When I started college, I got a part-time, on-campus job working in the university cafeteria. I was paid minimum wage (which at the time was somewhere in the neighborhood of $5.75 an hour). It wasn’t a job that offered unimaginable riches, but it did help me buy books, food, and have a little fun (I was there on scholarship, and my parents paid for my housing).
After two years, I decided to be a Resident Adviser in the dorms. That meant a free room, so my parents paid for my meal plan. I had a small stipend that covered other expenses, …read more

One of the ways that you can save money for your kids’ college education is by opening a 529 plan. And right now, you can get a free $50 for doing so when you open a plan with CollegeAdvantage, Ohio’s 529 plan. I learned about this great deal over at Lazy Man and Money, and I am excited — and likely to open one for my son. Especially since I will get $50 for free. Here is what Lazy Man says about the offer, which provides you an initial $25 and then adds another $25 when you fulfill certain requirements:
If …read more

Despite the fact that it is the second-wealthiest school in the United States and one of the most prestigious universities in the entire world, Yale University has not been spared by the recession. In order to help soften the impact of a shrinking endowment, the university has planned to cut back annual spending by $150 million until 2014.
In all, staff and non-salary spending will be cut back by 12.5 percent, according to President Richard Levin and Provost Peter Salovey in a recently released statement. Yale’s endowment shrunk 30 percent to around $16 billion in June, $1 billion less than the …read more

Frugality isn’t always about getting the cheapest thing.

You can find writing classes all around the world. Most colleges offer them for non-traditional students, and I know many writers who have taken advantage of these training sessions. You can get a lot from taking a credit or non-credit college class, especially if you have a professional who is an expert in his or her field.
Problem is, these classes can be very expensive. I looked into taking some classes at a local community college, and they cost a few hundred dollars per credit. And that’s on the low end. The classes I’d really like to take, from a private …read more

Whereas at one point they seemed like an impractical luxury that would never catch on, e-readers, such as the popular Amazon Kindle unveiled in 2007, may soon be as become a major player in the electronics industry. As more and more competitors enter the market to try to unseat the Kindle as the most popular e-reader, consumers will see prices fall and availability skyrocket.
 
Analysts do not expect e-readers to approach the popularity of MP3 players, which quickly achieved 50 million sales within five years of their introduction. However, analysts are expecting the number of e-readers to rapidly increase, ending up …read more

After a rigorous volley of cost-cutting measures, newspaper giant The Washington Post Co. managed to avoid losses in its first quarter and post a profit in its second quarter. According to a report released today, the Washington Post experienced a net income of $11.4 million after taking in $1.13 billion in revenue its second quarter.
Just last year, the Washington Post had a loss of $2.7 million after taking in $1.11 billion, so this year marks a 2 percent overall increase in revenue. While the Post Co. is probably most closely associated with its newspaper division, its Kaplan education unit actually …read more

This summer marks three years for me as a full-time freelance writer online. Before that, I freelanced on a part-time basis for a few web content companies. Three years might not seem like long, but in the world of online writing, that actually means I have a fair bit of experience.
Now, I’m not saying that there aren’t writers out there who have more experience than I do. There are tons of freelancers, many with decades of experiences. The fact of the matter, however, is that Internet writing is an extremely new field. Freelancers that have decades of experience didn’t start …read more

Helping you college student stay on track.

You don’t have to have a college degree to be a freelance writer. You don’t even have to have a high school education, really, as long as you know your craft well. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t constantly work on improving yourself, and one of the best ways to do that is to take a class.
Can You Justify the Cost?
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Right now, it seems like everyone is short on cash. The good news is that you can apply for student loans pretty easily, even if your credit isn’t great, and the cost of classes may be a tax write-off. Your …read more