Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Jun 09 2008, 05:15 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Just about everyone who's been to college has a story about money mismanagement. "Moneydummy" at One Money Dummy Getting Smarter is particularly candid about hers. "I've spent the last 18 months repaying student loans that I didn't need to incur in order to go to college," she writes. Ouch. That hurts us just to read it. She provides five excellent tips for managing money to take care of college and living expenses, and for setting long-term goals to minimize student-loan debt. Here are a couple:
Read More...
-
Posted
May 12 2008, 12:04 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
"Money Smart Life" remembers the forced frugality of college: beans and rice, water on cereal because milk is too pricey, buying the cheapest beer, no matter how awful the taste. He also knows how newly employed graduates are tempted to spend. For them, he recounts the tale of the guy who went to an all-you-can-eat buffet after spending four years stranded on a desert island: He goes into shock and almost dies because his appetite wrote a check that his stomach couldn't cash. "Of course you won't die from overspending, but you can literally kill your financial future for years to come if you go on a buying binge," Money Smart Life writes in this down-to-earth post.
Read More...
-
Posted
May 02 2008, 01:10 PM
by
Karen Datko
Freedom awaits, new high school graduates. After all, "the world is your oyster, and who doesn't like oysters," says brip blap's Steve, a thoughtful guy and somewhat of a jokester. But so does the boogeyman: You'll have to start paying for all the stuff parental units used to take care of. "Yes, of course, the luxuries of shoes, Wiis, ironically detached rock band T-shirts and overpriced notebook computers used primarily for Facebook, but also items you didn't realize were so horribly expensive while Pops was paying for them -- milk, cell phone bills, iTune downloads," Steve says. Steve's 10 tips can help you find your way as you embark on a college career.
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 27 2008, 07:11 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
RacerX remembers the college experience: You get a credit card and "probably then only use the card for emergencies -- no pizza or beer left in the house! Taking our girlfriend out! Maybe even rent once or twice," he writes. Since you know nothing about finances, you get a second credit card to make payments on the first, and so the cycle goes. His kids won't be like that, he says. Why? Because he and Mrs. X have decided they're not paying for their kids' college education. Why not? you ask. Because every kid they know who went to college "on the parent express" left school unprepared for life -- and sometimes didn't even graduate. "They took basket weaving and Klingon 301," he writes at Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Money. "They never worked the menial jobs that give you an appreciation for honest work, honest wages."
Read More...
-
Posted
Feb 21 2008, 02:23 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
College students require three "essential liquids," writes Heather Johnson in a guest post at Grad Money Matters: water, coffee and -- you guessed it -- alcohol. Luckily, there are tricks to making them affordable. Heather advises, "Follow these 10 simple strategies and you will never go thirsty again (and you might even have enough money left over to pay your tuition)." First, no more bottled water. Just fill "your friend's empty $9 bottle of volcanic spring water" from the tap, Heather writes. If you must filter tap water, buy a Brita pitcher and don't change the filter. She swears you won't notice the difference. Brew coffee at home, or "caffeinate like a towny" at a low-cost coffee shop. Six of the 10 tips are dedicated to cutting the cost of alcohol, which she says is good to enjoy "every now and again."
Read More...
-
Posted
Jan 11 2008, 03:41 PM
by
Karen Datko
Twentysomething Meg at AllFinancialMatters has some advice for other people of her generation: Having a job you're passionate about is highly overrated. Despite what you've been told since grade school, "not many people are qualified or talented enough to fulfill their 'passion' as a video-game tester, a fashion model, an athlete, a musician, a writer or an Internet mogul," she writes. In fact, she says, believing otherwise "can promote impatience, entitlement mentality, poor work ethic, chronic dissatisfaction, frustration and even depression." What's important, Meg says, is balance.
Read More...
|
