Going to College for Free
With two cousins heading back to college, several friends planning their graduate degrees, a few in programs now, and my own intentions of going back to school – the cost of higher education has been at the forefront of my thoughts.
Unfortunately for me, these costs will most likely be an out-of-pocket expense unless I can dupe someone into paying for it. And to be honest, it’s the primary reason for my hesitance in committing to the decision. Fortunately for my cousins, they are covered. One just finished his undergraduate on a full-ride and is headed to Carnegie Mellon for a PhD… also on a full-ride.
Talking about life in general, I commended him on how well he had handled his education. In true personal finance fashion, I noted the significant benefit (beyond the obvious accreditations) would be the lack of debt. Approximating the costs, we arrived at an estimated figure of $500,000.
Yikes.
And it’s not just me either. “Stop the Tuition Madness” as Money wrote about in their current issue. The article highlights different ways for students to cut back on their education bills. Out of the three students featured, only 1 of the strategies made seemed to make sense.
Money Strategy: Go to a Lower-Cost College Abroad
My Interpretation: You went to University of Where?
Of course there’s nothing wrong with other schools, but perception alone will be the limiting factor. The student even notes, “While Victoria may not be a house-hold name in the U.S., Gesten thinks it will be a net plus for employers once she explains where it is and what a good school it is”.
Let’s hope… From my own experience, this was not the case.
During a summer internship after my freshman year, I learned some colleagues were severely over-educated for their positions. Since most held Masters or PhD degree, we spoke about their frustrations with reporting to younger engineers, with engineering degrees, but less experience. All were educated in universities outside of the US, but relegated to lesser roles because their alma maters didn’t carry the same clout as US schools.
Money Strategy: Pay with Future Earnings
My Interpretation: Schools are catching Zuckie-Fever!
Is It Time To Sell Your Gold?
Rising towards $2,000 during trading on Tuesday, investors may have been tempted to sell gold after the drastic 10% correction this morning. Gold is a commodity, but trades like a currency. Minor news events and people’s speculations can thus make it quite volatile.
If you invest in gold as a hedge, these fluctuations shouldn’t sway your convictions about the precious metal. The experts say the fundamentals are still there, and that nothing has changed. Maybe you don’t care about the fundamentals since you don’t believe in fiat currency and are willing to hold a hard asset no matter what.
Many people also believe in gold because of the status it provides. How many people have you seen adorned in gold – watches, necklaces, earrings, and rings. Even after those desires to impress fade, the gold is still worth something and people forget you can get cash for gold. Cash in your pocket is much better than jewelry collecting dust in your drawers.
If you listen to someone who has the gold bug, every time is always the right time to catch the “Midas Touch” and turn your fake assets into real ones. The government is crumbling and on the verge of failure….
As Forbes notes, gold follows a “Buy the Rumor Sell the Fact” pattern. Fear can drive the commodity’s price, but fulfilling loans and obligations requires liquid currency. Paying off liabilities means selling assets like gold.
No matter your reason for holding the previous metal, remember prices are based not on earnings or dividends, but what the person next to you is willing to pay.
Quicken – Losing its Luster?
Having used Quicken for longer than I’ve been married, it’s a shame to see my long-term relationship with the program start to deteriorate.
Before the advent of online platforms like Mint.com (now owned by the makers of Quicken), personal finance management software was limited to a handful of options: Excel, Money, or Quicken. Even after more choices emerged, the capabilities of these new program were mediocre compared to those offered by Quicken.
Since I’d established a history with Quicken and was dubious of entrusting ALL of my financial information to any one online service, I stuck with what I knew.
Aggregation & Automation make money management easy and effective. Using Quicken’s “One-Step Update”, a single click downloads your financial transactions from all your institutions.
Because Quicken did all of the grunt work, more time could be dedicated to: scrutinizing inflows and outflows, creating budgeting plans or savings goals, reviewing investment performance, and so on.
But… it seems once flaws are noticed, more begin to emerge. Continue reading “Quicken – Losing its Luster?” »
Investing Overload: Reflections of a Freak-out
Returning the “Credit where credit is due”. The inspiration for this article came from Oblivious Investor, which in turn, came from ‘nisiprius’.
It’s time for me to take a deep breath and step back from monitoring the market. After last week’s roller coaster, I’m too drained to worry about what will happen this week.
If you’ve ever played Roulette, those precipitous gyrations reminded me of betting on RED or BLACK. A rather simplistic choice with devastating consequences, you either win or loss.
Being a rather conservative investor, I’m of the “Go Long – Go Vanguard” approach through low-cost indexing; however, it’s undeniably hard to resist the mountains of financial products and tactics available.
Chatting with a friend who works in finance, we reviewed the different option strategies for hedging against short term losses. Even as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), he admitted having a limited grasp on the actual execution of these theories. Both of us have resolved to spend the time to learn more about these after our respective obligations (Him: GMAT & marathon, Me: GRE & half-marathon).
From there it was a slippery slope.
Continue reading “Investing Overload: Reflections of a Freak-out” »
