Personal Finance Advice

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 [...]

Summer is coming. There is no denying it, at least if you live in the Northern hemisphere. Days are getting longer. Winter clothes are being stored in attics to await the return of cooler nights. Kids are ready for the school year to end. Summer vacation will be upon us in the blink of an [...]

If you spend more than a token amount of time either grocery shopping or cooking, you have probably noticed the Box Tops for Education and Campbell’s Labels for Education labels on certain grocery products. Box Tops for Education is a program sponsored by General Mills and it has returned over $300 million dollars to schools [...]

This week we moved on to Baby Steps Four and Five, which are saving for retirement and saving for your kids’ college education. Baby step four was on deck first, which is to save 15% of your household income in tax-advantaged plans. Dave points out that, at the time this class was filmed, 53% of [...]

This is a series of posts about what you will find in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course. This is week four (week one — week two and week three) This week’s lesson focused on getting out of debt. We’re getting to the meat of the plan now, and I was eager to hear Dave’s [...]

I remember when I was a kid, my parents would take the time to show me how money worked. (This was in the days before ATM’s and online banking.) My mom would show me how to write a check out to “cash,” hand it to the teller, and get cash in return. She showed me [...]

Here is an interesting question to ponder. Is the reason that Americans are such lousy savers due to the freedom that parents give to their kids as opposed to how children are raised in other countries? We aren’t told who we should marry, we aren’t told what job we should do, but we are also [...]

“More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level – far below the level needed to earn a living wage.” – National Institute for Literacy “Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or ‘functionally illiterate.’ They can’t carry out simple tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing [...]

It’s no secret that college costs are rising to ridiculous levels. Kids are graduating with huge debt loads. Even if their parents have saved for their schooling since birth, costs are rising so fast they’re still likely to have to take on debt or work during school. In the last twenty years or so we’ve [...]

If you’re debt free, chances are that you are one of the few in your family or circle of friends who is. In the circle of people I know well, only my parents and two close friends are debt free. I’ve met others but of the people I’m close to, I’m one of five debt [...]

When money gets tight, lessons and coaching for the kids often end up on the chopping block. Whether it’s sports, music, or dance, these extracurricular activities are often costly and expendable in hard times. If your child is already in training to be an Olympic athlete or halfway to Julliard these strategies may not work, [...]

I’ve mentioned that my son attends a parochial high school. That means that right about this time every summer, we receive a list of his classes and directions to visit the school’s on-line book store. I love books, but it is always with a bit of trepidation that I make my preliminary on-line visit to [...]