College isn’t necessary…?
Scary…thanks to The Best Article Every day.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Tips on how to save money
Surviving College Life has created a list of 50 Ways to Save Money in College. The list is broken down into eight categories that basically covers everything. Here are what I think are the top five tips (with my comments):
19. Use student discounts when you travel. Check with the bus, train, or airline you are using, or use a student travel site like StudentUniverse.com. Don’t limit this to just travel. Most places in a college town have discounts for students. Use them!
22. Reduce your electricity bills: turn off your computer when you’re not using it, turn off lights when you leave the room, unplug appliances you aren’t using. Electricity is my second-highest bill, which I thought was due to my air conditioning. After doing some experimentation, I realized it’s my huge entertainment stations – TV/Playstation and my computer desk. When I turned these things off for a week, my bill was CUT IN HALF.
35. Understand what your credit score is, and keep it healthy! It will help you save money later when you’re looking for low interest rates on car or home loans. Credit is very important for later in life and if you start building it (smartly) now, you will be ahead of your classmates by a long shot. Need help with this? Try Get Rich Slowly.
39. Don’t eat out. It adds up quickly, and if you’re not getting fast food, you have to add a tip. Eating out is one of my vices and I’m working on that. Restaurants are expensive and can be just as unhealthy as McDonald’s. You’re much better off (budget-wise and health-wise) if you cook healthy(-ish) meals on your own.
48. Sign up for freebies with your favorite restaurants. By signing up with Hollywood Video’s newsletter, they send you free movie rental coupons on a regular basis. I use these to supplement my Netflix addiction.
Visit Surviving College Life to read the full article, 50 Ways to Save Money in College.
When in debt, people often think of weird debt help solutions. Usually they resort to loans, and in some cases, mortgages. This issue is frequently faced by individuals who do not use their credit card well and have never believed in investment of any sort.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Contest: Submit tips, tricks and advice!
I’ve been wanting to hold a contest for my readers for awhile, but couldn’t think of a good way to go about it, but my mind has been made up for me. On behalf of H&R Block, I received two copies of H&R Block’s TaxCut Premium software for a giveaway, and so the contest begins. That College Kid is a student productivity website and so it’s only natural to have the contest center around that instead of creating backlinks or other such nonsense.
How to enter
Submit tips, tricks or advice via the comments. Subject should be directed towards students, productivity, school, etc., basically anything that would help students out.
Guidelines
1. You can submit as many as you like.
2. Enter correct detail information (especially email address) as that is how I will be contacting you.
3. I will choose ten of the best submissions and hold a poll to find the winners.
4. Submissions must be in by February 15.
Prizes
1st place
There will be one first place winner who will receive a free copy of H&R Block’s TaxCut Premium software and $20 via paypal. The winner will also receive a mystery package designed just for students.
2nd place
The second place winner will receive a free copy of H&R Block’s TaxCut Premium software and a link.
3rd place
The third place winner will receive a link.
Contest has ended!
There weren’t as many submissions as I would have liked, and because of that, I’m not going to hold a poll. I’ve chosen the winners. If you’re one of the top three, you should have received an email. I want to thank everyone who entered. 
1. Chuck – If you are procrastinator, always pull your all nighter at least a day before the test. It sounds strange, but by doing this, you will be much better rested the day of the test and if you pull one the day before, none of the anxiety can build up, causing you a restless night. Also, since you just pulled an all-nighter, physically you will need sleep and not be tempted to stay up all night.
2. ES – Ever e-mailed your professor? Well, if you have, you’d realize that writing an e-mail to a prof is probably more difficult than a term paper. Why? Because your guard is down. You know you have to be formal in a term paper but when it comes to writing an e-mail, we often take the same attitude when writing to our friends. Big mistake! When you speak to your professor, at least he or she can tell your sincerity through your body language but when you send it through such a faceless medium, all he or she can gauge you by are the words you write and more importantly, how you write them. So always maintain formality in such e-mails, be courteous and use proper sentences and grammar. That e-mail could just be your ticket to an A (or an F).
3. Campus Grotto – Before selecting your major, consider taking a few related classes or even doing an early internship to make sure it’s actually something you want to do.
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H&R Block offers free tax advice
H&R Block is holding “Ask a Tax Advisor” sessions in honor of National Tax Advice Day 2008. Through January 31, you can have a free session, by email or phone, with an H&R Block tax professional. You’ll be working with someone with more than 8 years of experience and 250 hours of training. This is a great deal and you can get any tax questions answered.
Their website also has helpful calculators and tips.
Click here to get free tax advice with H&R Block. And remember, with H&R Block, you’ve got people.
Before investing in any property, appropriate home work is essential on real estate investing. Not everyone is apt for this. This is why people should learn with reading and interpreting free insurance quotes and work about their home insurance before getting stuck into complicated mortgages matters. Generating mortgage leads should not be their priority.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Get ready for tax season
The new year brings tax season and not all students have to file a return, but some do. If you’re not sure whether you’re included in those who do, you can visit the IRS site to find out. Tax season brings unhappy thoughts into most minds, but when you’re a student, it can be a good thing. Most students aren’t required to pay taxes so anything that was withheld will be refunded to you. Unless you claim exempt on your W2 form at work, taxes are withheld from your paycheck. Some people even fill it out so the IRS takes out more than they should so they can get a bigger refund (this is what I do – I treat it as a savings account because I find it’s hard for me to do it on my own).
Filing isn’t tricky either. Services like TurboTax make things so much easier. If you’ve paid interest on any student loans, you can claim up to $2,500 as a deduction. While this doesn’t help students who don’t have to pay any taxes (like myself), it is helpful for those who do and for those who are out of college.
Preparing your return
- TurboTax, which is made by powerful software company, Intuit, is the leading tax preparation software. The basic edition is $20, but there’s also a free online edition for 1040EZ filers (most common, unless you’re utilizing deductions, you’ll most likely fall under this category).
- IRS eFile – The IRS allows you to prepare and file your tax return electronically.
- H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt, etc. – These tax preparation companies are another alternative to filing for yourself, but if you’re a student, your return isn’t going to be complicated and these places aren’t cheap. Not a good idea for most people.
Filing
- Mail – you mail it off, it’s free, but it can take up to six weeks for your refund
- TurboTax efile with direct deposit – $14.95, can get your refund in 9 days
- IRS FreeFile – if you qualify for FreeFile (made $54,000 or less in 2007), you can file your return electronically with the IRS for free. You can set up direct deposit and get your return in 10 days.
Websites to help you out
One should double check printing of his credit card application before finally submitting it because it may lead to inaccurate credit report. This in turn will unintentionally influence the mortgage leads. Not only will this disrupt your debt management plan, but have a negative impact on your online banking as well.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Are you a productive reader?
Reading is an important and often endless task in college, yet most students detest it. Why? Because they’re not productive. If reading a twenty page chapter takes you forty-five minutes, then no wonder you don’t want to do it. For most classes, there’s no way around reading, so why not make sure you’re getting the most out of it?
1. Don’t tackle too much at once.
If you’re assigned a five chapter chunk for homework, work on one chapter at a time. This doesn’t make the challenge seem endless. Also, don’t procrastinate, I know it’s hard, but if you start early and have time for breaks (a few minutes to an hour to a day), then it’s much easier.
2. Read once for main points
Skim through the reading, get all the main points, headers, bold words, everything that sticks out.
3. Take good notes.
Write down the big picture, either in an outline, a mind map, anything.
4. Read once more for details.
Once you have your notes on the important ideas, go back through and see if there’s any details you missed. Think dates, names and places, stuff that your professor might ask, but isn’t necessarily what you’d call “important” in the grand scheme of things. This is more for history, political science, and psychology classes. When you’re getting into physics or the like, this isn’t as important.
5. Study your notes.
Now that you’ve got your great notes, don’t look at the book again. If you’ve gotten the important info out of if, you don’t need it anymore. Knowing that you only have to go through your book once or twice helps.
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That College Kid has been nominated for Best Education Blog!
I want to thank the folks at Performancing for nominating me for Best Education Blog in this year’s Performancing Awards 2007 Reader’s Choice Poll.
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