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Archives for July 2013

Fix Your Money Problems — They Don’t Fix Themselves

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Too many times I’ve heard the same words: “I don’t really think about my finances and I think everything will work out in the end.” I’ve heard this with college education funding. I’ve heard this with student loan debt. I’ve heard this with saving for retirement. It’s starting to get frustrated how often I’m hearing the words: […]

Filed Under: Spending
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A Lesson from a 66-Year-Old Regarding Saving for Retirement

Last Updated On 25 Comments

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When I first started my personal finance blog Budget and the Beach, I felt pretty embarrassed and ashamed of the careless spending I had done in the past. I was also embarrassed by my money struggles after I was laid off from my full-time job of eight years and started freelancing — so much so […]

Filed Under: Investing
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How to Start a Successful Investment Club in College

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Let’s face it: investing can be a pretty lonely journey. Poring over the Wall Street Journal, reading prospectuses, monitoring your brokerage account . . . these aren’t the kind of activities your college buddies are eager to come over and do with you. But what if they could be? It’s not impossible. By forming an […]

Filed Under: Investing
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Would You Invest With Inside Information for Financial Gain?

Last Updated On 15 Comments

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When most of us hear the term “insider information,” our ears perk up. It’s taboo among personal investors to even mention the phrase at times, but that’s because most of us never seem to get any good insider information. Generally, the people with that kind of knowledge are CEOs like Martha Stewart or high-ranking company […]

Filed Under: Business, Investing
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Are All Colleges Proprietary Schools Which Seek a Profit?

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By definition, a proprietary college or university is one which operates as a private, profit-seeking business. Some popular examples of proprietary schools in the United States are the University of Phoenix, DeVry University, Kaplan University, Strayer University, and ITT Technical Institute. I had a conversation recently with a colleague of mine, about whether or not […]

Filed Under: Student Loans Tagged With:
Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Netflix: The Most Absurdly Valued Company in History?

Last Updated On 13 Comments

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Netflix (NFLX) is a great service, but is it a great stock? I’ve brought up Netflix before here at the blog, saying that I expected very little from it. I have to own up for my error — it’s rocketed since I published that article. I’m willing to admit defeat on this one, but I still […]

Filed Under: Investing
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10 Important Reasons to Keep Learning After College

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Just because you have completed college does not mean you should stop learning! Lifelong learning is the secret to success in both your career and personal life. You might be finished with one degree, but here are some reasons why you should keep challenging yourself with new knowledge and skills in your adult life, both […]

Filed Under: Career
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Getting Paid What You Deserve — What You Need to Know!

Last Updated On 35 Comments

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This past week I was browsing through the Flipboard app on my iPad, and came across a story of a graphic designer who apparently was fed up with seeing Craigslist ads wanting experienced designers that were offering no pay whatsoever. In response, he posted his own hilarious ad: Hi, 
I’m a Graphic Designer and since […]

Filed Under: Business, Career
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Better Know a Young Millionaire — Neil Patel of Quick Sprout

Last Updated On 7 Comments

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In this week’s installment of the Better Know a Young Millionaire series, I have the pleasure of chatting with Neil Patel from Quick Sprout. If you’ve been in the online marketing space over the last few years, you’ve no doubt heard about Neil. He started a web company called Crazy Egg, where you can see heat maps […]

Filed Under: Millionaire Investor Profile
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Could a Monkey Beat Your Portfolio if You’re Day Trading?

Last Updated On 12 Comments

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I’ll never forget the first time I met a day trader face-to-face. He was dating a friend from college and I was a guest at their apartment-warming party. Amidst all the celebrating, I noticed him sitting alone at his living room desk, scanning a complicated-looking screen of stock data on TD Ameritrade. I was curious. […]

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With:
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Is it Really Ever OK to Time the Market to Earn More?

Last Updated On 14 Comments

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We all know the stock market has been on a tear the past couple years making us all look like Warren Buffett. My 401(k) is up nearly 14% so far this year and all I’ve done is stay the course. I think I’ve looked at my asset allocation maybe once this year and there wasn’t much […]

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With:
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What Time Does the Stock Market Open in the U.S. and Beyond?

Last Updated On 2 Comments

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If you’re a trader or investor, it’s important to know and understand what time the stock market opens. If you place a trade outside of stock market hours, your trade will wait in a queue until the start of the next trading session. This can also make a big difference on the prices you’ll get […]

Filed Under: Investing
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Is Free Tuition Really Worth 24 Years of Bondage?

Last Updated On 24 Comments

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Many of you have likely heard of Oregon’s radical new program called “Pay it Forward, Pay it Back.” The catchy title belies a program that provides free tuition for students attending community college or a public university in Oregon. In exchange for this tuition, graduates would then pay back a small fixed percentage of their income […]

Filed Under: Student Loans
Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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Can RetailMeNot Succeed Where Groupon Failed?

Last Updated On 8 Comments

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I’m one of those cheap freaks who googles a coupon anytime I buy something online, so you can imagine how excited I was when I realized that RetailMeNot would soon go public. RetailMeNot (SALE) is by far the leader in the online coupon category. The company lists coupons from tens of thousands of sites and […]

Filed Under: Investing
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Confessions from Recent College Grads: The Reality of the Real World

Last Updated On 12 Comments

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Saving up is extremely important, but in order to do that we have to first get a job and hold it down. This can be much tougher than expected for recent graduates. According to the 2013 report released by the Economic Policy Institute, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is 8.8 percent (compared with […]

Filed Under: Career
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Creating Your Own Opportunities

Last Updated On 20 Comments

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At the height of the recession in 2008, I was laid off from my video editing job of eight years. Up until that point, I had it made. I earned a very comfortable $72k a year salary living in Los Angeles, had a huge office with state of the art equipment, an amazing boss, and […]

Filed Under: Career
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If You Read One Article About Selling Stocks, Read This One

Last Updated On 11 Comments

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Over the last several weeks there have been some huge developments in the stock market and the economy as a whole. It got me thinking about my investments, and the question that is always the toughest investing question to answer: how do you know when you should be selling stocks? It is so incredibly tough to […]

Filed Under: Investing
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How One Student is Getting a Free Master’s Degree

Last Updated On 19 Comments

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“Well you sure can’t eat benefits!” I remember this conversation vividly from my childhood, as my dad talked to one of his younger coworkers at the time. My dad has worked for a public utility company for many years. He has a defined pension, free health/vision/dental insurance, and a generous 401(k) equivalent match among other […]

Filed Under: Career
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Lululemon Stock: Does This Trendy Pick Have Legs?

Last Updated On 4 Comments

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Lululemon (LULU) is a Wall Street darling. It should be. The company earns ridiculous returns on invested capital, operates as a cash cow that can internally fund its own expansion, and has some of the best profit margins around. Oh, and it has a reputation for selling boatloads of merchandise through a single store. Revenue […]

Filed Under: Investing
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Better Know a Young Entrepreneur — Aron Susman

Last Updated On 7 Comments

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I’m really excited to share with you this week’s Better Know a Young Entrepreneur. Why? This week is a completely unique story of rising from tragedy to success. As you know, I’ve been sitting down and talking with young entrepreneurs about what they’ve done, how they did it, and what lessons they learned that they can […]

Filed Under: Business, Millionaire Investor Profile Tagged With:
Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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A Real Conversation With a Delusional College Student

Last Updated On 34 Comments

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The following is my best recollection of a recent conversation I had with a college student in my office. He was an incoming freshman who was coming in to talk about his tuition bill for the first semester. Me: “Good Morning! How can I help you?” College Student (CS): “Well, I’m not sure really. It […]

Filed Under: Student Loans
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Does a 401(k) Rollover Always Make the Most Sense?

Last Updated On 8 Comments

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I am the kind of person that likes to know where my money is and have as much control over it as I can. Maybe it stems from paying off my student loan and credit card debt years ago and turning a new page on finances, or maybe it is part paranoia, but I am someone […]

Filed Under: Investing Tagged With:
Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, or other advertiser and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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