Archive for October, 2011

How To Graduate From College Debt Free…Or Close To It.

By: Kristina | Date posted: October 31, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Halloween.  Today we are starting a new series called “Me, My College Education, and My Money” This new series will discuss everything about our College Education from the cost of tuition and books to the job possibilities within our program after graduation.  Our resource for most of this information is thanks to The Globe and Mail.

 

Graduate from College Debt Free (Or Close To It)

I am proud to say that I graduated from College with a 4 year Bachelor’s Degree; unfortunately I did not graduate from college debt free.  I moved away from home to attend college in a city 7.5 hours away from my family; from my own personal experience I feel that it is almost impossible to graduate from college debt free if we don’t live at home while studying.

If we start saving early in our teenage years we could graduate from college debt free.  If we starting working part time while we are in high school we could start saving money for college which will help with the cost of tuition, books, and living away from home while attending college.  Unfortunately, many young students prefer to live in the moment and spend their money, rather than save it.

Graduating from College Debt Free is a great goal, but it may not be a reality for everyone.  But don’t worry because Green Panda is here to help!  Students can take little steps throughout our college years to help us graduate from college debt free, or at least close to it.

 

How To Save Money in College

Here are 10 Great Tips to Help Us Save Money in College:

1. Start Saving Early.  Saving money doesn’t only mean that we have to put money aside from our part time jobs.  It also means that we have to cut down on our monthly bills and expenses.  If we spend less money, then we can save more money.

2. Consider Alternatives.  A 4 year College Degree may not always be a financial option for everyone.  We may consider less expensive education options such as Community College or Trade School.  If you are planning to go away to College consider spending your first year or two at a school closer to home and then transfer after you have money saved up.

3. Plan Your Education.  It will be helpful to research the cost of living in the city where you want to attend college.  If you know how much it costs for rent, your monthly bus/subway pass, as well as the cost of your tuition and books then you can better plan your budget and know how much you need to save.

4. Maximize Awards.  Check your College Student Center for local bursaries and scholarships that are available to first year, second year, third and fourth year students.  Some bursaries and scholarships are also available for students in specific programs.

5. Create a Reasonable Budget.  This is where Planning Our Education comes in handy.  If we know the costs of our expenses then we can plan our budget.  If we live on a fixed income then we should also live on a fixed budget.  The key to a good budget is to make a little room for everything, if we sacrifice too much then we will never stick to it.

6. Save on Text Books.  Try to buy Text Books used.  Sometimes 3rd and 4th year students will sell their books to 1st and 2nd year students at a discounted price.

7. Work Part Time.  I liked working part time in College.  It was a nice break from school and it gave me some extra money.  I made some great friends at my part time jobs.

8. Quit Your Car.  Cars are a huge expense.  It is definitely cheaper to take public transportation. Most College Students live near campus anyways; your car is just a luxury and unnecessary expense.

9. Learn About Cash Flow. If you spend less than you earn you will always have money and keep out of debt.

10. Be a Stingy Gourmet.  My biggest regret before moving away to College was not learning how to cook. Eating out is expensive. Trust Me…You Want to Learn to Cook.

 

Photo by SpindilerHades

What’s Cool Around The Web

By: MD | Date posted: October 28, 2011 (6:00 am)

No time to read your favorite blogs? No problem. We’re here to fill you in on what you might have missed out on.

1. Completely Conquer Credit @ Studenomics.

2. How To Generate $5,000 in Private Ads in Less Than an Hour a Week @ The Financial Blogger.

3. Why Does Everyone Want to Buy a Home Instead of Renting? @ PIN.

4. What Is Your Tipping Policy? @ Canadian Finance Blog.

5. 7 Products To Not Buy Generic @ Personal Dividends.

6. How To Create A Personal Budget @ Stupid Cents.

7. What Are Stable Value Funds @ Oblivious Investor.

8. Long Distance Voice Plan vs Skype With Roaming Data Plan @ Money Smarts Blog.

9. Looking at Refinancing Our House @ Couple Money.

10. Why IKEA Is Killing My Finances @ Boomer and Echo.

11. 4 Crucial Tips To Help You Save For Your Next Car Purchase @ Smart On Money.

12. My Confession – Splurging and Scrambling @ BITFS.

13. If You Don’t Establish Credit Now You’ll Hate Yourself Later @ Frugal Dad.

14. Bar Stool Economics Show Why A Progressive Tax System Is Wrong @ Financial Samurai.

15. Are You Realistic With Your Fitness Goal Setting? @ Training Shark.

What You Need to Do Before You Start Traveling

By: MD | Date posted: October 27, 2011 (6:00 am)

I don’t want to give irresponsible advice about suggesting that you need to travel in your 20s. The reality is that not all of us can afford this. Some of us that can’t afford it might be tempted to use a credit card. Traveling should not be another frivolous expense that you put on your credit card. It needs to be a once in a lifetime experience that you remember forever.

Traveling shouldn’t be done by those that aren’t financially prepared. You don’t need to be rich to travel, but you also don’t want to go in debt because of that trip. You don’t want to stress about working two jobs to pay off some trip that you took a year ago.

Let’s explore what you need to do before you start traveling:

You need to earn your freedom.

If you have debt you need to pay it off. You can’t just feel that you’re entitled to travel. You need to work for it. You need to earn your financial freedom so that you can leave home stress-free.

What can you start doing to earn your freedom?

  • Start making more money.
  • Put more money towards your debt payment.
  • Pay down your credit card debt.
  • Take bold moves with your finances.

How you earn your freedom is up to you. All that mattes is that you don’t go into debt for your next trip.

You need to save some cash.

How much money do you need to save? It all depends on where you plan on going and for how long. You do need to save a few dollars if you want to have fun on your trip. Once again you DO NOT need to be rich to travel. You just can’t be flat broke either.

How can you save some cash before you start traveling?

  1. Get rid of some crap of Kijiji.
  2. Ask for a raise for the time being.
  3. Work two jobs.
  4. Get your ass off the couch.

Are you saving cash? If you don’t save up right now you’re going to be stressed out when you do finally start to travel.

You need to create a new income.

How will you survive on the road? You don’t need to be making six-figures or to become the next cool lifestyle design blogger for you to travel. I do advise that you figure out how to make a few bucks on the road.

What are some quick ways that you can create a new income?

  • Freelance writing. Pick a niche and start writing.
  • Ask your employer if you can work from a remote location.
  • Online tutoring. People always need help.
  • Serving drinks. You can always find a gig serving drinks where you get to meet lots of cool people while you travel.

It’s important that you look into making money on the road. You don’t want to be incurring all expenses with no income.

What did you do in the past before embarking on a travel journey? Did I miss anything?

Check out the other articles from the Travel Like a Rockstar Series:

Can I Travel When I’m Not Rich?

4 Little Known Ways of Saving Money While Traveling.

3 Things You Must Know About Traveling

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Want to Be Rich? Choose Your Friends Wisely

By: Green Panda | Date posted: October 26, 2011 (5:00 am)

The Influence Our Friends Have On Our Spending

Taking an interest in personal finance is great, but if you’re looking to succeed you may want to look at your circle of friends. They can either help you succeed or sabotage your financial goals.

Don’t believe that friends can influence you? Researchers found that obesity can affect a social network, meaning a person is more likely to become obese if a friend was obese. We tend to share money traits with one another intentionally or not.

In fact when one friend is in another economic level than another (higher or lower) it can cause tension and awkwardness in the relationship.

Living the College Life Vs Living It Upfriends influence spending

My friends while I was in college generally tried to keep everything cheap. When we grabbed lunch we looked out for the best specials and shared them with each other. We were in the same boat – working college students trying to keep expenses as low as we can get away with.

Once I graduated though things seemed to have changed just a bit. Perhaps it was the years of frugal living, but many of us felt like we deserved a bit of a break. I noticed that in addition to eating out more frequently, I also ordered more expensive items.

It wasn’t a conscious decision, but we started to notice our food bills were climbing up. We some effort I realized that I had to change my habits and so did my buddies. We were no longer college students, but we still had a budget to keep.

Ideas for Money Saving Challenges to Do

Having circle of friends doesn’t always have to be negative. If your friends are such an influence, why don’t you just go ahead use it for good? Have you thought about having a competition among friends for one month on one specific financial goal?

To sweeten the pot you may include a financial prize. Yes, I’m suggesting adding more money to the mix. Say you have 5 friends who put $10 in to join the challenge to eat out less. Have dinners over at each others’ houses where the host prepares a meal for everyone. It doesn’t have to be fancy. At the end of the month you vote for the best dinner. The winner gets $50 as a prize and you all probably saved even more just by eating in.

You could also host a joint yard sale to raise money for your bank accounts. With several people spreading the word, you may get some good sales which not only add money to your pocket, but also gets clutter out of your place

Whatever the goal the point is that your friends can be powerful motivators, helping you reach your goal and vice versa.

So next time you’re hanging out with your buddies see if you can come up with a mutual financial goal that you all can work on. You may be surprised with the results.

Thoughts on Spending and Your Friends

How many of you notice that you ‘ve spent more when you’re around friends? How have you been able to counter it? How many of you are on the other side of the fence – your friends encourage you to spend less?

Photo Credit: anil bhatt

How Young People Get Into Debt…And How To Get Out Of It.

By: Kristina | Date posted: October 25, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Everyone.  Today we are discussing our Student debts.  Today we are talking about everything related to our Credit Cards, our Lines of Credit, and our Student Loans. This post will be sort of a “what not to do” guide to staying debt free and learning how to use our credit products responsibly.  We are going to discuss how young people get into debt, what types of debts are ok for students to have, how to break bad financial habits, and what steps to take in order to get out of debt.

 

How We Accumulate Student Debt

Many of us can not afford to go to College and therefore we apply for credit in the form of Student Loans or a Student Line of Credit.  Many of us are not able to work while we study and therefore we apply for a student credit card to help us pay for our monthly expenses.  They key to applying for credit while we are still a student is to apply for efficient credit products.  We have to keep in mind that Student Loans are for Student expenses, not personal shopping.

 

Types of Student Debt

A Student Line of Credit can be a very efficient credit product.  Usually Student Lines of Credit are a great type of debt for students to have because they are flexible and they have beneficial interest rates.  Lines of Credit grant Students a fixed amount of credit; sometimes this amount is based on our income and sometimes it is based on our program of study.

We are only charged interest on the portion of the Line of Credit that we use.  While we are still studying we usually don’t have to make payments on our Line of Credit, and for a certain period of time after graduation we are required to make interest only payments.  The interest rate on Student Lines of Credit is usually lower than regular Lines of Credit.

A Student Line of Credit is usually given to Students from Banks.  It is a revolving credit product which means that we can spend up to our approved limit and as we repay our debt it becomes available to us for use again…like a revolving door.

Student Loans are very similar to Student Lines of Credit except that Student Loans are usually given to Students from our State or Federal Governments.  Some colleges offer Student Loans directly to their Students.  A Student Loan is a fixed credit product which means that we are granted an initial amount of credit and we will have to pay back that amount in full after graduation.  A Student Loan is not revolving and once the loan is repaid it is closed; therefore we no longer have access to the money.

A Student Credit Card may be the easiest type of credit for Students to obtain, but it can also be the most harmful to our good credit score if we misuse our Student Credit Card. There are no regulations on how we choose to use the available money on our Student Credit Card.  Unlike Student Lines of Credit and Student Loans the monthly payments on our Student Credit Card do not have to be automatically repaid.

Student Credit Cards require us to make only a minimum payment each month; the full balance does not have to be repaid.  This can be very dangerous for Students because we can carry a balance and we are charged interest on the full unpaid balance, this can be very costly.  It’s easy to accumulate debt but it can be very hard to pay it off.

 

Keep these tips in mind when trying to pay off your Student Debts

1. Don’t Ignore Your Debt.  It will always be a burden until it is paid off.

2. Don’t Make Only Minimum Payments.  Interest can be very costly.

3. Don’t Get More Credit Cards.  Having a lot of debt doesn’t make us financially responsible.

4. Don’t Charge It If You Don’t Have the Money.  Need I say more?!

 

Photo by Hagge

Do You Spend More Time on Your Smartphone than You do in Class?

By: Kristina | Date posted: October 24, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Green Panda Readers! I hope that you all hand a great weekend.  Today is the last post in our “How Smart is Your Smartphone” series.  Now that this series has come to an end I have to say that it has been an interesting series for me to write about.  I never thought that I would see the day where I could access the internet and take pictures with my cell phone, but here we are in 2011.  I also never thought that a cell phone would be technologically intelligent, but here we are with our Smartphone’s.

Over the last few weeks of our “How Smart is Your Smartphone” series we have mourned the loss of Steve Jobs who is the CEO of Apple Corporation.  There was an interesting article on CNN  this week that names the Apple iPhone 4s as the best Smartphone in existence.  I can’t speak from experience because as you may remember from previous posts, I have the LG Shine Plus with Google which is an Android Smartphone.  However I have no doubt that the Apple iPhone 4s is amazing.

Today we are discussing the Pros and Cons of Using our Smartphone in College.  Throughout this series we have learned that having a Smartphone is convenient and easy to use for daily activities such as scheduling events and searching the internet.  We can also use our Smartphone as both a Personal Computer and a Personal Digital Assistant.  However, convenience comes with a cost.

 

The Pros of Using our Smartphone in College

Using our Smartphone in College is great because it allows us to keep in contact with our friends and family throughout the day.  We can read and send emails, update Social Media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, as well as send Text Messages all with the touch of a button from our Smartphone.  This is especially tempting if we are stuck in a really boring class with an even more boring professor.

However, having access to the World Wide Web during class can also be a distraction in College.  It is great to be able to stay connected with family and friends, but if we spend more time surfing the Web than we do listening to our college Professor we may find our self failing our college courses.

The key to using a Smartphone in College is to use it for school work when we are on campus, and use it for personal use when we are at home.  If we are disciplined with our Smartphone usage we will stay focused in school and not go over our data usage.

 

The Cons of Using our Smartphone in College

If we continuously use our Smartphone during College Classes it is very likely that we will go over the allowed usage in our monthly data plan, this can be very expensive.  If you need help with your personal spending budget to make sure that you can afford your Smartphone and your monthly data plan check out these online resources.

Another con of using our Smartphone in College is the durability of the battery life.  If we are always using our Smartphone in College for sending Text Messages and to surf the net our battery could lose power very fast; then our Smartphone will be dead when we really need it.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed our “How Smart is Your Smartphone” series.  Be sure to check out all the other posts in this series:

Check out the other posts in our “How Smart is Your Smartphone” series:

Which Smartphone is the Best for You

To Buy or Not To Buy a Smartphone

Should You Buy a Smartphone? Do You Need It?

Your Smartphone Can Help You Make Money

Do You Connect With Your Parents from Your Smartphone

 

Photo by Tony Buser

Yakezie Challenge Time

By: MD | Date posted: October 21, 2011 (6:00 am)

It’s time for another Yakezie roundup. Let’s see what some of the top links were:

1.  To The 99% Protestors: You Do Not Represent All Of Us  @ Financial Samurai.

2.  Employee Stock Purchase Plan @ Canadian Finance Blog.

3.  How Do People Survive on Minimum Wage? @ So Over Debt.

4.  A Single Person’s POV On Personal Finance @ Yakezie.

5.  Are Banks Getting a Bad Rap? @ Beating Broke.

6.  Fascinating Findings From My Stats Experiment @ TFB.

7.  Podcast: I got interviewed on The Survival Podcast @ ERE.

8.  Miniaturize And Keep Moving Forward @ Untemplater.

9.  Saving Money on Video Games @ Couple Money.

10.  Mortgage Industry Problems You Might Not Know About @ BITFS.

11.  Did Cablevision Really Sell My Data? @ KNS Financial.

12.  Bank Of America Announces Earnings @ Buy Like Buffet.

13.  Best Places To Retire Abroad @ Retire by 40.

14.  How to Retire with Tax Free Money @ FSYA.

15.  How You Keep Track of Your Portfolio @ The College Investor.

3 Things You Must Know About Traveling

By: MD | Date posted: October 20, 2011 (6:00 am)

“We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment no matter what. ” — George Santayana.

Traveling is one of the greatest experiences. I highly recommend it to everyone, rich or poor, shy or outgoing. Traveling will expand your mind and show you that there’s simply so much to do out there. You just need to go into your travel experiences knowing a few things.

There are 3 things that you must know about traveling before you leave home:

#1: You’re not at home.

This heading may sound silly at first. When you think about it though it makes perfect sense. It doesn’t matter how cool you are at home (or the opposite) because you’re now in a new setting. It doesn’t matter what you do at home. It doesn’t matter how many friends you have back home.

What I’m getting at is that you can’t behave the same way you do at home when you’re on the road. You’re in a different world. Cultures are completely different around the world. Perfectly normal behavior can be taboo in other parts of the world. The onus is on you to realize that you’re out of your elements and in a new zone.

#2: You need to learn to adapt.

If you can’t adapt then you’re going to have a tough time traveling. If you can’t adapt at all in life you’re going to have a difficult time getting by.

The reason that you need to adapt rapidly is that you’re going to encounter completely new situations. For the first time ever you’re going to be inside of a grocery store where you don’t understand any of the labels. For the first time ever you might have to share a room with strangers. There will be many firsts when you travel.

A few of my first experiences that I had to adapt to while traveling through Europe last month were:

  • Sharing a room with multiple strangers.
  • Not knowing where to find food.
  • Trying to find a local gym.
  • Taking a bus for over 6 hours.
  • Not understanding the language.

Just like with personal finance, we all need to adapt. Times will change and circumstances will shift. If we don’t grow we will fall behind. There’s no fun in falling behind.

#3: You can make money anywhere in the world now.

I’m not going to turn this into a make money blogging sort of article. I will tell you that you that technology allows us to stay connected to the world at all times. Technology also opens up many gates for us to earn money. Simply put, there are many ways that you can make online now so that you can afford to maintain your travels for longer.

While my new friends spent their time on Facebook I was able to write articles and work on my online projects. The best part is that I almost love to write as much as I love to travel. I was able to do two things that I love simultaneously.

These are three things that everyone needs to know about traveling for the first time. Stay tuned until next week!

Check out the other articles from the Travel Like a Rockstar Series:

Can I Travel When I’m Not Rich?

4 Little Known Ways of Saving Money While Traveling.

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