I wrote about online business tools to help you get started a while back. I never really got into the most important tool of them all. That tool is your laptop.

I don’t know about you but I’ve brought my laptop everywhere and I use it all of the time. I’ve found myself blogging in Budapest, Cracow, Puerto Plata, and many other random places. I use my laptop to make the majority of my income, to connect with friends/family, and to help young people with their finances. In other words, my laptop is really important to me. I now own an expensive MacBook Air that I never imagined buying prior to actually doing so.

Allow me to share a quick story of how I got my current laptop…

When I was a student I lived on a student budget as you could imagine. At this time in my life I was interested in cheap laptops. I spent $500 on a laptop in 2008 and I thought I was set. I don’t play video games or anything, and I really just needed something for web browsing and school work.

When I was travelling through Europe last September I kept on experiencing the same problem consistently. My damn laptop was too heavy. This $500 laptop was a brick that weighed more than a stack of textbooks in my travel bag. It was annoying, but I didn’t want to spend more money on a new laptop. That is until the day I had to.

One day in Budapest I went to the coffee shop to get on and do some blogging. My laptop wouldn’t start. No problem, right? Wrong. The laptop completely died. Some dude at my hostel took a look at it and explained to me that I was out of luck. I knew that I needed a new laptop. I just wasn’t sure of what to do.

Instead of doing the smart thing and shopping around for bargains, I did the complete opposite. I walked to the Apple Store in town and bought myself a brand new MacBook Air with my credit card without even thinking twice. Not a wise move for someone that writes about dealing with your student credit card.

As much as I love my new laptop I do realize that I could’ve been a lot smarter about it.

How much should you spend on your laptop?

I’ll say that it depends on what you use it for. I don’t know anything about gaming. I do imagine that you might want something a little more expensive if you plan on playing games though. On the flip side, as a college student looking to go on Facebook and get some last minute assignments done, you can easily just buy a cheap laptop and save your money for something else.

I don’t want you to convince yourself that you need an expensive laptop just because you plan on starting an online business. If you want to start freelancing or making money on your own, you don’t have to buy anything right now. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you need an expensive laptop with fancy business cards. A cheap laptop with a strong work ethic will get you further ahead.

I’m just curious…

How much did you spend on your first laptop? What’s the most that you’ve ever spent on a laptop or any other piece of technology?

It’s that time of the year again. Spring is here, you’re busting out the shorts/sandals combo, you’re going out more often, and you finally filed your taxes. Let’s assume for the sake of this article that you’re going to get some money back this year. Let’s look at your options.

What are the best ways to use your tax return? What are five killer ways to use your tax return for a something totally cool?

Take a trip.

I’m not shy about promoting travelling the world or taking some time to go on a trip. If you happen to get some money back you can plan a little trip. This should depend on the size of your return and your other finances. There’s nothing like experiencing something new or just getting away to recharge your batters after a tough work schedule. What’s a better time to go on a trip then around this time of the year? Just remember to have a drink for me.

Create an emergency fund.

If you’ve never really had the chance to build your savings, you can use your tax return to create a little cushion in your bank account (or an emergency fund). It’s important that you start saving for a rainy day in your 20s because you really don’t know what life can throw at you sometimes. I can’t help you emotionally, but I know that financially it always helps to have some money saved up just in case.

Start your own business.

These days you can easily start a business with less than $1,000. I’ve shared in great detail how you can start an online business. The best part is that all you need is a little bit of money, some spare time, and a passion. I’m pretty sure that you can at least get 2/3. This tax refund can be the boost that you need to start working on that project that you’ve had on your mind for a long time.

Pay off debt.

Chances are that you have looming student loans or some debt from your first student credit card. You can suck it up and use your tax return to deal with this debt. It’s not a fun way to spend this cash, but it beats having so much debt to think about constantly. If you kill some debt off right now, you can use your savings from the summer for some of the options on this list.

Save for your retirement.

If none of the other options are attractive to you (you must be boring), you can use your tax return to finally start saving for retirement. I know that thinking about being old is the last thing on your mind at 24, but we all grow old eventually (we don’t all have to grow up).

You don’t have to put all of this money into your retirement. You can keep it simple and put only $50 or so in so that you at least start a retirement account.

You can also choose to close this window and spend your tax refund on a new outfit. It’s your life. It’s your money. I’m just here to promote a few killer ways you can spend your tax return this year.

In casey you missed the tax dealing, you need to check out our previous piece on what to do after the day to file taxes has passed.

We looked at the idea of taking risks in your 20s. Regardless of how you feel about the notion of taking chances with your time and money, I wanted to share some investment risks that I believe are worth taking in your 20s.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” — Andre Gide

Going back to school to upgrade your skills.

If you’re not happy with your current spot in your company or with how much money you’re earning, you always have the option to upgrade your skills. This is a risk because you’re going to give up an income if you have to quit your job to go back to school. The other risk is the time involved. If you’re in your late-20s, you’re giving up a few good years.

On the upside, this risk is definitely worth taking because investing in yourself is much more beneficial than complaining about your income or your job. By upgrading your skills you can increase your income, find a new job that you enjoy much more, and even improve your self-worth.

Starting some sort of a business.

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” –Seth Godin

As you can tell by now, I’m a huge fan of starting your own business in your 20s. The beauty is that you can start a side business with no money right now. The major investment here is going to be the money that you decide to pour into your business and the time that you’re going to have to invest. The good news is that your youthful enough in your 20s to work on your own projects in your spare time. I don’t recommend quitting your job or going all out. You need to be realistic. I recommend trying to monetize a hobby and then working on it until you replace your current income. I’m not a supporter of quitting your full-time gig.

Traveling often.

Traveling costs money and takes up time. I have many friends that just don’t see the ROI in traveling. They think it’s a waste of time. They don’t want to spend the money. I personally love to travel and plan on going on five trips a year for the next few years. One thing that I try to stress is that you can easily travel the world on a tight budget.

The financial risk of traveling is that you’re going to spend a ton of money and not get a whole lot in return. I’m not going to tell you that traveling will always be worth it. That’s for you to experience and decide on your own.

Switching careers.

If you don’t see any upward mobility or are just plain tired of your field, you can always switch carers. Of course, switching careers is easier said than done. You’re going to either have to upgrade your skills (as mentioned above) or just quit your job to apply in other fields.

Switching jobs is a financial risk because there’s no guarantee that you’re going to enjoy your new gig. There’s also no guarantee that you’re going to succeed or even get into your new field. Is the risk still worth taking? Yes. You owe it to yourself to find a job that you can actually enjoy doing until you retire.

These were the main risks worth taking in your 20s that came to my mind. I’m sure there are other risks that few of us would consider (moving to a new country for work), but that’s another topic for another day.

How much money do you plan on earning after you’re done school? Once you figure out what to do after college, do you know how much income you’ll have coming in?

I wanted to look at the average starting salary after college to see what most paths would pay for recent graduates. Why did I want to do this research on the expected salary for college graduates?

I read a study on MoneyVille (power by the Toronto Star) that noted that 3,000 college students were surveyed and some interesting results regarding finances post-college were found. The majority of the students thought that they would be earning $90,000/year by the age of 30 and out of student loan debt within five years of graduating from college.

Are these expectations for the average starting salary accurate? Is it possible to get out of student loan debt that quickly?

The article itself noted that these expectations were unrealistic. I agreed just based on being in that age group.

What’s really the expected salary for college graduates?

I went to the popular site, PayScale, to check out what the expected salary is for most college undergraduate programs.

There’s only one job that starts out at over ninety grand and that’s for Petroleum Engineers. Those that majored in Economics will bore the world at $47,300 per year. Urban Planning will land you $41,500. The Philosophers will earn $39,800. Marketers will sell us crap at $38,200. Historians will get $37,800. The Graphic Designers will draw themselves $35,600. Photographers will snap shots at $32,900.

What about student loan debt?

Statistics Canada says that that average student debt after college was at $19,500 in 2000. The most recent figure for average student loan debt was pegged at $25,250. In the US, the average amount of student debt is at $23,200 with many cases of graduates owing absurd amounts that easily surpass $50,000 in student debt.

What do all of these numbers mean? That you could easily be spending a huge chunk of your income after college to deal with your student loans. This means that you might not be able to travel the world or own all of those nice toys if you don’t figure out your finances early on.

Why’s the average starting salary so shocking?

This is why many of us get into credit card debt in our 20s. We just feel like we can easily pay it off in the future. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to us. We just envision ourselves making lots of money one day in the future. None of us plan on staying at $50,00 per year forever.

The reality about the average starting salary is that we won’t be making as much money as we would like to be. We won’t become instantly rich right in our mid-20s. It’s going to take much longer than we originally expected.

According to Generation Earn, the average person spends two-thirds of their income on the essentials (housing and food). This means that you won’t have much money for going out and the annual wardrobe upgrade.

Another truth regarding your income after you’re done with your education is that you should look into starting a business because your original salary might not be enough income for you. I outlined in the past how you can start a business with no money right now. I truthfully wish that I signed up with BlueHost much sooner and got involved in the online game earlier. You can easily make more money on the side while you grow your career.

I didn’t mean to scare you with these numbers. I just wanted to paint a realistic picture about finances after college. The good news is that you can start your own business, manage your money properly, and have an amazing life if you’re a little bit smarter than your friends.

You guys know why I stopped investing in the stock market. I didn’t just pull out of the stock market to hold my money in a basic savings account. I wasn’t just afraid of the risk that came with owning stocks. I actually had bigger goals for my savings. Today I wanted to share what I feel are better options for your money that don’t involve investing in the stock market.

What are four better options for your savings than investing in the stock market?

Unique experiences.

There’s so much to see in this world that it’s a shame to not even try to see some of it. After looking for more options for what to do after college I decided that I really wanted to take some time to travel the world for a bit. While I didn’t get to see the whole world (is it even possible?), I got to travel about a dozen times over the past few years.

You can save all the money that you want and prepare for the future. The problem is that from reading blog posts, talking with older friends, and everyone I speak with, I find that everyone regrets not travelling enough. While I wasn’t sure about what to do after college, I did know that I didn’t want to turn 30 and regret not seeing what this world had to offer.

Real estate.

The reason that I support real estate is that you actually own something. The decision to buy or rent a home in your 20s is a big one. This is why I decided to put a lot of time and research into my decision. I ended up deciding to buy a condo that I could live in for a year or so. I lived in the place for a year and then I rented the unit out so that I can travel more.

I must note that when I mention real estate I’m not referring to your primary residence. I’m referring to becoming a landlord through purchasing a rental property.

Education.

We all know that knowledge is power. The more you know the more that options that you have open to you. I’m also not referring to the traditional form of education. While I did get my college degree, I also took advantage of other educational opportunities. I took an online course, got my license in Personal Training, read many books, attended a conference, and took advantage of any chance I had to meet anyone in my field.

I fully believe that the best option for your money is to invest in yourself. Albert Einstein said it best when he said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

P2P Lending.

I must admit that this is a new form of investing that I’m slowly starting to look into. I haven’t really covered this much around here yet. This form of investing is rapidly expanding and I plan on covering it in greater detail in the near future. For now you can check out the home page of Prosper for more details.

These were all options that I found to be much more beneficial to me than than investing in the stock market. The great news once again is that you don’t have to stick with just one option for your money. You can spread your money out between all of these options to see what works for you.

Should you find a part-time job? Does it make sense to fill up your spare time by working more hours? Is that extra money worth chasing after?

I was looking through my archive and I realized that I covered the topic of finding a part time job in the past. I wrote about the idea of a double income and looking at a second job. What caught my eye was a comment on that post from reader Steve:

“A second job doesn’t force you to work 16 hour days. I work an extra 8 hours a week. I have no problem with someone working a couple extra hours a week in order to spend a little more money. You mention missing out on time spent having fun, but I can argue that with a little extra money to spend, you can have even more fun. There are pluses and minuses.

A few key points that are missing. What you make in your second job is extremely important. If you are compensated well enough, a second job is very worthwhile even if you don’t need the money for a specific immediate purpose. Also, the power of compound interest is greatly enhanced by investing early in your working career. Working a second job to be able to invest can lead to financial security at a much earlier age and even greater free time later in life.”

That’s an interesting take on working a side job. Now I wanted to write this piece from a different perspective.

As a young professional or an entrepreneur, is it worth finding a part-time job?

There are two scenarios here:

Scenario #1: You graduated from college, found a job in your field, and are working your way up the ranks. You save a little bit of money, but have to fork over far too much of your income towards paying back your student loans and basic living expenses. To be able to save some more money you start to contemplate finding a part-time job.

Scenario #2: You’re working on getting your own business off the ground. You’re making progress, but you’re not going to be surpassing Mark Zuckerberg’s income any time soon. You have expenses and want to invest more money into your business. You start to think about the idea of finding a part-time job to help you fund your business.

In both scenarios, is it worth finding a part-time job after you’ve already gone through the process of finding a job after college? Yes.

I’m not just going to answer the question and leave you hanging. Allow me to elaborate. Why’s it worth finding a part-time job in your 20s?

You can make more money and beef up your savings account. As a 20-something you likely have bold financial goals for the next few years. You might want to save up for a mortgage down-payment or for that new car that you’ve had your eye on. On the other hand, you might be looking to crush your student debt and be debt-free for once and for all. Regardless of your financial goals, you can benefit from the additional income that a part-time gig would provide you with.

On top of saving up more money, you open up opportunities by working another job. By working at a new job you meet new people, expand your network, and increase your chances of running into people that can be helpful with your journey and vice versa.

For example, my friend found his current position with a credit union by serving coffee to the branch manager on a daily basis. He had a few minutes between the order of the coffee and making it to discuss financial topics with the manager. They eventually got into discussing his education and background. After a few months he was offered a job at the credit union. From there he moved up the ranks and he now works closely with that manager that he met while serving coffee at Starbucks.

As an ambitious 20-something, it never hurts to open up more doors for yourself. Why limit yourself? Sometimes you’re going to have to get off the couch and find another job to make more money.

A final benefit of a part-time job is that you create additional security for yourself. In a world where job security is rare it helps to plan for unforeseen circumstances.

Before we part ways today I really wanted to look at the flip side of working a side gig. Are there negatives to finding a side gig?

You risk fatigue with working long hours.You could easily find a part-time job with benefits, but you always risk being tired and hurting your performance with your business or at your full-time career. My only advice here is to work within your limits because nobody knows yourself like you do. If you’re part-time job is ruining your sleep and hurting your performance, then it’s not worth it.

At the end of the day, I’ll always praise the idea of finding a part-time job. You have nothing to lose because you can always just quit if you feel overwhelmed. You also should have plenty of energy because you’re still youthful enough to run off a few hours of sleep.

Have you found yourself a part-time gig yet?

You’re done with college and you’re finally working. Now you’re looking to save for the future. Do you finally want to start saving some money? You obviously found Studenomics because you want to do something about your financial situation. You want to start saving money. Good for you. I’m here to help you with this quick and effective article.

What’s the best way to start saving money right now?

There are many techniques for saving money that could arguably work. My personal favorite tip is to start paying yourself first. Take your money off your pay check before you even get to see it. You can do this by going to your employer or your bank to fill out the forms for automatic deductions.

You need to pay yourself first if you want to actually start saving money right now. By filling out these simple forms for automatic deductions you’re going to save a specific amount of money every single payday. You don’t have to do anything else. You just fill out these forms one time and then you’re set.

Why’s this the best way to start saving money right now?

I thought of a few reasons why you should pay yourself first and came up with the four most important factors of this tip for saving money:

1. You’ll never see the money. You don’t have to worry about spending the money because you’re never going to see it. The money comes off your pay and goes directly into your savings account.
2. You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to do anything at all because the money will be taken from your pay by either your employer or the bank. I do this through my employer because they offer a basic savings vehicle that allows me to save a few extra dollars without any further effort.
3. It’s passive. Not all of us want to be active investors. Some of us want to follow a passive strategy when it comes to our finances so that we can focus on starting a business or whatever else interests us.
4. It’s easy. We all love easy and there’s nothing more easier than having money come directly off your pay into your savings.

Do I need to list any more reasons? I hope not. Paying yourself is a simple and effective strategy for increasing the amount of money that you’re saving.

I urge you to go to your employer or your bank and start paying yourself first. I hope that you take this effective tip for saving more money seriously and give it a try.

Me: How much is it to get into Coco Bongo tonight?

Mexican tour guide: $60.

Me: Is that pesos or U.S dollars?

Yes, that’s right. $60 to get into a club and there’s 3,000 people in the place with others dying to get in on the outside. I thought there was supposed to be a recession going on? Wasn’t everyone stressing about the economy?

Usually when it comes to tropical trips, I try to go during peak season to ensure that it’s going to be a great time. This time I ended up going during the first week of January. I usually just hate the month of January. I can’t stand it. The holidays are over. It’s insanely cold here in Canada. I also think I get seasonal depression. Enough whining. This year I wanted to start the year off with a trip away. You may not have noticed since I lined up a week’s worth of content for when I was going to be away.

It was a unique experience. I’m no longer the college student looking to get drunk. I have a girlfriend and I went with a group of people that I didn’t really know. I met the guy a few times. I met the couple for the first time at the airport. It was me continuing with trying to step outside of my comfort zone. In the process I ended up learning a lot.

There are always lessons to be learned from everything that we do. Today I wanted to share a few lessons from my trip to Cancun. What I learned about money and the economy from partying in Cancun in January…

 The economy can’t be that bad.

If thousands of 20-somethings could afford to stay on a resort in Cancun and ram up clubs that cost $60 to get in, then I don’t think the economy can be all that bad. None of us can find jobs, yet we can afford to enter a club that charges a week’s worth of groceries just to get in. Wow.

I only went to Coco Bongo because I heard it’s a “must-do” in Cancun and I missed it the first time that I was there six years ago. The place was absolutely rammed. We were supposed to be on some “VIP” list because of our resort and it still took a good bit to get in. Once we finally got in we realized that the place had a solid 3,000 people and you could barely move. The show was pretty entertaining. Moving around was a pain.

The economy can’t be in that rough of shape if all of those people could afford to pay $60 to get in. No matter how much we complain about the recession, it really can’t be that bad.

Young people will always find money for the fun stuff.

I find it funny how often money-related topics came up with a dude that writes about personal finance. I was pretty amused by how some young people managed to afford the trip.

 A few notable trip purchases that stuck out to me:

• One girl asked for a deferral of her rent payment so that she could take off for a week.
• Another young person used their student loan money to go on the trip.

Those are some interesting ways to pay for a trip if you asked me. I was pretty boring with mine. I cashed in a few checks and used a bit of my vacation savings.

I just find it funny how we all complain about bills and money, yet we find a way to go on vacation. I truly believe that young people will always find money when it comes to going out. Saving for the future? Not so much.

Time will pass you by. 

Going out in Cancun was a trip down memory lane because I remember partying there when I was just 18 years old (not legal in my own hometown yet). All that time had passed me by. I started to think about what I had accomplished during this time. I also thought about the things that I didn’t get to do.

I mainly thought about how hard I had worked during the last six years and I realized that time will pass you by regardless. You have two options

1. Will you let time pass you by without accomplishing anything?
2. Will you work your butt off without even realizing how much time is passing?

This then reminded me of my favorite quote on time and money:

Money comes and goes. Time goes and never comes back. Use your time wisely.

What are you going to do as time passes you by? You can save your money, increase your income, and live life on your own terms. You can also merely stay afloat. The choice is yours.

You have the option to walk away.

 ”You need to hit the gym, your girlfriend is hot and you’re not built.” – Some random and very drunk dude by the pool in Cancun talking smack to my friend.

When faced with an impromptu conflict, you often have two choices: fight or flight. There are those occasions where you need to fight and stick it out. Then there are plenty of instances where you should take flight and walk away from the situation.

One night some French dude who only knew how to say, “do you know who I am,” confronted my buddy. It was three in the morning in the main lobby. Not the best location to have a fight. I could tell that he was completely wasted. He could barely keep his eyes open. Two opportunities to engage in fight in 7 days? What happened? Nothing. You need to learn to walk away.

This ties into personal finance because the same philosophy applies to spending money. When an offer to spend money seems irresistible, you need to resist. It’s too easy to indulge. It’s far to easy to spend money. It takes real effort to actually save your money and avoid the thousands of options for blowing your savings.

There’s nothing wrong with walking away. Often the best investment is the one that you don’t make. If your business is seeing no results, you can close up shop and move on. There’s no sense in staying on the Titanic.

Don’t judge too quickly.

You never know what someone is going to be all about until you actually get to know them. You can’t judge a frugality tactic, business idea, human being, investment, or anything too quickly.

This ties into my next lesson.

 We all have different views on money and life.

I quickly learned that my roommate had much different views on traveling and on life in general. Prior to going out, he would oil himself up with tanning oil because he wanted to be the shiniest guy at the night club. I find it funny to wear a $7 shirt with a stupid joke on it.

When it comes to personal finance we all have different views as well. You might value spending money on that expensive gym membership, while your friend thinks that working out from home is the best option. You might embrace frugality, while your brother believes in spending money because life is short.

What I’m getting to is that we need to try to keep an open mind to different views. We all see the world in a different light.  We also have different priorities.

If you want to conquer your finances, you first need to understand what your priorities are.

That’s what I learned from my most recent trip to Cancun. I wanted to share more personal stories on here in 2012. This is the first of many personal stories and experiences that I’m going to be sharing with you more and more.

I have the solution for all of your financial problems in your 20s. Before I give it to you, I’m going to make you wait. There’s nothing wrong with being a tease, right?

I have a news flash for everyone in their 20s when it comes to money and life…

We all do dumb shit. Sometimes we realize it. Other times we have no clue how dumb our actions really are.

According to a study I found on the website of Duke University, it was revealed that men are horny. Yes, it’s true. Do You believe that?

Alright all kidding aside, men being horny is not breaking news. What is news, is that apparently we are much different when we are horny (in other words, we do dumb stuff). Check this out…

“Specifically, the increase in motivation to have sex produced by sexual arousal seems to decrease the relative importance of other considerations such as behaving ethically toward a potential sexual partner or protecting oneself against unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.”

Kind of scary, huh? I won’t comment any further on those findings. I will compare this study to using credit cards, wasting money, and some of the other dumb things that we do with our money and life in our 20s.

What are some of the other stupid things that we all do?

• Spend money that we don’t have.
• Work a job that we hate.
• Buy things we think we need.
• Put up drunk pictures on Facebook.
• Get into massive amounts of debt.
• Let our time slip away while we forget about our dreams.

What’s the point of all of this?

Education and motivation are not the answers to all of our problems. We all do dumb shit without even realizing it. This happens to me all of the time. I do something really dumb (I recently blurted out something totally inappropriate in public) and then I don’t realize it until much later. I would like to think that I’m educated and motivated. Yet I still do idiotic stuff.

There’s more than enough information out there. Do you want to know how to lose weight? Push some iron and eat good food. It’s that simple. Do you want to know how to save more money? Save more than you spend.

We all know what we need to do. There’s more than enough educational resources out there. I’d also like to assume that plenty of us are motivated enough to work on our goals.

How can you prevent yourself from doing something completely stupid stuff?

We need to setup barriers that prevent us from sub-conciously doing stupid shit.

It’s not about will power. It’s about barriers and using basic psychology on ourselves.

I shared how I saved over $4,000 VERY passively. Without even thinking abut it or doing any work, I setup a simple system to save up over four grand. What was the barrier for accessing this money? I had to find the number of the company, call them, and answer a bunch of questions if I wanted to access any of this money.

Do you set ridiculous goals and then never follow up?

At the end of the day we need to work with our weaknesses. We can’t change our behavior overnight.

On the bright side, we can create systems and use tools that will prevent us from being able to make foolish decisions.

So what’s the solution to all of your financial problems in your 20s?

Accept that you’ll make mistakes and learn how to use basic psychology on yourself. Create barriers for your weak spots, prepare for your mistakes, and accept that we’re all bound to mess up at some point.

Now you know what you need to do. A few of you will actually do something. The majority of the people that read this will just continue complaining about the economy. Which one will you be?

Are you new to college? Are you new to the world of personal finance? Do you want to learn more?

I have good news because this piece is for you. I wanted to compile my most informative (and entertaining) pieces from over the years from all aspects of personal finance for college students.

Let’s get started with personal finance 101 for all college freshmen…

Working in college.

Why College Is The Best Time To Start A Business. A post where I shared my reasoning for why college is the best time to start working on your own business.

Are You Going to be Working This Semester? The title is pretty self-explanatory. We explore the idea of working in college with the pros/cons.

5 Steps to Get You Hired as an English Teacher Abroad. A post that you can define as “outside the box” since it shows you exactly how you can move across the planet to work. Working abroad is something that I really regret not trying.

Dealing with student debt.

10 Ways to Speed Up the Repayment of Your Student Loan. Quick and effective tips for paying down your student debt.

How-to Pay Off Debt With The Income You Have? A great read for those of you that have maxed out the amount of money that you can earn and want to find ways to pay off debt.

Debt Consolidation Services– What You Need To Ask. For those of you that are looking into the option of consolidating all of your debt.

Your financial infrastructure.

Best Credit Card For College Students Checklist. If you’re under 21, can’t prove you have an income, or can’t find a co-signer, you’re going to have a struggle trying to get a credit card. I really like that and feel that it’s the right move. When you are reading for a credit card, you can check out this post to see what you should expect with your first piece of plastic.

How-to Choose a Online Banking Account That’s Right For You. We explore the many different savings accounts that are available to us.

Awesomely Free Checking Accounts. A collection of checking accounts that won’t nickel-and-dime you to death.

Even more help.

Overcoming The Fear of Failure. We all go through moments of self-doubt and we question if we’re doing the right thing. This is why it’s critical that you learn how to deal with the fear of failure in college.

Live Within My Means? How? You need to learn to live within your means as early as possible. Just because you make little money right now it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to save anything.

Dorm Room Essentials. A look at what you need to bring with you to college this semester.

What To Bring To College- Money Management Basics. A look at the basic financial skills that you should pack with you as you go away for school.

If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of resources that were just thrown out at you, I recommend that you check out this 2,000 plus word financial survival guide for college students as a great starting point.