Did you know that you can have part or all of your federal educational loans canceled? Under certain circumstances, the government will forgive your student loans. To qualify, you need to fall into one of these categories:
· Perform volunteer work
· Perform military service
· Teach or practice medicine in certain types of communities
· Meet criteria specified by the loan forgiveness program
Volunteer organizations that offer loan forgiveness:
1. AmeriCorps – If you serve for 12 months you can get $7400 in stipends and $4725 for your loans.
2. Peace Corp – If you volunteer, you can apply to have your Stafford loans and Perkins loans deferred. You can also have 15% of your Perkins loans cancelled for each year you volunteer, up to 70%.
3. Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) – If you volunteer 1700 hours of service to private non-profit groups that help to combat hunger, homelessness, poverty and illiteracy, you could receive $4725.
Military:
If you are a student and in the Army National Guard, you could be eligible for a student repayment program and get $10,000.
Teaching:
If you become a full-time teacher in elementary or secondary schools that serve students from low-income families you can have a portion of your Perkins loan forgiven. You can have 15% of your Perkins loan cancelled for the first and second years of teaching service, 20% for the third and fourth years, and 30% for the fifth. Basically, that adds up to 80% for five years of teaching.
Special education teachers, math teachers, science teachers, foreign language teachers, bilingual teachers, and other fields designated as teacher shortage areas can have portions of their Perkins and Stafford loans forgiven. Check on the US Department of Education’s website to learn more about cancellation/deferment options for teachers or teacher loan forgiveness forms.
Medical:
The US Department of Health and Human Services offer loan forgiveness programs (National Health Service Corps and the Nursing Education Loan Repayment Program) to physicians and registered nurses who agree to practice in areas that lack adequate medical care for a set number of years. The National Institutes of Health repays up to $35,000 per year in student loans for US citizens who conduct clinical medical research.
Other:
If you work for a federal agency, you might be able to have loans repaid by the government. Agencies can repay up to $10,000 in federal student loans each year up to $60,000 total. You can check for these at www.usajobs.opm.gov.

Here is a very simple list of steps to follow if you are thinking about refinancing your mortgage:
1. Think about pros and cons – You need to consider if you will really be saving money by refinancing. There are often closing costs associated with refinancing a mortgage. However, lowering your interest rate by a small percentage like .5% could save you hundreds of dollars each month. You should calculate you break even point or how long it would take you to recover the closing costs.
2. Prepare your paperwork – Some of the paperwork you will need includes your income tax statements, recent pay stubs, bank statements, other documents to prove your income, and your credit score. Lenders will want to see what your income to debt ratio is and also your credit history. A higher credit score will get you a better mortgage rate.
3. Shop around – You should do a lot of research to find the best possible rate. Look at different banks, both nationwide and regional and also approach mortgage brokers. Compare rates from different brokers keeping in mind that rates are constantly changing. Sometimes mortgage broker will give you rates with no closing costs. They can give you this deal because the rate is usually a little higher than usual. However, if this rate is still lower than your current mortgage rate, it doesn’t hurt to refinance at that new lower rate since it won’t cost you anything.