Finding Money For College, Part 2

On Wednesday, we discussed three ways to help fund your college education, aside from student loans, pell grants, and scholarships. Here are two more simple, but effective ways to create money for your education.

4. Consolidate loans.
When all else fails, consolidate your credit cards and unsecured loans into one large loan. Often, by consolidating several bills into one bill, you’re able to cut your monthly payments in half and decrease the amount of interest you pay out each month.

Just make sure that you are careful about the company you use to consolidate your loans because some companies can actually hurt your credit score.

5. Sell your stuff.
Whether you choose to place an ad in the local paper, host a garage sale, or put your “stuff” up on e-Bay, getting rid of thing you purchased and never use is a great way to earn extra money for college. You can use that money to get rid of debt, thus freeing up your monthly income, or you can use it to fund your college experience.

While these tips may not seem like ways to increase your income, if you’re diligent in your attempts to cut your spending, you’ll discover money you never knew you had.

Come back on Monday as we talk more about college and the medical field.

Finding Money For College, Part 1

One thing we haven’t talked about when it comes to switching careers is financing that career switch. Besides student loans, scholarships, and federal grants, financing one’s career switch may mean cutting back on expenses and paying off current debts.

Returning to college, whether part time, or full time, requires personal sacrifices and quite possibly, a bit of additional income. And to help you find that income, we’re going to give you a few simple, but effective, financial tips:

1. Cut out unnecessary fixed expenses.
Unnecessary fixed expenses may be hiring help to mow the lawn or clean the house once a week or it may involve a gym membership you never use or a cable bill that includes the “premium” package.

2. Start eating in.
The average American family spends nearly $300 per month eating out every single month. By eating cereal for breakfast, taking a bagged lunch to work, and slow-cooking dinners, you’ll instantly see extra money in your monthly budget.

3. Stop using credit cards.
People who charge their purchases are more likely to buy more than they planned. And with interest rates averaging 23.99%, the minimum payments barely cover the interest charged which means wasted money every single month!

Come back on Friday as we finish up our discussion on finding money for college.

Switching Careers, Part 4

After returning to college, it’s time to update that resume. Writing your resume shouldn’t be intimidating; after all, you’ve been employed for years and you must have done something right or your boss wouldn’t have kept you on his payroll!

The key to writing a great resume is to make sure what you put on paper matches the job requirements of the job you’re applying for. If you’ve just graduated from college, you’re expertise in that field may be limited, but what have you done, in your previous jobs, that can be transferred over to your new career? Those are the skills you need to list on your resume.

The key elements your resume should have are:

1. Objective: What position do you want and why?
   
   
2. Experience: What skills, from previous jobs, are transferable to the job you are applying for? What skills, from your college courses, are transferable to the job you are applying for? List them here.
   
   Make sure you keep everything in present tense. Use a bullet point list and break your skills up into no more than 4 main categories. Keep your bullet points short and concise. Use action words and don’t ramble.
   
   
3. Employment: List all relevant jobs, starting with last position held. Include company name, job title, and years of service. Don’t go into details about what you did on the job as they are covered under the experience section.
   
   
4. Awards: Leave high school awards out of the equation, unless you’ve just graduated from high school—same with college awards. Your awards should come from your current employer, past employers, and prestigious companies.
   
   
5. Education: List all relevant educational institutions. Colleges, seminars, and workshops. List them by name, degree or certificate received, and year graduated.
   
   
6. References: It’s always best to state “references available upon request.” That way, you can prepare your references for the calls they are about to receive and they won’t be taken by surprise.
   

Here’s a great tip: When applying for a new job, incorporate words the company used in the “help wanted ad” in your resume. In other words, match their needs. But never lie. Only include skills, talents, and degrees you actually hold.

Come back on Wednesday as we continue our discussion in switching careers.