New component offers advice for minimizing college debt

USA Funds enhances financial-literacy program for college students

INDIANAPOLIS — USA Funds^®, the nation’s leading education-loan guarantor, has released a new component of its comprehensive financial-literacy program for college students, USA Funds Life Skills^®.

Designed for graduate and professional students, the ninth USA Funds Life Skills module, “Live Like a Student — Managing Your Funds,” provides lessons and activities that postsecondary institutions can deliver to help their students achieve the following objectives:

• Make the most of their investment in education.
• Stretch their resources.
• Make every dollar count.
• Locate alternative sources of funding for graduate and professional education.

“This module offers graduate and professional students commonsense advice for minimizing their college debt by examining their spending habits, locating sources of financial aid that do not have to be repaid, and identifying the warning signs of excessive debt,” said Denise B. Feser, USA Funds vice president, customer relations.

The module offers activities and exercises that cover the following topics:

• The effect of student-loan debt on career choices.
• Potential savings through federal tax benefits for higher-education expenditures and loan-forgiveness programs.
• Advice for avoiding impulse spending and other unnecessary expenditures.
• Key differences between federal and private student-loan programs.

The new USA Funds Life Skills module includes a professional resource manual and an interactive CD-ROM for students. Also included are a trainer’s manual to assist those delivering the program and a trainer’s CD, which includes a step-by-step training guide and presentation slides.

The USA Funds Life Skills curriculum offers materials for undergraduate, graduate and professional students as well as specialized minimodules that address personal-finance issues of interest to returning students, medical students and married students.

Learn more about the new module and the USA Funds Life Skills curriculum.

USA Funds Life Skills is a component of USA Funds’ comprehensive program to help college students successfully manage and repay their education loans and prevent student-loan defaults.