| Families, businesses share money worries
Families, businesses share money worries More than half of Marylanders polled believe the economy is bad and getting worse Rising gasoline prices are part of the problem that is forcing up the cost of nearly everything, which has caused a general pessimism and expectation of recession. (Sun photo by Monica Lopossay / January 16, 2008) .
Parents often fumble on financial aid forms
High school seniors have been scrambling for months to complete their applications for college. Now it's their parents' turn to sweat.
The start of the year marks the launch of financial aid season, when parents fill out exhaustively detailed forms in an effort to get their share of the billions of dollars of assistance available. Unfortunately, aid forms can be every bit as unnerving as college applications. Missteps can cost thousands.
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R. Carriere from Maritimes, Canada writes:
Yvonne Wackernagel from Woodville, Canada writes: Let us concentrate on Canada. Remember that CMHC which insured all those "5% down" mortgages.....
Afternoon Yvonne. You bring up an interesting point. Whatever happened to the days of 25% cash down? And why lower the CMHC thingy from 10% to 5%.
House ownership is a great thing-but also dangerous in the wrong circumstances.
Canadian banks are now offereing similar products to their US counterparts-one being paying interest only on a mortgage!
What was even more surprising was the amount of money banks are willing to loan to younger folks based on their earnings. They all have "mortgage calculators" on their web sites and believing in their selfish pursuit of profit only, they are allowing strangling credit to young homeowners.
Panel: Build 'Early Action' projects on time
The staff came back Friday with other options: Delay other projects while carrying the Trolley forward, delay all of the early projects, or keep all of the projects on schedule and work to fill the gap later.The panel opted to keep every highway, rail and bus project on schedule.But in doing so, Santee Councilman Jack Dale reminded colleagues that they were committing themselves to "a mission to find additional dollars."And Del Mar Mayor Dave Druker, representing coastal North County on the panel, warned that if the mission fails, the agency will have to leave other projects behind in the second go-round of TransNet.Besides the Early Action Program, TransNet proposes to fund a slew of other projects. Those include popular North County projects such as car-pool lanes on Highway 78 between Oceanside and Escondido and widening of Interstate 5.The discussion was prompted by the need to adopt a TransNet financing plan as the agency prepares to sell $600 million in bonds this April to jump-start the 40-year campaign to make traveling around the county a little easier.The panel was persuaded to stay the course by John Meyer of Escondido, chairman of a regional watchdog group that oversees TransNet spending.
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