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Essential money tips for new college grads
Graduation is the theme all around my neighborhood. It is a time of excitement and big dreams. Unfortunately in most cases, personal financial sense is not a taught at college. Once out of college, going from living broke to a big paycheck every month can easily encourage lifestyle inflation and a downward spiral of bad financial habits. Hence, it is essential to establish a good personal finance foundation to avoid getting trapped in a lifetime of debt. Here is a checklist I would hand over to a new graduate to make sure they start on the right path.
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Must-Have Websites and Apps for Parents
This post comes from Dawn Jamison at our partner site Zing!
One of the most exciting things about being a new parent is learning about all of the wonderful toys and technologies that exist for kids! The apps and websites my friends have told me about have truly been lifesavers. I don’t know what I would do without having these great resources at my fingertips. Whether I’ve had questions about my daughter’s development or questions about my sick baby, these have come in handy.
Here are four web sites well worth saving to your favorites list.
What’s Your Clean Energy Future?
Do you think it’s a good idea to get away from fossil fuels for our energy needs? If so, you’d be one of millions. Fact is, we are totally dependent on energy for our daily lives, especially electricity. (You can’t read this post without electric power, for example.)
Where Does Power Come From?
Most electricity, by far, is generated with fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. However, this is unsustainable in the long run, as we all know by now. In recent times, new methods of generating electricity have been taking root with processes that rely on sources which:
Making time for money
One can’t give financial advice for very long without realizing that most of it is not earth-shattering insight. It usually comes down to common sense. So then the challenge becomes one of analyzing why people don’t apply common sense to their finances more often.
Temptation is a big reason, of course. One person goes over a credit limit because she is absolutely convinced she deserved a fancy vacation. Another cannot save any money because he feels he has to buy a new car every nine months. Those situations are tough to deal with because, when you confront people who do this kind of thing with reason why it is a problem, they will start out agreeing with you but then immediately segue into a long rationalization of why they only did it because the circumstances were exceptional.
A new career stepping stone? More apprenticeships coming to companies near you
This post comes from Jenny Paxton at our partner site LearnVest.
Apprenticeships—formal programs that consist of on-the-job, paid training, mentorship and related classroom education—may be the solution to the pressing skills gap between employers’ needs and job seekers’ training.
Yet despite the obvious benefits, the number of these programs dropped 40% between 2003 and 2013, according to the U.S. Labor Department. So what gives?
Don’t look a gift employer in the mouth
Even if you’re not a news junkie like me, I’d be willing to bet that you’ve seen or heard one news item ad infinitum over the past several years. That nugget is the story about Americans’ retirement readiness, or lack thereof. We are endlessly informed by the media that we’re not ready to retire — and that we won’t be ready unless we start banking lots more dough.
Years ago, there wouldn’t have been a need for newspapers and magazines and broadcasters to hammer this mantra into our heads. That’s because the rules were different then. You were hired by an employer, you worked there your whole work life, you earned your pension and retired. You then lived off your pension and Social Security. A few years later, you drifted off to the Happy Hunting Grounds, leaving whatever was left of your nest egg to your children and grandkids.
10 tips most first-time home buyers don’t consider
It’s been exactly one year since my husband and I purchased our first home. As one might expect, we’ve learned a number of valuable lessons this past year. There are plenty of articles full of useful tips for first-time home buyers. I am not going to repeat them. Instead, I will list the lessons I personally learned that I didn’t find covered anywhere else.
Flex or Fiction: How Accommodating Is Your Job?
This post comes from Anna Williams at our partner site LearnVest.
When it comes to work perks, flexibility is one of our favorite nice-to-haves—whether that means occasionally telecommuting from home, working variable hours or being part of a job share. In fact, a 2013 LearnVest study found that more than half of us would prefer a flexible schedule.
But are employers actually meeting this growing request?
Is The American Dream Dead?
Is the American dream dead? A majority of people say it is, according to the recently announced CNN Money survey, as well as several others done at academic institutions like Xavier and Youngstown universities and other private organizations. Although the samples, questions and methodologies differ from survey to survey, the results all seem to indicate that the American dream (however people define it) is dying.
The economics of running out
In a sense, personal finance is a battle of conservation. People manage their resources in the hopes they won’t run out of the essentials — only what people find essential can differ. This centers around the fear of losing money or some other aspect of your financial life, and overcoming that fear should involve some element of minimizing the reality of it happening.
Offensive vs. defensive finance
Fundamentally, some people approach finance on the offensive, while others are on the defensive. People on the offensive are driven by acquiring more, or advancing their careers and social standing. People on the defensive care more about keeping what they already have than acquiring more. Both an offensive and a defensive mentality towards finance can come from a fear of loss — but what you fear losing determines whether your approach is offensive or defensive.
What do you fear losing?
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