| IRA, loan payments are equally good options
Question: I am a graduate student. I have two modest loans - one is at a 7 percent interest, whereas with the other, the government is paying the interest until I get out of school. I've got an extra $200 each month that I can use toward retirement or paying down my loans. Which option is best?
Answer: Your IRA contributions are tax-deductible, but so too are your student-loan interest payments. So either way, whether you fund the IRA or keep paying interest on the student loans, you get a comparable tax break.
With taxes out of the picture, your decision comes down to a comparison of the student-loan interest rate to the potential return on your IRA investments. Because you'll be investing for retirement, which is decades away for you, your time horizon is long enough to focus largely or almost entirely on stocks.
Rock: MPs v Darling
Northern Rock was a disastrously bad borrower, far too dependent on wholesale money markets for the finance needed to provide mortgages. It was starved of vital sustenance last summer when those wholesale markets closed: its undoing was the crisis of confidence in the financial community precipitated by the disclosure of just how idiotic its international rivals had been as lenders. Which is why the Rock had to demand succour from the Bank of England - and why it's now on a £60bn lifeline provided by the Treasury. But, make no mistake, for a bank it's as much a sin to take excessive risks as a borrower as it is to do so as a lender. A drying up of access to funding or liquidity will kill a bank just as surely as lending to those who can't repay. So who's to blame for the Rock debacle? Well, we now have the first official evaluation, in the form of a report by MPs on the cross-party Treasury select committee.
Experts: Don’t panic over market woes
The Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 465 points in early morning trading Tuesday, though it did recover throughout the day for a 128-point loss, or 1.06 percent, at 11,971, the Associated Press reported. The stock market was over 14,000 in October.
The recovery came after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced a .75 percentage cut in the short-term interest rates banks have for overnight loans.
Its kind of unheard of, said Waymond Moore, president of Integrity Financial Planners LLC in Lake Jackson. That really made a statement.
The last time the interest rate was cut that much was in 2002, just after the financial setback caused by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Moore said.
The stock market has seen huge drops in the last week, with a decline of 277 points Jan.
Former Mitt PAC worker jailed
Elliott, 26, is a registered sex offender who was convicted in Iowa in October 2006 of exploiting a minor, according to public records. His rap sheet in Iowa also includes charges of escaping from authorities and violating the state’s sex offender registry, records show. He is being held in Polk County jail on three probation violations. A law enforcement source said the escape charge stems from an incident in July 2007 when Elliott allegedly cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet he was under court order to wear. He has also been charged with violating a probation condition that barred him from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care. An Iowa Republican Party operative and Drake University graduate, Elliott joined Romney’s Commonwealth PAC in early 2006 but left after only a few weeks, reportedly to run for the Iowa state Legislature.
Filed under: GreenBayPackers
I don't know if it's done in other parts of the country, which I'm sure it is, but around here, there are local theaters that put the Packer game on the big screen. It's mostly theaters that serve beer and food that do it, otherwise, without serving beer at a Packer game in Wisconsin, it's pointless. It's an incredibly popular place for people to go and watch the game. I've never done it myself, but there are a lot of people that do. Not any more. The NFL has sent out letters to the owners of these operations to stop showing these games because they violate copyright laws. This according to the Journal Sentinel. Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesman, said in an e-mail that the league recently became aware that the businesses were showing Packers games. "We let them know they are violating copyright law and longstanding NFL policies that prohibit mass out-of-town viewing of NFL games," he said.
Grassley hounds schools on tuition, huge endowments
Washington, D.C. - Sen. Charles Grassley continued his probe into college endowments on Thursday, asking for information in a letter sent to 136 colleges and universities with endowments above $500 million.
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said that as tuition costs increase, institutions of higher education face questions about why they don't use their endowments to aid students. .
Hall of fame broadcaster still hospitalized
He became the host of a widely popular nightly sports radio talk show, beginning in '73 and lasting into '95. He also worked as a sports commentator for WTAE television. And, of course, he developed and popularized the Terrible Towel. The Steelers honored Cope at a ceremony at a home game in 2005 when they presented him with his own team jersey. Cope won numerous awards during his years in journalism, his most coveted two most recently. He became the first pro football announcer selected for the National Radio Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Bob Hope, Edward R. Murrow, Orson Welles and Vin Scully. And he was presented the Pete Rozelle Radio and Television Award at Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies in Canton, Ohio. .
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