Student loan impact on Average Age of Accounts

Dec 152010
 

My girlfriend is taking out student loans, but it looks like it’s killing her Average Age of Accounts.  Her most recent credit card is about 3 years old – and everything else on her report is older than that, with the oldest at about 7-8 years old.  Her Average Age of Accounts, however, is less than 3 years.  The reason is that her student loan disbursements come through three times per year, so it looks like she has 3 new accounts every year.  Over the course of 2 years in school, that’s 6 new accounts that drag down her AAoA. 

 

Is there any way to combat this?  Since they’re all government loans, can they just be reported once per year instead of 3 times per year?

Why don’t teachers pay FICA Taxes?

Mar 032010
 
I live in Illinois and have often wondered why teachers do not have to pay FICA taxes?  They say it is because they have their own pernsion plan to pay into.  So do I, but I can’t opt out of the FICA tax.  Does this mean that the school districts are also exempt from the matching payroll tax?  Does this expemption extend to all government workers as well?