The College Investor – Young Adult Personal Finance and Investing

Organizing Your Financial Life With HomeFile

by Robert on January 27, 2012

Homefile financial organization system

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Your financial life is more than just your bank accounts and investment accounts. It includes everything from your assets, like your home and cars, to insurance, to your documents that prove your identity (birth certificate, passport, etc.). Every year, more and more documents get added to the pile, and it can be a pain to keep organized.

I’ve discussed using online money management tools before to help you stay organized, and now I want to highlight a great product that I use to keep all my financial (and other) paperwork organized.

It’s called HomeFile.

How It Helps You Stay Organized

HomeFile isn’t like Quicken or another money management program. It’s designed to help you organize your files. Think about these examples:

Automotive: Maintenance records, registration, warranties, manuals, receipts, title, parking tickets…the list goes on…
Insurance: You could potentially have many different policies that could include home, auto, recreational vehicle, health, disability, property, life, annuities, and more. How do you keep everything organized, and make it easy for loved ones to access it if they need to?

What it does is create a system for your files that allows you to keep everything organized and in its place. It takes only a few minutes to setup, and it is incredibly easy to keep up with as you continue to file stuff.

If you’re tired of clutter and disorganization, think about this system as a way to get everything else offline in order. It is so easy and it does save time and effort.

Readers, do you have a system for filing your important documents?

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Your College Major Doesn’t Matter…Unless…

by Robert on January 26, 2012

Photo Credit: Håkan Dahlström

Are you registered to win The College Investor 2012 Super Fan Giveaway? If not, sign up here: Super Fan Giveaway! The third week’s leader board is posted. Add me to your Google+ circle to see how you rank:The College Investor Google +.

I’m a firm believer that your college major doesn’t matter. Yes, I said it – what you major in college doesn’t matter. Now when I say it doesn’t matter, I want to be precise in what I say: it doesn’t matter in terms of what you will gain in the future.

How can I be so bold and put out such a blanket statement? Because I’m a firm believer in the individual and what the individual does – that is truly what matters. That is why you should major in what you care about – because you will be more inclined to do activities that will benefit you later on.

[click to continue…]

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I Launched My Free eBook

by Robert on January 25, 2012

student loan debt

You may have noticed some changes around here the last 24 hours…

I LAUNCHED MY eBOOK!

It’s called Student Loan Debt: Getting in Smart, Getting out Painlessly.

It’s a step by step walk through of everything you need to know when you get a student loan, and everything you need to know once you have a student loan to get rid of it quickly and painlessly.

It is 29 pages long, and beyond the basics, it has some great tips on how to get rid of a student loan once you have one!

All this eBook requires is that you sign up for my free weekly newsletter, but it’s packed full of personal finance, investing, and student loan tips that you will be happy you did. You can unsubscribe at any time, but if you’re familiar with this blog and who I am, I don’t promote often and I don’t try to sell you things. I’m just here to provide good content, and that’s it.

So enter your name and email address below to get free instant access to my eBook. You have nothing to lose and I promise it will be one of the best eBooks you have ever read.

Enjoy!

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Using a Brokerage as Your Bank?

by Robert on January 24, 2012

Are you registered to win The College Investor 2012 Super Fan Giveaway? If not, sign up here: Super Fan Giveaway! The third week’s leaderboard is posted. Add me to your Google+ circle to see how you rank:The College Investor Google +.

Banks have been really out to hurt the consumer – they have been levying outrageous fees, giving poor yields on savings accounts, and charging for basic services that used to be included with most accounts. Many people have been preaching the switch to credit unions – well, I’m arguing for the switch to accounts offered by your brokerage.

Brokerage Firms Are In The Banking Game

Many people don’t realize how involved brokerage firms are involved in the banking system. Just about every brokerage firm offers checking and savings accounts that are FDIC insured. They do this because they hope that by gaining one part of your business, that can convince you to use the other parts of their business (such as the investment aspects).

Beyond basic checking, some discount brokerage firms, such as Fidelity and Charles Schwab, have been offering credit cards with some of the best rewards out there. The catch is that you must deposit your rewards into an account with them. But don’t let that discourage you, as you can easily transfer the money out to your primary account.

Get To Know Free Again

The beauty of using a brokerage as a bank is that they offer most services that you’ve become accustomed to for free.

For example, these firms offer free checking, free checks for your account, free ATM withdraws, and more. You can also usually transfer funds both in and out of the account for free (where many banks don’t mind you transferring in, but charge you to transfer out).

These brokerage firms also usually have easy to use websites, since many don’t have locations for the banking services. Many offer you the ability to scan in your checks (like you’ve seen on commercials for Chase or USAA), as well as the ability to print checks from your computer.

If you’re looking for a free option for banking that is convenient and easy to use, check out your favorite discount brokerage firm.

Readers, what are your thoughts on using your broker as your main bank?

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Should You Check Your Credit Score?

by Robert on January 23, 2012

Photo Credit: Andres Rueda

Are you registered to win The College Investor 2012 Super Fan Giveaway? If not, sign up here: Super Fan Giveaway! The third week’s leaderboard is posted. Add me to your Google+ circle to see how you rank:The College Investor Google +.

A lot of financial “gurus” preach on a regular basis that you should check your credit score or your FICO score and know where you stand. Well, I’m telling you today that you SHOULDN’T!

You may be saying, “Wait!!! You need to know what your score is to get a credit card, buy a house, or even get a job!” And you know what – you’re wrong. What people are really looking at is your credit report, not your credit score.

Why Your Credit Report Really Matters

Your credit score is based 100% on your credit report – as a result, you should be focused on your credit report and not your credit score. Your credit score is a compilation of everything you do credit-wise: from opening and closing accounts, to what your balances are, to inquiries for future credit, and of course, if you’ve ever been late, missed, or defaulted on a debt.

Your credit score simply takes the data from your report and assigns an easy to read number to it – and each credit bureau (Transunion, Equifax, Experian) actually ranks everything different and assigns a different number. That is why your credit score is so arbitrary, it is really the meat and potatoes of your credit report that matter.

Check Your Credit Report, Not Credit Score

As a result, you should really be focused on checking your credit report, and not your credit score. You should check your credit report annually, and scour it for errors. If everything is correct on your credit report, your credit score will be accurate.

The bigger reason to check your credit report – it’s free once a year (where as, checking your credit score usually costs money).

If you want to check your credit report free, you can do so here, at the federal government website: AnnualCreditReport.com. You can pull your report from each bureau once a year. Some people suggest pulling one report every 4 months, so you can always have an updated report.

If you still insist on knowing your credit score, here is a good resource since it is mostly free: Free Credit Score (your score is free for a 14-day free trial, at which point you can cancel without paying).

Readers, what are your thoughts on not checking your credit score, and instead focusing on your credit report?

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