MONEY CLIPPED

Having just wrapped up my bachelor’s degree in finance I thought I’d share a few money-saving tips I wish I had known before I re-entered college:

#1- Take as many classes online as possible.
No drive means no gas money! Online classes means no time spent commuting and time is money. No commute also means less gas spent driving to and from school. Plus online classes can allow you to attend a better quality college than you might have within driving distance.

#2- Check Amazon before buying texts from the school bookstore.
Yes, Amazon sells college textbooks (new and used). Go to Amazon and try to find every book on your class book list. Make a list of the prices. Then take that list to the university bookstore and compare prices. Amazon may not have all the books but I’ll wager they have some and at a lower price than the school is selling it for.

#3- Check Amazon before selling texts back to the school bookstore.
Yes, you can sell your college textbooks through Amazon. Make a list of what your texts are selling for used on Amazon and compare it to what the school buyback program is offering. Odds are you can make more buy selling them via Amazon. The only downside is that the school will give you some money for some of your books on the spot (if you’re lucky). With Amazon, it might take a while for you to sell your text. If you really need cash now, then sell what you can to the school and put the rejects up for sale on Amazon. That’ll most likely net you more money than the old flyer on the bulletin bgoard method of selling texts. That also makes more sense than just throwing the unwanted texts in the trash or abandoning them at the thrift store. Some people actually make extra income by trolling thrift stores near universities for texts they can buy for a buck or two and then re-sell them on Amazon for 40x as much.

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Even if you’re not a banking or economics major (or in college at all, for that matter), you ought to take a look at these online Flash-based tutorials.

Kind of makes sense to learn a little something about how our economic and banking system works if you want to have more of the money that system pushes around, doesn’t it?

1. SUPPLY AND DEMAND AND MARKET EQUILIBRIUM TUTORIAL

2. MONOPOLY- MARKET STRUCTURE AND BEHAVIOR TUTORIAL

3. PURE COMPETITION- REVENUE BEHAVIOR TUTORIAL

4. MONEY CREATION BY CHARTERED BANKS TUTORIAL

5. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE TUTORIAL

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Why pay for college when you can take college courses for free?
WeLl, there is one good reason. Universities may be willing to give away courses but not degrees. You want the piece of paper, that’ll cost you. But, that doesn’t negate the real benefit that can be had from all the free courses that are available.

So, what kind of courses are available?
Far more than we can list here and more than you can imagine, from hard science like Computational Mathematics for Aeronautical Engineering to business and finance classes to history and philosophy. Some are full college courses and some are more like short seminars.

Which universities offer the free class?
Thanks in large part to (but not entirely) the OpenCourseWare Consortium, there are a number of prestigious schools offering their courses for free including:

Carnegie Mellon University

Utah State University

If you’re interested in courses from schools outside the U.S.A., check out the list of OpenCourseWare Consortium members. There are universities from well over a dozen nations from all over the world that participate.

WAYS TO BENEFIT FROM FREE ONLINE COURSES:

1. Brush up on skills or knowledge you already have

2. College jump-start for high school students

3. Certification preparation

4. Pre-enrollment taste of major or minor courses

5. Between semesters education

6. Preparation for job advancement or lateral move

7. Impress your friends with your incredible knowledge

8. Keep your mind sharp after retirement

9. Explore career change

When you consider the things you usually do with your free-time, there are few things that can be doing that are as potentially advantageous as taking a free online course.

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It was a couple of years ago when I first started noticing the TV commercials for student loans. I had been out of school for some time and couldn’t understand why someone would take out private loans to pay for school when they could get Stafford loans. I was also disturbed by the fact that some of these companies were even suggesting that you should take out loans from them to cover everything from food to laptops and that’d they’d loan you up to $40k per year.

Then I decided to return to school to pursue another degree. I couldn’t believe how much tuition had risen! For awhile I was able to cover tuition out of pocket but the day came when I would need to take out loans. When I had previously gone to college, my federal student loans covered all my tuition. Not so now. I was now faced with coming up with a couple of thousand each quarter to cover the difference. Only then did I realize why the sudden appearance of student loan TV commercials.

We’re facing a college tution crisis in America. Colleges continue to raise tuition at rates that far out-pace family incomes and inflation. Parents and families are increasingly having to turn to private loans to cover education balances. It’s either that or forego college. Both scenarios will compromise America’s future.

With no tuition solution on the horizon students will increasingly find themselves in enormous debt even before they can complete a degree. What happens if it reaches the point where the students just can’t keep up with that debt?

What happens to the American economy when millions of students and former students start defaulting on government and private education loans?

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Today is the first class day of the new quarter. I’m current working on my second degree and taking all my classes online. I’ve got two classes this quarter- a business ethics class and a senior level Econ class.

Something that bugs me is when I go to read the class syllabus and/or introduction and words are misspelled or misused. I have a certain level of expectations from my professors and a big one is that they should be able to write better than me or at least be able to proof their documents.

I know it might seem petty but when you’re incurring a rather sizable debt in exchange for an education, I think you’re entitled to have some standards. My teacher’s poor writing skills are probably no indicator of their expertise in the subject they are teaching but it does make me wonder about their level of “commitment to academic excellence”. If they’re slacking on that, what else are they slacking on? Of course, I can’t point out my teacher’s errors until after the class has ended and grades are in unless I do it anonymously, I’ve witnessed academic retribution by faculty and it ain’t pretty.

Teachers aren’t infallible (and certainly not impartial) gods but sometimes we might have a tendency to hold them to that standard. But they chose their profession and should be prepared for criticism when they fail to meet the students’ or parents’ expectations.

If you have a complaint about a your or your kid’s teacher’s ability to do their job, make sure you speak up, even if it’s anonymously. Whether through taxes or tuition, you’re paying for that education and you do have the right to nitpick. America’s educational system is shaky as it is, don’t make it worse by keeping your mouth shut because you don’t want to get someone in trouble or you’re afraid of looking petty.

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This contradiction in the value of an MBA that I ran across is typical of the dilemma I face. One camp is saying that the MBA’s value is on the decline, particularly in banks and brokerages, but I see it required on job postings all the time and across a wide range of industries. I’m thinking it comes down to age and industry.

The job market reality is that MBA’s are still respected and in demand in most industries. An MBA can also make a big difference in how much a job pays. A stroll through Monster’s and CareerBuilder’s listings has me convinced of that much. For example, at my wife’s employer, the world leader in it’s industry, MBA’s count for everything. You can be incompetent and clueless but if you have an MBA, you have job security. They recently had a round of layoffs in preparation for a private equity deal and MBA’s counted for more than actual experience or tenure when it came to who got to keep their job.

I believe that there are still plenty of American companies where the cult of MBA still reigns. It may not mean as much if you’re applying at a hedge fund but at most other places it’ll guarantee you consideration. Especially at larger corporations where HR won’t even consider an applicant who doesn’t meet the educational requirements listed in the job spec regardless as to the applicant’s range of experience. If you turn out to be a screw up, HR wants to be able to defend itself by saying that you met the job specs.

An MBA doesn’t mean you’re smart, it means you’re persistent and have some sort of work ethic. It also hopefully means you managed to retain some of what you were taught about business.

If someone in their early 20’s asked me if they should pursue an MBA, I’d say, “Hell, yes!” There’s two advantages:

1. by your mid-twenties you’d have a higher level of education than 60+% of job seekers and
2. it’s cheaper to get the MBA now rather than decide you need it 10 years from now when you know tuition will be higher and you have less time to profit from it

The question is whether you go for it in your 30’s or 40’s. If you’re gainfully employed and your employer has educational benefits, by all means, take advantage of them. If it nets you an MBA in the long run, then you’ll have more job security and a stronger resume. Now if you’re having to foot the bill yourself, that’s a whole different ball of wax. Whether you pay for it out of pocket or take out loans, you have to figure out if it will result in enough extra income over you remaining working years to cover the time and expense. How much you stand to profit can vary wildly depending on your job field and industry.

I still haven’t made up my mind about whether I’ll go for the MBA. I’m just a handful of classes away from finishing a second degree. When I get the second degree knocked out, I’ll have to sit down and re-evaluate my long-term job prospects. I already have 6+ years worth of schooling, I’m not sure I can take another 18 classes and who knows how much more in student loan debt.

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