The key word is I. I will address you as paying your own way for your educational experience.

Paying for college will take financing. Think of it like buying an automobile or your first house. Have the mindset that you will have to borrow money.

Borrowing money for college is complicated because of all the options. Kiplinger’s Person Finance will back me up on this statement. It’s tough to understand. You will need to be a good student before you start college by getting the money you need.

You have to understand the difference between Want and Need. Want is something you would like to have if money is not a problem. Need is the basics. This blog will discuss need.

You need to go to an in-state public college. Going out of state is extremely expensive and going to a private college costs a great deal more than a public school. You may want to look at a community college as being your first step in your educational experience. This will take care of your need.

You will also need at least a part time job to cover costs that the lender will not allow for such as books and class supplies. A good example of supplies is taking a ceramics class. You will have to pay out of your pocket for the clay that you use.

First look for money that you do not have to pay back. These would be grants and scholarships. Financial Counselors at the state colleges can help you apply for these. This is free money. You can also check with organizations in your community such as the Lions or Kiwanis Club to see if they have scholarship money available and what you have to do to apply or earn it.

Other free money comes from the occupation you are interested in with a commitment on your part to work in that field after graduating for a certain amount of time. Committing to become a teacher and working as a teacher for a certain number of years qualifies you for free money. Also other careers like becoming a nurse can qualify you for free money. Joining the ROTC is another way to earn free money. With these types of free money you do not have to pay the money back but are obligated to work in the field you got the money from for a certain number of years.

Another way of paying for school is to have a job where one of its benefits is to pay for your tuition. This means you will be working and going to school at the same time. This is an excellent way to work your self through college. Many people work full time and also go to school full time.

There are also ideal situations where a company or government agency will pay you to go to school. I have a personal friend who is working for a branch of the government and has an assigned position. His first assignment was to college for two years full time having the wages and benefits as if he was working. The commitment on his part is that he is required to work for this agency for a certain number of years.

As you can see there are many ways to get Free Money to go to college. Be optimistic. You can also use the Internet to find special programs as well. Also, contact your state representative and senator for their advice. Governor Sebelius has set as new program in helping with financial aid.

After these resources have been exhausted you will then have to look at borrowing money from a lending institution either from the government or from a private lending institution, such as a bank, that you will have to pay the money back. Payments against these loans go against your credit rating. You always want to have a good credit rating.

The first step in getting a loan is to fill out the FAFSA form. You can find out all about FAFSA from the web site www.fafsa.ed.gov/ This is Going to tell you how much you can barrow. If you have a living parent there is information that is required of them even though they have made the choice to not help you pay for college. Financial Aid officers at the college you plan to go to can help you with this information. You must then decide if you are going to borrow money from the government or through a private lending institution. Your financial counselor should be able to help you make certain decisions for you but you are the one to make the final decision.

Anytime you borrow money remember that you are the customer. The lending institutions make its money based upon the interest charges and fees. Fees are negotiable. You always want there to be no fees for your loan. Remember you are the customer in this transaction. Do not be intimidated. Ask as many questions as you wish. Stand up for yourself.

The money that you barrow normally comes to you by semester. You can look at it as having many loans but they are still from the same lending institution.

The interest rate you are being charged is very important. The lower the rate the less money you will have to pay back. Watch the interest rate closely. I advise always going for a Fixed Rate and Locking in that rate so that it will not be variable. It is common for a variable rate loan to always go up.

However, there are times that interest rates go down. This is the time to do a loan consolidation so that all of your loans can have the same lower rate. Remember that you always want to pay the least amount in interest. This is going to save you money.

There are multiple ways in which you can make payments against your loan.

A work-study program will take the money you earned and will apply it against your loan.

You can also make what is called pre-payments. This means you can start paying your loan back while you are still going to school. It is common knowledge that you don’t have to start making payments until you are out of school. This is true however making pre-payments will lower your payments once you are out of school. You can also arrange to have automatic withdrawals from your checking account. Doing this will give you a discount on your interest rate.

The main thing to remember is to make your payment each month. This effects your credit rating. The way information on your loan is tracked is by a simple Yes or No for the question "was a payment made this month". You want to have all months say Yes. Having all say Yes will give you a better credit rating in the future.

After graduating from college and if your monthly payment is too high you have options that are available to you. You can request a deferment to give you more time to get a job so that you will have the money in the near future. You can also request a longer time period in which to pay back the loan. This will decrease your monthly payment but at the time the loan is paid off the total amount of money you paid will be more.

As you can see from all of this detail above there are many possibilities and options to benefit you. Society wants to see you get a bachelor’s degree at a minimum. Many things in the payment process are there to help you have a quality education when you do not initially have the money to pay for college.

It is my opinion that paying your own way makes you a better student, a better steward of your finances and is great for your self-esteem.

Any questions that you have today feel free to contact me by e-mail and I will get you the answer or point you to the web site where you can find the answer.

I am here to support you in any way that I can. Consider my in box to always be open to help you.

Randall (Randy) Conyers
Candidate for House of Representatives
District 73: McPherson, Lindsborg, Galva and Canton