Personal Finance Advice

By Mitchell Pauly The notion that going to a “good” college is a ticket to a brighter future should be taken on a case by case basis, but this isn’t what American society would have you believe. I want you to think about this example, which is all too common: an extremely high academically performing [...]

In this day and age of factoids, time saving gadgets, news that’s more infotainment than real news, and our harried pace of life, most of us find ourselves just skimming the surface of information, hobbies, and work skills. We absorb what we need to get by and then move on to the next thing. What [...]

More and more parents are deciding that homeschooling is the correct choice for their kids. Those that do decide to homeschool soon discover that it can be an expensive endeavor. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are a number of simple steps that can be taken to reduce the cost of homeschooling. Here [...]

Getting kids ready for a return to school can be an expensive endeavor, especially if you have a back to school supply budget. This is especially true if you don’t take the time to figure out exactly what you need (and don’t need) to purchase for the coming school year. Organization is a big money [...]

Whether it is for a birthday, Christmas or any other gift giving event, there are a lot of great money management and personal finance educational gifts that you can purchase. Everyone knows that kids love money, but often they don’t learn how money management and personal finance works. By giving a gift that can help [...]

My neighbor’s child, Lisa, just graduated from college. She could have gone to some prestigious private schools or out-of-state colleges, but she chose to go to a smaller in-state college to save big bucks on tuition. She also considered a degree program online that are much more affordable and would have given her the ability [...]

While money gifts aren’t the best financial gift you can give your kids, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a good choice at times. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what gift to get for a new college graduate. Do you want to get them something they’ll cherish forever? Something fun and entertaining? Something that [...]

One of the biggest disgraces of the school system is that it often fails to teach basics that we all need for everyday life once we graduate. A prime example of this is basic personal finances. If we could get more students to graduate from high school with a basic understanding of how personal finances [...]

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 for those attending both university online and on campus, 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 [...]

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 [...]