Personal Finance

Are you are determined to provide your child with a college education but not sure how you will survive the anxiety over how to pay for it all?  You are not alone.  Many families are facing the same issues as they shop around for schools or get ready to send their children off. Whatever stage you are in towards the goal of a college degree, there are ways to keep expenses down. If you are flexible there are approaches to a college degree that can help you get the most out of your money. AP High School Classes – By taking Advanced Placement classes in high school, and doing well on the exam, your child can actually earn credits towards college classes.  Some students are able to cut a whole semester out of college by taking advantage of free high school classes. Start at a Two-Year School – Starting a college education at a two-year school is a great way to keep moving forward academically while saving a good deal of money. Tuition is generally significantly cheaper at a two-year college and if your child can commute, you could save even more in on-campus costs such as room and board.  Just be sure that the classes your child will be taking are fully transferrable to a reputable four-year school once your child receives an associates degree.  Starting at a two-year school should have no effect on your child’s future as a diploma only lists the institution graduated from, not where your child started. Take Advantage of Tax Credits – If you are already paying tuition, find out if you can take advantage of two tax credits offered by the federal government. If you qualify for either the American Opportunity Tax Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit you could reap the benefit of a dollar for dollar decrease off of your tax liability. Some states also offer tax breaks for some college savings accounts. Scholarships – There are more scholarships available than ever before. With a little research students and their families should be able to find at least some scholarship money towards tuition. Generally however, you must hunt down free money; it will not come to you.  Some popular targets for scholarship money include religion, community service, ethnicity and of course athletics. If your child is involved in any of these areas, there may be money waiting for you to find it. Books and Supplies – There are many online marketplaces for used books. Be sure to try and buy early as prices will go up the closer it gets to the school year.  Check the school bookstore also as most schools run a book buy-back program and then resell the books for less than retail.  Buy supplies such as paper, pens and notebooks at warehouse stores or discount stores such as Walmart. Always use a coupon to save even more.  Save1.com offers discounts on office and school supplies and at the same time helps to provide a meal to a hungry child. Dorm Room Setup – In the early stages of planning for college many families forget to add in the costs of outfitting a dorm room for their child.  If there will be roommates, some costs will be shared.  Perhaps one roommate can bring a microwave and the other a stereo. A TV should not be a necessity as most dorms provide a community TV.  Try Craigslist or the local newspaper for bargains on new or used couches or chairs.  Shop discount stores for bedding and bath supplies.  You may even have your child contribute to their dorm room with money from their summer job. Day-to-Day Living – Make sure your child is on a budget and if they are not responsible with money, do not hand over the credit card.  Before school starts sit down and come up with reasonable figures for food, gas or transportation, personal items and entertainment.  It’s not a bad thing to teach your child about spending money wisely, especially if it is not their own.  Keep an eye on their bank account to be sure they are not being charged fees and try to discuss any overages in a calm manner. Agree to review the budget and make adjustments periodically to av

Flickr | http://www.flickr.com/photos/consumerist/411375470/ Q: I have a MyAccess Checking account with Bank of America. Last month, I was hit with a $12 monthly maintenance fee even though my account balance was $1,500. I called up customer service and the representative just recited the ways that I can avoid the fee. I checked the personal schedule of fees and nothing seems to have changed. How can I get a refund for this fee? - B. W. A: You’ll have to review your monthly statement to see if you can make a case for a refund of the monthly maintenance fee. With the MyAccess Checking account, you can waive the $12 monthly fee if you have at least one direct deposit of at least $250 or maintain an average daily balance of at least $1,500. It’s almost instinctual to think that as long as you have $1,500 in your account by the end of the month, you’ll be able to avoid the fee. But, if you play by the rules of the account, you may be far from meeting the fee waiver criteria. Let’s say the statement cycle is 30 days. If you held a daily balance of $1,500 for 29 days and $1,470 for one day, your average daily balance for the statement cycle is $1,499. Under the rules of the account, the bank will charge a monthly fee. A small bill payment, debit card purchase or ATM withdrawal could be enough to keep you from meeting the average daily balance requirement. Some checking accounts have a more stringent minimum daily balance requirement. In this case, your account balance at the end of the day cannot be less than the specified amount whatsoever. Maintaining an average daily balance of $1,500 is very different from an minimum daily balance of $1,500. You should look over your monthly statement and calculate your average daily balance. For Bank of America, daily account balances are recorded as of 5:00 P.M. Central time (6:00 P.M. Eastern time). If you find that you did qualify for the fee waiver, you can bring it up with customer service and explain the situation. If the bank was correct in charging the fee, you still might be able to have it waived with enough persistence (works best if this is the first time that you got hit by the monthly fee). Your Monthly Bills: Watch Out for Hidden Fees Related Stories: Checking Accounts Ditch Direct Deposit From Fee-Waiver Criteria Simon Says: Your Bank Account Was Labeled ‘Abandoned’ Having Fewer Bank Accounts Makes You a Better Saver Simon Says: How to Calculate the Average Daily Balance

Mortgages are tricky and often hard to understand. Because most people only purchase a home every five to seven years, prospective home buyers understandably don’t spend a lot of time in the interim educating themselves about mortgages and the mortgage process. With the real estate market picking up and mortgage rates prime for refinancing, Zillow has compiled a list of common mortgage misconceptions based off the results of the just released 2013 Mortgage IQ Survey. Your interest rate reflects the true cost of your mortgage. Your annual percentage rate (APR) is actually the figure that represents the true cost of your mortgage. It is inclusive of your interest rate, points, mortgage insurance (when applicable) and other fees, including origination and underwriting fees. It does not include the cost of your homeowners insurance policy. The APR is typically higher than your interest rate because it incorporates the rate and the fees. In fact, when shopping for a mortgage, it is best to compare loans based on APR instead of the interest rate because it gives a better sense of the total cost over the life of the loan. Mortgage rates are only released once per day. Mortgage rates for all types of mortgages can change frequently, sometimes dramatically, throughout the day. Because of the rapid changes in mortgage rates and a lender’s ability to control what is offered, it is important to shop around for the best rates. Getting multiple loan quotes is highly recommended. All lenders are required by law to charge the same fees for appraisals and credit reports. There are no laws that require lenders to charge the same fees for services such as appraisals or credit reports. In fact, in order to make their loan quotes more competitive, some lenders may waive charges for such services. Conversely, some lenders may charge higher fees for these services, so it’s important to shop around. I must get my mortgage through the same lender I was pre-approved with. A pre-approval is a conditional agreement that estimates the size of the home loan a lender would fund for you. It typically involves income verification and a credit check. However, you are under no obligation to proceed with the lender that gave you the pre-approval. Make sure you get at least three loan quotes before proceeding with a mortgage. You will almost always get the best mortgage interest rates at the bank where you have a checking account While some banks do give their customers discounts, it’s unlikely your bank will offer the best interest rate available simply because you bank there. To get a competitive mortgage rate and terms, get quotes from multiple lenders either in person or online — including your bank — and pick the one that works best for you. When taking out a mortgage with your spouse, lenders will look at each of your credit reports equally when determining the interest rate you qualify for When applying jointly for a mortgage, lenders will pull your credit scores from each of the three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. They’ll then take the middle score of each set and use the lower of the two to help determine your mortgage interest rate. This means that the least creditworthy borrower will have the greatest effect on your monthly payment. It does not matter who the primary or secondary borrowers are. You cannot get a home loan with less than a 5 percent down payment It is a common misconception that you need to put down 10 percent, 15 percent or even 20 percent on a home, especially in light of the recent housing crash. But with as little as 3.5 percent down, you can often obtain a mortgage through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). FHA loans have become a popular loan option for those who may not have a large down payment or have blemishes in their credit history. FHA loans are available to everyone, not just first-time home buyers. (Find out more about the advantages and disadvantages of an FHA loan here.) There

We'd rather be seen with a Subway bag than with one holding a Big Mac, according to a new study by the footlong folks.Subway asked 1,001 people which brand (among the following four) they were most embarrassed to carry around in public. The results, Business Insider says:Subway -- 11 percent. Wendy's -- 14 percent. Taco Bell -- 33 percent. McDonald's -- 42 percent.Nearly half of the women (48 percent) and adults under age 35 (46 percent) didn't want to be seen with a McDonald's bag, BI says. Read 4 remaining paragraphs on MoneyTalksNews.com.

If you’ve read The Simple Dollar for very long, you’ve learned that, in my opinion, one of the most important things in personal finance is setting goals. Where do you want to be in a year? In five years? In twenty years? Establishing those goals gives you something real to work towards and makes a tough choice today seem a little easier because you can connect it to something much bigger. The problem is that it’s often hard to create a real picture of the future, especially when you’re extending out a few years or more. Life is full of unexpected twists and turns and sometimes we find ourselves marching down a much different path than we ever expected. If you had told me ten years ago that I would wind up being a freelance writer so that I could spend lots of time with my three children, I would have looked at you like you were out of your mind. These two things seem at odds. There’s incredible benefit in working toward a big goal, yet the bigger the goal, the more likely it is that life will sweep it aside for reasons you can’t yet fathom. So why work for a big goal? The reason is that the real value of a big goal is in the journey. Any journey you take toward a big goal is going to add positive things to your life. It’s going to bring you positive value in ways you can’t even imagine yet. It’s going to teach you skills. It’s going to build relationships. It’s going to put money in your bank account. All it takes is a commitment to move toward that goal. If something happens and the goal becomes unrealistic for some reason, it’s not all for nothing. You’re left with relationships, with money, with skills, with achievements. All of those things provide a strong foundation for whatever it is that you’re going to do next. Don’t think of your big goals as things that are set in stone. Think of them as a wish list – things you’d like to achieve if your life contines down this same path. My wish list involves raising three intellectually curious and self-sufficient children. Now, many things could happen that would prevent this, most of which I’d rather not think about. The fact that there is no guarantee that I’ll reach the goal doesn’t mean it’s not a goal worth working towards. Another item on my wish list involves finishing and publishing a few novels. Again, many things can happen that will brush that goal to the side, but, again, the fact that there’s no guarantee doesn’t mean that it’s not worth moving toward that goal. I can list many goals like this: building a marriage that’s strong for life, launching a community initiative I’ve been thinking about for a long time, moving to a new home – the list goes on and on. None of these are guaranteed goals. What they all have in common is this: every step I take toward those goals will improve my life’s situation no matter whether I actually achieve that goal or not. The goal just gives me something to look forward to. It’s a possible future – one that I want quite a lot and one that I’m willing to work today to achieve. Yes, life might not lead me to those things on my wish list, but I get value out of every moment I spend working toward those goals. So will you. What’s on your wish list? Every step you take toward those things will help your life, regardless of whether or not you actually make it there. The only sure way to fail is to never start. The post Your Wish List appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

Simon’s custom built computer Bishoy: My biggest money mistake was when I decided to invest with a live account too early on. Amy: What’s a live account? Can you explain a little? Bishoy: When you start investing, you can do practice investments with a practice account, where you’re not trading real money, you’re trading paper money, which is not hard currency. I was one month into trading and I was trading with a live account, and I ended up losing maybe $15,000. There was no reason for me to trade with real money, and I just didn’t have the experience. People say that you become a good investor after 10 years of trading, and I had already jumped into live trading.Simon: Yeah, my worst money mistake is also investment related. This was back in college, and I had invested in a company that I thought was going to do really well, but then all of a sudden it just tanked and went bankrupt. Amy: How much money did you end up losing? Simon: About $700? Amy: That’s not too bad. And I feel like your money mistake is more just what happens when you invest — there are some highs and lows and unexpected consequences. Claire: My worst money mistake was not setting up a retirement account when I was in my twenties. All I did was have fun, go out, buy drinks. When I was reading Ramit Sethi’s “I Will Teach You How to Be Rich” and I saw the chart about compounding interest, it hurt me to see how much money I could have saved away if I had set one up. Amy: I didn’t make any major money mistake that had huge consequences. I mean, I’ve shopped and gotten things that I regret, but I either donate the items or sell them. Though I did purchase a pair of expensive shoes that I didn’t wear much and when I sold them, I didn’t sell them at a good time and they ended up going for way less than I know they could’ve gone for if I had sold them at some other time. That was my bad, and I still occasionally think about it! To change it up a little, what was the most worthwhile purchase you ever made? Claire: It was definitely my car for me. It’s a 2005 Prius, and I got it off Craigslist. I did all the homework, I looked up the Carfax, I compared prices. When I went to pay, I paid with a credit card check, and I paid it off in about eight to nine months. Simon: My most worthwhile purchase was definitely the computer I built. It’s got custom parts and I spent about $2,000 on it, but it was worth every penny. All the parts are high quality and you won’t be able to find it for that price in the market. Amy: I was going to say my college education, but that’s a cop-out and my parents paid for most of that anyway. I got a super expensive bag a couple of years ago and it’s definitely — definitely! — the most expensive thing I’ve ever paid money for at this point in my life. But even though it was expensive, I’ve gotten so much use out of it and probably will for another few years, so it nets out to being a good investment. Bishoy: Mine was definitely getting Lasik surgery. I wore glasses for years, and being able to see everything crystal clearly was amazing. It cost me about $2,500 but this is a procedure I would get again and again if I needed touch-ups in the future. Amy: That’s a cosmetic procedure, right? So insurance wouldn’t cover it? Bishoy: Yeah, it’s not covered by insurance, but you can haggle on that, for sure. The doctor first gave me a price of $3,800 and I wasn’t going to do it, but then they lowered it down to $2,500. - – - – - – - MyBankTracker readers, what was the worst money mistake you ever made? Your best investment? Let us know in the comments section! Spring 2013: The Top 5 Cash Back Credit Cards Related Stories: The Cash Registers of the Future Travel Prices Are Going Up This Summer Square Lets Users Send Money Through Email Money Chat: What Was Your Best and Worst Money Decision?

How much do Americans spend each year on unhealthy living? From alcohol, to cigarettes, to junk food, there’s a high price to pay for indulging in certain unhealthy habits. Click on “Launch Infographic” for an expanded view.

I graduated college in the first heyday of internet-connected businesses in the late 1990s. Jobs of all types were abundant. And although the “dot-com” bubble burst soon afterwards, unemployment rates remained historically low. This year’s graduates are facing more obstacles than those from fifteen years ago. Starting on a solid path right out of college is one of the keys to long-term financial success. Good choices today will result in an achievable level of financial independence down the road, even for those graduates who might not be blessed with a solid financial support system at home. This is going to be a tough world in which to thrive financially for new graduates. The world today is more competitive. The same skills that were considered noteworthy when I graduated college are commonplace today. In 1998, knowing how to design and code websites was a useful, marketable, and lucrative skill; in 2013, everyone and her grandmother either knows HTML or has access to do-it-yourself websites. And the internet has helped globalize the job market, so even the best website developers need to compete with people from around the world who have the same skills — but whose financial needs from a career are much less. Outsourcing is still considered an issue worth debating — whether to keep more jobs “here” in the United States, which helps the economy because it gives citizens more money to become consumers of our own products, or to outsource more jobs globally, which helps the economy by reducing the cost of labor for businesses, with the increased profits being reinvested in growth of those businesses. Globalization is a trend that cannot be reversed. Technology will continue to make it easier for companies to find skilled employees at better rates, in addition to replacing more employees with automated systems. The one question that should be on one’s mind is, How can I set myself apart from everyone else? Following these suggestions will help you stand out in a society where everyone is as smart, as talented, and as driven as you. You’ll be noticed by employers, you will be seen as having values that are worth your asking salaries, and you’ll set yourself up for above-average success inside or outside of a career. Be responsible with your money. It’s impossible to predict all the challenges over the next fifty years, but more than ever, the world is in a state of flux. Threats to the global economy and to nature are real. Financial independence provides more flexibility to react to changes in the world. I’ve often written about this concept on Consumerism Commentary, but here are a few quick examples: Have an emergency fund to help you handle the loss of a job. It gives you the freedom to be selective when looking for a job rather than settling for the first burger-flipping opening you find as you manage your career for the long-term. Take charge of your retirement investments to gain financial independence and eventually retire, if that is something you’d like to do. Having the option to stop working is better than needing to rely on trading your time and effort for your salary later in life when you may not want to work. Guaranteed pensions from private companies are all but gone and governments continually reduce their benefits, so you have no choice but to manage your own plans for future income, so do it well. Pay off your debt, especially your student loan debt. When you have debt, you can never work for yourself or your family. let’s say you earn $60,000 a year out of school and have a job working eight hours each day. The first two hours of the morning, you’re not working for yourself, you’re working to pay your taxes. If you have to pay $625 a month for your student loan bill, that’s another hour where the benefits of the work you do go to something other than your necessary expenses. Get rid of debt quickly so tha

Lets face it: cash isn’t going anywhere soon. Despite many attempts by the mobile payments industry to wean consumers off their trusted paper currency, cash hasn’t shown signs of surrendering. On the other hand, cash registers are more welcome to change as major companies give makeovers to these clunky machines.Square, known for its mobile card reader and mobile wallet, has released the Square Stand to complement its Square Register mobile application. Essentially, merchants can put their iPads in the Square Stand — featuring a design that is unmistakably inspired by Apple — to create a point of sale system that is “elegant, fast, affordable, and easy to use,” as Square co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey puts it. The stand also has a built-in card reader and it can be connected to a cash drawer. PayPal joins Square in expediting the evolution of cash registers. To boost adoption of the company’s own point-of-sale system, called PayPal Here, it launched the Cash for Registers program, which waives transactions fees for the remainder of 2013 when merchants drop their old cash registers. PayPal doesn’t offer an equivalent of the Square Stand, but third-party products are capable of turning the PayPal Here app (on the iPad), paired with the PayPal mobile card reader, into a full-fledged checkout terminal. Although these new-age cash registers have slimmed down, consumers will not see a drastic change in the checkout experience. Cards will be swiped and cash will be accepted as usual. Meanwhile, the two companies are pushing cashless — and even cardless — transactions. Square has a mobile wallet that is linked to users’ debit and credit card. When users check in (with a mobile device) to a location that accepts Square Wallet, users simply say their name to make a payment. At participating locations, PayPal lets users pay for purchases by entering their account-linked phone number and PIN. No cash or cards are necessary. Related Stories: How Big Banks Are Overhauling the Branch Experience Spring 2013: The Top 5 Cash Back Credit Cards 8 Incredible Ways Technology Has Changed Banking Forever The Cash Registers of the Future

You can barely get through a week of network news without hearing something about America’s obesity epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese – and our kids are right behind us, as one out of every three kids is now overweight or obese. Considering [...]15 Easy Ways to Lose Weight Fast With Healthy Lifestyle Changes is a post from the Money Crashers personal finance blog.