluetooth headsets don't really help, either, since it's not the phone but the conversation itself that's causing the distraction.

And there are other ways to lose focus. Clark says he now pulls over if he has to dial a number that's not on his speed dial. Young people, in particular, blast music so loud that they can't hear what's going on around them. The bottom line? You have to be extra aware on the road these days. Keep your eye out for "cell phone drivers" who might run a stop sign or change lanes without signalling because they're too distracted on the phone. If you find yourself so focused on a conversation that you've forgotten what you're doing, or can't recall how you got from Point A to Point B, you know it's time to pull over.