Your Money

By Julie Rawe

STUDENT DISCOUNT More than 2 million students with federal loans can now get reduced interest rates by rolling their IOUs together and repaying them electronically. Students with a $10,000 debt and a 10-year repayment plan will save more than $500 on average by consolidating their loans before they start to come due and allowing Washington to collect payments automatically.

NICE NO LONGER The IRS is unplugging a popular charitable-giving scheme that is also a way to buy life insurance. Thousands of taxpayers have been writing off donations to charities that agree to use the money to buy life insurance for the donors and later split the benefits with their heirs. No longer. The IRS may subject taxpayers who use such a "charitable split trust" to a 20% underpayment penalty and may yank the tax-exempt status of participating charities.

ENTREPRENEURS 'R' US Searching for seed capital? Go to www.umbrellaproject.com and submit your business plan online. Five recent Ivy League grads, whose own biotech startup went public this year, founded the site to help other young entrepreneurs get off the ground. Money comes from a fund the founders manage. One venture that got cash is aggressively marketing a natural compound to the cosmetics industry. But rejects are more plentiful. Among them: ideas for antihangover pills and designer galoshes, not to mention a state-prison employee trying to sell his package of retirement benefits.

--By Julie Rawe