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Unfortunately, I’m a bit of a sucker for the work done by the folks at icanhascheezburger.com (the source of the picture above) and this one was just too fitting not to share. Enjoy!
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For those of you who will be still in school next year, or will be returning to school, 2008-2009 could prove to be a difficult year to get student loans. With the credit bubble bursting many loan providers are closing their doors or doing some belt tightening, which can mean you are left searching for a new loan provider.
According to Mark Kantrowitz of Finaid.org, “Pennsylvania’s higher-ed agency last month suspended their student lending. Numerous other private sources have exited as well, due to a profit squeeze.”
While not every lender is bailing out of the student loan game (for example Federal Stafford and PLUS loans will still be available), many are tightening their standards. Where in previous years a credit score of 620 for the student or cosigner was needed, that may be getting raised to 650 this coming year. What does this mean for you then?
As reported in a recent Newsweek article “Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest lender, might turn you down if you have a high debt load or your school has a high dropout rate. [Families] should call your school right now and see if your usual lender is providing funds. If not, start the hunt for other sources. You don’t want to be scrounging during the week before tuition is due.”
There are some other options as well, and as with all money matters it pays to shop around and see what kind of rates you can get elsewhere. Stafford loans carry a maximum percentage of 6.8%, which will be reduced by law for subsidized loans to 6% on July 1. You can find some better rates out there though, such as from MyRichUncle.com, which offers a 5.8% rate and may be cutting rates to stay ahead of the Stafford rates.
The major lenders out there are Sallie Mae, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo so get in touch with your school and check on your loan status for next year now. If you have to look around for a new lender, make sure to do your homework and try to negotiate the best rate possible. Just because the market is squeezing out some of the lenders doesn’t mean you have to accept whatever offer your lender gives you. In cases like these, it pays to do your homework.
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In case you missed it, Jeremy over at Generation X Finance wrote a post today full of job hunting tips for the new college grad (how fitting, right?). It’s definitely a great read (as most of the stuff at Gen X Finance is) worth the time it takes to check it out. He breaks the job hunting tips down into three super categories:
1. Experience Matters:
Those with real-world work experience in their field will have a significant edge over those without such experience. If you have done any work in your field while in school, either through an internship, summer job, or work-study program, this will be a great asset.
Even if your friends and classmates haven’t begun searching for jobs yet, don’t delay. You’ll want to begin looking for opportunities as soon as possible. Not only will this give you a head-start, but it may provide flexibility. Getting an early start will put you in the position of being able to turn down jobs without the potential you’re looking for and holding out for a job with more promise.
3. Networking
Networking is one of the most powerful methods of finding a great job. Make a list of your contacts and how they might be able to help you. Talk to people who are working in the field you’re interested in and in the companies you’d like to work for. Don’t limit yourself to newspaper help wanted ads or online job postings. This is where it can be a good idea to begin building a LinkedIn profile so that you can begin to network with others in your field. There are also a lot of recruiters and HR personnel who use the service to find talent.
Definitely all good things to think about - especially as graduation looms (and thus so do millions of recent grads across the country descending on an ever-tightening job market). For more tips, check out the rest of Jeremy’s post here or read some of the “getting a job” tips & tricks we’ve covered here at Real World Really.
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Messages have been circulating this week through text message, email and social networking sites about an organized gas strike for today, May 2nd. I myself have gotten several texts and a forwarded email about it in recent days. The premise of the strike is for everyone to avoid purchasing gas today to show our displeasure with the ever-escalating cost of fuel. Personally, I am all for any type of organized efforts to lower the price of gasoline and if you feel that not purchasing gas today is a way to achieve that, then by all means participate.
My issue with this tactic is that it doesn’t really effect the overall consumption of gasoline at all; since most people will get the gas they need before or after the strike. The key to making a statement (and affecting the bottom line of the oil companies) is not using any gasoline for a day or a weekend. That way, with reduced consumption, comes reduced need and hopefully lower prices. For instance, I won’t be doing any driving today and plan on walking anywhere I need to go; something I need to incorporate more into my daily life anyway. Since this strike was going on today I thought you all might like to hear about it, and act accordingly if it’s something you see as worthwhile.
On the subject of gas prices, I know we’ve mentioned ways to find the cheapest gas around to save money at the pumps, but I’ve recently discovered some additional ways that you can make your money work for you and show savings filling up your tank. Numerous grocery stores run programs where for every $X amount you spend using your store card, you will save 10 cents per gallon at participating gas stations on your next fill up. Both the Price Chopper and Stop & Shop have these programs down where I live, and are interesting options to consider.
Smarter grocery shopping is a great way to save money, but it may also make sense to find which of these (or other) stores has the best prices on the merchandise you want to buy and shop there exclusively. As you spend more at one store, your savings at the pump will increase. Over the course of a month, you could easily save upwards of 50 cents per gallon just by doing your shopping at one particular store. Something you should consider, at the very least - I know I am.
(image courtesy of planebuzz.com)
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As April winds down, we here at Real World Really would like to thank all of the readers who check out the site daily (either by the RSS feed, or directly); this month saw our best numbers yet. It was also the first month that Nate was a full time contributor and believe me, it wouldn’t be possible without him! Thanks to his joining the Real World Really team, we’ll be able to bring you all the great content you’d come to expect for a long time to come. Now, without further adieu, the top 10 posts (by popularity) for the month of April, 2008:
As always, if you enjoyed what you read here at RWR, please subscribe to the RSS Feed so you don’t miss another moment. And, never hesitate to 
“Stumble” anything you’ve enjoyed.
Popularity: 11% [?]
I’m sure you all know by now that the gov’ment decided to ship out everyone’s “economic stimulus checks” a little early. In fact, some of you who got your taxes by direct deposit may already be seeing that six hungie in your bank accounts. So here’s my question: what do you plan to do with the money? Pay off credit card debt, go buy a new laptop, horde away some gas or sacks of rice, invest it (maybe by launching a new blog or your own Internet company), or just save up? Are you thinking of spending it at one of the many retailers around the country who are promising incentives if you prove you’re spending your stimulus check with them?
Let’s get some discussion going in the comments section!
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Who doesn’t like ice cream? How about when it’s free? I thought so. Well, in case you hadn’t heard, today only participating Ben & Jerry’s shops around the U.S. are giving away free ice cream cones. To find out if your local creamery is participating, click here (be sure and check off the “participating in free cone day” button). Now get out there and enjoy some ice cold treats. ‘Cause nothing beats free!
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Almost anyone will tell you that being organized will increase your efficiency, reduce clutter and help you remember assignments and errands better. There are innumerable ways to organize your life, from writing out to do lists, carrying a day planner or having a blackberry or other mobile device with a lot of those features rolled into one. Since I am without a blackberry and often misplace my to do list before it’s completed I have decided to go with another option: iGoogle.
Since creating an iGoogle homepage for myself, I have found it much easier to keep track of my day-to-day affairs as well as plan for long-term events. Every day at work I fire up my laptop, open the Internet and my own personalized online workbook opens right up. My personal iGoogle configuration is pretty simple, containing a to do list, some news feeds, my Gmail inbox, a clock and a calendar. For me, that’s all I need to keep track of almost everything. One of the best parts of iGoogle though is its customizability.
You can include virtually anything on your homepage, from games and horoscopes, to news feeds and various planning widgets. Should your initial page get too crowded, you can create multiple tabs, just like in your Internet browser, and categorize your tabs according to content. I have the main page described above and then a tab dedicated to searching, with Google, Wikipedia and Weather search bars, as well as MapQuest and some other helpful tools. The options are seemingly limitless and I find that iGoogle is a great way to keep myself organized and on task. Why not try it out for yourself and customize your own homepage?
Also as an additional social networking note, I’ve recently joined Twitter, so if you are already following Luke and were desperately waiting for your other favorite Internet author to join up – the wait is over! You can follow my tweet feed at: www.twitter.com/ncleveland.
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According to a recent MSN Money article, “If you begin saving for retirement at 25, putting away $2,000 a year for just 40 years, you’ll have around $560,000, assuming earnings grow at 8% annually. Now, let’s say you wait until you’re 35 to start saving. You put away the same $2,000 a year, but for three decades instead, and earnings grow at 8% a year. When you’re 65 you’ll wind up with around $245,000 — less than half the money.”
So it’s obvious that the key to a wealthy retirement is to start early. But I think it’s equally obvious that the number needed to retire comfortably is unique to every individual or couple, and depends upon their personal retirement goals. The number changes based on factors like marriage, children, and pre-retirement income, but as the above example demonstrates, if we start saving in our twenties, the better off we will be.
At a time when people are living longer, health care costs are rising, and traditional sources of retirement income are disappearing, Americans — even those of us in Generation Y — are heeding the call to plan wisely for their future; however, most people don’t know exactly how much they should be saving for their retirement, or how to go about achieving this number.
This is something that’d been kicking around my own mind for awhile, as I’m about to sign up for my company’s 401k plan. So I was excited when I received an email from reader Allison alerting me to a new program from ING Direct called “Your Number”.
I had seen a couple of “Your Number” commercials on TV in recent weeks but didn’t really get it. Apparently, the goal of the “Your Number” campaign is to “create awareness and help consumers better understand this essential part of retirement planning” (i.e how much they specifically need to retire comfortably). Apparently, the new site from ING leads visitors through an interactive, user-friendly experience that helps calculate their “number”. It also features a description of ING products and services, and links to financial advisors if they are interested.
For more about the “Your Number” view their TV commercial (via YouTube) below, or visit their website at ingyournumber.com
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A very important piece of finding a job, be it your first or not, is submitting a good resume. This simple document briefly sums up your qualifications and compactly and concisely tells a prospective employer what you can do. This is great, and still a very valid part of the equation in finding a job; but that equation is changing. While having a good resume will make sure you get past the first round of cuts, it won’t ensure you get hired.
More and more employers want to see some evidence of things you’ve done, in addition to what your GPA says you should be able to do. Articles like this one demonstrate that having a good academic track record is only a step in the right direction towards getting that lucrative job. You need to bolster your credentials by having some sort of portfolio or record of things that you have done. This poor guy has a 4.0 GPA in his master’s program and a 3.9 in his doctoral program and still relies on his mother for support. Odds are he is just letting his resume do the talking with no additional work to support it.
Depending on what you want to do for a job, any additional submissions you want to make with your resume will vary. If you want to be a financial analyst, show your employer your own portfolio or pick some stocks and track them for a 6-month period, providing analysis along the way. Submitting your personal blog about bird watching probably won’t be relevant here. If you want to be in digital media, graphics design or a similar field, why not have a personal website to display your work?
What if you don’t have a blog or a website to demonstrate the things you’ve been doing? Go register yourname.com, or yourname.org if it is still available and even if you have no real web-building experience, with a little persistence you can get the basics up there. Maybe your resume looks similar to 15 other candidates for a journalism job, but you’ve had a blog you’ve been operating for 3 years – show your employer!
Even if you don’t have a lot of experience on the web, or don’t think a blog would be relevant to your intended career, do something that shows initiative and passion. Spending a few hours on a Saturday afternoon setting up a personal website or beginning a stock tracking project could be all you need to separate yourself from the pack. Doesn’t that sound worth it?
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