You have registered for classes and just paid a boat load of money as tuition. 
Only now you noticed that little link on your online student portal to buy all the required books from your college bookstore. You clicked on that link thinking, “Cool, I can get one more thing done, don’t have to stand in the line at the bookstore!” – your heart sank seeing the total price of the books!
Textbooks have become one of the most expensive things college students buy every semester. But there are plenty of ways to save money on your textbooks and get them for less. In fact, the Government has made this task even easier. Read the rest of this entry »
What do you call a consumer who wants to buy everything you have, doesn’t care what it costs and is less than five feet tall? A marketer’s dream? Nope. You call them kids. — AdRelevance Intelligence Report, 2000
I read a lot of blogs and news sites everyday. The ads in those sites are almost always invisible to me. But a flash ad on NYT with a lot of cute little kids caught my eye last week. Apparently it is “The first Shoppable Children’s Storybook” from Ralph Lauren. It is essentially their back-to-school catalog disguised as a children’s story book. You can mouse over the video and as it plays, pop ups give more information about the look/outfit of each character in the “story” (which was rather poor). Essentially each character changes their outfit 3 times during the course of the story, allowing Ralph Lauren to display their back-to-school collection. Even though it’s a brilliant marketing idea, I hate it. Read on for more on my reasons.
A checking account will be the first and the most frequently used account for a student.
One of the first things you will do upon arriving on the college campus is to set up a checking account. A lot of us make the mistake of choosing the first bank that we see on campus that is giving out free T-shirts or the bank that our parents used back home. Doing so might cost you some big bucks. On a student budget, the monthly fee or any other fees that the bank charges can be put to some other good use. Why pay the banks when you don’t have to? These days you can get a free checking account easily. You have to make sure that it is really free though. The following tips will help you with that.
Groupon is currently offering a $4 movie ticket at Fandango. Groupon is a “collective buying” site which features one deal per day from local retailers. The deal is usually a very good discount as they are promising the businesses a minimum number of customers. They occasionally feature a nationwide deal. Today’s fandango.com deal is one of them.
Where are you headed? This is the first and the most important question you have ask yourself when starting a road trip. Isn’t it? 
College is just like a road trip. Only better and more adventurous. There’s good news and bad news. Bad news first : just like a road trip, you can easily get lost in college as well, if you are not really sure where you are and what you are doing. Now the good news : It is much more fun than a road trip and there is more than one “right” destination. You just need a few directional tips. Once you start your journey you can choose the exact roads as you drive or even construct additional roads if needed. Read the rest of this entry »
I was sick last week and didn’t visit/comment as many blogs as I would have liked, so google RSS reader to the rescue. Hope I can do the catch up this week. These are some of my favorites from last week in no particular order. Read the rest of this entry »
The Federal Reserve Board approved a 
final rule on June 15th to protect credit card users from unreasonable late payment and other penalty fees and to require credit card issuers to reconsider interest rate increases imposed since the beginning of last year. The final rule represents the third stage of the Federal Reserve’s implementation of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which was enacted in May 2009. The provisions of the Act addressed in this rule will go into effect on August 22, 2010, that is today. What you need to know about these new rules?
This is a series of articles on student finances that will appear over the next month.
It is back to school time! 
This is a new phase; beginning of a new life, stepping stone for a great career! What lies ahead is a life full of possibility! It will be exciting, challenging, fun-filled and also – overwhelming. College doesn’t just train one for a career, it also trains and positions a person well for their financial future. The financial decisions you make in school can have a great impact on how your life will be after graduation. There are a LOT of choices and lures with respect to handling finances in school. Starting from opening a checking account, budgeting for weekend fun, financial aid, internships… every step of the way there is some financial decision waiting for you! It is important to start right so that you can continue to stay on track even after graduating. You don’t want your salary to go to the bank for debt repayments, do you? It would be much better to put them to use for YOUR financial independence. So lets start right…
Conventional wisdom says – 
“ Never take money out of your 401k, it doesn’t make sense in any situation”. First, I totally understand that retirement savings are best left for retirement. But conventional wisdom might not be perfect for every single person, for every single situation, right? Personal finance is after all personal. So I decided to check what it would mean for me to take a loan from my 401k for a home down payment. These are my calculations and my thoughts. I would love to hear from people who have arguments for/against this.
Tags: 401k, retirement
Yakezie.com is launching tomorrow!!! Many thanks to Sam @ Financial Samurai! He has put a LOT of effort and it is going to be great! The post that started it all – Creating powerful friends: Samurai’s Alexa Ranking Challenge. Read the rest of this entry »
