Image courtesy of soundman

If you know of anyone about to graduate high school, make sure they read this post. I wish someone had referred me to a post like this or given me the advice I am about to give when I was graduating high school.

Graduating high school will be among one of the most exciting moments of your life. You no longer have to deal with teachers or your parents treating you like a child. You are now eighteen, or about to be, and you are about to make the important step towards being an adult. You may think all of your troubles are about to be over and you will be able to do whatever you want to do. NOT SO FAST.

Being an adult is not all it is cracked up to be. Being an adult means you have to be financially responsible. Mom and Dad should not have to bail you out. Financial issues are one of the biggest problems of being an adult. You have to work and pay the rent/mortgage, utilities, insurance, car payments, student loans, etc.

You, recent graduate, can make it easier on yourself when you venture out into the real world. You are currently in a unique position. You probably have no debt and maybe a little bit of money saved from a part-time job, graduation gifts, parents and grandparents, etc.

Here are 3 tips to help you make a smooth transition into financial adult life:

1. Save, Save, Save. It may seem boring or it may seem uncool but it's important. If you get $20, save $5. It doesn't matter that it is only $5. Every little bit helps and it does add up. If you start this habit early, it will help you out tremendously in your adult years. Plus, having a nice fat savings account means that when you are early in your career, you can still go out and have fun instead of worrying about how you are going to pay the bills.

**Tip: HSBC offers an free online savings account. No fees, no minimum balance. **

2. Student Loans. If you are going to college and have to take out student loans, ONLY use the amount you need. If you have extra money left over after paying for the necessities and basic living expenses, save the rest (see Tip #1). Just because you have it, does not mean you have to spend it. They will give you more than you need and while it may be cool at the time, you eventually have to pay it back. I graduated college when I was 22. Here I am at 31 and I am still trying to pay off my student loans.
Note: I know there are some student loan programs that do not require repayment but we won't go into that here. I still think the "take only what you need" motto still should apply.

3. Credit Cards. Some people say don't get one, some people think you should get one. I think you should get one. You will most likely need credit to buy a home or car once you graduate college so it is best to build your credit early. Getting a credit card in college, with a small credit limit, will help you once you graduate college. Having good credit out of college will make easier to rent that first apartment, get insurance or when a potential employer pulls your credit for a job.

If you choose to get a credit card, here are the rules:

• Pay your balance in full; never pay interest.
• Pay your bill on time.
  
• Never go over 40% of your credit limit.
• Don't charge more than you can pay. If you don't have the money to pay the bill in full by the time the bill comes, don't charge it. Go back and see tip #1.

**Tip: Discover Card offers a credit card especially for students. **

Note: Using a credit card requires responsibility. If you don't think you will be responsible with a credit card, don't apply for one. It doesn't matter if they give you a "free" t-shirt. The free t-shirt could cause you years of financial stress.

You may think I am just another adult spouting off advice but trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I made ALL of the above mistakes. I wish someone had told me about the three tips above when I started college. I am still working on getting rid of the mistakes I made in my college years almost ten years later. I regret all of the fun things I didn't get to to in my early twenties because I couldn't afford it. I screwed up in college financially and I had bills to pay. Every paycheck went towards bills and there were a lot of nights I had to stay home and watch television while my friends went out and had fun.

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Financial Resources (Affiliates):
HSBC Online Savings Account - 1.65% APY as of 5/11/2009
WT Direct Online Savings Account
Student Loans
Upromise College Savings

Image courtesy of jenn_jenn

With all the uncertainty in the stock market, more people are keeping their cash in savings accounts. Most of the banks these days are paying low, low rates on savings. Why not earn a maximum return on your money with minimal risk?

I was reading through the February 2009 issue of Money Magazine and found out about a new site called MoneyAisle.

What is MoneyAisle? If you are looking for a high rate on your savings or CD, you can have banks bid for your business by offering you the best interest rates currently available.

If you are like me and are holding onto large amounts of cash, this is a good site for you. If you currently have your savings in one of the big megabanks, you are getting paid a paltry interest rate. For example, if you have $5000 in a money market account at Bank of America, you are earning an interest rate of less than 1%. If you have $25,000 sitting in the account, you are earning only 1%.

I'm currently holding my Savings Challenge funds in an ING account paying 2.4%.

Using the MoneyAisle, I was able to find a money market account paying 3.25% at First Trade Union Bank. The account is FDIC insured up to the entire amount in the account and there are no fees and a low minimum balance.

Using the site is easy and straightforward. You have an option of using the account with registering or you can register for more features. Registering is quick and allows you to build a CD ladder, compare rates and exclude certain banks.

Related Posts:
Live Like A Millionaire in 2009
December Savings Challenge Update

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It's finally official. I've been waiting patiently for what seemed like an eternity (it was actually just a few weeks). Yesterday, I received notification in the mail from the I.R.S. that I should be receiving my economic stimulus payout of $600 by June 27, 2008. That's right, in a couple of days, my account should be $600 healthier.

Unfortunately, I don't plan to use it how the government intended. I would love to help stimulate the economy but stimulating my savings accounts feels so much better. I will split the money equally between my Flexible Savings Account and my Emergency Fund.

With the coming stimulus check and an extra paycheck in July, my Emergency Fund should be fully funded ($20k) by the end of next month.

Now that this is a weekly feature here at SingleGuyMoney, I find myself looking for more ways to make sure I save money throughout the week. That, my friends, is a good thing. I thank all of you so much for visiting my blog and leaving your comments, kind words and encouragement. I hope my blog is inspiring you to start fixing your finances.

This week, I saved money by:

Taking my lunch to work. I am already starting to notice the difference in the amount I am spending for eating out. I only went out to lunch one day this week instead of eating out all five days. Estimated Savings: $25.00

MyPoints. I've been a member of MyPoints for over 5 years. This is one of the easiest ways to bring in a little extra money for doing what you already do. Basically, all you need to do is click on the emails they send you and you earn points. You can also earn points by shopping thru their online portal. I'm sure this has been explained on numerous other blogs and websites so I will not go through it again. One tip I will offer is to use a separate email account from your everyday email account. I redeemed my points and received a $25 Target giftcard and a $10 Shell gas card. Savings: $35

Did you save money this week? How did you do it?
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More ways to save Money (Affiliates):
ING Direct - Orange Savings Account - No fees, no minimums. 3.65% APY as of 1/26/2008.
Washington Mutual - Free Checking and 4.75% APY High Yield Savings - Open online with $1.
CoolSavings - Print REAL coupons from your home computer.
Mvelopes - Simple, online budgeting system - Try it free for 30 days.
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I posted this question last week and the response was very favorable. I'm thinking of making it a regular weekly post here at SingleGuyMoney. What do you guys think? Should I make this a regular weekly post? One of the reasons I want to do this is by having the viewpoint of thousands of different people, we probably can come up with some pretty good ideas to save money.

This week, I saved money by:

Taking my lunch to work. Eating out is one of those areas in my budget where I always overspend. I am not a cook and do not cook at home. I figure if I really had to, I probably could. I went out and bought some bread, cheese, chips and a 12 pack of Pepsi. I took my lunch to work 3 days this past week and ate out for lunch 2 days. I only had to pay for 1 day as my boss took me out to lunch one day. Estimated Savings: $25.00

Paying my auto insurance with a credit card. My auto insurance was up for renewal this month and I had the money saved for this bill in my freedom account. I paid with my credit card that is currently giving me 5% on purchases for three months. I then scheduled a payment from my freedom account to pay off the credit card balance in full. (Note: If you are not able to payoff the credit card balance in full, I do not recommend using this strategy. The finance charges you pay will probably wipe out any savings). Estimated Savings: $87.00 ($42.00 in credit card rewards and $47.00 credit for paying my premium in full).

Did you save money this week? How did you do it?
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More ways to save Money (Affiliates):
Lending Club - Personal loans with rates as low as 7.88%.
MyPoints - Free Rewards for shopping online, completing surveys and playing games.
InsureMe - Get multiple free automobile insurance quotes.
Mvelopes - Simple, online budgeting system - Try it free for 30 days.
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It was a nice surprise when I logged into my E*Trade account today to find that the rate for their Complete Savings Account has been increased to 5.05% APY. The rate had previously been lowered following the series of rate cuts by the Feds.

I am a big fan of E*trade despite the recent news of them having financial problems and the recent $2.5 billion dollar infusion of cash from Citadel Investment Group.

Best features of the Complete Savings Account are:

• No minimum balance
• Just $1 to open the account
• Yields more than 8x the national average
• Easy access to your money with the Quick Transfer feature
• Secure online statements
• FDIC insured up to $100,000

In addition to a Complete Savings Account, I also have an E*Trade Brokerage account so it is very easy to transfer money back and forth between accounts.

TIP: If you need immediate access to funds from your savings account, transfer the money to your brokerage account and write a check from the cash portion of your brokerage account. I do it all the time and it works great. Just be careful not to exceed the withdrawal limitations of the savings account.