Economy Boost Attributed To Secret Weapon: Grandparents

Last year America's 70 million grandparents spent $52 billion dollars on their grand kids according to Grandparents.com . That's a lot of spending power in the middle of a recession. But for them birthdays and Christmas are not the only time of year they give to the little tykes. Grandparents also contribute $17 billion dollars to the grandchildren's education. This includes payments for private school tuition, after school programs, college savings plans, textbooks and supplies. They also spend $10 billion on clothing for the kiddies and $6 billion or more on toys.

Today's grandparents are avoiding the silly plastic trinkets and useless electronic gadgets for more long term meaningful things like education. Even though hit by a hard economy and ever rising prices it's a rare grandparent that doesn't sacrifice for their little ones. They are there to also help teach the little ones valuable life lessons as they grow. You will hear grandparents say the way to a happy life is not the latest toy, but education and a good job, it is necessary for a bright future.

The growing trend nowadays is that the grandparents are in better financial shape than their children. This allows them to pick up the slack when it comes to the needs of the grandchildren. Grandparents who are retired or near retiring are able with their extra time or financial resources to help more. The parents may have no money available or are suffering from a job loss and need the help. Thank goodness for the grandparents help.

It's a fact that the generation of the parents will not be as prosperous as the generation of the grandparents. The parents are being called the sandwich generation. They are in the middle of parents who are enjoying extended life spans and children growing up in an ever expensive lifestyle.

If you were able to have your grandparents in your life as you were growing up you were lucky. In my case, my 2 grandfathers were alive to see me marry. Except for my Father, they have been the most influential men in my life. They were frugal before frugal was something new. They taught me about life and family. The made my life richer. I hope I can be half as good as they were. Again, thank goodness for grandparents.


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• Best Investments for the Grandkids (brighthub.com)
• Cash-strapped parents saving £1,650 a year as grandparents help out with childcare (dailymail.co.uk)
• Cost of being a grandparent is £50,352 (telegraph.co.uk)
• Generous Grandparents a Serious Economic Force (patspapers.com)
• Grandparents increase hours providing childcare (telegraph.co.uk)
• Grandparents spend £50,000 on first grandchild (mirror.co.uk)

How To Go To Medical School For Free

Many government agencies, universities and charities are putting up the money to give free or nearly free medical school educations.

What does it cost to go to medical school? At a home state's medical school your likely to pay as much as $150,000. At a private school the price is double. But when you graduate and finish your residency you will be enjoying a 6 figure salary or more.

Before applying for admission and college funding, check the fine print to see what the school requires as service for the free education. Military scholarships, for example, require students to put 2 years of service for every year of scholarship.

The University of Central Florida is offering completely free medical educations to all 40 members of the class of 2013.

Vanderbilt is giving a few complete scholarships for a few top-notch students here.

Washington University is giving complete scholarships for a few students here.

The military, if your officer material, will pay your tuition and living expenses through 4 years of medical school. No matter if your in the Army, Navy, or Air Force. You will have to serve one year for every year of school.

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The National Health Care Service will pay tuition and living expenses for those training to become primary-care physicians. Recipients will be assigned to needy areas and must work at least one year for every year of a scholarship. They'll also need to be good and lucky: The NHS gets seven times more applications than it has scholarships.

The National Institutes of Health will pay tuition and a living stipend for those interested in spending the eight years in school necessary to receive an M.D. and a research Ph.D. through programs like its Medical Scientist Training Program. These scholarships are designed to help those who want to become research scientists, not Beverly Hills plastic surgeons.

Some scholarships cover only tuition, leaving medical students to pay for their living expenses, which can easily run more than $2,000 a month. Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University will offer free tuition to all future medical students. The Cleveland Clinic focuses on training researchers and academics. You'll need to have good grades, scores, and luck. Last year, before the new scholarship program was announced, the Cleveland Clinic received 1,423 applications for its 32 slots. It'll probably be even more competitive this year.

The Mayo Clinic promises every admitted medical student a scholarship of at least $25,000. That means students in the fall of 2011 will be charged no more than $4,200. And many will get other scholarships to cover that.

The National Health Service Corps will repay $60,000 in education debt for two years of service in needy areas. It will repay up to $179,000 for 5 years of service.


Another great money saving tip is to look into courses online for a variety of fields.

Related articles

• Medical Grad School Grants? (ask.metafilter.com)
• Full Tuition Scholarships for International Students (brighthub.com)
• Making the decision to go to medical school (kevinmd.com)
• 3 Steps Adults Returning to College Must Take (usnews.com)
• Man. offers deal to medical students (cbc.ca)
• New Dream Scholarship Fund To Aid Immigrant Students With Tuition (prweb.com)

Merry Christmas

Image via WikipediaHaving a great day at home with the family.


Don't forget to get the free book "The Four-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferris. Tomorrow is the last day. Link.

My Christmas Eve Round-Up

Image via Wikipedia
It's been almost 6 months since I started this blog In July 2010. I have learned a lot in that time. I have made some friends along the way. My fellow bloggers have been open and kind to me. I am grateful to all those that have stopped by and to those that have been coming back. The motivation that keeps me writing everyday is that I hope to make a difference. If I can educate and inform, I have succeeded.

The best part of personal finance is the personal part. The interaction between people and friendships formed. The rest is just a monopoly game that you are either ahead or behind in. I am looking forward to the new year and the many more posts I need to get out.

The following are a round-up of my favorite posts I have written. Merry Christmas to all.

There is still time to get the PDF book "The Four-Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss.

Here is a post telling of the The Greatest Gift You Can Receive Is Friendship

A more personal family story of what Grandma Would teach me "Grandma's Lessons Are Still True".

On YouTube you can watch a lot of good financial information. I came up with a few channels to get you started. "7 YouTube Channels That Teach You How To Handle Money"

Our national debt is insanely high. I list who we owe the money to. "15 Top Owners Of Government Debt"

A personal favorite about a good habit to have. "Why Read Books"

Manners are great but "Do You Have Financial Etiquette?"

The lesson of big government. "A Horse Named Government"

 An old but true lesson. "Kids Need To Work".

There are still other post that may interest you so have a look around. To all a safe and Merry Christmas.

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• Happy Christmas Eve Eve (nicedeb.wordpress.com)