Two-thirds of students have to borrow to attend colleges, according to FinAid. They leave campus on graduation day 2004 with an average $19,237 in debt, but some owe far more. About one-quarter borrow at least about $25,000, and one in 10 borrow more than $35,000.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were recently taken down for (among other things) taking advantage of the all the market had to offer for returns while meanwhile cashing in on a government backup for its loans. But their cousin Sallie Mae and lots of other private student loan lenders are still playing that game.

While some rates, even on existing student loans, have come down, many have not. My husband consolidated his law school loan shortly after graduating. He's stuck paying 9% for the rest of the loan.

Don't miss the rest of our series on Makeovers Needed!

Time to add yet another name to our Celebrity Money Mistakes gallery!

Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss had a Close Encounter of the unpleasant kind this weekend, when he sued his father and uncle over money.

Dreyfuss claims he loaned his family members $870,000 in 1984, but he never got back his money or the interest he says was due.

This morning Bloomberg.com released a report regarding the state of the construction industry. That report provides a fairly gray view of the state of our nation's home builders. Home construction is in the process of posting a third straight year of declines and has surpassed even the direst of economic analyst predictions. For a good quick analysis of the report, read the synopsis by BloggingStocks writer Joseph Lazzaro.

However, in the midst of the weeping, I submit for your approval the assertion that this situation is not all gloom and doom. It's not to be taken for granted that the country is speckled with an endless array of hale and hearty carpenters just sitting on their hammers. We need to remind ourselves that our construction industry represents some of the best of our independent capitalist spirit. In most cases these folks aren't just giving up. They are weighing their options and changing gears.

Anyone who has ever loaned money to a friend or family member is likely going to tell you to never do it. No matter how you go about doing it, a loan between friends or family always seems to end badly.

Consider my personal experience with this issue: Friends were desperate for money and I contemplated whether or not I could help. We had discussed money issues in the past, and had agreed that as long as financial transactions were treated "as business" and as long as all parties were honest, money wouldn't come between a friendship.

I loaned my friends the money they needed with a loan agreement laying out the payment terms. When the time came to pay, they didn't pay. We discussed new payment terms, and a new loan agreement was drawn up to reflect the new terms. And again they didn't pay.

One of the keys to achieving financial success is avoiding doing exceptionally imbecilic things with your money. Unfortunately, the frequency of people doing one of the dumbest things you can possibly do is on the rise.

With bleak forecasts for the car industry, USA Today reports that Toyota Motor Credit acknowledged at a meeting last week that, since August, it has been making seven-year loans to cut monthly payments for buyers and boost sales.

There are a few reasons that you're stupid if you enter into a deal like this. First of all, with new cars losing about half their value in the first few years, there's a good chance that you will very quickly owe more than the car is worth. Second, a longer loan means you'll pay more in interest. Third, if you need to stretch out payments over 7 years to avoid a car, you are buying way more car than you can afford.

Why do people do loans like this? A longer loan allows for smaller monthly payments, allowing people to buy cars they wouldn't be able to afford with shorter loans and bigger payments.

Here's the thing to remember: if you need a car loan to buy a car, that means you can't afford the car. If you can get a really low interest rate, it might make sense to take out a loan. But financially intelligent people generally avoid using leverage to acquire depreciating assets. And only morons take out 7-year car loans.

Is your credit score a bit lackluster? Are you tempted to contact one of those credit repair services that advertise on television between Alfred Hitchcock movies at 3 a.m.? Do bankers laugh at you when you ask if you can get a loan to buy a new toaster? Is that your problem? If it is, I have one solution for you.

One of the things which will raise your credit score in a hurry, is a loan which you pay off on time, but how do you get a loan to pay off, when your credit rating stinks? I have found that if you go to a credit union and quickly explain the following plan to them, they'll be glad to work with you. The reason they will is because this strategy presents little or no risk to them.

Tell the credit union loan officer that you want a $1,000 loan to help repair your credit rating. Tell them that you'd like the money deposited into an account strictly for the purpose of repaying the loan. Set it up so that $300 is repaid at 30 days and $300 at 60 days, with the remaining balance paid at 90 days. You'll have to add about $40 for the final payoff to cover the APR, but that's a very cheap price for effective credit repair.

Try this little gambit yourself. Run it three times in one year. The result can be an increase in your credit rating anywhere from 30 to 90 points. It's fast, cheap, easy and effective. Personally, I also think it's quite brilliant.