Best of Blogs for Week of December 13th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

The Simple Dollar says Why You Should Consider Trade School Instead of College

MyMoneyBlog talks about Picking Municipal Bond Funds & The Importance of Low Fees

DQYDJ tells us what they think about  Debt Payoff Fanaticism vs. Investing

Retireby40 finds that Sometimes you need to be reminded how lucky you are

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Entertainment books for $13 after Ebates cash back

Entertainment coupon books are currently on sale for $19.99 with free shipping.   Ebates has 35% cash back as well right now so that will net you $7 back.   Your net cost is then $13.  

Thats a pretty good price to get the 2014 books before the year starts.    If you prefer to wait til summer you can probably pick one up for closer to $5 or so after sales and discounts.  But I think there are usually some coupons that expire in the first half of the year so getting one now would give you access to all the coupons to use now.



To get the cash back you need to be signed up with Ebates.  Then simply go to Ebates to get the referral to the the store before you do your shopping.  I also get a referral bonus if you use my links to sign up with Ebates. 

--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.

State Specific Student Loan Programs

Some states have their own student loan programs.   These student loans seem generally meant to act as an alternative to private loans and offer better rates and terms.     On the College Scholarships site I found a page on student loans for each state.    For each state I looked for a state specific loan program and found the 11 states below.   The interest rates may or may not depend on things like credit scores and that kind of thing varies depending on the program.    As you can see most of the interest rates are reasonable if not fairly generous.

Here is the list of states with a link to the program and the going rates:

State	program	interest	term
Alaska	ASEL	7.30%	fixed
Connecticut	CHESLA	5.99%	fixed
Kentucky	KHESLC	up to 7.59%	fixed
Massachusetts	MNIL	0%	fixed
Massachusetts	MEFA	up to 8.68%	fixed
Minnesota	SELF	6.90%	fixed
Minnesota	SELF	3.30%	variable
New Jersey	NJCLASS	5.49-8.05%	fixed
North Dakota	DEAL	5.93%	fixed
Rhode Island	RISLA	5.39-7.49%	fixed
South Carolina	PAL	6.75%-8.75%	fixed
Texas	HHLOans	5.25%	fixed
Vermont	VSAC	5.6%-5.9%	fixed

Of course the terms are subject to change so you'll want to check your state program for the current rate.    Some states also have loan and loan forgiveness programs specific to certain fields of study like health care or teaching and I did not list those here.

If you're in one of these states then I'd certainly look into the state  student loan program if you need to borrow for college.   While the programs aren't necessarily better than the federal Stafford loans they are almost certainly better than private loans.

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More Double Cash Back at Ebates

Ebates is again having double cash back on a lot of popular online sites.  

I'm not sure how long these deals last.   The Ebates site doesn't indicate exactly how long as far as I can see.  They may be today only or longer.

Here's a sample of current double cash back deals : 

Kohl's 6%
JCPenney 6%
Nordstrom 5%
Bloomingdales 6%
Sears 6%
Macy's 6%
Walmart 3%
Target 'up to' 5%
Kmart 6%
Walgreens 8%
Magazines.com 40%
drugstore.com 8%
Livingsocial 4%
Blue Nile 5%
Lowe's 4%
Bed Bath & Beyond 4%
Amazon 2-4% (select departments)


To get the cash back you need to be signed up with Ebates.  Then simply go to Ebates to get the referral to the the store before you do your shopping.  I also get a referral bonus if you use my links to sign up with Ebates. 

--This article may contain referral links which pay this site a commission for purchases made at the sites.