(1) Leslie Tayne is a financial attorney specializing in debt and student loans. She isn't immune to the stress that comes with paying for college, but she does have a secret weapon that has helped her and her family address financial issues head-on:she's been talking to her kids about college costs since they were in middle school. With five children in college at the same time, Tayne has seen firsthand how critical those conversations have been when it comes to setting expectations and keeping her loan obligations in check. “Parents and kids should definitely be working together in terms of paying for higher education,”she said. “There should be open discussions about those loan obligations, even if you're not expecting your kid to pay or contribute.”
(2) According to a recent survey, 85% of parents agreed that they should help their child pay for college. However,68% of parents expect their child to help pay for college. Starting those talks as soon as possible is important because financial considerations may impact where your children decide to go to school. If everyone has an accurate understanding of what to expect when it comes to finances, you and your family can come to the most practical conclusions about where to apply.“We started talking early, around middle school, about the different types of schools:that there are state schools and private schools, and that there was a cost to that,”Tayne said.
(3) In addition,a conversation about financing college costs can be a great way to touch on other important financial topics at the same time. For example,parents can take the opportunity to discuss how their child will budget for their daily expenses or set expectations about whether they expect their child to get a job during the school year, during the summer or both.“For me personally, one thing I found that was really helpful was earning money during high school and having savings, so that when I was in college,I would have daily spending money,” Gabrielle Tayne said.“I wouldn't be constantly asking my parents to send me money for personal things that I wanted to buy.”
(4) Her daughter, Gabrielle, was appreciative of the dialogue and the subsequent financial education that she got by watching her mom operate. Now a rising junior at the University of Delaware, she admitted that she knew nothing about the process of taking out loans before she began applying.“My mom definitely was very helpful during the whole process,” Gabrielle Tayne said.“She was with me every step of the way.”In addition to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), Leslie Tayne was able to use her professional knowledge to seek out a private student loan that could help give her family some financial breathing room.“We were looking for a very specific type of private student loan—not just a parent PLUS loan, but a private student loan that would allow an eventual release of a co-signer,”she said.“So I knew that I was looking for very specific terms when I was looking at those different lenders.”
(5) Private lenders like College Ave Student Loans, for example, offer loans that allow student borrowers to request the release of their co-signers after meeting certain requirements. Alternatively, they also offer parent loans that allow parents to take full responsibility for a loan. Another important aspect of a private loan that Leslie Tayne pointed out is the ability to make monthly payments to decrease the cost over time by lowering total interest costs.“We actually make payments early, even though we're not required to do so,” she said.“Every month, we go in and manually make a payment on the student loans so that when the kids graduate, the balances will be lower. There's no specific dollar amount, but we've budgeted a certain dollar amount for each one of the kids'loans per month."
(6) If you need to borrow to pay for college, look to federal loans in the student's name first since they come with low fixed rates and special benefits, like income-based repayment. Since there are annual loan limits to federal loans,taking out private student loans are one option to cover the financial gap.Private student loans can also help give families a financial cushion to help ensure that they can cover other financial priorities, like paying for retirement.
(7)“One of the biggest pieces of the puzzle at this point in time is:how much should we put towards college?” Leslie Tayne said. “And then how much are we putting towards retirement? And also balancing that with our day-to-day expenses.”For now, Leslie Tayne is the one doing most of the balanceing.Gabrielle Tayne isn't contributing to paying down her student loans yet, but she's had discussions about her expected contributions over the long term.
(8) In the meantime, Leslie Tayne said she hopes that having a full appreciation for the burdensome costs of college will serve as a motivating factor for her daughter to succeed. “She understands that there is a huge cost and an investment that I've made into her education, and that I'm there for her and I'm supportive of it, but that she also has to contribute in her way, which is her grades and her performance while she's at school,” Leslie Tayne said.
(9) Gabrielle Tayne is certainly setting her sights and her ambitions high;when she finishes her undergraduate degree in health behavior science, she plans to attend medical school.“Higher education means pursuing more knowledge in things that I'm actually interested in and subjects that I can focus more on and have a career path in,”she said. With a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck,that career path will put her in a great position to successfully pay back her college loans.
1. What can we learn about Leslie Tayne from Paragraph 1?
2. According to Paragraph 2, it is suggested that .
3. In Paragraph 4, the word “ rising ” means .
4. What do we know about Gabrielle from Paragraph 4?
5. In Paragraph 5, the word “ manually ” means .
6. In Paragraph 6, the word “ cushion ” refers to something that can .
7. What can be inferred from what Leslie said in Paragraph 7?
8. According to Paragraph 8, Leslie believes that .
9. According to Paragraph 9, what do we know about Gabrielle's plan?
10. What is the passage mainly about?
