Success after dropping out of college can be achieved through a variety of means. Due to their in-demand knowledge and expertise, some people who don’t attend college or community college can succeed in life. Others could have a better chance of success because they can pick up new abilities rapidly and seize opportunities when they present themselves.

So, if you’ve been debating whether to enter the workforce right away or take some time to cruise as a student, take into account these justifications for why you do not need a traditional bachelor’s degree to earn well.

You may learn seven different reasons why an MBA, Ph.D., or BBA is not crucial to becoming successful:

1. College does not provide practical training.

You must look for mentors and role models who can show you the ropes because of this. You’ll be well ahead of the game if you can locate someone willing to mentor you. If you can’t locate a mentor, there are tons of resources online and in libraries that you may use. You can learn what you need to know about the actual world with a little work. If you are an undergraduate and you have some skills to show you can achieve success.

Your preparation for the outside world will not be sufficient after graduation. The real world requires many abilities that you won’t learn in college or community college. It’s not the same as doing them, even though you can study these things in college. And, let’s face it, most college students don’t have the resources—either in terms of time or money—to devote to studying these topics.

 2. High-paying jobs don’t require college degrees.

There are various good-paying jobs without the degree available. There are many high-paying jobs available without a degree. In certain professions, a college bachelor’s degree may provide you with an advantage, but it’s not always required.

You may learn a lot of well-paying occupations on the job or via vocational training. The following are a few instances of well-paying employment that don’t require a college bachelor degree:

Commercial Pilot

The median yearly compensation for a commercial pilot is $78,770, and career prospects are promising. High school graduation and a commercial pilot’s license from the Federal Aviation Administration are requirements for becoming a commercial pilot. You can obtain this license by finishing an approved flying training course.

Construction Manager

Construction project managers oversee work from start to finish. They recruit contractors, plan and schedule work, and ensure projects are finished on schedule and within budget. Construction managers make an average of $91,370 per year, and the employment market is strong.

3. Be your own boss without a degree.

While having a college bachelor’s degree increases your chances of becoming wealthy and finding a job in the future, there are plenty of entrepreneurs who defied expectations and succeeded anyhow.

You won’t develop the skills necessary to succeed as your boss in college. Yes, there are many fundamental talents you can learn to help you in your endeavours, but entrepreneurship is a personality attribute, not a skill that can be learned.

 4. Online education elevates you to the status of an expert.

There are numerous courses available on the internet that will provide you with all the knowledge you need in a short amount of time and allow you to put that knowledge to use by having you complete tasks. You can become a graphic designer, SEO expert, or SMO expert by using the internet. All you require for success in your career is determination and consistency.

 5. Student debt may destroy their aspirations.

If earning a bachelor’s degree or doctorate will leave you deeply in debt with no way out, you shouldn’t pursue it. The figures on student loans are dismal, with over 44.2 million Americans in debt.

The average monthly student loan payment for borrowers between the ages of 20 and 30 is $351, and the default rate is 11.2%, according to information from Student Loan Hero.

Consider what would occur if you missed that loan installment. With $351, you could start your own company or invest in your education to build the sort of job and revenue stream you choose.

 6. Your degree might not be useful. As soon as you graduate

Although it is risky, I’m not absolutely against the college community or any college. You devote a lot of time and money to earning a degree that could or might not be out of date when you’re ready to utilize it. Technology, business methods, and fashions change swiftly. When you spend four years lagging behind your textbooks, it’s difficult to stay up with emerging trends.

 7. You can’t learn grit in college.

Textbooks and test-taking do not teach grit. It is acquired through experience in the real world overcoming obstacles and figuring out how to make things work. You may develop grit on your own by starting a business, becoming a freelancer, finding finance for your venture, or even working remotely while traveling.

In the end, you don’t need a bachelor’s degree or an MBA degree to succeed and earn a lot of money. A bachelor’s degree may help develop your talents and establish new contacts, but it is not necessary to become a leader in your field. If you are an undergraduate you can still achieve Success in life and the product of hard labor, and it may be attained without formal certifications in the field.  

Extra knowledge and some extra skills will eventually help you in your future so if you want you can pursue these colleges as well Dartmouth, Ivy colleges, brown university, and Columbia university or you can find some colleges by searching “colleges near me” on the search engine.

You create opportunities in life to hone your abilities, develop your talents, learn about and investigate various fields of study, and nurture experiences. 

Why You Don’t Need A College Degree To Be Successful is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

In order to land your perfect job, creating a resume that stands out for all the right reasons is essential. Many people fail to get called for interviews because their resumes don’t reach the standards required by today’s employers.

However, there are many ways you can address this issue so that you give yourself a much better chance of finding a job you really want. Below are some of the ways you can enhance your resume.

1. Complete a Relevant Course

To have any chance of getting to the interview stage for a skilled, higher paying position, you need to have some kind of recognized qualification that you can add to your resume. Starting a new course may be a daunting prospect and a large number of people don’t want to spend a few years of their lives attending classes and lectures at a college or university.

However, there are courses like the online masters in engineering that you can complete in as little as thirteen months. As well as taking less time to complete than other types of courses, you can complete an engineering online program over the internet, without ever having to go to a college or a university in person.

2. Get Relevant Work Experience

Some type of qualification is a basic requirement for most jobs and employers expect to see this information listed on your resume. However, to really impress a potential employer, you need to have some relevant work experience too.

Unfortunately, this can be a Catch-22 situation because you need a job to get experience and experience to get a job. To overcome this issue, you must think outside the box and find ways to get the work experience you need for a particular type of job. You could start by offering your services for free or for a lot less than you know your services are worth until you have built up enough experience to add to your resume.

In other situations, you could become a freelancer for a while and outsource your services to clients over the internet. Good examples of services that you can provide in this way include web design, content creation, online marketing services, bookkeeping tasks, and virtual assistant work. These services are always in demand and it’s often easier to get this experience without already having experience in these areas.

3. Make Sure Your Resume is Up to Scratch

Even a candidate, who has the necessary education, skills, and experience required for a particular role, may find it difficult to get called for an interview. If you are one of the people who struggles in this way, the quality of your resume may be the problem. The good news is there are many ways you can easily rectify this issue.

A good resume should be easy to read, it should be concise, and you should focus on your previous work achievements and results. As well as this, there should be no spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes, or gaps in your resume.

A resume is a key component for job seekers. Following the three steps above will ensure that you are more likely to get the job you really want.

How to Enhance Your Resume in 3 Easy Steps is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

There’s also another reliable way to pay for it — hit up your parents.

The average cost for an in-state public college for the 2015-16 academic year averaged $24,061, and was $47,831 at private colleges, according to a survey by College Data.

Graduates may eventually cover those expenses with future earnings, but that’s years after leaving college and doesn’t help at all before starting school.

For parents who are generous enough to pay for some or all of their children’s college education, it can require some sacrifices. And I’m not just talking about taking out a loan, dipping into a retirement account or taking out some equity in your home.

Cutting vices

Some families have to make life changes to be able to afford college. These can go well beyond stopping smoking or not going out for coffee every weekday. Getting rid of your vices makes sense for more than monetary reasons, but some pleasures in life are worth keeping, even if your kid has to get a college loan or two.

Liberty Bank of Chicago recently put together a graphic (at the bottom of this post) that lists simple vices that can be cut to help struggling families save for college. The bank based the total savings amount for each item on putting the money in a savings account for 18 years that earned 3 percent interest.

It’s interesting to see how much can be saved by not doing something for 18 years — all of your child’s life. 

Cutting some vices sound like smart moves — stopping smoking can save $115,000 in New York, where cigarettes are expensive, but $62,000 elsewhere. But other cutbacks could leave you with little to do in your spare time.

No more vacations, beer or ballgames

Here are the top activities it suggests cutting, from the most money saved to the least:

• Vacation
• Cigarettes
• Dining out
• Sporting events
• Coffee
• Buying lunch
• Beer
• Wine
• Manicures
• Golfing
• Movie tickets

Not paying for annual vacations for 18 years could be enough savings to pay for two kids to attend private college. For one year.

After that, you’d have to give up dining out for dinner, Starbucks, not taking the family to any sporting events to pay  for three more years of private school for one of your kids.

For the other kid, your family would need to stop buying lunch out, drinking beer and wine, and not having manicures.

That would leave your family with money to spend on such joys as golfing and going out to the movies. That doesn’t sound like too much fun.

If you only have one child or your kids are OK going to a public college, then your costs would drop in half. That would give your family a few more “vices” to pick up again, such as drinking beer and wine and going to a few baseball games a year.

The ultimate lesson here? Maybe going to a private college isn’t such a great idea. Or if they are, find other ways to pay for it such as by working an extra job or taking out a loan so that some of the daily joys in life don’t have to be taken away.

If those aren’t aren’t viable, tell your child to do well in math or sports so they can get some sort of scholarship.

What it Costs to Give Up Your Life to Send Your Kids to College is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Heading off to college for the first time is exciting, but there are a lot of supplies you are going to need for your firs time away from home.

If you do an online search to see what you need as a college freshman, the lists and advice out there may convince you that you need to spend a small fortunate just to outfit your dorm room. But the truth is, you don’t need all of that. If you are a college freshman, here are a few things you don’t need!

1. A Television

You might think I’m crazy for saying you don’t need a television, but hear me out. Most likely you’ll have your laptop or tablet with you when you head off to college, so you don’t need another piece of expensive equipment laying around to get stolen or broken. Plus your roommate or new best friend will have one, so you can always watch theirs.

2. A Brand New Comforter Set

If you are going to live in the dorm, you will most likely have to get new sheets as the beds in most dorms are an extra-long twin, which is not a standard size for most homes. But that’s it. You don’t need to go buy a whole new sham and comforter just because it’s cute. You can still use you the one you have from home. Besides, you’ll be too busy studying to make your bed up everyday anyway.

3. Season Tickets to Sporting Events

If you are going to a large university with a great sports team, the athletic department will try to sell you season tickets to football, basketball, and every other sport too. But if you aren’t a die-hard sports fanatic, don’t buy season tickets.

Even if you want to go to a game or two, it’s cheaper to buy a ticket from a friend or ask around to see who has an extra they won’t be using on any given weekend. A lot of universities also have free admission to students for certain sporting events that are a little less popular, such as volleyball, baseball, and maybe even women’s basketball. I knew several people in college who spent over $300 a year on season tickets and never once went to a game. That’s $300 that can be put toward tuition, books, or food.

4. Dorm Appliances

If you are living in a dorm, you will have a roommate. Talk with them to see what they getting so you don’t have duplicates of appliances. This will save you space and money. If you are offered a full meal plan for the cafeteria, take advantage of it and eat there. You won’t eat actual meals in your dorm as much as you may think.

5. Brand New Text Books

Books are expensive, plus they have a low sell-back rate, and some classes don’t even use them. Depending on your major and what classes you are taking, you may be able to get away with not buying books at all. Ask around or email your instructors to see which classes actually use the books they require or recommend.

When you do have to buy a book, don’t buy a new one. Search online and in the campus book store for used books first. You may even be able to borrow books from a friend who took the class last semester or last year. Renting text books is also an option. You usually don’t get money back on rentals, but it’s still cheaper than buying books, plus you’ll be able to avoid the hassle of trying to re-sell them.

6. School Supplies

I’m not saying college freshman won’t need any school supplies, but you won’t need twelve folders, ten pencils, crayons, and two glue sticks. (Unless you are majoring in elementary education. Then you might need them).

Depending on how you take notes during class, you might just take your laptop and type notes, or use one notebook with different sections for all of your classes. The bare necessities are about the only things you’ll need as a college freshman: a three-ring binder or a couple of spiral notebooks, a pencil, a pen, and a highlighter.

7. A Credit Card

This one is cautionary. Depending upon your spending habits and money knowledge, having a credit card could only add to your debt during college. If you do decide to open or take a credit card, get one that has a low interest rate and credit limit.

It might be too late now, but if you can, talk to alumni, do a campus visit, or talk to a current student to see what they use and don’t use. College is an expensive investment and the less you spend upfront on things you don’t really need, the less you’ll have added to your student debt load when you graduate.

Did you take anything unnecessary when you were a college freshman?

7 Things College Freshman Don’t Need is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

When you go shopping this time of year, you’ll likely notice a change in the atmosphere. Instead of bathing suits and red, white, and blue picnic plates, there are lists, glue, and paper. The stores are stocking up on all of the new pencils, notebook paper, planners, and backpacks. The smell of new pens waiting to be opened, pencils ready to be sharpened, and the feeling of a perfect folder, all shimmery in the plastic – it’s intoxicating.

Childless adults might lament on the passing of time and remember childhood, but luckily, you don’t have to have children to take advantage of all of the back to school sales and specials. Even if you don’t have children, here are some ways you can take advantage of back to school sales.

Office Supplies

Now is the time to stock up on the basic must haves for your home office! Just because you don’t have children of your own, doesn’t mean you don’t need a fun folder or binder to spice up your office. Also, by taking advantage of these sales you can purchase school supplies and donate them to a local shelter or school program that gives away backpacks full of supplies to those children in need who can’t afford to get their back-to-school basics. This will make your donation dollars stretch further.

Plastic Storage Baggies

Plastic bags are a must-have for student lunches and are usually on sale during the lead-up to back to school. Take advantage of these prices and stock up for your kitchen. They are great for taking snacks on road trips and lots of other uses too.

Storage Containers and Boxes

August doesn’t just mean elementary or high school starting, it’s also college season! New freshmen moving into dorms, seniors moving into apartments – they both need plastic bins and storage containers to organize their new living spaces. As a childless adult, you can take advantage of this too and purchase what you need to get your home organized.

Lighting and Home Decor

Want to string some of those globe lights across your patio? Go look in the college section. They have pretty much the same product but for less money. Dorm rooms are no longer a plain white cell; they have become rooms to express yourself in. Comfy chairs, lighting, wall décor, rugs, are all sold for a lower price than usual during back to school sales. Some of these things can even work in a non-college decor theme.

Clothing

Big brands and retailers have back to school deals on clothing and shoes. This is a good time of year to give your wardrobe an update and save money.

Vacations

As summer winds down you can definitely take advantage of resorts and tourist attractions wanting to grab you one last time before you are booked up for the fall. There are lower prices and you can sometimes can nab a great package for a winter or fall vacation by booking during back to school sales.

Food

A lot of  convenience food and snacks are on sale during back to school time. Things like chip packs, fruit snacks, and cereal go on sale to appeal to children who take their lunches to school. Grab some for yourself and relive your childhood, or use them as grab and go food when you schedule is packed or you have a road trip to pack for.

Laptops and Electronics

If you were thinking of buy that computer, now is the time to do it. As students get ready to go back to school, whether in college or high school, the prices and deals on electronics are great. Sometimes there are great packaged deals of a tablet with the cover and detachable keyboard, or a computer with a printer or desktop publishing software. These accessories can be expensive, so look for these bundle deals during back to school to save money.

As you can see there are a lot of sales that you can cash in on, while getting some great gear, even if you don’t have kids. Don’t ignore the back to school sale ads, there is something that you can get out of them as well.

If you’re childless, do you shop back to school sales?

8 Ways Childless Adults Can Take Advantage of Back to School Sales is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Though most of these assignments are given with a purpose of learning but it is also a true fact that it takes away a lot of time from the exciting college student life. In this time students can involve themselves in other co-curricular activities where they can learn many other things.

Nowadays there are many online custom writing services which provide students with writing services of all kinds like essays, dissertations, reports, reviews, speech, etc. Meaning, a student just needs to give the details and formats of the writing assignments that he wants to get it done.

The online service providers then assign a suited and appropriate writer to the student. Once the assignment is done, the students can easily download the assignments from the website. The students have to definitely pay for these services.

With buying such college assignment papers that are both pro and cons associated with it.

Pro of buying college assignment papers

The most important fact is that many students are good at writing. May be they can write but may not be able to writing certain kinds of writings. But due to this problem they may be losing a lot of valuable marks in their assignments and final results. But by availing these online services these students can easily score in assignments and need not worry about getting low marks in exams.

Another advantage is that in college life there is not just one assignment for the student to deal with. They have many subjects and each subject have different assignments. So if they avail these online writing services for some of their assignments, they can save time and devote that time in doing other assignments or by indulging in other activities.

These online writing service providing companies have some really good, experienced and educated writers associated with them who write for students. So the work done by these writers for students are of great quality without any plagiarism threat. So students get a chance to read such good work which would surely give them more knowledge about the topic.

Many students, in order to avoid doing their assignments, make their friends and seniors do their assignments and pay them by cash or kind in return. But these writing may not be of good quality. But with these online service writers students can pay a reasonable amount and get a good quality work done in return.

Cons of buying college assignment papers

The biggest disadvantage of students simply buying college assignment papers is that the students would never learn how to write on their own. They would just choose this easy option and never bother knowing about the topic or the format of writing. Here the whole purpose of a student being given an assignment by a college or institute is lost.

Another disadvantage is that students need to spend money from their pocket money to get these assignments done from the writers. Instead of which they could do it themselves and save that money for some other purpose. 

All in all, if you are in search of a professional writing company for buying custom written college papers, don’t hesitate to try academic writing services provided by CustomWritings.com.

Buying College Papers: Pros and Cons is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

I did have student loans and some credit card bills that took me a few years to get rid of — but that was right after graduating from college, and admittedly they weren’t for vast sums and weren’t extremely difficult to pay off.

Other than a home mortgage and a credit card bill that my wife and I pay off each month as we earn credit card reward points for hotel stays, we live a debt free life.

There are some life choices I made early on, along with some debts that made me rethink how I think of money. Here are some of them:

Borrowing little for student loans

Paying for college gave me an early view of potential debt in many ways. I purposely picked an in-state university to go to because it was cheaper than going to college out of state, and I worked as much as I could in the few years before starting college so I could afford it and wouldn’t have to work during college.

My parents paid half of my college costs, so that gave me a big start in trying to graduate debt free. I worked on campus during the end of my sophomore year and my entire junior year to help pay for expenses, but the pay was so lousy that I had to take out a student loan to make it through the last year or so.

I didn’t borrow much — I don’t remember the exact amount but I’m sure it was less than $5,000 — and unfortunately I graduated with debt.

Like most grads, I didn’t have a high paying job and it was difficult to pay off my student loans. I couldn’t afford to go out to bars or nightclubs with friends when I wanted to, doing everything I could to pay off my debts. Within two years, I had paid off my student loans and was debt free — for awhile.

A low income

This may sound like a simple reason to avoid debt, but it often leads to debt: Not earning much money.

While many people may use their credit cards more to pay for a lifestyle they can’t afford, I made a conscious choice not to use credit cards too much because I knew I didn’t have the income to pay the bills when they came due.

This isn’t to say that I didn’t use credit cards unwisely — I’ll get to that in a minute — but as a journalist who recently graduated from college and wasn’t making much money, I knew I already had to be frugal on my low salary. I guess if I had an income double of what it was at the time, I may have had more room in my budget to play around and go into debt because I was sure my monthly bills would be paid.

But when you’re unsure if you can pay for groceries, rent, car payment, student loans and other household bills, it somehow makes throwing money down on non-necessities a lot more frivolous. Being debt free, I discovered, was a little easier if I didn’t have money to begin with.

Too many bar charges

A monthly credit card statement can be sobering. I don’t mean this as a pun, but seeing line after line of bar charges on my credit card bill in the first few years after college was a sobering reminder that I was wasting my money.

I was using my credit card to keep up with friends who were better off than I was financially, and I had to put an end to that for a year or so while I got my credit card balance back in check and vowed to live debt free.

A major car repair bill

One of the biggest things that got me thinking about how much nicer it would be to live debt free was when I had to take my car in for repairs and I didn’t have enough money to pay the final bill.

The bill was so high that I had to call the credit card company to ask for my spending limit to be raised. It was and after spending about a year paying that expense, I vowed to live debt free. I never again wanted to be forced to have to pay interest for something that I could have saved for and paid off entirely at once.

The road to debt free

After that expense, I slowly started funding an emergency fund to pay for car repairs and other emergencies that come up in life as a way of meeting my goal to be debt free.

I’ve sometimes had to use a credit card anyway to pay for a necessary expense — but that’s the main point, that even the credit card has been used for emergencies only and only when they’re necessary. No more bar tabs to throw on a card.

Using a credit card to pay for a car repair is a rarity, and one I’ll usually only do so I can earn reward points and already have the money in an emergency account to pay the credit card bill in full when it arrives.

That emergency fund has led to creating other funds for other purposes, including our daughter’s college education, vacations, taxes and home repairs. It’s all part of a plan to live a debt free life, which is a lot easier when you aren’t using credit cards to pay for everything you see.

How I Chose to be Debt Free for Life is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

After talking to financial experts and others who have either experienced or seen other people make the worst financial mistakes of their lives, we compiled the following list of 25 of them. Many are common after graduating from college and starting a financial life on your own, but they can still happen to anyone at any age.

We should also note that these worst financial mistakes aren’t listed in any order. We’ll leave measuring their importance to you:

25 Worst Financial Mistakes

1. Not going to college

The average starting salary for a high school graduate is about $28,000. That figure almost doubles to $48,127 for college graduates in the class of 2014 with bachelor’s degrees, according to a salary survey by National Association of Colleges and Employers. Starting your working life by being that far behind in pay is one of the worst financial mistakes you can make.

2. Not paying off student loans fast

The average student loan debt for a college graduate is $28,400, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

For a college grad who is earning some real money after four or more years of living like a student, it can be tempting to spend much of their new income before paying off debt. That’s one of the worst financial mistakes a graduate can make, says Alfred Poor, a college speaker and author of books about problems young people are having in the workplace.

“If college graduates tighten their belts and lower their expectations, and live like they only have the high school diploma, they will rapidly pay off their average $27,000 in student loans,” Poor says. “If they spend their whole salary on a more comfortable lifestyle, they could be struggling to pay off that debt for decades, and end up paying much more in interest.”

3. Paying off student loans too quickly

Paying off student loans quickly can also have a downside, says Steven Fox, a financial planner in San Diego with NextGenFinancialPlanning.com. If they use all of their extra income paying off student loans, they could be in financial trouble if they don’t put some in an emergency fund and lose their job or get in a car accident and have unexpected medical expenses, Fox says.

“They should really think about whether they should pay off their student loans as fast as they possibly can once they get their first job if it means that they’re doing so at the expense of not saving or investing anything,” he says. “Ending up with zero debt is good, but ending up with zero savings is very bad.”

An emergency could lead to borrowing money at a higher rate than what they were paying on student loans, says Fox, who reminds graduates that student loan interest is tax deductible for up to $2,500 for individuals making $80,000 or less without having to itemize.

4. Using max credit card limit

“Just because a bank offers you a credit card that allows you to spend money doesn’t mean you should,” Fox says.

This goes for all debt, he says. Being approved for a $20,000 auto loan doesn’t mean your budget for a car is $20,000.

“That money needs to be repaid,” Fox says, “and you are paying a very high cost to borrow it at this stage in life. Spending should be determined by a well thought out budget, not by the size of the line of credit.”

5. Living beyond your means with credit

Building an expensive lifestyle for yourself early in life is possible with credit cards, and is one of the worst financial mistakes anyone can make, says Matt Becker, a fee-only financial planner and founder of Mom and Dad Money.

“That debt will make it a lot harder to pursue exciting opportunities later on, and may even force you to stay in a job you hate just so you can make the payments,” Becker says.

6. Not having health insurance

Young people may think they’re invincible, but unexpected tragedies like a car accident can happen, causing a large financial setback early in life and leading to financial mistakes, Fox says.

Health insurance options for college-age students include staying on their parents’ health insurance until age 26, signing up for their school’s health program, or buying low-cost catastrophic coverage from commercial carriers.

7. Choosing money over mission

We all want to make money, and it’s hard to tell someone to turn down a bigger paycheck, Becker says.

“But you will find much more fulfillment from a job with a mission you believe in than one that simply pays a lot,” he says. “Make sure you’re paid what you’re worth, but don’t forget to make your work meaningful.”

8. Waiting to invest

After spending your first paycheck on something fun, set aside part of your next paycheck for investing, Becker recommends.

“The sooner you start investing, the sooner you’ll be able to say goodbye to that job forever,” he says. “And if your employer offers a 401(k) match, contribute at least enough to get that full match. That’s free money!”

9. Paying credit card bill late

Not making credit card payments on time can be one of the worst financial mistakes anyone can make, says Peter Creedon, chief executive officer at Crystal Brook Advisors.

Credit card companies can bump up interest rates to as high as 36 percent to late-paying customers, Creedon says. Pay your credit card bills in full each month to avoid interest charges.

10. Consolidating credit card balances

Know how your credit card company is going to categorize how your credit card balance consolidation is rolled over, otherwise you might be in for one of the worst financial mistakes ever, Creedon recommends.

“Some companies consider it a cash advance and assessed a slightly higher interest rate and put the amount behind the cards’ balance so the amount takes longer to pay off,” he says.

Develop a cash reserve of at least three months so you won’t have to take on more credit card debt, he says. “Become the bank and pay yourself instead of paying everyone else,” Creedon says.

11. Not asking your parents to cosign a loan

Many young people don’t have a long enough credit history to qualify for a car loan or first home purchase on their own, leading to one of the bigger financial mistakes, says Danna Jacobs, founding partner at Legacy Care Wealth.

Financially strong, mature young professionals with good relationships with their parents should avoid one of the worst financial mistakes in life by not asking their parents to cosign a loan because they want to maintain their independence, Jacobs says. Without their parents as cosigners, they’re missing out on an opportunity, she says, noting that only “financially strong, mature, young professionals” should do this.

12. Not asking for a raise early

Not asking for a raise, promotion or increased responsibility because you only have a short tenure at a firm is one of the worst financial mistakes you can make, Jacobs says.

“You may not get it this time, but when coupled with strong performance, it can increase the rate at which you would be bumped up to the next level,” she says.

13. Not recognizing investment bubbles

Figuring out when to enter and exit the stock market is something even experts have difficulty doing. Guy Smith, a marketing consultant in San Jose, Calif., says among the worst financial mistakes to make, his was not recognizing investment bubbles and therefore cheating himself out of an early retirement.

“I remember the Christmas before the (tech) bubble burst, my Uncle Bob said he had sold all his stock,” Smith says. “He being a savvy businessman, I wanted to know why he bailed. His advice was simple: ‘When you see a lot of people doing a stupid thing, run the other way.’ Had I exited when Uncle Bob did, I would have had $100,000 in cash in my pocket.”

Smith also didn’t act on the housing bubble. He bought a rental home in Florida for $100,000 that doubled in value seven years later. His long-term strategy for the house was to own a home paid for by someone else, so he held on to it. The value dropped and he didn’t sell at the peak for a $100,000 profit.

14. Buying new

Everything depreciates, especially cars, says Rick Sellano, owner of the writing service My Ink Shines. Buying new is one of the worst financial mistakes anyone can make, Sellano says.

He recommends buying used cars with low mileage, gently used furniture and other used items to save money throughout your life.

15. Focusing only on the present

Among the worst financial mistakes to make in life, focusing exclusively on the present is the worst, says John Vespasian, the author of seven books about rational living.

“If you fail to think long-term, you will render yourself blind to the best opportunities,” Vespasian says. “You will waste your money on foolish purchases. You will destroy your motivation to learn complex subjects. And you will surround yourself with the kind of people who are also incapable of thinking long-term.”

“People who focus exclusively on the short term tend to make incredibly stupid financial decisions,” he says. “In doing so, they subject themselves to high stress and anxiety that could have been easily avoided. A man who lacks a long-term perspective in his life will never be able to save money consistently, nor to spend it wisely.”

“Our society places a disproportionate emphasis on purchase that delivery little or zero long-term value. Few people take the trouble to acquire the discipline to think in terms of a lifetime. If you can see yourself living to become 100 years old, and realize what that means in terms of financial foresight, you will avoid making foolish financial mistakes.”

16. Focusing on monthly car payment

A common sales tactic at car dealerships is to get buyers to a monthly payment they’re comfortable with. Many buyers go in with a set amount they’d like to pay every month, and are happy to share that figure with the salesperson, says Jeannine Fallon, executive director of corporate communications at Edmunds.com. That can lead to one of the worst financial mistakes they can make as a car shopper, according to Edmunds.com.

“When you do that, you’re not actually talking about the total price of the car,” says Edmunds.com senior consumer advice editor Phil Reed. “You also need to take into consideration the interest rate, as well as the length of the loan.”

The dealer may suggest a longer loan so the car fits in your budget, but a longer loan also means you pay more in interest.

17. Not having renter’s insurance

Focusing on the present, however, can be important. Not having renter’s insurance was one of the worst financial mistakes that Eric Narcisco, CEO of EffectiveCoverage.com, made when he was young.

“After college, when I was living in an apartment in Jersey City, I came home from work one day to find everything I owned lost to a fire that my neighbor had started,” Narcisco says. “I didn’t have much at the time, but since I was just out of college I didn’t have much money to replace those things, either.

“I had convinced myself that I didn’t need renters insurance because I didn’t own anything to speak of. If a policy had been in force, I would have been able to replace all of those things quickly and move on with my life instead of spending years in the process just to get back to where I had already been.”

18. Not saving for retirement early

Layton Cox, a financial advisor at My Pathway in Tucson, AZ, says one of the worst financial mistakes someone can make is not saving for retirement earlier in life. It’s the top regret and one of the many financial mistakes Cox says he hears from people over age 45.

Saving $2,400 annually at age 25 with an 8 percent return will result in more than $52,000 saved at age 65 — 20 times what was originally saved, he says.

Waiting just 10 years longer to “get your life together” will grow that same $2,400 to a little more than $24,000 at age 65. That’s half of what you would’ve saved at age 25, but still 10 times what was originally saved.

“The problem is, most people don’t save for retirement until they are in their late 30s to early 40s,” Cox says. “In their 20s, they save for a downpayment, vacation, or they are too busy paying off student loan debt. In their early 30s, they are saving for a bigger house or children’s education.

“It’s not until the kids are about to leave the house that most Americans save for retirement. This ruins their chance of benefiting from compounding interest.”

19. Taking on more risk than you can afford

As Bernard Kliban once wrote, “Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head,” which is good advice for investors in terms of risk, says Jim Pearce, CIO of Baton Investing in Falls Church, VA.

Don’t trade options, buy penny stocks, or speculate in commodities unless you really can afford to lose every penny, Pearce says of financial mistakes to make when investing.

“Too many investors try to play ‘catch up ball’ by engaging in reckless investing that usually ends up in a wreck, putting them even further behind the eight ball,” he says.

20. Mimic other investors

This is partly in contrast to #13, but mimicking someone else’s investment strategy can be one of the biggest financial mistakes of your life, Pearce says.

“For some reason most people seem to think that anyone else’s judgment is better than their own, so there is a tendency to blindly duplicate what another person tells you they are doing in the market,” he says.

That leads to two problems: (1) they may be lying and only telling you that to impress you, and (2) even if they really are doing that, they may have no idea why they are doing it, either (or doing the same thing you are, and copying someone else).

21. Investing with a friend

Investing in a friend’s or family member’s business opportunity is one of the worst financial mistakes anyone can make, Pearce says. “It’s human nature to want to help the people you care about, but giving them your hard-earned money to capitalize their high-risk business venture isn’t the best way to do it,” he says.

Instead, offer to provide them with a low/no-rent housing situation (if you have the space) so they can live on very little income until their business gets going, or hook them up with someone else who really is in the business of in investing in high risk ventures, Pearce recommends.

22. Pyramiding profits

When an investment is going good we tend to think it will go on forever, so we sink even more money into it, Pearce says. This is sort of like betting double or nothing until you inevitably lose. Instead, set a limit on how much money you are willing to risk on any one thing and stick to it, which could help avoid this and other financial mistakes.

23. Allowing money drains

It’s OK to reward yourself with the occasional night out on the town or well-earned vacation, Pearce says. Those sorts of things don’t help your balance sheet, but provide psychic wealth.

“However, engaging in potentially costly behaviors such as gambling, substance abuse, or simply buying things you don’t really need create ‘money drains’ that rob you of the opportunity cost of putting that cash to better use in something that has value and can sustain you later in life when you really need it,” he says of financial mistakes.

24. Not paying taxes

One of the worst financial mistakes someone can make is not paying income taxes, says Nicole Erwin, a licensed tax professional at Tax Defense Network.

“What many people of all ages fail to realize is the significance of creating or ignoring issues with the IRS,” Erwin says. “If you choose not to file your returns, for instance, a series of undesirable events are sure to follow.”

First, the IRS may file a Substitute for Return (SFR). This allows them to use whatever previous tax information they have on you (no matter how inaccurate) coupled with information provided by your employers to file your return.. This substitute can work to your disadvantage by creating a tax liability that could have been avoided if you’d simply filed accurately, on time, she says..

“If you do wind up with a tax debt and you don’t pay it, you’re really asking for trouble, Erwin says. The IRS can place a lien against you, destroying your credit, or garnish your wages or bank account. If the debt persists, the IRS can even seize your property and assets. And while these are all serious actions, the worst is yet to come.”

“The problem with unpaid tax debts is they tend to become inflated in a short period of time,” she says. “The amount you originally owed quickly mutates with the addition of penalties and interest. What you end up with is a staggering tax bill which has destroyed your credit and haunts you for years.

“By the time you realize just how big of a mistake you made, you’re not young anymore — and you’re in a conceivably worse position to do anything about it. None of this has to happen, of course. If you have a tax debt, consult with a licensed tax professional who can ensure your youth is spent on more entertaining pursuits.”

25. Not having a personal financial advisor

Just as everyone needs a family physician, a financial practitioner is needed every bit as much, recommends Rob Drury, executive director of the Association of Christian Financial Advisors. Without one, you could be headed to other financial mistakes.

“A financial advisor’s job is absolutely identical to the doctor’s; he assesses wellness, diagnoses illness, prescribes cures, and designs wellness programs,” Drury says. “He simply performs these functions in the financial realm rather than the medical.

“Employing a qualified advisor and being accountable will prevent one from committing most financial mistakes. Most basic planning functions can be performed at little or no cost.”

That’s our list of the worst financial mistakes to make at any age. What are some of the worst financial mistakes you’ve made?

25 Worst Financial Mistakes Anyone Can Make is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Only half of college alumni think their university education was worth the cost, but a lot fewer think it’s worthwhile when taking on a lot of student loan debt, according to a new survey.

The national Gallup-Purdue Index found that in the face of mounting debt, 50 percent of alumni “strongly agree” that their college education was worth the cost. Graduates of public universities agreed with that the most at 52 percent, followed by 47 percent at private nonprofit universities. Only 26 percent of graduates of private for-profit universities agreed, possibly because they were more likely to take on higher levels of student loan debt.

The survey found that 63 percent of alumni who graduated from 2006-15 used student loans, with the median loan at $30,000.

“Given that higher education has become one of the largest financial investments a person will make over their lifetime, it’s a bit alarming that only half of all graduates strongly agree their education was worth the cost,” said Brandon Busteed, Gallup’s executive director for education and workforce development, in a statement. “Clearly, we all need to work harder on improving quality and reducing cost as much as possible.”

Postponing other things after college

Nearly half of recent graduates who incurred any amount of student loan debt reported postponing further training or postgraduate education because of those loans. A third or more have delayed purchasing a house or a car because of debt, and nearly one in five have put off starting their own business. Each of these figures rises significantly among those with a debt burden of $25,001 or higher.

Recent graduates with a debt burden of $25,001 or more are almost twice as likely to strongly agree that their education was worth the cost if they recall supportive relationships with professors and mentors. And recent graduates with high debt are also less likely to put off continuing their education or starting a business because of student loans if they strongly agree they had supportive relationships in college.

“We’ve said before that it’s not where you go to college but how you go to college that matters,” Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in a statement. “Students get out what they put in, and they can get an excellent education at a wide variety of institutions across the country. As the study shows, their experience is determined much more by the relationships they build with mentors and the success they are able to achieve via their work on campus or abroad.”

Relationships improve value

Recent graduates who strongly agree with any of three items measuring supportive relationships with professors or mentors were almost twice as likely to strongly agree that their education was worth the cost. These relationships hold even when controlling for personality characteristics and other variables, such as student loan debt and employment status, that could also be related to graduates’ perceptions that college was worth it.

If recent graduates strongly agree that they had any of three experiential learning opportunities — an internship related to their studies, active involvement in extracurricular activities or a project that took a semester or more to complete — their likelihood to strongly agree that their education was worth the cost increases 1.5 times.

The current GPI results reaffirm the importance to undergraduates of supportive relationships with professors and mentors. If employed graduates strongly agreed that they had professors who cared about them, they had at least one professor who made them excited about learning and they had a mentor who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams, their odds of being emotionally engaged at work nearly double.

The results from the initial GPI national survey were released in May 2014. Besides the findings about student engagement with faculty mentors, the index also reported there is no difference in workplace engagement or a college graduate’s well-being if they attended a public or private not-for-profit institution, a highly selective institution, or a top 100-ranked school in U.S. News & World Report. It also outlined the relationship between the level of student debt and a graduate’s well-being and entrepreneurial experience.

Is College Worth the Cost? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

They mean well, but they may be doing themselves and their children a disservice with less money saved and less tax relief.

Along with the traditional ways of saving for college with a 529 or a Coverdell Education Savings Account, parents are also saving for a college education through savings accounts and their retirement plans.

45% save for college in savings account

A recent study by T. Rowe Price found that 45 percent of parents saving for their kids’ college education are using a regular savings account, and 30 percent are using their 401(k) retirement account.

The study found that 31 percent are using a 529 account that’s designed to give them the most taxable savings when saving for college.

By not using a college savings account, they’re not only losing tax benefits, but may be making a lot less money on the interest rates the accounts make. And even if they’re making more money in a retirement account, that benefit may be lost when it’s time to pay income taxes.

Using a comparison calculator at Savingforcollege.com and researching federal income tax rates and average returns, here are how different savings vehicles would help in saving for a college education:

529 Plan

Federal income tax: Non-deductible contributions; withdrawn earnings excluded from income to extent of qualified higher education expenses.

Rate of return: Returns vary by state, but the Colorado plan, for example, has a return rate of 3.09 percent per year in 2015.

Overall, an average rate of return of 6-7 percent could be expected in a 529 plan for a college education.

Coverdell

Federal income tax: Non-deductible contributions; withdrawn earnings excluded from income to extent of qualified higher education expenses and qualified K-12 expenses also excluded.

Rate of return: One online calculator puts the default return rate for a Coverdell account at 8 percent. A Franklin Templeton guide to Coverdells also puts the average annual return at 8 percent.

Making a $2,000 contribution to a Coverdell account each year for 18 years with an 8 percent average annual return, compounded monthly, would result in $16,448 more in a tax-deferred investment than in a taxable investment, according to the guide. The tax-deferred Coverdell account in this scenario would have $83,524 after 18 years.

Savings account

Federal income tax: Interest earned on savings account is taxed as income.

Rate of return: As of Sept. 10, 2015, the standard rate of return for a money market savings account at Bank of America was 0.03 percent. We only chose BoA because it’s one of the biggest banks in the country.

One-year certificates of deposit are averaging 0.23 percent. That just barely beats the U.S. inflation rate of 0.2 percent.

U.S. savings bonds

Federal income tax: Tax-deferred for federal; tax-free for state; certain post-1989 EE and I bonds may be redeemed federal tax-free for qualified higher education expenses.

Rate of return: Series EE bonds pay 0.30 percent after 20 years, which is almost enough time before a newborn starts college.

Roth IRA

Federal income tax: Non-deductible contributions; withdrawn earnings excluded from income after age 59 1/2 – and five years; 10 percent penalty on early withdrawals waived if used for qualified higher education expenses.

Rate of return: The S&P 500 has an annual rate of return of 8.06 percent for the past 10 years. From January 1970 through December 2014 the S&P 500 has a return of 10.7 percent.

Traditional IRA

Federal income tax: Deductible or non-deductible contributions; withdrawals in excess of basis subject to tax; 10 percent penalty on early withdrawals waived if used for qualified higher education expenses.

Rate of return: Fidelity gives the example of a 7 percent rate of return for an IRA contribution.

401(k) retirement account

Federal income tax: Same as for a traditional IRA, except there isn’t a penalty waiver if the money is used for college expenses. In other words, a 401(k) shouldn’t be used to pay for college.

A loan from a 401(k) retirement plan can be taken out. Plan loans aren’t taxed or penalized if the loan is repaid within a specific period of time, generally within five years.

Rate of return: The Vanguard Wellington mutual fund, which is one of the most common balanced funds found in 401(k) plans, has an average annual five-year return rate of 12.07 percent as of June 30, 2015. Pulling money out through a loan to fund a college education would of course lessen the amount of money earning the return rate.

How to pay for a college education

Among all of these methods, borrowing or withdrawing money from a retirement account to pay for a college education seems like the biggest potential for not making as much money as you would through an education savings accounts. You might get a higher rate of return, but the tax implications could negate it.

But as college appears closer and closer, maybe that’s the best choice for parents who have put off or completely ignored saving for their child’s college education from the day they were born. Thinking seriously about it when high school graduation is only a few years away may help their kid get through college without any debt, but they may be giving up part of their retirement plans in the process.

If that’s the case, make sure your child graduates with a college education in a well-paying major so they can help support you in your old age.

Most Parents Saving for Kids’ College Education in Wrong Places is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.