In order to compete in today’s economy it’s important to get some higher learning. As the US workforce demands 
advanced skills and education, it will look for more qualified workers who can compete on a global level. The cost of college can seem out of reach for many Americans and it is rising.
The College Board estimates most families can expect to pay on average $172-$1096 more this year than last year on tuition and fees. It also notes:
• For an average public 4 year university expect to pay $7,020 per year up, 6.5%
• For an average public 2 year college expect to pay $2,544 per year, up 7.3% But it’s important to look at college education as an investment in the future and there are ways to cut the costs and save money.
Get Paid For Grades
Getting good grades is a reward in itself, but a new program called Grade Fund will add some cash incentive for each A the student receives. Students create an account on www.gradefund.com. They invite sponsors, anyone from friends and family to teachers or coaches to pledge donations for every A the student receives in school. Corporations can sponsor as well; pledging dollars for smart students who get good grades in the area of corporate interest. Students then enter their grades and classes, upload their official transcript and presto, money is collected from the sponsors (minus a transaction fee). Money can go directly to the students or straight to the school to pay for tuition and fees. The more sponsors, the more money the student can collect toward her education.
Textbook Budget Buster
Once you’ve paid for tuition, and room and board, you might be tapped out, but you’ve got to get books, or you’ll be looking over the shoulder of the guy in front of you. The National Association of College Bookstores estimates on average a student pays $702 per year on coarse material such as readers, electronic materials, and textbooks. They estimate the price of text books has risen 40% in the last five years, with some books costing over $100. Students are encouraged to resale textbooks once the course is over, but they get back far less than what they paid for it. Freeloadpress.com is a site that offers online versions of textbooks for free. The free online version, called StudyBreak Book, has messages from advertising sponsors who underwrite the publication. The textbook is free and a complete version of hard copy texts. Students can also check out Bookrenter.com who boasts a savings of %75 by renting the textbook over buying.
College as an Investment
Despite the rising cost of a college education, the College Board estimates that a college graduate will earn 60% more over a lifetime than someone with only a high school diploma, this translates to over $800,000. Whether paying for a 4 year public university or a 2 year program, college should be seen as an investment that will make money over the long haul, but it does not have to strain your finances in the meantime.
To compensate for the rising college costs there are many investments available. For example, this RESP allows for a fixed amount to be saved every year.
If you are on a budget, you can’t beat free. There are many services, places, and products to be had for free or almost 
free if you know where to look. Here are five free or almost free ways to cut your expenses, save money and yet still enjoy life.
Free Books
The public library may be the obvious choice for all things free, but in the current economy library use is up due to all the free goodies they provide. There are over 16,000 public libraries in America and according to a 2008 Harris Interactive Survey Poll, 2/3 of Americans have a library card. The library is a great free source for more than just books. Patrons can check out DVDS, CDs, and computer software. There is usually a story hour for kids and free internet access for students and adults. Some libraries have movies nights and guest lecturers or classes for the community.
Free Phone Calls
Save big on all of your phone calls through the website Talkster, an ad-supported phone company offering free local and international phone calls to more than 30 countries and territories. Sign up for an account for yourself and up to five friends and all of your calls are free.
Free Yoga
Who doesn’t need some rest and relaxation from all the economic news? Yoga is a wonderful practice to release tension and stress. Many yoga studios are willing to offer free classes in exchange for work around the studio. Contact your local studio and see if you can work out a deal.
Almost Free Movies
With the average cost of a movie ticket running $7.18, you’re better off spending $1 on a movie rental from Redbox. How it works: choose a movie from RedBox, reserve a copy from one of 17,000 locations, pick up the DVD from the location you choose, return DVD when finished. Redbox charges $1 per day, per movie until the DVD is returned to any Redbox location.
Free Accommodations
Vacations are a big part of American life, but with the high cost of flying, hotels and gas many Americans are looking for ways to cut back yet still enjoy some time off. According to a Harris Interactive Poll, the average American spends about $1,700 on a weeklong vacation. 52 % of those polled said they would be looking to cut back on accommodations. CouchSurfing.com is a non-profit, on-line network that connects travelers with locals in over 239 countries and territories around the world. Participating hosts open up their homes to allow travelers to stay for free and see the how people in different countries live.
The Free Trend
Getting stuff for free is a growing trend. According trendwatching.com, more and more companies are vying for consumers’ attention by offering free products and services. This is good news for consumers who are looking to squeeze the most out of their dollars.
As the saying goes… hind sight is always 20/20 vision. Unfortunately though, the only way to live life is to move forward and because this is reality, mistakes will always be made and some of them are really regrettable.
Just because you can accept that mistakes are a part of life doesn’t mean you shouldn’t examine them and strive to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. An experience that teaches you nothing is bound to recur, so unless you want to relive your past blunders it is best to highlight them now and find the lesson you were meant to learn.
Some of the past years most common financial errors are listed below to jumpstart the thinking process:
Allowing Credit Card Debt to Get Out-of-Control
Credit cards are an alluring threat to those who simply can’t handle the responsibility of paying them off on time. Millions of Americans have made the same mistake. In fact, Innovest Inc. (an investment management consultancy) estimates that credit card companies will write-off an estimated $96 billion in sour debt for 2009 compared to roughly $41 billion in 2008. These statistics show that credit cards are an alarming problem for many people. On an individual level, excessive credit card debt can destroy your credit rating and seriously delay achieving any other goal while you spin your wheels day and night just to keep up with the interest payments.
Life Lesson: Always look before you leap or you may end up falling into a hole much deeper than you anticipated.
Jumping into Buying a House
Many people rush into buying a house because they have a notion in their heads of what they should be doing at a certain age, or because they think that the price is right and they shouldn’t miss out on a golden opportunity or even because they think that real estate values always appreciate. As it happens there is only one real reason to buy a house and that is because you are financially stable and fully able to take on the commitment of a mortgage. If this one stipulation holds true, you will realize that age is not a reason to bind yourself to a huge debt, there will always be another gem worth buying and a gem you can’t afford is really not a gem at all and whatever happens to home prices won’t matter so much if you can comfortably afford the home you’re in.
Life Lesson: Never bite off more than you can chew, or you just might end up choking on it.
Not Planning for the Unexpected
Nobody expects you to be the financial Mac Gyver, but you should at the very least have some savings in case you need access to money in a hurry. The ideal situation is to have an emergency fund that is equivalent to approximately 3 to 6 months of your monthly salary. While you are in the process of building that up it is also good form to have an idea of little ways you can make extra money if the need ever arose. For instance, could you do odd jobs for neighbors or turn your hobby into a small business?
Life Lesson: “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.” Howard Ruff, author of the book “How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years in the 21st Century”.
You can only have two reactions to what you have just read. The first is a sense of pride that you have managed not to fall prey where others have stumbled badly. The second is a sense of sincere regret that you did.
To those who have reason to celebrate, by all means give yourselves a pat on the back, but remember that the journey is not over and in all likelihood you have quite a long way left to travel so stay alert and keep trying to learn as much as you can about your finances.
To those who wish they had done things differently, it pays to remember that sometimes it takes a hard knock to get you to a place where you really appreciate all that you have and hold tight to the lessons of yesterday, lest you repeat them.
Guiding money-making teens down the path to financial stability is much easier if they have had some experience with handling money in their early teen years, but even if they have had absolutely no responsibilities up to this point all is not lost.
If your teen has not previously been in control of their wallet, they may view bringing in a little money as a rush of freedom and although they will never admit it, they will need council on how to ensure that it lasts… at least until the next pay day.
It is important though to be sensitive in your approach. Your teen may see any advice as interference and try to drown out your words of wisdom. The following tips can help you to get the message across without facing too much resistance:
Lead by Example
Encourage your teenager to sit with you while you go through the motions of preparing the family monthly budget. Try not to turn it into a tutorial, but remain conversational and keep the mood light. You can probably comment on how the cost of living has climbed since they were a baby and pull them in to have a look at the expense categories. It’s also best to show them how to tie a budget into real life goals, so they can see that saving is not arbitrary but rather a focused attempt to achieve dreams. Before you know it they will be eating out of your hand and actually asking questions about how things are done.
Help them Open a Checking Account
Assuming your teenager already has a savings account at the bank from an earlier age offer to take them in to open a checking account. Make the graduation from savings account to checking account seem like a kind of coming of age experience, and take the opportunity to give them some pointers on how to reconcile their spending at the end of the month. Offer to help them with it for the first couple of months. Tell them they can think of this time period as riding a bike with training wheels, it may be possible to learn without them, but they sure make the process less dangerous.
Highlight the Importance of Charity
When your child starts to earn an income it is a great opportunity to talk to them about the importance of giving back. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from a religious perspective, although it certainly can, but let them know that putting some good out into the world ensures that they are setting the wheels of positive reciprocity in motion. This doesn’t even have to be phrased as a question, but rather bring it up as if it were the natural and expected thing to do by asking “So have you decided what charity you will be supporting?” as opposed to “Now that you are working you need to give something charity.” Engaging them like this catches them off guard and is more likely to spark a constructive conversation, than if the topic were to be broached like a lecture series.
Instill the Lesson of Delayed Gratification
While this is best taught at a younger age it is never too late to try. If your teenager is on the verge of blowing their entire week’s earnings on a frivolous item, instead of flying off the handle, think of something that you know they would like to have. Maybe it’s a car or a new music system. Whatever the item, use this to drive home the concept of spending it all now to get a small thrill as opposed to saving something up each month to get something really satisfying. This takes time to digest and they may falter but stick to the message and remind them of it the following month when they are still unable to afford the thing they crave because of poor spending habits.
Talk to them about Credit Cards
Credit card companies love to target teenagers precisely because they are a vulnerable group, but also because they are also at the age when they are likely to be bailed out by parents or guardians. Make sure they are aware of the charges and use an online calculator to highlight what the interest payment will be on an item if left unpaid for a month or even six months. Educating your teen about the proper use of plastic can save you a bundle both financially and emotionally.
Consider Matching their Contributions
Finally, encourage your teen to save. This is probably the best thing you can do for them as a parent to shape their financial future. Make sure they know that the earlier they start to save, the better off they will be. Take advantage of online calculators to bring home the difference in accumulated savings from someone who starts stashing at 16 as opposed to starting at 21. Then make those numbers real by tying them to material items like a house or a car.
The key to influencing teenagers is keeping the lines of communication open. Ask them questions and constantly monitor their performance from a safe distance. The teen years are extremely important and getting things right now can give them a firm footing for the trials of their early twenties when even more responsibilities crop up.
Many parents never think to teach their teens the basics about money before they leave the nest. Only teaching them 
to save their money won’t necessarily keep them safe from rip-offs or fine print. Sink or swim is not the best way to learn about contracts or bills, so parents should teach their kids about these sorts of things before they move out.
Here are a few examples of things your teens need to learn now as opposed to later.
Bills
It may seem like a simple thing, but learning how to reading and understand bills is an important skill that should be learned early. Another important thing is learning how to manage your money to pay your bills. Teach your teens how to set aside money each month specifically used to pay bills. A lot of people fall into the routine of paying bills with whatever they have left each month. This is the opposite of what you should be doing, and learning this ahead of time will teach your kids to keep their head above water.
Contracts
Signing a contract for insurance, accounts, or other things can be very dangerous. Let your teens sit down with you, and teach them how to read the fine print, and what sort of phrases to watch out for. People that haven’t learned this young may sign a contract without reading it, and put themselves in a lot of trouble. If you teach them ahead of time, it may save them, and even you, a lot of trouble in the long run.
Bank Practices
Teaching your kids about using the bank when they’re young will help them to develop healthy bank habits. Help them to understand loans, savings accounts, and different cards. Show them how to use a debit card, or a credit card. But also teach them about credit card debt. Many people think that credit cards are like an unlimited hole of money, which causes them to bury themselves in debt. On many occasions, this starts young. If you teach your kids to use credit wisely instead of frivolously spending money, they may continue to use these healthy credit habits long into their adult life.
Don’t leave your kids to fend for themselves once they enter the financial realm. Chances are, if they’re given the right tools, they’ll make the right choices for many years to come.
Once you’re in college, you may pay less attention to finances and more attention to trying to live independently now that you’re out of the house. Besides tuition costs, over-spending and carelessly buying things during college is a large source of debt for many college students. Here are a few tips to help you save money while you’re in college, and still have a great time discovering your freedom.
Food: Try finding new places to eat meals. A great way to save money is to get together with your friends each night and eat at their place. Then once a week, have dinner at your place. If you get enough friends together, you’ll each be paying for only a couple of meals a week. Over time this can really add up. Be sure to check out the student cafeteria. Sometimes they offer healthy food for reasonable prices. As an example, UNR’s student cafeteria gives free fruit to their students.
Textbooks: Unless it is completely necessary, do not buy your books new. A full semester of books can run over $500, which is ridiculous for books you will probably only use once in your life. Instead, buy your books used and then sell them back to the school at the end of the semester. You can also sell them online and possibly make more money for them. Another option is to rent textbooks instead of buying them by using chegg.com (http://www.chegg.com). They send you the books you need, and when you’re done you send them back. While you don’t get money back, you can save hundreds of dollars upfront.
Tuition: Look into scholarships and grants before you ever look into loans. Depending on how much your tuition is, you can cut out a large chunk with grants and scholarships. Even though there may be a lot of forms, in the end if you receive the financial aid it really is worth it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, because sometimes people don’t take the time to fill out the forms which means the money is left untouched and ready to be used.
Starting your life out of the house can be scary, but debt later in life can be even scarier. If you take these steps, you will be on the way to protecting yourself from financial hardships. While it may not cut all of your debt, any amount saved helps.
It’s always been a big subject of controversy between financial experts. Saving for your retirement and saving for a 
college education. People seem to be split on what’s more important but there is a lot of weight placed up saving for retirement taking precedence over saving for college. It seems that more people are saving for their golden years as the numbers from recent surveys suggest; however, the same survey suggests that only a small portion of people these days are saving at all. So many households are living from paycheck to paycheck and struggling just to pay bills that there is often no room for saving cash, even people with household incomes over $100,000 were having trouble setting aside cash. Experts do agree on one thing for sure, no matter how much money you make, you will need to find a way to put aside at least some cash for your future, even if you can’t afford to save for your children’s academic future.
For parents who have children on the road to college, the best savings plan still seems to be the 529 college savings plans. But there are still a lot of consumers who can’t save for both college and retirement and there are even more people who truly do not understand exactly how a 529 plan works. Once a 529 plan is started, there are a number of options for the money should a child not go to college. For instance, the money in the plan can be changed to another family member who will be attending classes in higher education. Parents can also use the cash if they are planning a career change and need to go back to school, even during their retirement years. If there is no other member of the family that can not use the 529 plan money, the money can be withdrawn albeit with penalties and taxes.
Additional benefits for contributing to a 529 plan for college savings include the income tax break you can get in many states. Even if you can’t afford a lot of money split between savings and retirement, having money in both investments is a wise idea. Budget your money and cut spending to find “extra” money to tuck away for your future. Remember especially that it never too early to start saving but it could be too late. The younger you are when you start a savings plan, the longer you have to add up smaller amounts. You can make savings even easier by visiting your human resource department and signing up to automate a portion of your paycheck each time. As a general rule, money that is out of sight stays out of mind and you stand a better chance of leaving your savings accounts alone.
In July, owners of federal student loans may start feeling some relief on the loan debts they are having difficulty paying. Student loans are now eligible for repayment based on your income and the number of people in your family. While it may provide some relief now to debtors who are struggling to pay their bills, the downside is that loan payments will be extended into the future and you, as the borrower, will have to pay more money in interest fees.
The program for student loans is called the Income Based Repayment Plan, or the IBR plan. Under the terms of the plan, your required monthly payment will be capped at an amount deemed affordable based on the size of your family and the amount of your monthly income. Any Stafford loan, Grad PLUS or consolidation loan made under the Direct Loan or FFEL program is eligible for inclusion, except any loan that is in default. Parent Plus loans or consolidation loans that repaid a Parent Plus loan are also not eligible.
This is a plus for those who are undergoing a financial hardship and can’t meet their monthly financial obligation but have run out of options. Getting behind on or defaulting on a student loan can spell big trouble for your credit score that will have long-lasting effects on your credit history. If you are aware of upcoming problems you will face paying your student loan notes, you can use this calculator that will allow you to project how much you can lower your student loan payments under the income-based repayment plan.
The other plus to this plan is that after you have paid for 25 years, whatever balance remains will be forgiven. For those who are employed as a public servant, student loan balances can be forgiven after only 10 years. Public servants include people who work for the government, in schools, or are employed by a non-profit organization. There are also programs you can research that allows civil servants to have their loan forgive upfront if they meet eligibility requirements.
Other options that may be considered for those struggling with student loan debts include refinancing the original Federal student loan if you currently have a variable rate on your loan. Since interest rates are low now, it may be a good time to look into the refinance option for variable rate loans initiated before July 1, 2006.
If you have been fearing the worst at your job or maybe even lost your job in this troubled economy, you might want 
to make an investment in your future now. The job market all over isn’t so great and chances of finding a new job after losing your old one may be getting slimmer each day. If you have been looking and still remain unemployed, you might need to think about changing tactics.
Investing in your future now may give you a leg up on the competition in the job market, especially a tough job market. Research shows the recent enrollment in graduate programs are on the rise as more people are understanding the need to learn more to earn more. While it may be difficult to finance your further education goals while you are not working, the investment you make in yourself will reward you in the end. There are options for you to return to school, even in a bad economy, you just have to be proactive about finding out about all the choices you have.
Visit the Prospective School Counselor
If you have an idea of what school you would like to attend, visit the school and find out what options you have for financing your education. The financial aid or enrollment department should be able to answer your questions and may even be able to provide you information about local financing opportunities you may not have known about otherwise.
Explore Your Options
There are many ways to pay for school. Here are a few of the choices you might have to finance your education goals:
Subsidized/Private Student Loans – since you are unemployed, you may qualify for many more student loans programs than if you were working full time. Many older adults won’t qualify for federal loans but returning students may be eligible for a $2500 tax credit based on expenses related to their pursuit of higher education.
Find a Part time Job – since many graduate school programs take a year or more, you might need to take a part time job to help pay the bills while you finish school.
Back-to-School Scholarships/Grants – there may be some programs in your area for people who are returning back to school after a long hiatus. Check with your local resources and on the internet for scholarships and grants for people in your positions.
Learn Online – there are many programs online that are less-expensive and more convenient for those with busy lives and families.
Go Part Time – to make your costs a bit easier, check with the schools of your choice to find out about the options for going only part time, taking a few classes at a time to make it more affordable, even if it takes longer to get through school.
Consider going back to school to advance your current skills or to even change your total career direction. Despite the bad economy, there are still many industry that are thriving during the economic struggles of the nation. Discover the different programs that will help prepare you for a total career makeover and don’t be afraid to pursue the career path you always wanted.
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