I know nothing about finances, but I’ve heard that if I consolidate my student loans, it can lower monthly payments, and it puts them at a fixed interest rate. Is this right?

How do I go about getting my Sallie Mae loans consolidated? Is it hard to qualify for it?

Also…do I have to have full-time employment before I consolidate?

Lastly, has anyone ever heard about student loan interest being tax deductible?

The global economy is a big foul-up right now, and all the credit (or blame) can be placed squarely on the shoulders of irresponsible borrowers everywhere. Borrowing intelligently is really an art form, and the large majority of credit users are doing it as stupidly as anyone ever could. What we’re bringing in in the form of income doesn’t come close to what we’re sending out in the form of borrowed spending, and we seem to have given up entirely on putting money away for a rainy day – that’s right – nobody saves anymore.

First of all, you have hundreds of thousands of Americans who bought homes they had no business buying, and no realistic ability to repay the loans. It’s amazing to me that as a people we’d blame a Presidential Administration for what we did. It’s disappointing that the savvy members of the community will pay for the mistakes of the careless in the form of expensive bailout plans paid for with tax dollars.

We have to do better next time, and doing better means using credit intelligently. Most of the time borrowing wisely means not borrowing at all, including avoiding personal signature loans and other quick cash borrowing tools. Stay away from them no matter what – even if it means taking a part time job to get by in the meantime.

Why not? Well, because these types of loans nearly always carry terrible interest rates and bad terms. If you choose to borrow cash in this way you can end up paying in excess of 100% interest as well as hundreds of dollars in fees. How could that ever be a smart move?

That being said, while signature personal loans are generally an awful financial move, there may be times where you just can’t avoid using them. You might experience sudden unemployment when your boss fires you for no apparent reason at all.

Of course that’s not fair and technically you could sue him. But do you have the money for a lawsuit? I doubt it.

The only remaining option may be to bite the bullet and head to your local bank or loan store. After all, your mortgage company isn’t going to let you skip payments just because you have a crazy boss; they have big time cash problems of their own.

The only sound advice I can offer you is to only take from the bank the minimum necessary funds to keep your bills current until you get a new job and get back on your feet. And Don’t be choosy when it’s time to find that job. In these crazy times, we’d all be wise to take whatever employment presents itself to us.