Paying For School So You Can Get Paid

The old saying goes, “Education is the key.” Whoever said that is definitely right when you look at the job market today. People really need a great degree in order to get a decent job. There’s a ton of people looking for work right now and they’re having a really tough time. This is because they don’t have the right degree. A bachelor’s is the new high school diploma and a master’s degree is the new bachelor’s. It’s funny how things work out, but it’s really true. This is why millions of people are trying to find the best ways to pay for their college degree.

The public service sector isn’t for everyone, but in some cases, you can make really good money doing this work. You can work in fields like social work, public defense, law enforcement, and other areas. Who knows, maybe it’s your calling. Just realize that when you take out student loans, if you’re working in some sort of public service sector, your debt can be forgiven if you work in the field long enough. Usually it’s about 10 years. This was all due to legislation that was passed last year and now it’s a really good way to get out from under crushing student loan debt.

Another way you can get rid of your debt quick is to live like a college student. If you’re not sure what this means, college students have an amazing way of getting by on little-to-nothing. Unfortunately, this means living on things like noodles and mac and cheese. Also, practically downsizing almost every part of your life. When you do this, you really learn the value of a dollar and how to get by on much less than you think is possible. You can do this by getting a small apartment with low rent and little utility costs, looking into Prepaid Phones, and eating cheaply. Reliving your college days might be the best way to get your bills paid.

This is a less likely option, but if you have a job that pays for your schooling, you might want to look into it. You might not even realize it, but some larger companies have tuition reimbursement programs that will pay for you schooling and get you that degree you’ve been wanting. This is a win-win situation because you’re getting a great education while they’re getting a better qualified employee. Speak with your supervisor and ask them if they have a similar program set up for their employees.

Check out some of these ways to get your degree paid for so you can finally get paid. You don’t wanna live the rest of your life trying to pay for student loans. That’s why you have to use all of these approaches and more to get your degree paid off. No one likes to live with debt, and the best way to stay out of debt is to not take any on. Unfortunately, education isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity but it doesn’t have to crush you financially.

Airports suck on principle, but when you’re relying on your $7.25/hr work-study paycheck, you realize that they represent everything George Orwell warned us about.

Going through this modern form of torture automatically makes you a member of the prestigious Frequent Student Flyer Club. Like any decent club, there are a few rules you need to follow:

1. Never turn down free checked bags.
2. Sign up for frequent-flyer miles programs.
3. Constant vigilance! Check travel websites periodically to get the best deals.
4. Avoid traveling on Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays.
5. Fly at odd times.
6. Schedule flights a few days before or after the last day of finals.

What do pandas and elephants have in common with free checked bags? They’re all sitting in the Endangered Species list with their seatbelts securely fastened. The most common of these dinosaurs are Southwest Airlines, which offer two checked bags, and Jet Blue, which offers one. Even if they’re slightly more expensive than other airlines, you save the difference when you check bags.

For many college students and online university students, Southwest is the promised land of air travel. Not only do they faithfully follow the first two rules, they also offer the most competitive travel rates for domestic flights.

Jet Blue is slightly less awesome than Southwest. Their biggest selling points are the free checked bag and their affiliation with American Airlines.

Some airlines, like American Airlines and Jet Blue, are affiliated and use the same frequent flyer miles programs. If you follow the 3^rd rule of the Frequent Student Flyer Club, the first thing you need to do is sign up for the frequent flyer miles program from the airlines you use the most. Don’t expect instant gratification from these programs. It takes many flights before you accumulate enough miles to use them for anything.

Before booking your Southwest or Jet Blue ticket, shop around travel websites to find the best deals. If you don’t know which website to visit, rule #4 can be a real pain to follow. Fortunately, Kayak.com exists. This website will compare deals from other travel sites, like Orbitz, and the official airline’s page. It also offers the option to check other websites like CheapOair.com and Travelocity. Always look at these options. They might offer sweeter deals than Kayak.com.

As much as we all hate e-mail newsletters, signing up and keeping track of them has its benefits. There’s an element of luck and patience involved in this strategy, but it won’t kill you to read a couple extra emails every week. Travelzoo.com sends weekly emails featuring its top 20 travel destinations and airline deals.

If you’re planning on studying abroad, there are several websites that focus on international flights. They also search for domestic flights, but their strong suit is international travel.

Skyscanner.net offers great rates for some international flights. For example, if you’re studying abroad in Prague and want to take a weekend vacation in Sweden, you can find tickets as low as €8.

StudentUniverse.com and Statravel.com are hit-and-misses. They’re still worth a visit for the great deals you can find once in a blue moon.

If you’re an impulsive person living in the select cities and only have carry-on items, you can take full advantage of Airtranu.com. This AirTran service offers standby flights for students between the ages of 18 and 22 at a flat rate of $49, $69, or $99. If you don’t mind playing travel roulette with Airtranu, try your luck on slow days like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturdays. I recommend you have a backup plan in case this falls through.

Airtranu heavily advocates the 5^th rule of the Frequent Student Flyer Club on their website. What they don’t tell you is that these rules apply for every airline. Going through airport security on Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays is like taking a road trip to Mordor. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Lord of The Rings (shame on you), the geektalk-english translation is: it’s a terrible, endless journey full of endless pain and suffering. For these precise reasons, try booking a flight on slow days, especially Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If it’s possible, try to fly during odd times like early morning or after 5 PM. Peak flight times are from 6 to 11 a.m., so you can usually find better deals outside of this time frame.

The last rule, and perhaps the hardest to follow, is to schedule your flights a few days before or after the last day of finals. Airlines are smart; they know your university’s schedule and they will use it against you. Following this rule can be tricky if you have late finals and/or live on campus. Try to find out your final exam schedule as soon as possible. If you have a place to crash after the dorms close, you can either schedule a flight a few days after the dorms close or you can try your luck at standby flights (AirTran isn’t the only airline with this concept). Most colleges end at around the same time, especially if they’re in the same state. Check their schedules ahead of time to be sure.

This list was compiled by first-hand trial-and-error and some input from fellow members of the Frequent Student Flyer Club. These rules are helpful, but like anything worth learning will also require your own share of trial-and-error fieldwork. Mix and match and see which strategy works best for you. You may even make up your own tricks and save some hard-earned cash.

Most college students don’t have much money. It’s hard to save up cash when you’re constantly busy. Costs add up: a pizza here, a night out there–pretty soon your bank account is nonexistent. With just a few simple tips, you can learn to save money and have extra cash to do as you please.

Don’t buy a telephone.

Cell phones. Everyone has one. Why spend the extra for a land line when you have your cell attached to you anyway? MetroPCS is becoming more and more popular since the company offers cheap plans and no contracts. For just $40 a month, you can have unlimited calling and texting. They are even starting to come out with more popular phones now.

Don’t buy cable.

With Netflix and other online movie watching sites, why bother paying for cable? Netflix is easier, cheaper, and even allows you to watch up to two movies at a time. Split the cost and share it with a friend.

Don’t buy tickets to see a movie.

Redbox (Or Netflix) is easy. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like it when people talk in movie theaters, wait a little and Redbox the movie. It’s the reason most movie rental stores have gone out of business. It’s a dollar a night, and you can return it to any Redbox.

Don’t buy everything wholesale.

Learn to shop at thrift stores or sale/clearance items. There is no reason to buy clothes for full price when you can (most of the time) buy the same item of clothing on sale for much cheaper. If you need a reliable pair of shoes or clothes for work, decide whether to splurge or not. Pick a few essential pieces that you must have and buy those at a department store or online.

Don’t buy anything for your dorm room without consulting your roommate(s).

Split the cost of the items. If your school requires you to purchase something each year, like a microwave/fridge combo, get in touch with your roommate and split the overall cost. There is no need to have more than one of anything.

Don’t avoid the dining hall.

If you paid for it, why not enjoy it? Take Tupperware containers and fill them with fruits, cereal, and other foods you like to eat. Then, stash them in your mini fridge for a snack when the dining hall is closed. On that note, avoid eating out. Try to limit dining out in restaurants and fast food places. It is cheaper to make meals at home, and with today’s portions so large, you’ll lose weight with smaller portions anyway.

A graduate from Boston University’s School of Management, Alex Hodara began his real estate career during his freshman year of college. Alex quickly found a niche renting apartments to students of the university, later founding the Hodara Real Estate Group in his junior year.

At 23, Alex and this agency now focus mainly on investment sales and property management. It is through these sales that Alex has become one of the youngest and most successful real estate brokers in the country. Recently, he was named by Bloomberg Businessweek, as one of the “Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25.”

Alex has also started a web-series, “Making Moves,” which follows him and his team as they deal with the day-to-day of developing their careers, getting through school, and traveling the country, helping other young entrepreneur’s develop their businesses. “Making Moves” is currently being developed for a reality series and is slated to begin production Fall 2011.

Why get into real estate, especially just having started at a prestigious school like Boston University?

I have always been very entrepreneurial. For example, in high school I started a business where I imported poker chips from China and sold them on a self-made website. When I started classes at Boston University’s School of Management I wanted to put the skills I was learning in the classroom to work, so I decided to get my real estate license. I did not have a car so for showings I actually took a cab each time. I spent about $2500 in cab fares that year and pretty much went broke, but I knew if I stuck with it I would ultimately succeed, which I did. Also, there was this cute girl Megan on my dorm’s floor that I wanted to impress, so I thought having my real estate license would be cool. I was right!

How are you able to broker these sales at such a young age?

I have proven a track record for five years, I have a lot of press to back me up, and most importantly I have found a niche that sells itself. The properties that I am finding for my clients are very high yielding due to high rents and low prices, have low to no vacancy, jointly and severely bound leases, and cosigners. Also, I have an established property management company that manages a multimillion dollar portfolio, so investors can feel at ease that we are not just selling them a property and walking away with a commission, we are managing that property for them and will be held to the returns we are representing.

So how has 2011 been? I know the market is still pretty shaky.

I have sold a little over $14 million of real estate so far, which is more than the yearly totals of the majority of the agents who made the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS “30 Under 30” list.

Why did you create the show, “Making Moves” and where is the show going?

I created to show to inspire entrepreneurs to make moves of their own. We hope to get a show on national TV one day. We have been signed by celebrity talent manager Charles Lago, who manages Josh Flagg from Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing”, to develop a reality television show based around our story. We are currently in talks with LA based production companies interested in the project, and I’m looking forward to start production this fall.

GetYourBizSavvy has interviewed the entire “Making Moves” team and has followed their web series since the first season. Check out our video interview with the team here.

For more information about Alex Hodara, please visit www.facebook.com/watchmakingmoves or www.watchmakingmoves.com. For press inquiries, please contact Amber Blanchette of Polimedia Entertainment at ablanchette@polimedia.ent.com.

Motivation: some people just don’t have it.  You can call it chronic procrastination, lack of interest, or laziness.  If you’ve ever said one of the following: “I have to wait until the last minute to do my homework because I work better under pressure,” “I just don’t care” or “If I wait long enough, maybe someone else will do it,” you may be suffering from a lack of motivation.

Depending on the nature of the task, it might not take much at all to give you a little jump-start.  Sometimes going for a run can clear your mind and get you pumped up.  If you’re not into exercising, many reality TV shows can be surprisingly inspiring.  One episode of “The Biggest Loser” can convince you that diets are not so bad and most shows on HGTV can have you making an impulse trip to Lowe’s before the credits roll.

For your bigger jobs, ask yourself why you are avoiding them so industriously.  Sometimes it helps to complete the task with a friend.  This works well for working out or dieting.  Of course, friends can often be the source of avoiding disagreeable work.  For example, you are not going to be able to study when your roommates are having a party in the living room.  Try removing yourself from the distracting environment.  Go study at the library.

Tell yourself that the earlier you start an unpleasant task, the earlier you’ll be done.  You will also be able to take more breaks instead of trying to complete the project in one marathon-last-minute-I-should-have-started-earlier run.  You’ll also save yourself a lot of stress.

Chances are, you probably have plenty of motivation if you’re reading this article.  Either that, or you’ve taken the first step in admitting you have a problem.  Way to go!  Now quit surfing the Internet and go start that homework you’ve been putting off all day.

If you recently scored a major interview, make sure you properly pump yourself up beforehand.  Someone has already seen something promising in your resume, so don’t blow it!  Here are 5 ways to pump yourself up for the big interview:

1. Jam out to “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.  Throw some air punches or karate kicks if you feel like it.
2. Do some jumping jacks and push ups.  Make sure to let your heart rate return to normal before the questions start, though.  Heavy breathing will probably make you look like a creep.
3. Visualize. “See” yourself slam-dunking the difficult inquiries and smoothly navigating through trick questions.  Hey, it works for Olympic bobsledders.
4. Bring your good luck charm. Try to refrain from stroking a rabbit’s foot during the interview, though.  Again, you don’t want to look creepy.
5. Eat your Wheaties.  The breakfast of champions might just make you feel like a champion.

If you’re adequately prepared for the interview, your enthusiasm will surely impress your interrogator.  They won’t be able to turn you down!  Go get ‘em!

It’s simple: don’t buy a new car – you probably can’t afford it.  You probably can’t afford that iPhone either.  Many 20-somethings make a few poor decisions that put their bank accounts in the red for decades.  My parents instilled a bit of frugality in me that has served me well through my mid-twenties. If your parents did not set a good financial example for you, it just might serve you well to take some notes!

Hint #1: If you can’t pay for it, don’t go there.

It is ironic to me that a business major could graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.  Call me crazy, but business majors should understand fundamental monetary concepts.  Over-borrowing is a bad practice, even when the financed product is your education.  It seems like most people consider admittance into a good, private school a license to enroll.  Sorry folks, but just because you got into Columbia doesn’t mean you are entitled to go if you can’t pay for it.  If you think you have experienced buyer’s remorse, just think about all those students who graduated in 2009 with negative money in their pockets and no job offers in sight.  Some students are fortunate enough to have their parents foot their tuition bill.  For the rest of us, cost should be a major factor in our college choice.  I attended a state school, but I got a valuable degree.  I financed the cost of school with scholarships and graduated without the burden of student loans.  Most importantly, I had three job offers before I graduated, even without an expensive “name-brand” on my diploma.  To get your money’s worth out of continued education, pursue a degree in a highly demanded field and earn decent grades.  After all, college is about making more money in your lifetime, not attending the fanciest campus with the best football team.

Hint #2: Use coupons!

It’s easy!  Just clip ‘em and scan ‘em!  Be careful not to fall into the trap of buying a product just because you have a coupon for it.  You aren’t saving money if you weren’t planning on buying it in the first place.  Make sure to search for coupons that apply to products you purchase on a regular basis.  Many major grocery store chains offer electronic coupons that can be loaded onto a loyalty card and the discount is automatically applied at the register.  A quick Google search for coupons will return thousands of results for printable savings.  Coupons might sound like an old school tactic, but why pay $3.50 for shredded cheese when you could pay $2.95 with a coupon?

Hint #3: If you can’t put half down, don’t buy it.

Credit cards add an interesting dynamic to shopping.  They make it possible to “buy” things you can’t actually afford.  To put it bluntly, if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.  But…if you just have to have it, it’s okay to resort to the plastic occasionally.  A basic rule that I follow is that if I could pay at least half of the price right now, it’s okay to finance it.  This applies to cars, coffee, movies, electronics, clothes, etc.  The trick here is not to spend that half you do have and also to save up the other half before the bill comes.  Credit card interest is a waste of your money so don’t carry a balance unless it is absolutely necessary (iPhones are not absolutely necessary.  Sorry.)  Additionally, it helps to only have one credit card, preferably with no annual fee.  Annual fees are also a waste of your money.

Hint #4: Don’t spend every penny you earn.

Save money.  The end.

Develop some good habits in your twenties and set yourself up for a wallet-friendly future.  You, too, could be a debt-free 20-something stud.

Nearly every high school graduate in this country has it drilled into his head: You have to go to college to lead a succesful life. Not to discredit higher education, of course, but several entrepreneurs can attest to the fact that a good idea and a savvy business plan can take you farther than a college diploma. Here are just a few businessmen—ranked in order of fame—who took their education into their own hands rather than leaving it to professors. Continue Reading

This business tale is written by Duke University undergraduate student, Kenny Gould. Business Tales From College is a weekly series. Read stories from current and former college students about their experience starting a business during college.

There are rare occasions when I wake up and have no idea where I am. On my birthday last year, for instance, I ended up in Montreal. Montreal is about 300 miles from where I thought I went to bed.

Most times, however, the wake up is less literal and more figurative wake up. We’ve all had that feeling: one minute we’re spacing out, and the next minute we come to the startling realization that we really don’t know what’s going on. I call this the wake up phenomenon. Yes, we’ve all experienced the wake up phenomenon. While we have all experienced it, few realize what it actually means in regards to the business world.

The figurative wake up phenomenon happened to me the other day when I was in a chemistry lab at Duke University. I’m not the biggest science guy. As an English major who plans on going to business school, I don’t often go to the chemistry lab. By “don’t often go,” I mean that I had never been. My partner, Dave, is the sciencey one. However, I didn’t think it would hurt to learn more about the product I was working with. Thus, I agreed to help out with some chemical tests. At some point during the process, I stopped paying attention to the experiment we were running and started focusing on one of the chemists across the room. He was talking to one of his colleagues. I don’t know what I noticed about him first: the ponytail, the handlebar mustache, or the elemental symbols tattooed on each of his arms. I listened carefully.

“Right after the first time I dropped out of graduate school, I started playing World of Warcraft,” he said. “I spent a lot of my time wandering through different lands, trying to gather different herbs to make little potions. After a few months, it hit me: chemistry is like World of Warcraft, but in real life. Instead of working tirelessly to get the next big sword, you work tirelessly to make the next big scientific discovery!”

The man’s comment, combined with the beakers, test tubes, and endless rows of incredibly toxic chemicals that lined the walls of the lab, suddenly woke me up. I realized that while Dave was perfectly at home, I was completely out of my element (pun intended) in that chemistry lab. All I remembered from biology was reproduction, all I remembered from physics was that gravity existed sometimes, and all I remembered from chemistry was that pure potassium, when immersed in water, would catch fire. It was quite apparent that the chemistry department was not where my worth to the company was added.

Later that day, I sat down to write a thank-you letter to the chemistry professor who had let us use his lab. The words flowed out of my pen and arranged themselves into neat, grammatically correct sentences. While writing, I did not question my position. Not once did I space out, and not once did I experience the wake up phenomenon. While the chemistry lab was not where I belonged, behind a pen or a keyboard certainly was. By specializing, Dave and I remain productive.

After thinking for a little while, I wrote a little note on the pad of paper beside my computer. “It is important to be important,” it said. Under that, I wrote, “which witch is which?” because I thought it sounded cool.

So what makes you important? If you are having too many wake up moments, it may be time to ask yourself this question. Too often in entrepreneurship, we desire to be the jack-of-all-trades. It was our idea, so why shouldn’t we be the only one to develop it? In order to maximize efficiency, however, specialization is the way to go. The most productive businesses are the ones that minimize the wake up. If you find yourself waking up every time you do a certain task, bring on someone else who is good in that field to do it.

Trust me, it will be a lot easier than trying to understand a French-Canadian accent at 7:30 in the morning.

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Kenny Gould is a student at Duke University from Charlotte, North Carolina. When he is not writing, Kenny enjoys fulfilling his role as the COO of CarBone, a company that recycles organic material for use in oxygen batteries and modern electronics.

This business tale is written by University of Michigan alumni, Ryan Doyle. Business Tales From College is a weekly series. Read stories from current and former college students about their experience starting a business during college.

College. The proclaimed, “best time of your life!” A time where education for many takes a back seat to late nights and tough mornings. A place where “kegs and eggs” is only as foreign as Spanish 101. An opportunity to make the greatest friends that you’ll never forget and forget the greatest memories you’ve ever have. Would I shock you if I said that all of these things foster the optimal time in your life to start a business?

I started my own nonprofit organization called Live to Give Foundation in the midst of the description above and our beginnings were as grass roots as they get. The first company document was written from my college apartment in plain site of the party next door. The first line of my first press release written by Ben Bator, good friend and Founder of the infamous Texts From Last Night, read, “College students are presumed to be unruly binge drinkers that skip class in favor of an X-Box, not budding philanthropists.” The first donation was collected and celebrated in the frozen food section at the local Meijers. The first fundraiser included 200 Michigan State students who most likely, didn’t know who we were or what we were doing.

While such a description doesn’t scream “successful start-up”, it was! All of a sudden, the social media boom that began with Facebook my freshman year took hold of the logo that my sister drew on paper and made it visible to my friends all across the country. I will humbly say that most of my friends had no clue what it meant, but the brand was being built non-the-less.

I stuck with the idea of running a globally recognized nonprofit that connected people in a personal way and began slowly expanding. This began with my business partner, Kevin Smith of MSU, which grew to a team of 15 young, college students and business professionals that share a vision of fun and fundraising. With unmatched passion and unwavering persistence, we have raised $40,000 for 10 families in need and one nonprofit, gained tax exemption status by the IRS, got a father of three an interview for a heart transplant, kept a family of four from being homeless, rallied support from the likes of the Detroit Pistons and Rich Rodriguez of the University of Michigan football team and have gained sole financial support from (our primary sponsor) CRT Medical Systems who allow us to donate 100% of every dollar.

Live to Give Foundation’s past is humbling, it’s present is thrilling and it’s future is bright. But, the best part is that all of this begun with one idea, by one college student who dared to take a chance.

Check out more from Live to Give Foundation.

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