mom approved tips, parenting, Uncategorized

Mom-Approved Tips: Teach Your Kids the Value of Money

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money

Before you send your kids off to college, they need to learn about the value of money. Ideally, it starts at an early age; but if you haven’t started, there’s no time like the present!

When your kids are away at college they are going to be responsible for their own spending (and saving). There will be offers galore from credit card companies because college students are their biggest target market. If they hook them while in college it usually means they have them for the rest of their lives.

My parents never taught me these lessons and I wish they had. I never did chores, had to save for anything I wanted, or learned how to use credit wisely. I have to admit I didn’t do the best in this area of parenting either. But I have learned over the years that if you neglect these lessons, your kids will suffer.

Following are just a few tips to help you teach your kids the value of money:

Establish chores

You can get them accustomed to chores at an early age, providing an allowance based on their age and the amount of chores they do. They should know how to do their own laundry, clean bathrooms, and cook meals. Not only will you be teaching them that hard work produces reward, but these skills will serve them well when they are living on their own.

Teach them to earn what they want

If a child works to earn something, they value it more. If you want to buy them a car, purchase a used one that needs repair and teach them to work on the repairs themselves. If they want a large ticket item, encourage them to get a part-time job and earn the money to pay for it. Save the gifts for Christmas and birthdays. Once they learn this simple truth, it will be much easier to explain to them that you expect them to contribute financially to their college education.

Explain the difference between wants and needs

This is a valuable lesson they will carry with them into adulthood. Today’s kids are accustomed to instant gratification; but saving for something teaches them that just because they want something, it doesn’t mean they need it. If they are committed to save for it, they will re-examine whether or not they truly need it. When they are away at college, this will be the first question they ask themselves before pulling out an easily obtained credit card.

Encourage giving

Giving to others will show kids how to bless others when they are blessed. Finding people in need will give than an appreciation for their own blessings and cause them to re-evaluate those “things” that they find so important in lieu of saving to help others.

Teach them to save

Putting money away in a piggy bank or savings account teaches them to save for future purchases. When they learn this, you are teaching them to plan for the future and this should follow them into adulthood.

Always remember that kids mirror their parents’ behaviors. If they see you frivolously spending and raking up credit card debt, they will follow your example when they go off to college.

college majors, college planning, spotlight on

Educate To Career: Helping Students Chart a Course for Success

 

Today’s guest post is from Mike Havis from Educatetocareer.org, a non-profit organization with the goal of providing free, online college and career planning tools for high school students and their parents.

____________________

educate to career

There is a huge problem affecting our young people today – those very people who wish to go out and start making a life for themselves – and do great things for our society.

The problem is evidenced by the massive amount of college graduate unemployment and underemployment – coupled with the absolute crisis of $1.1 trillion in non-performing college student loan debt.  It is hard to find a family in the U.S. that has not been touched by these problems.  I learned all about this myself when my son Ben graduated from Rancho Buena Vista HS (in Vista, CA) in 2008.

My wife and I, along with our son, asked ourselves questions such as:

  • Should Ben go for a college degree in the subjects that he likes and is good in?
  • Do all college degrees lead to an actual job in that field?
  • How much does a college education cost?
  • In actuality, which degrees lead to obtaining a real job?

The answers to these questions were not readily at hand, or even easy to find.  The crisis that I referred to stems from poor choices made due to lack of good information + an abundance of misinformation.

This inspired me to create Educate To Career (ETC). We feel that students should make well informed and pragmatic decisions about college and career – based on the reality of what the job market is looking for and the ROI of a college education.  ETC’s tools and programs are very easy to use, and address these issues with real facts and figures.

The innovative CareerBuddy program allows students and parents to apply the student’s personal academic strengths and weaknesses to research college majors for over 6,000 two and four year colleges.  The CareerBuddy program assists users in selecting majors which lead to real careers with good employment opportunities and earnings.  The program is free, easy to navigate and requires no registration by the user.

The information provided includes:

  • Recommended colleges
  • Recommended careers
  • Starting salaries

CareerBuddy, used in conjunction with ETC’s other programs – CollegeBuddy and SalaryBean, enables a student to find all of the pertinent information they require to sensibly plan his or her post high school career and college path – all in one place.

Students have been unable to find the proper tools to assist them in making informed decisions about their future – as evidenced by the over $1 trillion in nonperforming college student-loan debt, coupled with the very high unemployment and underemployment of college graduates.

_______________________

Educate To Career was founded to provide high school students with free, online navigator and calculator programs to ultimately guide them to a real career – defined as one in which their education leads to a real job with a good salary.

Educate To Career is the leader in providing information, data, tools and programs in the area of college and career outcomes.

Educate To Career : The Leader in Educational Attainment to Career Outcome Information.

 

Scholarship Friday, scholarships, Uncategorized

Scholarship Friday: Scholarships You Will Love

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scholarships you love
photo courtesy of Zinch

Roses are red,

Violets are blue

Check out these scholarships

And snag some college funds too!

Zinch gathered together a short list of scholarships with deadlines in February and March. Sign up for an account and you can access all the pertinent scholarship information and apply through their site. And here’s a plus–if you win the scholarship Zinch will match your award up to $1000. I can’t think of a better reason to use their scholarship match and application service.

Check out Zinch’s list of Scholarships You’re Sure to Love

in the news

Top 5 Must-Read Articles for Parents of the College-Bound

 

must-read articlesOften as I scour the web I find articles I want to share with my parent readers. Apart from tweeting about them and pinning them, this week I would like to highlight them on my blog in hopes that you will examine them further and gather some helpful information.

Following are five must-read articles for parents of the college-bound.

1. On education policy and what Obama left unsaid in the State of the Union

The Washington Post Education section found two things missing from the State of the Union address this year. The first was any rhetoric about fixing the One Child Left Behind law and the second was related to colleges raising tuition prices.

On higher education, Obama in his 2012 and 2013 addresses warned colleges that they must act to contain rising tuition.

In 2012, he said: “We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition. We’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down.”

In 2013, the president said: “But taxpayers can’t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs for higher education. Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure that they do. So, tonight, I ask Congress to change the Higher Education Act so that affordability and value are included in determining which colleges receive certain types of federal aid.”

This year, the language was much less pointed.

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/on-education-policy-and-what-obama-left-unsaid-in-the-state-of-the-union/2014/01/30/f48a5288-89c3-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html

2. Many colleges are misleading students about financial aid requirements

A prominent House Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings, said that some universities are requiring students to complete additional forms besides the FAFSA to be eligible for financial aid.

. . . more than 100 colleges and universities, including some in the nation’s capital, are providing students with unclear or potentially misleading information about what forms they must submit to apply for federal financial aid.

Often colleges require students to submit additional forms — which carry a fee — to qualify for grants from the institutions themselves or from other entities.

But too often, Cummings said, universities fail to spell out clearly what is required for which type of aid. He said that failure can leave students with the false impression that FAFSA is not the only application needed for federal aid.

“Congress banned this practice in 1992 because it creates undue hurdles for students seeking federal student aid,”

Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/congressman-many-colleges-are-misleading-students-about-financial-aid-requirements/2014/02/03/c5bcf13a-8d16-11e3-833c-33098f9e5267_story.html

3. Community College enrollment drops

Surprisingly, as the economy begins to rebound, community college enrollment is dropping. Many believe community college is considered a low-cost alternative to university expense.

Nationally, community college leaders are worried that falling enrollment will squeeze their revenue. Some, like their counterparts at four-year colleges, are searching for “enrollment management” strategies to bolster their bottom line.

“These enrollment drops are of great concern as colleges try to balance their budgets,” David Baime, senior vice president for government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges. “I have talked to a number of presidents who are making difficult decisions.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/data-on-community-college-enrollment-drop/2014/01/23/6ac258a4-8435-11e3-8099-9181471f7aaf_story.html

4. How colleges define merit aid

A group of college presidents went to the White House Thursday to talk about new efforts to attract more low-income students to higher education, admissions leaders gathered here and talked about how they define merit.

When colleges say “merit aid,” in this context, they mean “a student or family with sufficient means to pay for college education but they want to get a good deal and they want bragging rights,” she said. “So-called merit aid is awarded neither because the student has earned it nor because we are meeting the objectives of our colleges.”

Read more:  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/17/admissions-leaders-gather-and-consider-how-define-merit

5. High school follows you

A new study suggests that high school grades have a greater effect on college grades than you might think. A poor high school student is more likely to struggle in college.

The study by the National Bureau of Economic Research examines the college grades of students admitted to the University of Texas at Austin through the “10 percent program” in which the top students at every Texas high school have been guaranteed admission (although the percentage has been reduced somewhat since the plan was created).

The study found that the quality of high school is a key predictor of grades in college, not only in freshman year, but continuing into the sophomore and junior years as well.

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/27/study-finds-impact-attending-poor-high-school-follows-one-college

parenting, Uncategorized, Wednesdays parent

Wednesday’s Parent: These Tactics Won’t Spur Action

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college prep actionI tell so many people I work best under pressure. It’s not an excuse; it’s a fact. As you can imagine though, it’s stressful. Chasing deadlines may work when you’re self-employed, but it’s not a habit you want your college-bound teen to adopt. Every teen, unfortunately, procrastinates. It’s a part of their nature; and the college prep process on top of other life activities lends itself to procrastination.

Knowing that all teens (and some parents) procrastinate, what should you avoid when trying to motivate them to action during the college prep process.

Don’t be a bad example

We all know that our kids mirror us and our actions. If you college-bound teen sees you putting things off, procrastinating on tasks, and ignoring things that need to be done, why should they take action themselves? If you want you teen to tackle tasks as they become available and submit applications and forms before the deadline, model that behavior.

Don’t be a nag

Nagging never works with a teenager (and rarely works with a spouse). At some point they learn to tune you out. By the time they become teenagers all they hear is “blah, blah, blah”.

Don’t do it for them

Many parents get so tired of begging and nagging, that they opt to do it themselves. They complete the applications, write the essays, answer emails and take care of all the college related tasks. Yes, it happens; and colleges know when a parent is “helping” with the process.

Don’t lay on the guilt

Every parent uses the guilt tactic. Guilt will do more damage than motivate. If your teen begins to feel that they can never please you, it affects their self esteem. And they will stop trying because they feel whatever they do it’s not enough to please you.

Don’t jam it down their throat

There is a fine line between helping and encouraging and forcing your teen to do things. If your teen is not exhibiting any interest in test prep, college searches, scholarship searches and applications, perhaps there is a reason that needs to be addressed. Forcing them to write an essay will not produce a successful result. Making them apply to college when they don’t want to go will only cause bigger problems in the future.

You know your teen and you know what motivates them. Don’t use these tactics that rarely produce effective results.

Conversely, read Wendy’s blog on what you CAN do to motivate them to action.

 

college visits, how to, Uncategorized

How to Demonstrate Interest in a College

 

demonstrate interestBelieve it or not colleges want to know you are interested in attending. This interest will have an effect on their offers of admission. If they give you a coveted “accepted” slot, it only makes sense that those slots will go to the students who demonstrate interest. They are selling a service and they want interested customers, not casual shoppers.

Even if you can’t visit campus due to travel restraints, don’t despair. There are other ways you can demonstrate interest in a college.

Scheduled High School Visits

Colleges visit high schools. The ones in your area or state will be more likely to visit and connect with students and if you’re interested, this is an excellent place to meet the college representatives. It’s the old “put a face to a name” philosophy that works to your advantage when they are sifting through application packets.

College Fairs

Most cities have college fairs where colleges send their representatives to connect with students. Don’t just walk by the tables and collect their brochures and booklets. Speak with someone and fill out a card with your information. They see thousands of students during this fair and this face to face opportunity should not be neglected.

If you don’t have a college fair close by, consider attending CollegeWeekLive’s college fairs. These fairs are conducted entirely online and attended by college representatives. You can connect using your computer’s webcam and ask any questions you might have. It’s the next best thing to a local college fair.

Campus Visits

There is no better place to connect than during a campus visit. Make it official by signing up for a tour on the college’s website. Once you’re there, schedule an interview with an admissions officer and a financial aid officer. Talk to them about your interest in their college and ask any questions you might have at the time.

Social Media

Social media makes it easier than ever to connect with colleges and their representatives. You can follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn, and follow their Pinterest and Instagram accounts. Demonstrate genuine interest and contribute to the conversations; but don’t flood their accounts with replies and questions. In this case, less is more.

When application decision time rolls around you should have established yourself as an interested candidate. College admissions officers should be able to look at their records and see that you demonstrated interest. Some will remember your face, look back on your interview and be able to recall any conversations they had with you during the  admissions process. You will trump anyone who hasn’t expressed interest and was simply a casual shopper.

mom approved tips, parenting

Mom-Approved Tips: Moms Blogging About College

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moms bloggingSince I’m a mom, and you’re most likely a mom (or dad), you feel a kindred spirit with other parents, especially if they have been through or are going through the college prep process.

Aside from my blog, Parents Countdown to College Coach, there are other moms out there sharing their stories, their knowledge and their expertise. Below is my favorite list of nine moms blogging about college, add mine and it’s 10!

1. Dr. Strange College

This mom chronicles the college prep process as she experiences it with her kids. You will find excellent “how to” information and tips on how to motivate and keep your college-bound teen organized. What’s great about this blog? You can walk through the process with her.

2. How to Win Scholarships Money Blog

This mom helps you with the scholarship search process and with scholarship applications. Her blog highlights various scholarships and give parents tips on how to make their student’s scholarship application stand out.

3. Smart College Visit

This is a blog dedicated to help parents with the college visit and provides other advice for parents as well in the form of weekly tips.

4. More Than a Test Score

This blog, hosted by Zinch, has a parents tab that speaks specifically to parents. How do you know it’s a mom writing the blog posts? The majority of the posts were written by me!

5. POCSMom Blog

This parent of college student mom helps parents de-stress during the college prep process offering advice on how to relax and laugh when you get overwhelmed. She also  collaborates with me on a weekly blog post: Wednesday’s Parent.

6. Galtime-Parenting Tweens and Teens

Galtime is an online magazine for women, but if you go to their Parenting-Tweens and Teens tab you’ll find all kinds of advice on parenting college-bound teens, most written by moms.

7. The Perfect Score Project

This mom made it her goal to take the SAT test and get a perfect score while studying along with her son (and now daughter). Having trouble motivating your teen to study? This is the blog to read.

8. How to Pay for College HQ

This isn’t a blog; it’s a podcast. But this mom does transcribe each weekly podcast with information and links from her guests. Her goal is to send her four children to college without incurring debt–and she’s gathering together all the experts to pick their brains about it. Subscribe to her podcasts. You won’t regret it!

9. The Neurotic Parent

This mom started this blog while on an eight-state college tour with her oldest son. Her Neurotic Parent Archives offer some excellent advice for parents of college-bound teens with a little humor and sarcasm to the mix.

Do yourself a favor and check out these blogs, follow their RSS feeds, and sign up for their mailing lists to get updates when they post.

study tools, Uncategorized

Flashcards: An Effective Study Tool

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flashcardsStudents are always looking for more effective ways to study and parents want to help when possible. Two students, Michael Bollinger and Max Holnaicher “are using technology to take an age-old learning method – flashcards — and bring it into the 21st century,” says Microsoft’s dailyedventures.com. With SAT and ACT tests approaching, CardKiwi.com flashcards could be a valuable resource when used to study vocabulary and math formulas.

FreeTech4Teachers.com : “Card Kiwi is a flashcard service whose appeal is its simplicity. Flashcards on Card Kiwi are text only. As you flip through your flashcards you rate your understanding by simply clicking thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways. Card Kiwi will show you the cards that you rate with a thumbs down or thumbs sideways more often than the others until you’re using the thumbs up on every card in your set.”

“Spaced repetition works, increasing knowledge retention by up to 50 %,” says B. Price Kerfoot, an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. What are the advantages of spaced repetition? “In fact, in one memory study, students who used spaced repetition learning techniques were found to have outperformed other students in over 95% of cases (Cepeda et al, 2008).“

To summarize: using cardkiwi students will save time (they can share the work of creating flashcards with their friends) and significantly improve their recall rates. The application is so simple to use, they even have kids in grade 2 using it.

Watch this simple video that explains how it works and your student can join for FREE and begin using it immediately.

Scholarship Friday, scholarships

Scholarship Friday: ScholarshipOpportunity.org

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scholarshipopportunity.orgScholarshipOpportunity.org is another resource available for parents and students to find scholarships. What makes them unique is they have created guides that have scholarships separated into categories.

The Scholarship Guides

According to their site, the “Scholarship Opportunities” series features scholarships available for all students as well as those specifically for minority and under-represented students. They have sorted out the scams and tracked down the legitimate scholarships, internships, and fellowships, saving you months of research. Their books will help you find the scholarships you’re eligible for, so you can get your college degree without drowning in student-loan debt. Their series includes:

  • How to Find Scholarship Opportunities Online
  • Scholarship Opportunities for Non-Traditional Students
  • Scholarship Opportunities for STEM Majors
  • Scholarship Opportunities for Students with Disabilities
  • Scholarship Opportunities for First Generation Students
  • Scholarship Opportunities for Minority Students
  • Scholarship Opportunities for LGBTQ Students
  • Scholarship Opportunities for Veterans and Their Families
  • Scholarship Opportunities for Women
  • Scholarship Opportunities for Everyone

Each guide is available for undergraduates, graduates, and internships and fellowships.

Their publications are available for you to download in a variety of formats (Amazon Kindle, mobile devices, and computers). The Scholarship Opportunity series of books are interactive, filled with links to hundreds of scholarships and their online applications.

The Blog

They also have a blog that helps take the guesswork out of applying for scholarships by giving you tips and tricks to help you find and land scholarship opportunities that can save you money and cut student loan debt.

Each Tuesday they review scholarship sites to help you navigate effectively to find the real scholarships without joining the military. They discuss great sites and sites they think are a waste of your precious time.

On Thursday, they feature specific scholarships, highlighting detailed information on eligibility criteria, award amounts, required documents, contact information, and a link to the online application. These blog posts will give you a glimpse of the rich resources that their books offer.

financial aid, student loans

Understanding Federal Student Loans

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The FAFSA, based upon my 12 years of experience in working with college-bound high school students and their families, is a document that elicits terror and confusion. However, it really doesn’t have to be this way. I tell parents that the FAFSA really is simply an admission ticket to be considered for a wide range of college, state, and federal financial aid. In fact, parents can’t even qualify for any federal loans unless they fill out the FAFSA. If you don’t fill out the FAFSA, from a purely federal loan perspective, you don’t exist as a financial aid applicant to the federal government or the colleges.

The FAFSA website, surprisingly, is an excellent resource for most commonly-asked questions about how to complete the form. The form itself is remarkably user-friendly; if you fill it out electronically, which is how most families do it nowadays, the system will actually alert you to any potential errors when you’re entering information.

Rather than focus upon the mechanical aspects about the FAFSA, let me highlight two key general tips on the twin 500-pound gorillas of the federal loan world: subsidized and unsubsidized loans. These are the federal student loans that are frequently obtained via the FAFSA.

student loans

Subsidized student loans

Obviously a student would prefer a scholarship as opposed to a loan, but if you’re going to need a loan – and chances are you’re almost certainly going to have to borrow some money – then subsidized federal loans are the way to go. Interest rates are currently 3.86%, and the best part about these loans is that you don’t know owe any money or any interest until six months after you graduate (or fall below half-time status). And when I say graduate, I mean from your final degree program. Let’s say, for example, that you pursue a bachelors, Masters, and law degree without any breaks. You would only be responsible to repay the subsidized student loan six months after graduation from law school – even if you got your only subsidized student loan as a freshman in college. Even if you are able to fully pay for your college education, if you are offered a subsidized student loan why in the world would you not take it? It’s interest-free until your six-month grace period after graduation is over, in which case you can simply repay the loan in full, without penalty. In the meantime, your family would be able to invest that money in ways that (hopefully) generate income while the student is in college. If you truly do need the money, it’s nice to know that no interest is accumulating in the background while you are pursuing your studies.

In short, I can honestly think of no logical reason why a student wouldn’t accept the maximum in subsidized student loan funding for a given academic year.

Unsubsidized student loan

As the name implies, there are no taxpayer dollars going to pay off the interest while the student is in school. However, the student will not be expected to pay interest on the loan during his or her college, graduate, or professional education. Nonetheless, lurking in the background is the fact that unsubsidized loans are generating interest, and that they will have to be repaid six months after the student graduates (or falls below half-time status).

Why would someone take out these loans you might ask?

Well, unsubsidized student loans are still generally a better product than private sector loans. The interest rates are, like the subsidized student loans at the time of this writing, at 3.86% — clearly a better interest rate than what most private banks offer.

There’s another reason why I’m a fan of both the unsubsidized and subsidized loans from Uncle Sam. Let’s say a student gets into trouble and has a hard time repaying the lender. Although the federal government will expect full repayment – and forget about declaring bankruptcy to extinguish federal, state or private student loans because it’s virtually impossible to do so – in my experience the federal government will work more closely and more fairly with a delinquent applicant than will a private bank.

So when in doubt, take the federal loans as opposed to a private loan. They are both great loan programs and are the two loans most undergraduates will be offered if they and their parents complete the FAFSA.

______________________

About the Author

Today’s guest post is  from Jason Lum, the founder of ScholarEdge College Consulting.  Jason has won over $250,000 scholarships and graduated debt free.  Jason has helped students gain admission to some of the top universities in the country including Harvard, Yale and Stanford.  Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Helping parents navigate the college maze