Successful scholarship applications take considerable time and effort. Although there’s no shortcut to a quality application, there are steps you can take to make your efforts as rewarding as possible. Tackling your scholarship search with strategy and efficiency can translate into extra applications—and therefore, extra tuition dollars. For best results, incorporate the following tips into your application process as early as possible.
If you’re considering financing your college education with the help of a student loan, the smartest thing you can do for yourself is to only borrow what you truly need. (This advice applies to pretty much all loan products, by the way.) Pursuing post-secondary education should be an exciting time in your life. You’re making decisions and opening up possibilities that will shape your future—a future that is adventurous and fulfilling and that decidedly does not include years and years of crippling debt.
Checks hold an odd place in our personal finances. In many ways, checks seem like relics from a previous era. We maybe write one or two checks a month (usually for rent or similar bill-paying situations where electronic payment simply isn’t an option). This is vastly different from only a few decades ago, when checks represented more than 85% of all non-cash retail payments. (Can you imagine whipping out a checkbook in line at the grocery store? Times have certainly changed!)
Scammers target seniors more aggressively than any other group. Recognizing the most common scams helps prevent your money and personal information from getting stolen.
It’s hard enough keeping track of your own expenses. So you shouldn’t be surprised that managing money as a team effort can test your patience, especially if your partner has a different method of keeping financial records—or worse, no method at all.
If you're willing to wait, a CD can be a great way to earn a high interest rate on the money you deposit.
When you start looking for financial advice (or any kind of advice, for that matter), experts will share their take on what’s “good” and what’s “bad.” In personal finance, there are some classifications that we can all agree on: Debt is bad. Emergency funds are good. Overdrawing your account is bad. Earning interest on your savings is good.
For most people, spending comes naturally. Saving up for something special is harder. And setting money aside for giving is really hard.
Even though there are over 5,000 credit unions in the United States, many misconceptions about their structure and their services still exist. One popular-but-false assumption is that the term “credit union member” is interchangeable with the term “credit union customer.” It might seem like a harmless mistake, but the concept of membership is what sets credit unions apart from other financial institutions. A “member” isn’t an empty marketing term—it reflects your credit union’s commitment to co-operative values and shapes your entire banking experience. As a member, you’re a part owner, you have a say in how your credit union is run and you get to share in its success in tangible ways.
Borrowing money comes at a cost. This extra cost is called interest. If borrowing money costs more, why do people still do it? Here are three reasons why: