There are two significant, opposing financial challenges in today’s workforce: saving for retirement and paying off student loan debt. Employees often have a hard time planning for future retirement when they are focused on paying off their student loans. According to a study from Ipsos, 69 percent of millennials aren’t saving for retirement because of more pressing financial demands.

This means many employees aren’t fully benefiting from employer 401(k) or 403(b) match programs. It is estimated that American employees are leaving approximately $24 billion in employer contributions on the table each year according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. This is money that employers have allocated to support their associates.

Employee Choice, offered exclusively through BenefitEd, is a new program that allows employees to redirect or split their employer-matched retirement funds to help them pay down their student loan debt. By giving employees the opportunity to choose how to use their matching funds, they have more control over where their money goes, so they can pay down debt more quickly and position themselves to save for retirement.

Employee Choice also helps address a barrier employers face when looking to add student loan repayment benefits: cost. With Employee Choice, companies can offer a student loan repayment benefit without significantly changing the total cost of benefits or dollars they’re expensing. This product  is the first of its kind and is available to employers starting in August of 2018.

“BenefitEd brings complete flexibility to employers looking to support the education and financial goals of their employees,” said Scott Gubbels, executive director of BenefitEd. “Employee Choice is just another example of how we are helping progressive companies attract, retain, and engage today’s workforce.”

Employee Choice doesn’t require a company to amend its retirement plan summary documentation. It remains a separate and distinct service to keep implementation easy and minimize the cost impact. For more information about the program, go to youbenefited.com/products/employee-choice/.

With back-to-school season upon us and a year of community college nearly three times less expensive than a year at a public four-year college, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Best & Worst Community Colleges, coupled with its state-by-state ranking of the Best & Worst Community-College Systems as well as accompanying videos.

To determine where students can receive the best education at the cheapest rates, WalletHub compared 715 community colleges across 17 key indicators of cost and quality. The data set ranges from the cost of in-state tuition and fees to student-faculty ratio to graduation rate. [Continue below]

Top 20 Community Colleges
1 Arkansas State University-Mountain Home (AR) 11 Lake Area Technical Institute (SD)
2 Stella and Charles Guttman Community College (NY) 12 Columbia Gorge Community College (OR)
3 State Technical College of Missouri (MO) 13 St Cloud Technical and Community College (MN)
4 Alexandria Technical & Community College (MN) 14 South Central College (MN)
5 Northland Community and Technical College (MN) 15 South Arkansas Community College (AR)
6 Minnesota State Community and Technical College (MN) 16 Madisonville Community College (KY)
7 Mitchell Technical Institute (SD) 17 North Arkansas College (AR)
8 Miles Community College (MT) 18 Ozarka College (AR)
9 Southern Arkansas University Tech (AR) 19 Lake Superior College (MN)
10 North Hennepin Community College (MN) 20 Manhattan Area Technical College (KS)
States with the Best Community-College Systems
1 South Dakota 11 Wisconsin
2 Minnesota 12 California
3 Montana 13 Wyoming
4 Arkansas 14 Colorado
5 New York 15 Hawaii
6 Kentucky 16 New Hampshire
7 North Dakota 17 Kansas
8 Tennessee 18 Nebraska
9 Oregon 19 New Mexico
10 Washington 20 Arizona

Read the full reports:
Individual Schools: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-community-colleges/15076/

School Systems: https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-best-worst-community-college-systems/15073/

For the third consecutive year, LendEDU has completed our annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report, a comprehensive analysis of student loan debt statistics for over 1,000 colleges and universities throughout the United States.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING.

Here’s a college essay writing tip for seniors completing the Common Application this fall. [Continue reading below]

Stop procrastinating and sign up NOW for my “Brainstorm Your College Essay” workshop on Wednesday, Aug. 22 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

We’ll brainstorm topics together and I’ll guide you through the process. This is limited to just 6 high school seniors. You’ll leave with a topic, an opening paragraph and a promise that I’ll make suggested edits to your first draft, if submitted on time.

Register at collegeessayconfidante.com/workshops.

The workshop takes place in Westford. The location will be given to registrants.

In a new program developed jointly by the Mexican Foreign Ministry (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) and the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, Mexican diplomats are learning the foundations of American law from a U.S. law school in order to enhance consular services and strengthen binational relations.

Download photos from the signing ceremony. Click here for the Spanish-language news release.

More than 75 members of the Mexican diplomatic corps based in cities across the U.S. and in Mexico recently completed a rigorous online program about American law and policy. Courses were designed by UA law professors with extensive experience in their fields and with expertise in presenting the administrative and constitutional structures that support the rule of law.

“These courses were designed in the best interest of U.S.-Mexico relations,” said UA College of Law Dean Marc L. Miller. “We leveraged our expertise with the needs of their diplomatic mission and forged a partnership beneficial to both nations.”

The idea grew out of conversations between Miller and Tucson Consul General Ricardo Pineda Albarrán, who has long served as a conduit for improving relations between Mexico and the U.S. Early discussions included Brent White, then associate dean of the College of Law, Ambassador Jacob Prado and Natalia Saltalamacchia, director of the ministry’s Diplomatic Academy (Instituto Matías Romero). Together they developed a program that addresses diplomats’ most common questions.

Pineda enrolled in the program, taking an overview of the U.S. legal system, immigration law and criminal procedure.

“The course as a whole is a very powerful resource of information to any person that, in their everyday work, has to analyze situations related to criminal law or immigration law in the U.S.” he said.

In addition to Pineda, the inaugural cohort includes professionals serving in 24 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, as well as in Mexico City and surrounding cities. Participants included the consul generals posted in New York City, Philadelphia, Detroit and Tucson, and four deputy consul generals from Caléxico, Fresno, Los Angeles and Miami. The cohort also includes members of the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C. and partner offices throughout the U.S.

Each participant completing the program receives a certificate issued jointly from the UA and the Mexican Foreign Ministry. A ceremony with Mexican officials and representatives from the university will be held in Mexico City on Friday, Aug. 3.

“The University of Arizona has been a valuable strategic partner for the Diplomatic Academy. The quality of the program offered and its commitment to the training of our officers has been extraordinary,” Saltalamacchia said.

UA President Robert C. Robbins sees the law program as a critical part of a broader strategy.
“All of us benefit from a strong relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. Collaborative research and industry connect us in agriculture, mining, space, water resources, public health and many other areas,” Robbins said. “Legal education programs like this enhance our ability to develop those connections for our countries’ mutual benefit.”