College parties are now a thing of the past; congratulations, you have joined the real world. Shorts and flip flops are being replaced with slacks and shined up dress shoes. Grab your Starbucks and head to the office – it’s time to begin your career!

But don’t fall for the typical lame advice that you usually here. Oh no!

You need to follow the 3 essential tips that I share in this video. Are you ready?

As a college graduate things are going to be different now. You don’t have to get married and have kids just yet, but certain things will have to change. You can still drink all night. You’re just going to have to deal with a massive hangover at your new job. You can still have lots of fun and keep on laughing. You’re just going to have to get serious about your money now. As the real world begins you’re going to need to become more responsible for how you spend your money.

A few basic money management skills that new college grads should pick up now to save lots of money over the years are:

Learn how to cook.

Food can quickly become your biggest expense. As you go throughout your day at work you’re going to need to eat a few times to keep your energy levels up. If you don’t plan out your meals even a little bit you’ll find yourself eating out for every single meal. If you grab a sandwich and a drink, each meal can easily cost you close to ten bucks. This will add up over time and food will start costing you more than you could ever imagine. If you learn how to cook basic food you can prepare meals in advance and save yourself some good money. If you don’t have the time to cook you can buy basic foods like I do. I usually try to find food that either just needs a fridge (cold cuts) or a microwave (egg whites, prepared chicken meals) at the grocery store.

Learn how to comparison shop.

Do you shop for deals or do you make the first purchase that comes to my mind? As you start to make more money and hopefully save more money, you’re also likely to make some major purchases in the near future. These purchases will range from a new condo all the way to a new flat screen tv for your room. If you make the first purchase that you see without any research and without even saving properly, you’ll quickly find yourself getting into some serious debt. For me shopping around involves saving up for the purchase and looking around to ensure I’m not getting ripped off. As a college grad you’re going to have to take these big purchases very seriously.

Learn to create a solid financial infrastructure.

A solid and simplified financial system will allow you to save money without complicating things. I urge everyone entering the workforce to embrace retirement plans offered through the employer and to look into automatic deductions. When you automatically deduct money from your paycheck to go into some sort of a savings vehicle you’re paying yourself first. This means that you’re passively saving your money. Once you account for your savings you can spend the rest of your money any way that you want to.

Learn how to channel your energy into something productive.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in a week. The only difference is that some of us choose to be more productive with this time, while others choose to spend it on Facebook. Learning how to channel your energy into productive tasks will save you money because you’re not out aimlessly spending it and it can also help you earn money because you might stumble upon something profitable.

What are financially-related skills would you recommend that college graduates should pick up now?

(photo credit: billaday)

What to do after college? This is a tough one. If you want to start a blog like this one you should sign up with Bluehost or join Hostgator to get your domain up and running. If you’re looking for more clues on what to do after college then you need to continue reading the rest of this post.

Congrats on finishing up with college! Once you cure your hangover by drinking a gallon of water or so from your graduation party, you need to figure out what you’re going to do next. This can be a really scary time for you because for the first time ever in your life you don’t have everything planned out for you. The good news is that you’re not alone. I’m pretty sure that most college graduates are a little confused about what’s going to happen next.

Are you looking for help on what to do after college? Let’s deal with actually making shit happen after you’re done with college.

Dealing with debt.

You can’t write about life after college without touching upon debt. Debt is usually the first thing on your mind that you need to figure out. You either had to pick up debt by acquiring student loans to cover your education or you got your first student credit card in college and still haven’t paid it off. Regardless, you need to deal with this debt moving forward. You can’t just forget about it. Life after college is going to involve debt, so it’s important that you start crushing it.

My must read posts on paying down debt:

Which debt to pay off first?
How you can pay off debt with your current income.
Paying off debt hardcore style.

Finding work.

This section will revolve around the main argument that all college grads now consider: following your passions vs finding a “real job.”

Some ideas that you won’t find promoted on other blogs:

Hold a part-time job while you pursue your interests. I absolutely don’t want to tell anyone to blindly follow their passions. The biggest issue with following your passions is that you need to monetize them. This alone can be discouraging.

Find full-time work and moonlight on the side. This is a common option. You get your day job to pay the bills and to save up money. Then in the evenings and on weekends you focus on building your side income into a solid living.

Go all in with your own business. Since you usually don’t have to start paying back your student loans right away, you can take advantage of this post-college period by working on your own projects. You can devote all of your time and energy into projects that motivate you. This is the easiest time to do this because you likely don’t have anyone else to support yet.

What you need to read about finding work after college:

6 easy-to-follow steps for starting an online business right now.
Online jobs for college students.
What to do if you can’t find your dream job?
5 steps to get hired as an ESL teach abroad.

Traveling.

This is the fun part of trying to figure out what to do after college. Some college graduates will go on a major trip right away. Some will go to work and travel in spurts. It really depends on your financial situation. I will go intro greater detail on this topic in the future. For now I just wanted to throw out a few ideas.

My favorite pieces on traveling:

Vagabonding 101: Everything you need to know to travel the world.
The ultimate guide to help you travel more.
Traveling ideas after your college graduation.

If you’re a recent college graduate then this is a really exciting time for you. As you try to figure out what’s next I hope that you play it cool and don’t burden yourself with unnecessary stress. Is there any other tips/articles that you can share with us to help out recent college grads that want to figure out what to do after college?

I just graduated from college, am completely broke and don’t know what to do. Help!

I get this plea for help through email, comments, and tweets fairly often. It’s the harsh reality of life after college. Being dead broke and feeling stuck is all too common among college grads. This is also a topic that I’ve seen covered on many personal finance blogs in the last little while. I thought I would jump in with my thoughts.

The first few things that I would recommend for those of you that are out of college, dead broke, and looking for help are:

Get a job. Anything that will bring you money.

You need to find a source of income. Any job essentially. You might have to swallow your pride and take a job that’s beneath you. All that matters is that you find a steady flow of money. This can be on a part-time or a full-time basis. The goal should be for this to be temporary and only to be used as a backup plan. If you can find the right job in your field then go for it right away. If not then take any job you can for the time being.

Of course you can try something entrepreneurial to bring money in. The only caveat is that you can’t be investing $10,000 into some business idea when you’re dead broke. If you can find a way to make money with very little overhead (blogging) then try it out. You’ve got plenty of time and hopefully are loaded with energy.

If you don’t enjoy the work then please don’t get depressed. Just try to turn your brain off and preserve your creativity for your other projects.

Defer your student loan payments.

If you can’t afford to make your payments due to a lack of work, then you need to defer them. Most programs that I’m aware of don’t start charging you until 6 months after college is completed. Every student loan program is different. The general theme from readers is that student loan companies are willing to work with you if you inform them of your situation.

Long time reader Edward informed me of the following on student loan companies:

If you are having financial problems, student loan companies WILL work with you. Mortgage and credit card companies are notorious for working against you, but student loan companies will do whatever it takes to keep you in good standing. During my unemployment, they’ve reduced my payments to more or less just the interest. I may not be paying down that debt, but I have an extra $100 per month to buy groceries with.

Join a related professional group.

There’s likely a group of professionals in your field that network together on a consistent basis. Don’t be intimated or feel that you don’t have anything to offer. Everyone has been there at one point or another in life. Every journey begins with a single step. Show up, ask lots of questions and read Edward’s post on mastering the networking event NOW!

Stay at home for a bit.

After college you really don’t want to live with your parents because it interferes with your social life, but sometimes you just have to suck it up. When you have no or very little money, staying at home a bit longer becomes a mandatory sacrifice.

Consider more education.

In some fields an undergraduate degree is not enough. You might need to go to Graduate School or take some certificate courses on the side. The only issue here is that you need to decide and research if getting into even more debt for education is the right decision for you.

Live cheap.

You should strive to not rack up any debt at all. Living cheap is pretty self-explanatory. This basically means that you should live like a college student while out of college. The bottle service and Armani suits are going to have to wait until you got a bank roll.

Avoid BS drama.

Don’t mess anything up. This isn’t the Jersey Shore and you don’t want a crazy girlfriend or a weekend of binge drinking to mess you up in any way. Sure you need to get out there and have a great time with friends. You just don’t want to get side-tracked with BS. I’ve seen too many friends get caught up with toxic relationships and stupid habits due to too much free time.

Those are my thoughts on steps to take after graduating from college broke with very little money. What would you recommend?

(photo credit: john weiss)

You graduated from college. You earn a decent income. You are fairly happy with your career. However, for some reason you are still not saving as much money as you would like to. You feel that your financial situation has room for improvement. What are you to do?

With the current college semester in session I think it’s time to shift some focus to the college graduates that read Studenomics. When I first started writing for Studenomics I wrote about how you shouldn’t graduate from college cheap and provided some tips on paying down your student debt. Today I want to discuss some more money management advice for college graduates gathered from college graduates:

Take an honest look at your lifestyle

Do you really need to wear $150 Affliction jeans? Besides the fact that the company failed at promoting fights (hope some of you catch that), why would you feel the need to wear such expensive jeans? Do you pay $50 to get into high scale night clubs? Do you try to associate with people that come from money? I’m 100% positive that if you take an honest look at your lifestyle you will find many areas where you can improve your finances and save more money.

Consider moving into a smaller unit

So you moved out of your parents place and are now officially on your own. Don’t worry I won’t try to convince you to live at home until you’re married or 40 years old (whichever comes first) like some other personal finance writers do. What I will suggest is the possibility of down sizing into a smaller unit to cut down on rent/mortgage and the other expenses that come along with owning a larger unit. If you’re earning $50,000 a year do you really a 2 bed room condo downtown?

Cut back on small expenses

I don’t mean to write about saving money on coffee or to cut your own hair but I do want to stress that small expenses can add up over time. As foolish and basic as it may seem it could be the small expenses that are messing up your financial system. Some common examples of small expenses that can add up include; eating out for every meal, having a beer with dinner, and luxury services that you don’t really need.

Educate yourself

Now that you have been out of school for so long, the idea of going back may not seem so absurd. Aside from networking and being great at what you do, it is essential that you upgrade your skills by keeping yourself educated. Most companies are willing to pay for you to take certain courses that will help you become better at your job.

It’s a bit more difficult to receive funding from your company when you want to learn new or unrelated skills. This is where you pay out of your own pocket. I know that paying out of your own pocket to sit in a class room may not seem like the most exhilarating idea. In order to change your mindset on this it’s important that you look at the return on your investment.

For example, if you take a $500 course that will result in you receiving your personal trainer license think of all of the income that could result from this. On top of acquriing the knowledge that goes along with being a personal trainer, you now have the ability to earn some extra money on the side. This is just one example of how you can benefit from learning something new.

As a college graduate, what money management advice would you like to share with the readers of Studenomics?

photo: Krispijn Beek

As many recent college graduates are struggling to find work the traditional route, they turn their attention towards emerging careers. An industry that has been on the rise for years is the work-from-home/make money online field. There are many legitimate work from jobs but the sad reality is that there are many work from home job scams around.

Last week I wrote about one of the newest work from home job scams, Goog Cash4u, and received a thought provoking sentence in a comment from a reader.

During this rough economic time I so wanted to believe the promises and fell for it.

This got me thinking and I decided to conduct some research on the work from home job market. After reading a few great resources I came up with a list of ways you can protect yourself and be cautious of work from home job scams:

Don’t spend a lot of money on a work from home job

If you have to pay $500 for some “online marketing guru” to show you how to make millions by working from home then you are better off using that money to send me on vacation. At least I would have a good story for you. These internet marketing gurus sell you the idea of a real work from job but they usually end up taking off with your initial payment. If they don’t take off then you are usually stuck with a get rick quick idea that does not get you rich nor does it even allow you to live above poverty standards.

Determine whether its a scam free work at home job

Ask important questions. Who will you work for? What type of work will you be performing? Yes I know they want you to think you will relax on the beach all day but how will you earn an income is the important factor. What credentials are required for this job? If they are looking for educated people and you fit the bill then it could be a great opportunity. If they claim “anyone can make thousands from home” then it may not be so legitimate.

Look into your pay structure

How the hell are you going to get paid? Will you earn a salary? Will you get paid on an hourly basis? Will you get paid commission? Someone can guarantee you will make tons of money by working at home but how will this money get to you? Will you receive pay checks? Will you get paid through PayPal? These are all important questions that need to be answered before you begin working from home.

Watch out for common work at home job scams

A newer work from home job scam such as Goog Cash4u may catch you by surprise. However, there are classic work at home job scams that have been around since the advent of the internet. As a new college graduate the onus is on you to educate yourself on the various work from home scams and how they have impacted others in the past.

Protect private information

Do not under any circumstances ever email anyone your social security number, social insurance number, passport number or any other number that  is extremely private. I will take this one step further and say that you should not give out any private information unless you are 100% that it is not a work from home job scam. As a recent college graduate giving out private information could cause major grief for you early on in your working life.

Watch out for overseas work from home companies

If the work from home company is based overseas and a simple phone call is expensive, then that’s another negative sign. Not to say that you are guaranteed safety with a local company but at least you know where to go and who to call when problems arise.

That’s all I could think of for now in terms of how college graduates can watch out for work from home job scams.

Are there legitimate work form home jobs? Of course. I will do more research and get back to you guys with a look at real work form home jobs. For the time being, what’s your take on the whole make money from home business?

photo: digitalpoint1

Graduating college can be a surreal experience. You finally made your way into the real world. Congratulations! Luckily, you found yourself a good paying job and now comes that thing called “Responsibility”. For those that are eager to invest and get ahead, it can be very overwhelming trying to decide what is the right direction to go.  Before you get started, here is a few tips to get you going on the right track to becoming a bona fide investor.

1. Take inventory.
Taking inventory of all your debt is helpful to understand where you are at financially. If you just graduated with a ton of student loan debt, credit card debt, or any other consumer debt, investing might not be the right direction initially.  You need to write it down and see it on paper what you actually have to work with and what you need to focus your efforts on.

2. Don’t start too soon.
As I stated earlier, if you have an absorbent amount of consumer debt, it is probably not the best sense to start investing immediately. One could argue that as long as your student loans that have a low fixed interest rate, those are okay to have.  But private loans or any credit cards that have a high interest rate need to be paid off before considering to invest. Once you get your cards paid off, then we can talk about investing.

3. Stay away from stocks.
With every new and eager investor that I run across, they all want to jump in the stock market and start buying individual stocks. I was no different. To truly get ahead in buying stocks, you have got to have a decent amount of cash built up to make a difference. For example, I always recommend buying at least 100 shares of a stock.  Well, if you want to buy Microsoft, that would require around $2000 to get going.  Even if you have the money to buy 100 shares, chances are you are not fully diversified. One bad pick and you can easily see your entire portfolio disappear overnight. Play it safe, stay away from stocks in the beginning.  Consider mutual funds and ETF’s in the beginning.

4. Don’t forget your 401(k).
Hopefully, your new employer offers some sort of retirement plan such as a 401k. Your 401(k) is the easiest way to invest since it’s automatically deducted from your check.  Out of sight, out of mind, heading straight into your retirement savings.  The best part is if your company’s 401(k) has a match. You’ll be making free money by just participating in the plan.  You can’t beat that when it comes to any other retirement savings plan.

5.  Say yes to the Roth IRA.
This is pretty basic advice that you probably hear from a lot of other personal finance bloggers, but it’s one worth mentioning again.  After your free money in your 401(k), take advantage of the tax-free benefit of the Roth IRA.  Roth IRA, especially for a recent grad, is awesome because time is on your side.  You have so much time for the interest and earnings to accumulate for a whopping tax-free sum waiting for you at retirement. Here’s a good resource for what you need to know about the Roth IRA rules.

These are five basic steps to get you on the right track.  Congratulations on your recent graduation.  Have fun, enjoy, and get financially set.

This is a guest post from Jeff Rose, an Illinois Certified Financial Planner(TM) who offers Term Life Insurance in Illinois. He is also the author of Good Financial Cents, a financial planning and investment blog. You can also learn more about Jeff at his website Jeff Rose Financial.

The other day an interesting topic came up in a discussion for my post on signs when you should quit your job. Loyal reader Trevor brought up the point of saving 6-12 months worth of living expenses before pursuing any business ventures. Then another loyal follower of Studenomics, Tom, asked about what someone should do if they don’t have 6 months worth of living expenses saved up. This brought up an interesting question for me; how much money should a new graduate put towards an emergency fund?

To be perfectly honest I don’t have an answer to this question. I have been reading many personal finance blogs that constantly stress the importance of an emergency fund and various investment vehicles for these funds. The only problem is that me and many of the great readers of Studenomics are 20 somethings that are no where close to having a family of our own. Most emergency funds state that you need at least 3 months worth of livings expenses for your whole family. Jeff Rose states that if you have a sales related job you should have 12 months working of living expenses in an emergency fund.

So this brings us back to the original question that I still can’t answer; how much money should a new graduate have in an emergency fund? Yes I realize that I have not discussed the whole emergency fund at all on this blog so you should expect a few quality posts on emergency funds in the coming weeks. Today I will provide you with key points so that YOU may determine how much money belongs in your emergency fund:

Risk tolerance. If you plan on working the same job for many years to come then maybe you should focus on slowly building your emergency fund. If you are someone that likes to take chances with their career or if you plan on pursuing new business ventures in the near future then you should definitely consider having a decent sized emergency fund.

Adversity quotient. How quickly can you bounce back from a failure? If you are the type of person that will take one giant chance, fail, and then sulk for the next year then you definitely need 12 months worth of living expenses saved up. If you have the ability to turn an obstacle into an opportunity or to bounce back from a failure immediately then maybe building an emergency fund shouldn’t be your main priority.

Job security. This is arguably the most important point to consider when working on your emergency fund. How safe is your job? During a booming economy you could be working in finance making a fortune and laughing at the thought of an emergency fund. During a recession we must all consider the importance of an emergency fund, no matter how lucrative your current position may be. Some industries are recession proof while others collapse as soon as there is the slightest economic downturn. For the sake of your future, take a realistic look at your current position and ask yourself this question, will I still be employed in a year from now? If you feel the answer is no then I suggest becoming very aggressive with your emergency fund.

Final thoughts… Studenomics is not meant to be a blog where I tell you what to do or how to do things. We are all here to help each other and I have a lot to learn from the readers. In this article I simply provided a few key points for a new graduate to consider when building an emergency fund. Now it’s time to turn it over to the readers, how much is in your emergency fund?

So your working your first job post College and your excited about your upcoming first pay check. Only one thing is in between you and a wild night out on the town; $30,000 in student debt that you have to deal with paying off. The thought of this student debt alone will most likely ruin your mood and make it seem like you will not see a profit for years. I’m here to tell you that you can take a breath and relax, this guide will show you the cure if you happen to be a College graduate drowning in debt.

Step 1: Accept your situation. You can blame the whole world for the fact that you had to cover your education costs through loans but where will that get you? Your parents worked hard to raise you, feed you, and put a roof under your head. Don’t go blaming them or anyone else for not being able to pay for YOUR education.

Step 2: Educate yourself. Read as many books, blogs or magazines as you can on the subject so that you understand the situation completely. Take some evening courses or speak with friends that work in the financial industry.

Step 3: Consolidate your loans. If you obtained various loans in order to cover the costs of your education then your first priority should be to consolidate them. Obviously while looking into consolidating your debts you should seek the best possible rates.

Step 4: Make the payment automatic. Go to your payroll office or even to your bank and set up an arrangement where a set amount of your paycheck will go towards paying down the debt.

Step 5: Be reasonable. Don’t expect to pay this debt off right away, it took you anywhere from 3-5 years to acquire it so it will take an extended period of time to pay it off.

Times are tough, many employers are hiring less staff, some employers are cutting back on staff, and you probably have a decent amount of student debt that you need to pay off. Yet when hunting for the perfect first job you should still NOT be cheap.

It’s easy to let the stress of student debt force you to become tight with your money. There is nothing wrong with that. However, there is a huge problem with trying to be cheap while seeking that dream job. Before you rush off the computer to go hunt for that first job, please take a moment to review this list of times where you should not be cheap after graduating from College:

1. Networking. Spend a little money if it will help you meet key people in your industry. Take out a friend or relative that may be beneficial to network with for coffee. If you really want to leave a lasting impression then consider taking them out for dinner. The meeting could be pointless but there is a good chance you will at least leave more informed then you were heading it. As a new College graduate you have so much to learn about the real world that anytime you spend with someone in your field could really help you learn some key inside knowdledge. You don’t want to try networking with someone by showing them you are cheap. A small gesture goes a long way so consider spending some money to do some effective networking.

2. Appearance. Many other personal finance bloggers are going to yell at me for this one but hear me out. Some industries are very cosmetic and whether you want to admit it or not your image could take you a long way. I’m not saying that you should go work out like crazy or anything like that but consider dressing sharply for an interview or any networking events you attend. You don’t need to wear a Hugo Boss suit to an interview but don’t go dressed in your clubbing attire.

3. Job Agencies. This is another area that some people are totally against but they have helped out many 20 somethings in the past. Some employment agencies have a fixed fee while others take a certain percentage off your first few pay checks. The cost may annoy you but if they are helping you get the job then why complain? Make sure you look into the reputation of the agency because some are known for excellent connections and networking while others are the joke of the town.