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The summer is quickly ending which means school will shortly commence. While it’s great that your child is college bound, that doesn’t mean you want to be forced to take out hefty loans or spend your life savings to foot the bill. Fortunately there is a way your child can go to school for free (or at least for a fraction of the price) by simply choosing a specific career. The careers highlighted below are known to give loan reimbursement after a few years of employment. With that said, your child may just be able to pursue their dreams while their employers pay back their loans. To see what some of these career choices are, continue reading below.
1. Educator. If your child wants to pursue elementary or secondary education, he or she may be eligible to receive a full reimbursement of their Federal Perkins Loan if after graduation they are hired to teach in a low-income school district. The trick is that they have to be employed for a minimum of 5 years. While a new teacher may not be thrilled at locking into five years under unknown circumstances, a 5 year contract does guarantee a steady pay-check. If your child decides to become certified in areas that are in great demand right now, such as math and science, special education, or foreign languages, your child may very well be eligible to receive an additional $17,500 loan reimbursement of their Federal Family Education or Loan Direct Stafford Loan. Of course, your child must meet certain conditions and requirements. To get a better understanding of what they are, click here.
2. Nurse/ Doctor. The healthcare industry is a lucrative career field to pursue for many different reasons. The first is that the hire-ability rate is generally high because there is always a constant need for people who can aid the sickly and elderly. The second is because there are tons of loan forgiveness programs available for those who particularly want to be nurses and doctors—and those paying their way through medical school are going to want all the help they can get. Because individual hospitals and states set their own standards of who can qualify for the various loan forgiveness programs it’s hard to say how much employees can get reimbursed. But, typically employees must work a minimum of two years at a hospital or medical facility that is understaffed in order to earn up to 60 percent in loan forgiveness. Those who choose to work in the understaffed environment for an additional year can earn even more loan reimbursement. To look at some of the various loan forgiveness programs offered in each state, click here (remember that this is not all and your child should specifically ask the medical facility he or she works for to get some insight to additional options).
3. Government/ Public Service Employee. If you child works for the government—either at the federal, state or local level—or a non-profit organization he or she may be eligible to receive a full loan reimbursement. The same applies for those who pursue a career in public service, either as a public safety worker, fire fighter, social worker or even a librarian for example. However the requirements to earn this loan forgiveness are pretty intense. Your child must be employed in the field for 10 consecutive years and make 120 timely loan payments before the loan forgiveness can kick-in. Your child can also earn educational credits or a stipend that can be applied to debt and loans if he or she chooses to work for various philanthropic organizations, including the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps. For more information about becoming eligible for loan forgiveness programs within these career fields, click here.
Here’s an impact of an IRA rollover that you may not have thought of: depending upon how you handle your rollover, you could impact college financial aid – either your own if you’re working and attending college, or more likely, that of your child.
When faced with the high cost of college, you want to find and take advantage of every opportunity that you can to cut down on your out-of-pocket expenses, before you give in and take out loans. So after you’ve applied for all of the grants, scholarships, and other non-loan financial aid that you can, it’s time to consider what sorts of tax benefits may help out with your situation.
When planning to save for future college expenses, you may run across several options – including insurance policies, savings bonds, retirement accounts and specific education accounts, such as Coverdell Education Savings and Section 529 plans.
Below is a reprint of an interaction that I had with an anonymous individual several years ago on a web bulletin board, as I thought the 20 questions that the individual listed might be interesting to you. I’ve reviewed the list and updated responses where laws have changed or where I was more snarky than necessary in my response. Let me know if you have more questions to add to the list!
Here’s a very good idea to consider – if you have a teenager who has a part-time job, rather than putting those earnings solely into a savings account (or worse, a car), open a Roth IRA. The money contributed to this account will mostly be tax free, since the first $5,700 (2010 figures) of earned income is not taxed for a single filer that is a dependent of another.
12/17/2010 – with the passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010, the rate changes formerly discussed in this article have been superseded.
Several months ago I pointed out 
With much fanfare, Illinois congressman and US Senate candidate Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) has pushed his plan, adorably referred to as 401(kids) (see news story 
Click the link to pick up a copy of 
My other book, 
And if you've come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed "advisor's advisor".