Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 4): To Save, Or Not To Save That Is The Question

Previous posts in this series on prudent fiscal planning, focused on the need for fiscal planning, as well as both the income and expense elements of the profit and loss (income and expense) statement. Today, we will look at net income–which is the total after subtracting expenses from income in any given period–and, yes, it…

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CA Budget Affects Cal Grants for Private, Non Profit Colleges

Proposed reductions in funding for the Cal Grant program, in the current 2013 Fiscal budget plan, would reduce private, non-profit university student’s grants by 17% by 2014 to $8,056 per year.    (Examples of  private non-profit colleges are the University of Pacific or University of Southern California.)    Current Cal Grants for private, non-profit university students are…

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Financial Aid 101: Are You Financially Literate?

Paying for college seems out of the ordinary, given the total amount, which creates the “wake-me-up-from-a-dead-sleep-gasping-for-air” feeling.    However, with some foresight, families can approach college expenses together and with less nervousness.    Art Baird, Creative Marbles CEO and financial aid expert, and Jill Yoshikawa, Partner of the Educational Division at Creative Marbles, recorded a recent conversation…

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Will the $10 Billion Deficit in Pension Obligations Affect the Quality of UC Education?

The perfect storm:  increasing numbers of qualified high school graduates for UC admissions, baby boomers maturing to retirement, who were promised generous pensions–which UC administrators did not fund for 20 years starting in the early 1990’s–and current reductions in state funding for higher education–all put pressure to increase tuition–while at the same time real wages…

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Future Success + Financial Constraints = College?

More families, and younger, are asking Creative Marbles about financial aid and paying for college.   Parents are facing difficult choices between supporting multiple kids through 4 years of higher education and saving for retirement, while confronting the challenge of encouraging their children to dream big, yet understanding the realities of financing that educational dream.

Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 2): Income’s importance in Fiscal Planning and its Effect on Our Standard of Living

In the first post of the series, I discussed the need for prudent fiscal planning in these difficult economic times. Although it may seem that the economy has turned the corner from the most recent, yet severe economic downturn (recession), there are many storm clouds looming on the global economic horizon that could have a…

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