10 High Income Skills That You Should Learn

If you want to reach heights that you’ve never been to you are going to have to do something that you have never done.

This could mean reevaluating how you do business, or looking into going into a more profitable line of work.

Many of us have our passions, but is it profitable? What adjustments can you make to what you are doing to increase your income?

What from this list can you incorporate into what you are already doing? Think about it, apply that skill and start winning.

Article By Aura Bea Carter

Only The Best Are Consistent, Instant Gratification Is For Lazy People

One of the best things about social media is that it opened up a world of information about business and entrepreneurship that most didn’t know about. In fact, many millionaires have been made from becoming successful on social media.

But, though many have seen large profits from posts going viral, quickly growing a following from attractive content, or hiring the right marketing team that you don’t know about, it’s not an overnight process.

True success takes time.

True success takes dedication.

True success takes consistency.

Therefore, stop worrying that you don’t have thousands of followers and focus on building your skill set.

Sincerely,

Aura Bea Carter

See If You Qualify For Automatic Student Loan Relief

Automatic student debt assistance is on the way for nearly half a million borrowers due to recent rule changes at the U.S. Department of Education.

In a flurry of loan relief announcements, the Education Department outlined several groups of student loan borrowers who will receive automatic aid unless they choose to opt out.

The groups include some current and former service members, borrowers with qualifying permanent disabilities that prevent them from working and attendees of the defunct ITT Tech who inadvertently took out “misleading” loans that the for-profit college chain allegedly disguised as grant money.

In total, an estimated 485,000 borrowers qualify for automatic relief.

The Education Department has identified these borrowers through data-matching agreements with several other federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.

All of the borrowers that the Education Department has identified qualify for longstanding student loan relief programs through the agency. Many borrowers were either unaware of the programs or weren’t able to apply. Through the data-matching partnerships, the Education Department is able to confirm borrowers’ eligibility without the need for them to do so.

This latest wave of aid brings the Education Department’s student loan forgiveness tally to $9.5 billion in 2021. Those not included in this round of forgiveness may still benefit from the pause on federal student loan payments, which has been extended until Jan. 31, 2021.

Here’s a closer look at who’s receiving the automatic aid.

323,000 Borrowers With Qualifying Disabilities

For federal student loan borrowers that have qualifying total and permanent disabilities, the Department of Education is providing $5.8 billion in automatic loan forgiveness, according to an announcement from the agency.

By accessing records from the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Education Department identified an estimated 323,000 borrowers that are eligible for its total and permanent disability (TPD) loan discharge program.

Automatic discharge qualifications include:

Participation in a federal student loan program (i.e. William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan program, Federal Family Education Loan program, Federal Perkins Loan program and/or the TEACH Grant service program).
A total and permanent disability that prevents you from working, as determined by the Social Security Administration or the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The Department said it will complete its next quarterly data match process in September and notify those who are eligible “in the weeks after the match.” The agency plans to discharge the loans by the end of the year.

Going forward, the Department told The Penny Hoarder that federal student loan borrowers who are determined to be totally and permanently disabled by the VA or SSA will be identified for automatic discharge on a quarterly basis.

Many other disabled federal student loan borrowers are eligible for a TPD discharge but will have to apply manually — a process which staff attorney Alpha Taylor of the National Consumer Law Center called “overly burdensome.”

“For now, things will remain the same for borrowers who are not eligible for a TPD discharge based on the data matching program with SSA and VA,” Taylor told The Penny Hoarder. “They will still have to complete the overly burdensome TPD application process and submit a physician certification to have their loans discharged.”

155,000 Borrowers Defrauded by ITT Technical Institute

Before ITT Technical Institute closed its doors in 2016, the for-profit school deceived some students into taking on unnecessary debt.

“The institution engaged in widespread misrepresentations about the true state of its financial health and misled students into taking out unaffordable private loans that were allegedly portrayed as grant aid,” the Department of Education announced.

Approximately 155,000 former ITT students are now eligible for debt forgiveness after a new review of ITT Tech’s deceptive activity. The education department determined students who attended ITT but did not finish their degree starting as early as March 31, 2008 are now eligible for loan discharges.

To qualify for automatic discharge:

You attended ITT Tech on or after March 31, 2008; and
You took out qualifying student loans to pay for your schooling; and
You did not complete your degree or certificate program.

The education department will complete its data match process in this month and notify eligible borrowers in the following weeks.

ITT Tech is one of more than 50 defunct schools included in the Department of Education’s Closed School Discharge program. Other schools include The Chef’s Academy, Concordia University, Corinthian Colleges, Everest University and dozens more.

This discharge program typically provides automatic loan forgiveness to qualifying borrowers three years after a school’s closure. However, if you believe you are eligible and you don’t want to wait three years, you may apply to the program manually to receive a speedier discharge.

Need financial tips and suggestions? Get great articles delivered straight to your inbox.

47,000 Current and Former Service Members

Due to a data-matching agreement — this time with the Department of Defense — the education department is retroactively waiving student loan interest for at least 47,000 current and former active-duty service members.

This benefit should not be confused with loan discharge, aka forgiveness. It affects only the interest on the loan(s).

Qualifying service members for this benefit were or are deployed to “areas that qualify them for imminent danger or hostile fire pay,” according to the Department, and must have taken out a federal student loan on or after Oct. 1, 2008.

Only a small percentage of qualifying service members have accessed the benefit. In 2019 before the data-matching agreement, the Department said it waived interest for only 4,800 service members.

“Now the Department is able to identify federal student loan borrowers who serve on active duty by matching records to DOD’s personnel records,” the Education Department stated in a news release. “As a result, the Department can automatically provide the student loan interest benefit.”

Why You Should Start A Crypto College Fund For Your Kids

How much you will spend each year on raising a child goes up almost every time parents check. Consequently, how much you think you should save may not necessarily be enough. For parents who plan to have children at a certain time in their lives, they tend to be more proactive in building a fund to support that child before and after he or she is born. These types of individuals also statistically are ones to start saving for college at birth.

For those who may not have designed their lives to have children by a specific date but did, its not too late to start a college fund for them. Now, when the term “college fund” is used that doesn’t mean that the money saved must be for that particular form of higher education. It can go towards enrollment in a trade school, moving abroad or purchasing home once that child becomes an adult.

Cryptocurrency is not intended for minor use, but it should still be taught to them what it is as the physical currency they are currently familiar with may be phased out in the next 10 – 18 years. Teaching them about crypto now is a perfect time to start a crypto fund for them.

Invest In Stablecoins For Your Kids

A stablecoin is just as it sounds, it is a digital currency that is set to a more steady (less volatile) reserve asset like gold or the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins are constructed to lessen volatility comparative to untied cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The key feature of a stablecoin is that its worth will stay stable even after five or more years, thus easing losses with a considerable fall in the crypto market.

To earn interest on stablecoin deposits you would open an account with a crypto loan platform that can offer anywhere around 10% interest on your deposits.

Top Stablecoins By Market Capitalization

Here are the 10 largest trading stablecoins by market capitalization as tracked by cryptocurrency data and analytics provider CoinMarketCap.

When working in banking it was personally observed how individuals handled money as an adult based on what they were taught about it and provided as a child. For young adults who would get a $300 credit card and max it out before the first statement, it was clear they did not have money teachings growing up. Typically, for those who were given a large inheritance or even savings as low as a couple thousand, they managed money and credit much better.

It’s a good idea to teach your child the basics of crypto, letting them know the benefits of allowing their youth crypto college fund, or crypto savings account, to grow so that they can start to live a comfortable life financially when they do turn 18.

Article By K. Crystal Carter

K. Crystal Carter is originally from Oakland, California where she was employed in banking for 7.5 years and a cannabis grow director and cannabis advocate at local City Hall meetings for 6 years. She currently resides in Las Vegas as one of the Earthy Realist team members.