Book Review - 25 Money Strategies Your Teacher Forgot to Tell You About

Hello Folks! It's been awhile but it's nice to have something to share with you which I hope will be helpful.

I have had the opportunity recently to be introduced to an author by the name of Richard Pan. A native of Latvia, Richard has a Master's in Education, speaks four languages and, most importantly for these purposes, has written a couple of books about money aimed at young people.

His most recent endeavor is entitled '25 Money Strategies Your Teacher Forgot  to Tell You About." I read it recently, and here's what I think....

I like the book. Now - right off the bat - remember Richard's native language is not English - keep that in mind as you read through the book. It's funny how a number of Richard's strategies (from half a world away) are very similar in nature to those in my own book...staying healthy to reduce health care expenses as one example. He does a good job of explaining all of his strategies in detail and offers some unique thoughts. My favorite quote is "Expensive 'stuff' doesn't make you cool - it makes you poor!" - buy your clothes at Thrift Shops!

I'm not sure how parents will react to the idea of young people staying at home as long as possible (at least age 25 or so) to save on expenses!! My 18 year old just moved out to go to college an hour away and the house is a whole lot quieter. The money saving logic behind the idea is great...but....

The strategy I like the most is 'Zero Dollar Day'. Pick one day a week where you force yourself to NOT spend any cash, or use debit or credit. Richard explains it in detail and it sounds like it would work. Read the book and give it a try.

Truthfully - I like any money book which gets young people thinking about how they spend their money and what they can do to spend less and save more. "25 Money Strategies Your Teacher Forgot  to Tell You About" will do that. Check it out for yourself by clicking on the cover below. Cheers!

Ready For The Big Game!

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few weeks - the Super Bowl is being held this coming Sunday in New Orleans. It's the annual super-party as people cheer for a team they usually could care less about during the regular NFL season - but you have to pick one team or why bother watching.

As a student - or young adult - preparing for the game, there are a few things to keep in mind so you don't blow the budget for one half-day of partying. The best bet is to organize a bunch of friends, find the one with the biggest television, and have a Super Bowl house party. Everyone can bring their own booze (if you are of legal drinking age of course), figure out who's bringing what for snacks and food, and you can get some good Dollar Store decorations to give it a real party atmosphere. Make sure somebody is going to be the deisgnated driver so everyone gets home safely - or make sure the phone number for the cab company is handy. Having a house party is a great way to enjoy the game, enjoy the company of friends, and not pay outlandish prices for food and drink at a bar or restaurant. It's always at gatherings like these that something happens which will become the topic of conversation within your group for years to come..."Do you remember at the Super Bowl party when Bill......."!
Millions of people will be enjoying the game from the comfort of their own homes - or at somebody else's home. Have fun! Cheers!

Countdown To Christmas Break!

As we head into the first week of December, students are heading into the last couple of weeks before they get their first major break of the school year - Christmas Break. Along with all the smart thing students should do financially when it comes to buying gifts, there are some general housekeeping items you should keep in mind.
                   
First - are you going to be travelling home for the holidays? How are you travelling? Carpool, flying, bus - getting picked up by parents? If you plan on driving yourself - why not put up a posting at school to see if anyone living near you could use a ride home. It will give you some company on the drive and can help defray the cost of gas.
When you do go home - and all your roomates are gone as well - do the usual things such as unplugging ALL electronics. You'll be gone a minimum of two weeks, if not more. Not having electronic items using energy when nobody is home could save you a little bit on your December electricity bill. I know, I know - frugal this and frugal that!! Trust me, it all adds up in the end.
This is one most people overlook. Your cell phone emergency address should be set to your college address while you are at school. That way if you call 911 the proper address shows up. If you travel home for a couple of weeks or more, be sure to change your emergency address back to your parents home just in case something happens during the holidays. It shouldn't take much effort to contact your cell carrier and make the necessary adjustments. That way emergency personnel can more easily find your location in case of emergency.
Finally, even though you are heading home for a much needed break, there is lots you can be doing while you are home. Foremost is researching and filling out online appplications for scholarships, bursaries and grants for students past their freshman year. It is currently prime time for scholarships and you don't want to waste a few weeks of precious time getting your applications out there. Spend an hour a day doing some legwork on the computer - maybe you'll end up making money over Christmas instead of just spending it!
If you haven't had a chance - please head on over the GroceryAlerts.ca for a great compilation Steven did in getting the 'Best Holiday Savings Tips' from some of Canada's top personal finance bloggers - yours truly included! Cheers!!

Holiday Tips From The Best

As we hit December and the big run up to the holidays - I am very honoured to have been asked to provide my 'Best Holiday Savings Tip' to the website GroceryAlerts.ca!

I invite you to CLICK HERE - or below - to see what some of the top personal finance bloggers in Canada say about ways to make the Holidays a little less financially stressful.

I will have more on the subject in a soon to come post of my own. Cheers!

Holiday Tips From the Best
on GroceryAlerts.ca

The Black Friday Freakout!

It's coming! In less than two weeks the single day all shopaholics have circled in red on their calendars will hit us. It is, of course, Black Friday. Even for those of us who live in Canada, and are close enough to the border with our southern neighbours, Black Friday has taken on a life of it's own. I have co-workers who book the Thursday and Friday off (a year in advance) so they can stay in a motel in the U.S overnight on Thursday - shop their brains out on Friday - and bring back more stuff duty-free because they've stayed a 24 hour period. Wow!
                                
So what are my thoughts on Black Friday? Truthfully - I have to say that I see it as a good opportunity to practice smart money thinking on everyone's part. If you see a store has something you really need, or a gift you plan on getting for someone for Christmas anyhow, at a really good price - go for it! But ONLY IF you can work it into your already pre-determined budget. Don't spend the electricity payment on that 42" LED-HD TV if it will set you back a month on your bills. Also - do not rack up the credit card because then you're just adding interest to the whole equation. But if you've got money saved, this may be a good chance to save a few dollars on already planned purchases.
The key is to be smart about it. I hope everyone knows by now that stores will put just a few items on major price slash to get you in the door. Other items are then only slightly discounted or at regular price but 'labelled' as sale items with an inflated original price. Do your research between now and next Friday and figure out exactly what you are going to buy and stick to your list. It's the impulse items which end up breaking the bank as you walk around the store with your prized purchase already in the cart.
The Black Friday Freakout doesn't have to end up putting you in dire financial straits heading into the holidays. Use it as a chance to set yourself up with a few gifts in the closet and a few dollars saved still in your bank account at the end of the day.

Scholarship Season Is In Full Swing!

In today's post for Financial Literacy Awareness Month, I thought I would talk a little bit about something near and dear to every student's heart - or bank account - Scholarships!
'Tis the season to ramp up the applications and really try to get every possible scholarship, bursary or grant that you can find. There are numerous scholarships which have their deadlines either this month or before Christmas, so it's important to find the ones with the soonest cutoffs and get moving on them first.
I found a great article written today by my friend Jodi Okun. She is a professional Financial Aid Advisor. Her entire business is to help families get through the paperwork and preparations necessary to get financial aid for college. Jodi's article is entitled  '10 Ways to Make Scholarship Sponsors Love You'. It gives some terrific information to increase your odds of being awarded money to continue your education just for filling out some forms.
I have a couple more resources available on the sidebar which will lead you straight to scholarship search sites - and Jodi has many links on her site as well for you to check out. Don't delay! Now is the time to get those scholarship apps in the mail - or the email! Your bank account will thank you in the end. Cheers!

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!

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!

But I Can't Cook!!

Let's talk a little bit about a subject that is near and dear to my heart - FOOD! Everybody needs it. Everybody has their favourite kinds. But not everybody knows how to make it.
As a soon-to-be college student living on your own for the first time, the thought of having to actually prepare your own meals can make you a little nervous. You've been used to having most, if not all, of your food prepared by somebody else (ie - MOM). Soon, though, you will have to fend for yourself and actually make meals at your residence. You do not want to be the stereotypical college student living on Instant Noodles 7 days a week. You will need to be able to prepare even some basic meals in order to survive.
There are lots of ways to get ready for this momentous shift in your world. Learn how to cook from your Mother between now and this coming September. Copy out her recipes so you have your own to take with you. Search online for easy to follow recipes or subscribe to one of the numerous food websites which will send you an email every day with a new recipe you can try.
If having an actual step by step guide is more your style - I've found one on Amazon which just might help. It's called "I Don't Know How To Cook". It includes some very basic instructions on very easy to make meals. Get it for yourself or get it as a gift for the student in your life. There are numerous other 'beginners' recipe books available in various formats - so don't say you couldn't find anything when you are having Kraft Dinner for the fourth time in a week! Bon Appetite! Cheers!
Click Below to Check Out The Cookbook!
The "I Don't Know How to Cook" Book: 300 Great Recipes You Can't Mess Up!

The Book is Published!

I am thrilled to announce that my first book, 'How To Be A Money Smart Student', has been completed and is published as an e-book on Smashwords.com.
I have tried to put together a useful tool for students to help make the transition from their parent's house to living away at college a little less stressful financially. The book is filled with practical money saving tips and resources to help save money while surviving as a full time student.
The book is available at the link below for a very reasonable (If I do say so myself) $1.99 - HOWEVER - as my book launch gift for you, my faithful readers, use coupon code MB94J at checkout and the book is yours for just 99 cents! After you pay for the book one time - it is yours to use and download in any of the formats available. You can also preview the first 25% of the book to see what it's all about before you buy the rest.
Smashwords also has a way to give the book as a gift. Feel free to give it as a present to any students you know who are getting ready for life on their own.
I am honored by the support the Money Smart Student community has given me as I have built this program. Thank you all so very much and I am looking forward to even better things in the months to come.
Cheers!
Click below to check out the book.

How To Be A Money Smart Student