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• 50-plus vetted resources and tips for college students

  Posted Aug 07 2008, 06:17 PM by Karen Datko
  Filed under: College, Debt, Credit, Karen Datko

  Chances are Mom and Dad don't have what it takes to spring for the entire cost of your college education. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll finish school with a mountain of debt.

  Plenty of information can be found online about limiting your spending and your debt while pursuing a higher education. Luckily, "Broke Grad Student" volunteered to be a human filter and come up with the good stuff.   Read More...

  Discuss ( 1 comments) 1,718 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Advice to new college graduates: Don't blow it

  Posted May 12 2008, 12:04 PM by Karen Datko
  Filed under: College, Credit, Saving, 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...

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• Beware the boogeyman: Advice for the high school grad

  Posted May 02 2008, 01:10 PM by Karen Datko
  Filed under: College, Spending, Credit, 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...

  Discuss (no comments) 1,074 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this

• Help your kids -- don't pay for college

  Posted Feb 27 2008, 07:11 PM by Karen Datko
  Filed under: College, Spending, Credit, 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...

  Discuss ( 130 comments) 66,627 Views Digg this | Email this | Link to this