There’s a lot of talk about how parents can prepare their kids for financial independence, but it’s just as important to point out ways that parents can unknowingly hurt their children’s financial success. If you haven’t started teaching your kids about how to be financially responsible, now is the time to begin. It’s never too [...]
Financial responsibility is a crucial part of the college experience, yet some personal finance skills remain foreign to students as they prepare for college. Parents have the task of preparing their children for a new financial world and they can do that by discussing the pitfalls that come with being on their own. Do you [...]
I’ve reached one of those milestone birthdays where you stop and take stock of your life. I’ve been looking at where I’ve been and where I’m going professionally, personally, and financially. In looking at my finances, I’ve realized that there are eleven actions that have contributed directly to my success. These actions have all been [...]
I had a roommate in college whose mantra in life was, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” She applied this to everything from dating (Just because you can date that drunk frat guy doesn’t mean that you should) to academics (Just because you can graduate with a D average doesn’t mean that you [...]
If you’re in college, you know how hard it can be to find motivation to study. Enter Ultrinsic.com, a website that lets you “bet” on your grades. Here’s how it works: You set a target grade for a single course, multiple courses, or a semester’s GPA and then you lay down money “betting” that you [...]
If you’re a student, you know that textbooks are expensive. Some are so expensive you think they must have gold plating somewhere within the pages. For years the only way to save on textbooks was to buy used books, either from your school’s store or from a third party seller. Now, though, you can rent [...]
For the past generation or so, lenders and financial gurus have been promoting the myth that all student loan debt should be considered Good Debt. Student loan debt is said to be good because it is debt accrued in the pursuit of an education, which is an asset that will (ideally) product more money. The [...]
It’s the time of year when we’re all chasing deals. However, if you don’t know basic math it can be hard to figure out when a deal is a deal. This week I was in a store and I overheard the following conversation: “This sweater is thirty percent off,” said the first woman. “But this [...]
I’m a big believer in lifelong education. I don’t think you need to stop learning just because you got a diploma. I encourage people to learn about finance because it’s not something that many people learn in their first pass through school. You may take an economics course in college that focuses on theory, but [...]
As some of my more regular readers may recall, I also write a literary criticism column for Bibliobuffet. I have a long standing love of books and I would gladly give up my television before I would give up my library. Admittedly, I would miss the Jack Benny Show, Fringe and Survivor but if something [...]
