Do We Really Need an Entire Awareness Month?

As you may already know - especially if you've dropped in here in the past week or so - November is Canadian Financial Literacy Awareness Month. A chance for all of us Personal Finance type people to spread our vast knowledge about money to the masses gathered around their computer screens, or tablets, or whatever other device. But do we really need an entire month dedicated to enlightening each other about Financial Literacy? In my humble opinion - Hell Yes!! In fact, I don't think a month is long enough. We need Financial Literacy Awareness Year - every year - for as long as we live our adult lives!
                    
As I sit here writing this today - it is my birthday. Not just any birthday. One of those birthdays that ends in a 'O'! One of those birthdays which makes you sit down, or lay down in my case last night, and reflect on your life so far, the mistakes you've made, the successes you've had and where you think things are heading from this point forward. In my time of reflection I realized that many of the things I thought of in those areas in some way or another revolved around money. Maybe it was my lack of financial literacy when I thought about some failures and mistakes I had made. Maybe it was the extra money I came into when I thought about the progression of my career and where things are heading in that area of my life. Whichever reflection came to mind - there was a monetary aspect to almost each and every one. Even thinking about my kids had me reflecting on wishing I could have taken them more places but being unable to afford that luxury.
That is why it is so important to spend your entire adult life being Financially Literate. Staying connected to your money is something I've been talking about here for awhile. Learning how to handle your money - where to invest it - the best ways to save it - the tools you can use to get the most out of the money you have - these are all things we need to stay aware of all the time. There are thousands of websites all dedicated to personal finance. Some good, some not so good, and some great. Take this opportunity to find a few that speak to you and connect with what you are dealing with right now in regards to money. The Wisebread website listed in my favourites is a great place to start. They rank hundreds of PF websites and put them into categories so you can find one that has the information you need. Use that as a starting point for your own financial literacy.
A month is not enough - make this Financial Literacy Awareness Life! Cheers!

Another Great Site - For Students

Continuing with the theme for Financial Literacy Awareness Month - I wanted to introduce the younger readers (and by 'younger' I mean those in their early 20's) to a great personal finance website. The site is called Studenomics.com. The sub-title of the blog describes what readers can do if they read it - 'Kill Debt. Have More Money Now. Enjoy Life.' It is written by a young man by the name of Martin whom I had the pleasure of meeting recently at the Canadian Personal Finance Conference in Toronto. Martin is a very funny guy (both in person and in his writing) - and he's also very wise beyond his years when it comes to thoughts on personal finance. The combination of humour and wisdom comes through in his blog in some great posts which will have you laughing one second and taking notes the next.
Studenomics was recently selected the best PF blog for young people at the Plutus Awards handed out at FinCon12 in Denver. Martin does a great job of supplying his readers with useful tools while making it fun to read at the same time. Go ahead and click on over to take a look! Cheers!

Studenomics.com

An Online Financial Literacy Community

I'd like to begin Financial Literacy Awareness Month by introducing you to a very useful resource available online. There are numerous places on the internet where you can get your questions answered about personal finance. One that I have recently found, which runs the gamut from saving and budgeting to investing, is the TD Helps forum. It's hosted by the TD Bank - but that's where the branding ends. None of the information is given with a sales pitch trying to get you to buy TD products or services. It is strictly a forum for Canadians to ask their money questions and get straight up answers from people who know what they are talking about. Straight up - I'm not getting paid to endorse this site - I just think it can be added to all your other tools when it comes to being smart about your money.
Here's a little blurb from the company regarding TD Helps...
A first among major banks, TD Bank Group has launched a community where people can ask the questions that are keeping them up at night and receive a tailored answer within hours, from an expert and sometimes from someone in the community who’s been there. No strings attached – just personal, expert advice available to anyone with a question. The TD Helps community was originally launched in the spring as an online home financing advice forum. Canadians were so receptive to the “virtual face-to-face” interaction that it has expanded to include a broader range of financial advice, including investing and planning for retirement, saving and managing your money, and borrowing and managing credit. You won’t find a sales push anywhere on the site, the goal is simply to build a community that will help Canadians make better financial decisions. In addition to Canadians asking specific questions to experts who are on-call to answer questions, high-traffic to the site shows Canadians are visiting the forum and using it as a resource, asking for info and reading answers to questions others have submitted. To date, thousands of personal finance questions have been answered on TD Helps.
Give it a look. See if any questions you might be thinking about have been answered. Some of the questions people have asked are specific to TD - but there are a lot of great answers to general financial questions broken down by category. I like the site as a reference tool - plain and simple.
Happy November (WOW time flies!) and Happy Financial Literacy Awareness Month! Cheers!

November is Financial Literacy Awareness Month!

As we regroup here at Money Smart Students, what better way to get back into it than to focus on Canadian Financial Literacy Awareness Month throughout November. For the next four weeks I'll be providing information and links to resources which - though not necessarily all geared toward students - will come in very handy for people of all ages looking to take better control of their finances.

Then - on November 15th - I'll be joining with many other Canadian PF bloggers for a special 'Blog for Financial Literacy' day. We will all be posting about our one best financial tip. It should make for some very enlightening and informative reading. LifeInsuranceCanada.com, Myfindependenceday.com, and Canadian Capitalist will all be listing the participating blogs. I am happy to be taking part and look forward to all the great information to come for my own educational purposes as well.
If you have any specific area of personal finance you would like me to touch on this month, by all means please leave a comment and I'll do what I can. If I can't answer your question - I will connect with one of my PF blogging friends who can!
Finally - just because it's Canadian Financial Literacy Month, I will make sure to post links and articles which can be useful to readers on both sides of the border. I hope you will use the next 30 days to increase your PF IQ! Cheers!

Obama versus Romney - The Not-So-Great Debate

Alright - I'm a Canadian - so why would I bother writing about the presidential debate tonight in the United States? The answer is that 90% of the readers of this website are from the U.S. President Obama and Mitt Romney will be debating domestic policy tonight - and I bet the subject of students comes up at least once or twice.
From what I can see from my vantage point just across the border - Barack Obama is the better choice when it comes to policies and ideas for helping students get through these days of skyrocketing tuition and skyrocketing student debt. Heck - Romney said a couple of weeks ago a good strategy for students to help pay for college was to go ask your parents for the money! Really!?
I may, or may not, watch the debate tonight. It will probably be the only one that touches on the subject of education. I can't wait to see what they each say and what students and parents think about what they said. Let the games begin! Cheers!

Why Are You Going To College?

A new month has dawned. With it, October brings the beginning of the research and application process for millions of highschool seniors preparing for post-secondary education. Believe it or not - there are hundreds of scholarships which have deadlines this month, but we'll talk about that at a slightly later date. The biggest decision students need to make right now is, 'What am I going to study at college?'. I think the more important question is actually, 'Why am I going to college at all?'.
                           
With the spiralling costs associated with college, the decline in the number of well paying jobs in related fields for graduates (How many waiters do you know with a PhD?), and the overall lack of direction many of today's teens feel, is going to college right now really the best option for you? Are you going to spend thousands of dollars studying something which you might decide isn't what you really want to do for the rest of your life? Is there something else you could do for a year or two which will help you better define what your future goals are and the direction you want your professional life to take?
My oldest son, a highschool senior, was born in September. That means he could realistically graduate from highschool and start his first month of college as a 17 year old! I love my son dearly - but I don't believe there is any way that a 17 year old boy can have a firm grasp on what he wants to do for the rest of his life. We've had lots of discussions about what he wants to do. There is a general sense of the field he wants to enter but nothing specific just yet. How do you justify spending the kind of money needed to go to college if you aren't sure what you are studying is what you want to be?
A lack of direction has got to be a major contributing factor to the dropout rates at colleges and universities. Students get into their field of study and then realize they don't really want to pursue that area for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, they've spent thousands of dollars on tuition, living expenses, etc - and for what? The realization that they are heading the wrong way. That's a steep price to pay for a wake-up call.
Don't get me wrong with the theme of this post. I believe that a solid college education is the foundation that terrific careers and lives are built upon. However, I think the time has come for students, and parents, to really start looking at exactly where the teenager wants to head with their life - and decide if going right from highschool into college is the best overall option. Now I'm sure some will say there are studies that show actual enrolment drops off by x% every year a student waits to go to college. I understand that. However, if students and parents sit down early (as in the start of senior year early) and make a concise plan of what is going to happen and when, there is no reason a year or two delay in starting college should be the end of furthering their education. Delaying college can give students, and parents, time to save up some more money. It can give the student an opportunity to really think about what course of study they want to pursue.  It can also give students extra time to investigate all the options available such as overseas studies. It just may save a few years, and thousands of dollars in expenses, when the student decides they are heading in the wrong direction.
A college education can be a stepping stone to a terrific future - but do you really need to go right to college from highschool? That's a question only you can answer yourself!
What are your thoughts on this subject? Did delaying the start of college help you to better understand where you wanted to go with your life? I would love to hear what you think!

It's Grocery Shopping Time!

If you are like most students in North America - this is your second full week away at school. This means that the food supplies you initially brought with you from home when you moved are starting to dwindle. This is probably the first chance you are going to have to go grocery shopping for yourself. So here's a few tips to help with that initial solo trip to the food store.
Plan ahead - Make a list of meals you want to have in the coming week or two. Check to see what ingredients you have on hand and which ones you will need to buy. Prepare a detailed grocery list before heading to the store. Studies have proven that we spend more money on impulse buys at the grocery store when we don't have a list of specific items - and stick to it!
Go  generic - Almost all major grocery chains have their own 'store brand' of products to rival the 'name brands'. These no-name products are usually of equal quality to the big names - at a much cheaper price. You can save anywhere from 25-40% on many staples if you buy the store brand. They are always located right beside each other so comparing prices is very easy. Unless you are a brand name snob when it comes to your groceries and household paper supplies, go generic and save some dough!
Don't go hungry - to the grocery store that is! It may be an old saying but it rings true. Don't go food shopping on an empty stomach. Studies prove you will buy more impulse items and bigger sizes of needed items if you go food shopping while hungry. Have lunch first if shopping on the weekend, or wait until after your dinner to shop for food on weekdays.
Finally - Watch the screen - We all know mistakes happen. Combine human error with electronics at the checkout counter and it could cost you extra. Watch as items are scanned to be sure the proper price shows up - especially for sale items. If you use any coupons -save them until the end to be able to watch the discounts get rung through. It won't happen often - but a couple of bucks is a couple of bucks to a college student!
These are just a few things to keep in mind as you embark on your first solo trip to the grocery store. Cheers!