Responsible Borrowing Worksheet Essay

Many students borrow federal student loans to pay for college. The goal of this assignment is to help you learn how to borrow responsibly, which may mean that you do not borrow at all or that you borrow only what you truly need. To borrow responsibly, you must understand your options and establish a financial plan for your entire program. With that plan in place, you can then focus on your classes and making connections with instructors and other students. There are three steps listed below for this assignment. Respond to the questions for each step in this worksheet only and submit your completed document to the Assignment Files tab. Step 1 Watch the â€Å"Responsible Borrowing (Financial Aid)† video on the orientation website located here: http://www.phoenix.edu/student-orientation.html. Respond to the following three questions in the spaces provided below: What is financial aid? How do grants differ from loans? What effect does class attendance have on funding availability? Step 2 Navigate to the Personal Finance category of the GEN/127 PhoenixConnect ® Community. Explore the resources provided and view some of the discussions shared by the community members. Respond to the following two questions in the spaces provided below: What did you find about student loan repayment plans? Why is having an educational financial plan important? Step 3 Access the Financial Plan at www.phoenix.edu/financialplan. Enter your program and respond to the questions. Explore the information about options for payment, reducing cost, and military students (if applicable). If you have already completed the plan as part of the enrollment process, you can use those results for this step. Respond to the following two questions in the spaces provided below: Based on this plan, what is your estimated monthly payment when you enter repayment? As a result of completing the plan, what changes can you make to reduce the amount you may borrow? Why?