 It's no secret that teaching public school is not the most lucrative career. Payscale.com places the average teacher's salary between $40,000 and $43,000 annually. Beginning in March 2010, elementary, middle and high school teachers are not required to have a master's degree in any state. So, is there a benefit to investing thousands in an advanced degree? Consider the following tips to help make your decision.
1. Research state requirements. Although no state requires a master's degree to begin teaching, many states such as Ohio, Minnesota, New York and Massachusetts require teachers to complete their MA within five years. So if you don't complete your master's now, you may have to do it down the road while holding down a full-time teaching position. However, you could save money by waiting. Check to see if your state offers tuition reimbursement. If you wait, you may be able to get the state to pick up the bill.
2. Decide on your specialty. Some specialized classes, even within the public education system do (Read More....)
 A lot of people are in debt, whether it be mortgage, car, credit card or even student loan debt. Debt is just the way many people live there lives. In reality, there is good debt and there is bad debt. Good debt is something that enriches your life, or even enriches earning power. So sometimes it is a good idea to evaluate your debt situation, and not worry too much about good debt. One of the best good debts to have is student loan debt, this is for a few reasons.
Tax Deduction
You usually can deduct the interest on your student loan debt. This can make your tax burden a little bit lower. This is not true with other forms of debt such as auto loan or credit card debt. When filing your taxes, any way to lower the tax burden is good, which is money in your pocket.
Interest Rates
The interest rates on student loans are incredibly low, in fact, they are now less than inflation. So if you are paying 1-2 percent on your student loan in interest, you are beating inflation. Right now inflation is around 3 (Read More....)
 One of the more idiosyncratic features of modern living is the obtaining of personal credit. Even in this post-recession era, the number of lenders out there keeps growing. And they all have an interest in monitoring your facility for debt repayment. In the UK, they achieve this using the three credit reference agencies: Experian, Equifax and CallCredit. Between them, these firms hold your financial history and are the key to lenders ascertaining your suitability for borrowing.
The system used for establishing your credit rating varies all over the planet. In most of the western world, credit reference agencies use a system established by US firm Fair, Isaac and Company. Their patented system is known all over the world as the FICO system. Companies like creditexpert.co.uk use this system to put together the kind of free credit report now available on the internet. But how does it work? Let’s take a closer look at the variables factored in to the FICO analysis of an (Read More....)
 There is hope for every student that stares at their monthly loan payment and feels hopeless. As a college grad with loans that could have paid for medical school, I often feel overwhelmed and defeated with my student loans. That is until I read about a Harvard grad that had over 90,000 in student loans. Joe Mihalic decided that instead of feeling burdened by his loans he would try and become debt free in 10 months instead of the 15 years. And that he did and in under 7 months.
Buy Joe Mihalic's Book on Amazon $2.99
This Austin, Texas resident decided that his heavy spending on frivolous things needed to change when he saw that his payments weren’t getting him anywhere. Mihalic does make more money than the average person coming out of college but he did take the sacrifices to make a change, here are a few ways he started his pay back:
· Got roommates
· Didn’t go out to (Read More....)
 As a follow-up to a few recent articles examining whether tobacco or lotto tickets are worth the money, I'd be interested in understanding whether a few other things college students typically purchase are worth the money, too. As a college student, you probably know better than most how tough it is to make ends meet. You're likely living on Ramen noodles and scrounging cash whenever you can. Based on my experiences, here are some typical college purchases that you can certainly live without (and save).
Picture Credit Cuyahoga Community College
1. Single Coffee Drinks At Cafes.
When I reviewed my expenses after my first year in college, I can say with a straight face that my most costly single expense was coffee. Your university likely has a somewhat cheaper campus café, but no matter where you get your coffee, if you don't make it yourself, it's going to add up. Starbucks coffee drinks run between 2 and 6 dollars a pop. Even if you get one of (Read More....)
 Thinking and doing are two different things. Sure, it may be easy to come up with a budget plan—you simply divide your monthly income into bills, savings, and everything else that needs to get paid. However, sticking to that budget is the real litmus test.
Budgeting comes at the core of financial planning. Everyone may start with good intentions. But halfway through, a lot of us seem to get derailed and spend more than we should.
To maintain a successful budgeting plan, here are five steps you can rely on:
1. Create long-term and short-term budget plans.
Normally, we create our budget plans every month, since we base that on our monthly salary. We automatically deduct the payment for rent, utility bills, phone bills, etc. While it is a good idea to create short-term plans, it is also good to also have long-term budget plans.
Long-term budget plans include goals that you want to achieve within the year. This could be an overseas travel, investing on a business, or what have you. This budget plan will most likely help you stop spending too much every month, since you have something planned within the (Read More....)
 Thank goodness for student loans. Without them, most of us would not be able to afford a higher education, and we all know how important it is to have a degree in today’s job market. Unfortunately for recent grads, though, having to start paying off student loans six months out of the gate post-graduation can be difficult. If you find yourself having difficulty handling your student loan payments, though, do not despair. There are plenty of options for graduates struggling with those pesky payments. Read on for the top tips for dealing with student loan debt:
1. Avoid default at all costs.
It may feel tempting to simply give up and default on your loans. That will stop you payments altogether, right? Sure. But it will also be disastrous for your credit score and personal history. Even though these records may not seem important directly out of school, the more you start to get out and try to get things done (like buy a car, rent an apartment, apply for a loan, buy a phone, or anything else that requires some financial responsibility) you will realize the importance of having a decent credit (Read More....)
 In the same way that most high school students don't feel that high school at all adequately prepared them for college, most college grads feel that college didn't prepare them for the real world, especially considering how much it cost to go to college in the first place. Part of what makes the college experience so disappointing for many students is that, despite their formal education, they don't graduate with real-world skills or knowledge. It is not unusual for college students to financially flounder after graduating — with no savings and no practical work experience, an alarming number of students work dead-end jobs, just trying to pay rent and survive, and are frozen in this situation for several years.
Having gone through this quagmire myself, it is interesting to look back and research how I could have saved myself some trouble. And though there isn't anything I can do to change my past experience, I can offer a few strategies to new students to try and save them from the same fate.
- Set up a savings account. Growing up poor, my jaw dropped when I saw how much money I'd be getting from (Read More....)
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