11 Essential Money Tips For New College Grads-- from Forbes

Kerry Hannon, Contributor 

When my nephew Michael walked across the graduation stage at Wake Forest University last week to pick up his bachelor of science diploma, I wasn’t worried about his financial future.

Ever since he was a teenager he has always saved and invested the money earned from a potluck of summer jobs. (I put that down to good parenting skills and the financial lessons modeled by my sister and her husband.)

But not every recent college graduate is as knowledgeable about personal finances.
So, inspired by Mike’s Wake Forest ceremony, I couldn’t resist jotting down 11 pieces of financial wisdom that I would’ve imparted if I’d been asked to be the commencement speaker.

11 Personal Finance Tips for College Grads

Here goes:

1. Pick up a book or two on money basics. A couple that I like, written specifically for young adults, are Generation Earn: The Young Professional’s Guide to Spending, Investing and Giving Back, by U.S. News & World Report senior editor Kimberly Palmer and the bestselling Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your 20s and 30s by Beth Kobliner, a noted personal finance commentator and former colleague of mine at Money magazine.

2. Pencil out a budget. After working for a few months and getting used to the amount of take-home pay (after taxes) you’re earning, figure out how much money you can afford to spend each month.

Mapping out your budget is a great way to help you quickly uncover whether you’re on the rocky road to spending more than you make — as I was for a while after college.
I’m not ashamed to tell you that it was scary and stomach-turning to get phone calls from credit card companies. To set things straight, I borrowed money from my older brother to erase my credit-card debt (I repaid him over time, without interest) and began using my cards only when I knew I could pay them in full each month.

After that experience, I vowed never to let anything like it happen again.

To begin budgeting, first add up the essentials, like your rent, utilities, groceries, transportation, student loans and a car loan. That’ll let you know how much is left over for other spending and saving.

Try not to eat out at restaurants too much, take taxis or spend frivolously on clothes. You’ll probably need to jump-start your wardrobe for work, but there are plenty of ways to do so frugally. Don’t forget to check out secondhand stores for lightly used clothing buys — I found a terrific black Armani suit in one for a song not that long ago. (Some smart money habits stay with you.)

Bottom line: Always spend less than you make. Websites like Mint.com and Youneedabudget.com can help you create a workable budget.

Read the full article online.

5 Financial Habits That Will Change Your Life

By Credit.com

With 2014 underway, New Year’s resolutions are a dime a dozen.

Study after study concludes that annual resolutions are rarely kept. In the words of Mary Poppins, resolutions are like a pie crust promise — easily made, easily broken.

Resolutions aim too high. While getting out of debt, spending less, and saving more are admirable goals, they do little to change our day-to-day actions.

Instead of lofty resolutions, we need to change our core habits.

Here are five habits to develop in 2014 to significantly improve your finances.

Track One Expense

A lot of people hate to budget. Tracking every dime spent is tedious and often unhelpful.
Just because one knows where they spent their money doesn’t mean their budget actually influences their spending decisions

Instead, develop the habit of tracking just one spending category. Pick an expense that you believe may be a problem area for your budget, and keep track of spending in just that one category.

Once you get spending in that category under control, start tracking the next expense that’s causing you to blow through your budget.

Audit Your Monthly Bills

We’re taught to check the batteries in our smoke detectors twice a year when the time changes.

Likewise, make it a habit to examine your monthly bills. You may find that you can get rid of services you don’t really need (e.g., 500 channels of cable you never watch) or at least reduce the cost.

I call this the One-N-Done method of saving because you make just one change that saves money month after month.

Automate Saving

One of the hardest habits to develop is saving and investing money.
Fortunately, we can easily automate this process, which makes developing the habit of saving much easier.

You can automate the building of an emergency fund by setting up monthly transfers from a checking account to a savings account that pays a decent interest rate.

Even better, sign up for your company’s 401k or an IRA and have money set aside each month automatically.

Learn Daily

Build learning into your daily routine. That may mean spending 15 minutes every day reading a book about finance or your career or a side business.
It could mean following blogs relevant to finances or your chosen career.

Successful finances and building wealth are about more than spending less than you earn and saving for a rainy day.

You need to learn how money works, and have a good grasp of the fundamentals if you want to turn your money into long-term wealth.

Track Your Progress

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. The measuring stick for finances is a personal balance sheet, which lists what an individual owns and owes.

Commit to updating your balance sheet every month. It takes just a few minutes, and this habit will cause you to refocus every month on your financial progress.

To make it even easier, there are free online tools you can use to track your investments and debts automatically.

In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” The same is true for financial freedom.

“5 Financial Habits That Will Change Your Life” was provided by Credit.com.  

Read the full article online.

How to Invest $100, $1,000, or $10,000-- from Mint.com

To start your day off with a happy hypothetical, let’s say you’ve been following our advice on how to build a buffer account.

It’s going so well that now you’ve got a little money you’d like to invest.
“Great—I’m going to get started today!” you think.

Then you Google “How do I get started investing?” and learn that you can choose from thousands and thousands of mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, bonds, brokerages, and asset classes.

“Hmm, I’ll get started investing tomorrow. Today: Candy Crush.”

I know how you feel. Last month I was in Japan, and my earbuds broke. So I went to a big electronics store, figuring they’d have a few to choose from.

Did they ever.

I had to contend with ten aisles that looked like this:

I spent over an hour trying out earbuds before buying a new pair of the same ones that broke.

I can’t help you choose headphones, but whether you have $100, $1000, or $10,000 to invest, I can help you get started.
In investing, as in headphones, “good enough” is better than driving yourself crazy figuring out the perfect solution.

I have $100 to invest

Buy one share of a stock market Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) and a good introductory book on investing such as The Elements of Investing, by Malkiel and Ellis.

Which ETF should you buy and where?

Let me make it easy. Open an account with TD Ameritrade. Opt into the commission-free ETF program. Buy one share of the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) for about $59.

Congratulations! You now own (a piece of) 5351 different stocks from about 50 countries.
Now, read the investing book and keep saving money.

Why TD Ameritrade? They make it easy to get started with a low balance without zinging you with fees.

Another option: Betterment.com has a extremely simple sign-up process and will let you invest the whole $100.

They do charge higher fees than TD and require you to invest an additional $100/month minimum until you hit $10,000.

Read the full article online. 

Tips for Making the Most of Your First Entry-Level Job-- from Monster

Karen Knight, Monster Contributing Writer

Your entry-level resume has landed you your first entry-level job! Now what? Read some MonsterCollege tips and tricks for succeeding in your entry-level job and get professional work advice.

As you step into your first post-grad work experience, there are a lot of things you need to know that your textbooks didn’t teach you over the past four years. Here is what you should be gleaning from your first adventure in the world of work. 

Your First Job Is Not Your Destiny

Your first job in no way predicts where you will ultimately end up. Talk to any mid-career worker, and you will be shocked where his career began. Your main task on your first job is to test your wings, learning how organizations work, how business gets done, and what makes people and organizations successful. Remember: Career (not job) changes are in your future as you learn, grow and change.

Watch Your Attitude

One of the biggest complaints about new college grads is that they often expect too much too soon and come across as thinking they know more than seasoned employees. Know that you will need to earn your stripes, as well as the trust of colleagues and supervisors, before being given more responsibility. Especially watch your attitude with support staff so as not to come across as arrogant or condescending.

Learn About the Various Kinds of Power and Influence

Observe how the staff members interact with each other and how things get done. Who really calls the shots, compared with what the organizational chart says? Who seems to have more power than might be indicated by his job title? Who is looked up to, admired and why? How are decisions made: top down, bottom up or a combination of the two?

Figure Out the Organizational Culture

Pay attention to the behaviors and results valued in your organization. Also, find out what the company stands for. Ask what the organization’s mission statement is and how it is different from the competition. Do you get a feeling of teamwork? What are the written and unwritten rules? What kinds of people seem successful, and why?

Know Yourself

Your first job is a chance for you to learn more about yourself, what you’re good at, what you’re not and what work you prefer and enjoy. Pay attention to others’ body language as they come in contact with you; this will help you understand how others respond to you. Observe the kinds of people who energize you and, alternatively, the types who drain you. Pay attention to the types of management styles that bring out the best in you.

Build Skills

Understand the new work paradigm is that you, not the organization, are in charge of your career. Gone are the days when the organization takes responsibility for moving you along from first job to retirement. Your task is to make a contribution to the company and develop skills you can take with you when it’s time to leave. 

What are some good ways to build skills? Volunteer for interesting projects, and keep your eyes open for any professional-development opportunities both within and outside the organization. Keep a skills portfolio folder, and as you learn, develop or demonstrate a skill, write it down and stick it in that file.

Ask for Regular Feedback, and Keep a Compliments File

Even if it’s not part of the protocol, ask for a three-month and/or a six-month evaluation. Stay on top of how well you are meeting expectations, and nip any problem areas in the bud. Always ask how you can improve your performance. 

Put any compliments you receive, written or verbal, in a file, including any good work evaluations. You can use these comments for impact in both future cover letters and job interviews.

Read Internal Job Postings

Internal job postings can be used as a way of understanding the breadth of work done in the organization and other positions that might interest you down the road, either there or somewhere else. Pay particular attention to understanding the job requirements. 

Read more online...