Tips from a college student

It has been about a month and a half now since I opened up my Wachovia checking account so I could get the $50 bonus. I was wondering when this bonus was going to appear in my account, so I decided to sent them a message. In the reply they said that it doesn't show up until 60 days after the promotion ends, which is the end of the year! I think that is a little long, but I guess I should have read the fine print.

I have been getting annoyed with Wachovia because they do not have good online features, the main one being I'm not able to transfer money from other banks to them online. Maybe I've been using too many online banks, but I just expected a bank as big as Wachovia to be able to have a decent online system. I mean, my small credit union does!

Anyway, I am done with that rant now. If you are wondering what promotion that I am talking about, click here for a link to my earlier post on the promotion.

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I just received an email from my FNBO account saying that the rate is changing on September 29th from 6% to 5.05%. I am not sure yet how that stacks up against all of the others, but I do know that my ING account just lowered their rates also. This is a large step down, but I believe that FNBO will still be among the highest interest rates in the country. I plan on keeping my account their open, and only transferring money out if I find a higher one.

As I have posted before, if you do not have your money in a high-yield savings account, you are crazy. Regular banks have rates between 1 and 3%, but with the high-yield accounts you can almost double your interest earned. Why would you not want to do that? If you are interested in signing up for a ING account, you get a 25$ bonus for signing up if you ask me for a referral link and I get a 10$ bonus. So feel free to contact me and ask for an ING referral link if you are interested in signing up for that one. It doesn't have the best rate, but it is one of the better-known online banks, and some people feel more secure with that.

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There is no such thing as job security. I hate to bust your bubble, but no one has 100% job security. I once heard someone say that the closest thing to job security you can get is overworked and underpaid.

One of the biggest problems with people today is that they are not hard workers. This is not completely their fault, though, as they have it ingrained in them to be lazy. Think about it, most kids these days are spoiled and all they do is watch tv and sit around and waste a lot of time. They are never taught to work hard, and this also contributes to the problem of obesity in America, but that's another post for another time.

So back to job security, the best way to obtain job security is to teach yourself to be a hard worker. You can do this by working hard at everything you do, not just at work. When you work out at the gym, focus and give 100%. Try to not waste time in anything you do, but always try to be efficient. Once you have instilled these qualities in yourself, you will naturally work harder and waste less time without even thinking about it. This will make you more valuable to your employer, thus giving you more job security.

As most of the readers of this blog are college students, you can apply this by being efficient in your studying and getting your homework done quickly and effectively. After all, employers look at your grades to judge how good of a worker you will be, because if you don't work hard in school then what would make them think you would change when you get a job? If you are efficient in your studies you will not only have more time to do other things but your grades will be better and you will have developed a better work ethic, which will eventually lead to job security down the road.

So basically, work hard and don't waste time and you will make yourself so valuable to your employer that they cannot afford to fire you.


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I was driving down the highway yesterday and my truck started making a really loud clicking noise, then it turned into a clanking noise. It got really bad so I pulled over and got it towed. I opened the hood while I was waiting and realized that a spark plug was blown out of the engine. I don't know what happened, as today is Labor Day and the mechanic is closed, but I know this will be expensive.

I have spent so much time saving money and being frugal, and now I just feel like it's all for nothing because something like this happens. I am trying to be optimistic and bring out the good in this though, so I'm going to try to write about the good that can come out of a major catastrophe in your life.

This is when you need to have an emergency fund. Luckily I have one, but it will most likely be depleted after this. I don't have much income as most college students normally don't, and what I get goes to school, so this month is going to be rough. Actually, these next few months will be. My hours at work are cut back now that classes have started, and I don't have near as much free time, so I don't know where the income will come from but I will probably beg my parents for money and cut back my spending drastically.

Problems like this can happen to anyone, and the more you have, ie car, house, pets, kids, etc., the more can go wrong. It is very important to have an emergency fund in times like this so that you don't have to go into debt. You don't want to be stuck paying for years down the road for an emergency that happened just because you were not saving your money properly.

There are many different opinions on how much you should have in your emergency fund, but for me I just have savings. It is my emergency/retirement/downpayment for a future house account. It gets really good interest and is FDIC insured so there is no risk. I don't have enough money to designate it to different areas such as retirement, and I know many people probably disagree with me on this, but I'm just happy to have some savings. Most of my friends have less than $1000 in the bank, and if something like this happened to them they would have to sell the vehicle and everything they own. I'm not saying I won't sell it, because I don't know what will happen, but my point is you need an emergency fund now. I recommend enough to live for one month off of. Then once you get that make it 2 months, then 6 months. I'd say once you have that much you can start retirement and just make sure you maintain the emergency fund.

So basically, create an emergency fund and pray you don't have to use it. You know the old saying, "prepare for the worst and pray for the best."


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