People often say that one’s life in college exists in a bubble and is wholly dissimilar from the real world. This is certainly often the case as far as financial considerations are concerned. Most college students don’t have mortgages, insurance payments, and a family to feed. What they do have is a quality of life that encourages free spending.

If your parents are footing the college bill, you probably won’t think twice about eating every night in the expensive dining hall or paying a bit more for an off-campus apartment. If your parents aren’t helping out at all, you probably will consider a costly night of bar-hopping to be just a drop in the bucket when compared to all your student loans. Either way you likely won’t feel too compelled to reduce your expenses and live more frugally.

Graduation can change all that. Suddenly, you will realize that your spending needs to be accounted for and that your budget needs to find room for numerous real-world expenses. You’ll hopefully have a job and an income, but you probably won’t make as much as you’d like – and, don’t forget, you still need to pay off all your student loans. The transition is understandably a difficult one to make.

When money is tight and loans are high in the post-grad world, it’s important to get out of the “college bubble” mindset and learn to downsize your life so as to avoid irresponsible spending and greater debt loads in the future. Here are a few suggestions:

Live small. A benefit of being a college grad is that there are few things in your life that would require you to have a larger or more expensive living space. You don’t have substantial amounts of furniture or a family to shelter. You don’t have ties to a particular neighborhood or a mortgage on a house. With all this in mind, there’s no reason why you can’t sacrifice some space and save some money. And, if you do have a large number of possessions, you can probably get better rental rates at a self storage facility.

Minimize your spending outside the home. Graduates that can’t shed their college lifestyle have a habit of going out regularly, eating at restaurants and frequenting bars, and unsurprisingly spending a good deal of money in the process. You can avoid these expenses by thinking carefully before buying something that will not be used in your home.

Use cash. People who rack up credit card debit after graduation are often those who had a campus card or a university ID upon which they made food and book purchases as a student. The sense that you’re dealing with “fake money” while in college often persists into the real world as far as credit card use is concerned, on both conscious and unconscious levels. For this reason, going through the extra hassle of carrying cash instead of credit may be a smart decision for the first few post-college years.

Following these suggestions can help you shed the college mindset and start saving more money. While there are many ways to cut expenses, it is important that the recent graduate target those areas where unscrupulous spending was acceptable or even encouraged during his college life. The faster these areas see reduced spending, the faster you can find yourself on firmer financial footing and in greater control over your future.

This guest post is by Samantha Peters, a blogger who enjoys writing about ways for college and grad students to maximize their money by downsizing their life after graduating.

The best part of college life is the ability to taste financial freedom. When you’re a student in college, it may seem that it is impossible to pay more than the minimum monthly payments on your credit cards. However, if you’re living on a fixed income where you’re earning through allowances or from a part-time job, you have to be careful so that you may save enough money and build a rainy day fund from which you can repay your credit card debts when you’re going through a credit crunch.

As the interest rates on the credit cards are outrageously high, you have to make sure that you pay more than minimum monthly payments in order get rid of debt as soon as possible. Despite taking all the efforts to get rid of debt, if you still incur revolving debt, you should get help from a credit card debt consolidation company.

How can you benefit by getting help from a credit card debt consolidation company?

The biggest issue that the college students face while repaying the debts is the fact that they have to split their payments among multiple credit card servicing companies. They have to remember multiple due dates, and this is probably the reason that they tend to forget the dates and start defaulting. Shortage of funds is certainly another reason of defaulting on the credit card payments. Consolidating credit card debt may take various forms but whichever option you choose, you’ll tend to benefit in some common ways.

• The interest rates will be lowered on the credit card accounts.
• The monthly payments are revised and the repayment term altered to assist the debtor to repay with ease.
• You can waive off all the late fees and the penalties so that you can lower the monthly payments.

Choosing the best credit card debt consolidation company

There are many debt consolidation companies in the market that are waiting to offer their services to the student borrowers and unless you choose the best among them, you may not benefit in the best possible way.

• Always check whether or not the company is registered with the BBB or the Better Business Bureau so that you may be able to know the authenticity of the company.
• Go through the consumer complaints and the reviews so that you may know the quality of the services provided by the respective company.
• The credit card debt consolidation company that you choose should offer you free debt counseling so that they can assess your basic financial state before offering you with any kind of help.

Therefore, when you’re someone who is still in college but has amassed a huge amount of credit card debt, you should get help from a credit card debt consolidation company so that you can repay your debts with ease and thereby lead a happy life. Stop using your credit cards further until you become free of debt.

A couple years ago, I wrote about making over $1000 online with CashCrate. Shortly afterwards, I took a break from blogging and haven’t touched this blog again until now. Like most neglected items, I expected this blog to just collect dust and fade into the darkness.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I’ve made over $3000 with CashCrate in the past two years without doing anything. CashCrate has truly become a source of passive income.

However, I won’t lie. Most people don’t like to admit it, but passive income isn’t “passive” at all. In fact, it takes a tremendous amount of hard work and effort to produce something that will generate passive income.

There are other sites out there that claim you’ll be making hundreds or thousands of dollars with CashCrate within a few months, but they are lying. That’s the actual CashCrate scam.

The truth is that CashCrate is a great way to make some extra money right now, and if you put enough time and effort into it, you can make even more extra money off of referrals.

Here are a few articles to help you make money with CashCrate faster:

• Make Money with CashCrate and Pass It On
• How To Make $24 with CashCrate Right Now
• Making Money with CashCrate
• CashCrate Proof of Payment

You may be reading this because you want a change of pace in your career. Or maybe you have a business idea, and you’re wondering if you have what it takes to become a revered entrepreneur.

What exactly is an entrepreneur? I’d like to show you why entrepreneurism is something you’re not just “born with,” how anyone can become one, and why we as a society need you to read this article.

Entrepreneur Defined

When I researched the definition of entrepreneur, I must say, I was a bit disappointed with the results I found. I was hoping for a definition that truly encompassed the risks, struggles, benefits, and traits that were generally associated with being an entrepreneur. One definition I found online was:

“A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.” – Merriam-Webster

While the Merriam-Webster definition is unarguably true in many ways, I don’t think this definition gives entrepreneurs the credit they deserve. I’d like to cut and dice this definition to better illustrate the life and journey of a true entrepreneur and then get into what specific qualities true entrepreneurs must learn.

Here’s my version:

“A visionary businessperson who organizes and spearheads a movement in the marketplace and works diligently to ensure success of the initiative.”

I took out Merriam-Webster’s “taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so,” because while it is true that entrepreneurs must be financial risk takers, I believe that entrepreneurs take on more than just financial risks to pursue their initiatives, and I believe “works diligently to ensure success” better encompasses the idea that entrepreneurs will do just about anything and wear multiple hats to achieve their goals.

There are many different types of entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur doesn’t have to be the next Steve Jobs, change the way cars are built, or even start a revolution, but they do have to share a special set of qualities and characteristics that are essential all for entrepreneurs in charge small or large businesses.

5 Must-Have Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur

If you don’t consider yourself an entrepreneur now, you can become one. Contrary to popular belief, people are not born entrepreneurs. People are born with certain qualities that they can capitalize on, and then they are presented with events in their life that create opportunities to display these qualities and build something great. The good news is that you can cultivate the qualities you weren’t inherently born with, but it takes effort. Here are five areas that you must honestly judge yourself in if you want to be an entrepreneur.

Maintained Vision
Every successful business endeavor starts with a vision. Every step you take in business should move you closer to your vision. You may refine your vision as you go, but you must always work towards this outcome that you have imagined.

Inner Drive
As an entrepreneur, you must have a burning drive to do something with the vision you’ve created. There’s not much you can do with an idea unless you have the inner passion to initiate a response to take action.

Self Discipline
Entrepreneurs typically don’t have a boss. Therefore, you must be able to manage yourself. You must know where your weaknesses lie and be able to crack down on them. For example, if you can’t finish projects without deadlines, YOU have to set the deadline. Some people need a boss. That’s what makes the world go around. Be your own boss if you want to be an entrepreneur.

Resourcefulness
Don’t let obstacles stop you from moving forward. Search for the thing that you need until you’ve found it. Network to find the right people who can help you. Don’t take no for an answer. If you’ve hit an obstacle, it just means you need something. That “something” you need is somewhere, so go find it and don’t give up until you find it.

Perseverance
Entrepreneurs must be able to pick themselves up when they fall. Don’t get discouraged by the occasional doubts you may face. In fact, the doubts you face are the perfect opportunity to prove to yourself that the vision you’ve created can become a reality. Why can’t it? If you backslide in your initiatives, get back on the wagon. Focus on your vision and what steps you need to take to move forward. You created it, so take charge of it.

Why We Need You To Be An Entrepreneur

We need leaders! We need someone with revolutionary ideas to set these “norms” for us. Entrepreneurs will continue to shape and build our business society, create jobs, present new ways of doing things, and define the way businesses should be run.
You’ve got something to contribute to this world, and your ideas could be the next big thing. Even in small businesses, you as an entrepreneur can set the standard of how business is conducted in your industry, and you can reap the rewards of being a true entrepreneur.

About the Author: Sara Schoonover is Vice President of of TicketKick, a California company that helps drivers to reduce speeding fines and/or get speeding tickets, and other traffic tickets dismissed by helping drivers through the trial by written declaration process. The company, which formally launched in 2010 after providing similar services since 2006, is the leading company in this space and growing rapidly.

Over the past few years, we have seen the price of college tuition continue to rise and the unemployment rate of recent graduates reach new highs. With college students and their parents paying more money for college to earn a potentially useless piece of paper, it’s hard not to ask — is a college degree still worth it?

Those who argue that a college degree isn’t worth it usually mention a few names of college dropouts who became billionaires, like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. However, these cases are outliers if you compare them to average college dropouts.

In my personal experience, paying for a college degree was worth it because it helped me land my dream job. Going to college helped me learn the skills and make the connections that gave me the opportunity to apply for my dream job, but that alone wasn’t enough. I wanted to work at arguably the top company in my field. Needless to say, thousands of other people did too. And so I was rejected the first time…and the second time…and the third time. That’s right — I applied four times (and spent a couple of extra years in grad school) before I finally got the job.

On the other hand, one of my coworkers told me the story of how he made it to the same place as me without going to college at all. In high school he was failing his classes, and his teachers told him he wouldn’t succeed. Tired of the negativity, he decided to drop out of school, but instead of giving up, he decided to prove his teachers wrong. He discovered something that he loved to do and learned how to do it on his own. He got good enough to get a job at a smaller company and gradually worked his way up to bigger companies until he finally made it to his dream job.

As you can see, there are many ways to achieve your goals whether or not you go to college. In the end I think the true worth of a college degree is what you make of it. For some people, college will help you figure out what you want to do and how to get there, but for other people, college will leave you just as confused as you were at the start (with a lot more debt).

Now it’s your turn to share. Do you think a college degree is worth the money?