Where do you look for college housing? Often times your college or university will have a department dedicated to student housing. Also, campus newspapers have listings of rentals as well as roommate ads. Some people look at http://www.craigslist.org/ for local roommate matching as well. It is important to remember that while the internet is a great resource, I have always found the best deals through word of mouth. Most of the apartment complexes and house owners with smaller advertising budgets also pass the savings along to you.
I know it does not always sound like fun, to make a list of your income and expenses, but it is crucial to know where you are at. Many students go through college (or life) without knowing where they stand - simply happy that they are not ‘in trouble’ financially.
So start right now, make a list of:
- All your income (monthly)
- All your expenses (monthly)
- All your assets / money saved total
- All your liabilities / debt you have accumulated (including credit cards)
This is a good starting point for understanding where you stand. It is the building block for doing more advanced analysis.
I recently migrated to WordPress, since Blogger was not allowing me the flexibility to have three columns in my template (easily) as well as all of the extra features I get in WP. The neo template I tried on here as nice, but I was concerned about SEO problems.
The Fall semester is right around the corner as July comes to a close, do you have your student parking pass yet? Many incoming college freshmen (and older students that procrastinate) put off getting their parking pass until the last minute.
College parking, unlike most High School parking, is usually quite a bit more competitive. The trend in off-campus student housing is increasing to the point that more and more students need parking passes. These students don’t always get the same “mandatory” bus service in which High School students receive. Also, since college students are older, many more of them own cars.
Procrastination of this kind often leads to disasterous results. Many students will be stuck with a parking spot which is so far away from their classroom building that they will have to walk a considerable distance. Other students waiting until the last minute are usually completely out of a spot all together and forced to drive around campus in search for parking meters. Since parking meters often have an short limit on how much time you can purchase (before returning to refill it) this can lead to a hefty parking ticket. Beware, on many college campuses the entire parking labor force is reliant on funds from parking tickets to fulfill budget requirements. What does this mean? Thats right, you will be slapped with parking tickets on average of about $25 per time.
All this leads me to my final conclusion, which is to remember to get a good parking pass now before they are all taken!
Drinking by students ages 18 to 24 contributes to an estimated 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 97,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape each year.
To read a full article on this topic, visit:
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/NIAAACollegeMaterials/collegeFactSheetForParents.aspx
…and don’t forget to have some fun this fall!
When deciding where you wish to attend school at, it is important to consider the cost of tuition and the projected benefit. I am writing to advise my readers of some unconventional wisdom passed down to me from one wiser than myself.
It seems like common sense among my classmates, but is beginning to become misinformation fast. The myth I speak about is that a higher ranked school will guarantee you a better education and a higher starting salary. While this may be true for some, this is not the case for everyone.
When researching schools, I encourage you to look beyond the number posted as the average starting salary. Many times the average starting salary is not the true starting salary. This all depends on how the stats are compiled. Many of the schools take a survey of the students who have accepted jobs before graduation and use this data to build the statistics. The tricky part about this is that many people who are in school because their job required it, have promised salary increases for when they graduate. This is not an accurate measure because they are being paid a premium for the years of service which they have already put in at the company. The starting salary of a new hire and an experienced employee are rarely equal, so it is important to take this into account.
Money has been a large theme of this blog and of my life in general. I suspect (if you are reading) it is of yours as well. Money is important to the world, money is important to our daily personal lives. In my opinion, modern economic theory is based on the principle that money is the placeholder of value. This is to say that when we exchange work for cash, we do not want the cash specifically. What we truly want when we work is the value of that money, what we can potentially get when we exchange it again. Especially in first world countries, this is not always equated to durable, neccesary goods.
But what good does money do if it does not serve a higher end? There are many examples of financially abundant people which are spiritually and emotionally miserable, and vice-versa. The opposite is also true - those with money who are incredibly fulfilled. So what makes true wealth?
True wealth is a grateful soul. I am currently going on a four day fast in the name of God to reveal to myself the true abundance in front of my eyes. There are many simple pleasures in which we have overlooked in the pursuit of success. It is often that as we pursue these goals we also increase the ‘cost’ of our own happiness. I will be happy when I reach this goal, I will get happiness when I pay the price for that goal. Sooner or later, we have paid the price so many times our pockets (metaphorically) are empty. The truth is that wealth is right in front of you and the sooner we embrace that mentality, the sooner it will manifest in our lives.
With the popularity of my last post about student debt, I decided to write another post discussing the topic.
Last year, I was put in a bad position with my student loans. I couldn’t work full time and take classes full time while maintaining my GPA as I did in the past. I had to make the decision to take out private loans to pay my rent with - bad decision. These loans carried a high interest rate, a few points above the standard govt loans.
However, this year everything is turning for the better. Since I am now 24, my FAFSA can reflect the accurate economic data of myself being financially free of my parents. This year I have received a nice amount of Federal grants/loans which I can use to pay off private loans as well as school. This will save me money in interest payments in the long term. With hypothetical numbers:
Private Loan: 7%
Govt Loan: 3%
I will take the govt. loan out to repay my private loan. I am also aggressively paying down these loans as I work this summer. While I could use the traditional 10 year payment plan, this is a rediculous idea for an overachiever such as myself. Can you do the same?
So anyway, I have spent about 10 hours studying for the GMAT since my last post.
I have realized now that I overlooked the fact that I cannot use a calculator on the quantitative section. This should not be too large of a setback, however I had to review a few really simple things such as long division (since I have been so used to working with a calculator). Yeah, it is a little embarassing but everyone needs a refresher after a few years away. I suppose my quant skills will go way up.
I’m glad that my accounting experience has taught me to be so quick and efficient with my work, because I can tell one of the challenges I will have will be with the time constraints.
Note: One of the links in the following post is acting funny and asking for a password for some reason. :/
Inspirational GMAT quote: “When adversity strikes, some get bitter, others get better!”
