I truly believe that this world is designed to separate you from your money.

Before you think I’m some weirdo or some pro-conspiracy theory sort of dude, allow me to explain myself. Everything that you want to do costs money. The moment you leave your home you’re going to spend at least a few dollars. Nothing is free and the prices of everything are constantly going up. In my community you have to pay extra if you want to throw out more garbage. Everything costs money, taxes are always going up , and it feels tough to get ahead.

It’s simply far too easy to spend your money these days. It feels as if everything is designed to take your money away from you.

What can you do about this harsh truth about money? You simply need to accept it and be conscious of what you do with your money. You don’t need to be paranoid. You just need to understand that things cost money. You need to understand that you won’t get ahead if you spend all of your money or if you buy crap any chance that you get.

Should you become tight with your money? Whenever I make a comment about how something costs too much, some friends will be quick to call me cheap. In my mind, cheap is when you don’t pay for value and don’t understand the significance of spending money in certain situations. You don’t need to be tight with your money. You just need to be smart with where you spend your money and what your money-related goals are.

To tie everything in together, I firmly believe that you need to stand behind the personal finance basics if you want to get ahead:

1. Pay yourself first. Before you spend on a dime on a new haircut or a $6 piece of cake at Starbucks, I believe that you need to pay yourself first. You can do this by setting up an automatic payment at your payroll office or with your bank account. Just set it and forget it. Let your money accumulate while you  spend the rest.
2. Spend less than you earn. I’ll preach to the death of me the importance of spending less than you earn. This ties in with the next personal finance basic.
3. Don’t buy it if you can’t afford it. If you don’t have the money for something then don’t freaking buy it! I don’t care if that couch has zero percent financing for the next 24 months or if you “need” that dress shirt for a “networking” event. Save the money first. Then buy whatever it is that you want. You can argue that you need a new car for work or a home mortgage, but that’s a discussion for another day.
4. Learn to make more money. Instead of squandering your time away in your 20s you can learn how to make more money. The more money that you make, the more that you can save. Sounds simple enough.

If you live by those four money management basics, you’ll be able to get ahead while your friends fall behind. The world can very well be after your money. You just need to be smart with it.

Is there another harsh truth about money that you wanted to share with us?

For example, I spend many hours a day writing about personal finance. I’ve been doing this since late-2008 and I still make so many foolish mistakes with my money. When my laptop crashed, I didn’t look for bargains or try to find the best deal on my next laptop. I just went into the Apple store and bought a brand new Macbook Air. I could have saved some good money by actually shopping around for a deal. Instead I bought the first laptop that I saw. I easily cost myself hundreds of dollars by doing this. My impatience has also cost me money other times in the past, but I won’t get into that for now. The point is that we all make mistakes with our money.

What are some mistakes that you could be making with your money right now?

• Getting charged petty banking fees.
• Eating out your meals too often.
• Going out too often.
• Screwing up you credit score, costing you thousands of dollars in the future.
• Not finding the best deal when buying big ticket items.
• Smoking cigarettes.
• Unhealthy lifestyle.
• Driving when you can take the bus.
• Living in a place you can’t afford.
• Buying when you should really rent.

On top of making mistakes with our money, we all have other issues that could be affecting us. Personal finance advice often comes in a “one-size-fits-all” sort of package. When you talk to real people you realize that there are many underlying issues preventing many of us from saving money in our 20s. We got so much going on in our lives, we don’t how to solve our own problems, and we’re expected to learn how to manage our finances.

What are some examples of spending weaknesses that we can possess in our 20s?

1. Being someone that goes out too often.
2. Falling in love easily and spending your money on trying to find a new partner.
3. Chasing get rich quick schemes.
4. Always wanting to start a new business
5. An irresistible urge to spend money constantly.

When it comes to being foolish with money and in general we all have poisons. That’s just the reality of trying to save money and build up your savings as you grow through your 20s.

When it comes to personal finance my poison is going out. I just can’t stay in for long. I always need to be out. I go out on random nights (Monday or Wednesday) because I feel like getting out. I love cooking my own food, yet I still find myself going to restaurants to eat out fairly regularly. I’ve been working on controlling this, but there are just times where the urge to go out takes over everything else.

As a 20-something what’s your poison? What’s forcing you to do something foolish? What’s costing you money with negative health implications? What’s holding you back from saving money?

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I wanted to devote this piece to a few key pieces of information that you need to know after college. These are all things that I learned the hard way. I want you to learn from my experiences so that you can save money and prevent some serious stress.

What do you need to know in your 20s? What financial lessons can you learn to apply to your life?

1. Driving is very expensive.

Not only do gas prices suck, but driving in general is damn expensive. Once you factor in all of these costs you can easily find yourself being constantly broke or living paycheck to paycheck:

1. Insurance.
2. Car payments.
3. Gas.
4. Maintenance.
5. Upgrades.

Driving is way too expensive once you add everything up. I’ve learned the hard way. However, I’ve also seen friends go broke because they bought expensive cars to impress chicks or because they needed to get around. Is it worth going broke to drive around? Not in my opinion.

2. Networking is more important thank you know in your 20s.

I wish I read Never Eat Alone much earlier in my life. Life really is all about who you know and how you use it.

How can you start networking right now?

• Talk to successful people. Talk to failures. Talk broke people. Talk to millionaires. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to everyone. Everyone loves talking about themselves.
• Show genuine interest. Offer to connect friends. Do anything you can to be a helpful person and people will respect you for it.
• Remember that you have nothing to lose. Reach out and throw yourself out there.

3. Phantom mortgages are expensive.

When you buy your first home in your 20s, you’ll soon realize how expensive it’s going to be to become a home owner. When you buy a new property (usually a condo) there will be a period where you live in the unit but you don’t technically own the unit. This will be expensive so please try to save as much money as possible before you decide to buy a home.

In general, you shouldn’t buy a home until you’re finally ready financially and emotionally.

4. Don’t be so greedy.

Try not to be greedy and get out when you can still can. If any of your investments increase in worth and you’re happy with the return, just sell. When you’re greedy, you lose sight of your goals and you can easily lose money. I’ve had greediness hurt me many times. I always wanted to quadruple my money or more. Doubling my money wasn’t enough. I look back at some of my decisions with stocks today and just shake my head.

“If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” — P. J. O’Rourke

5. Everything CAN and WILL Change.

Things change. People change. Your job will change. Your living situation will change. Everything can and will change. You can be afraid of change or you can embrace it. You just need to accept the fact that things will change on you.

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” – Arnold Bennett

Those are all a few things that you need to know after college. I hope that you learn from my experiences and try to apply them to your own life.

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What are the benefits of working in college?

• Save up money.
• Pay down student debt.
• Get work experience.
• Mature faster.

Is it possible to work full-time while in college? Yes. I did it and many of my friends have down this. It’s actually not that difficult. I was worried when I first tried it, but then I realized that I wouldn’t have done it any other way.

How can you work full-time in college?

Find an easy job.

I recommend that you search for a relatively easy job. I don’t want to knock any jobs, but there are some jobs that are simply easier on students. What do I mean by this? There are plenty of jobs available to you where you can zone out and even possibly get your homework down on the job.

What are some of these jobs?

• Any random gig on campus.
• Teaching Assistant.
• Any desk job on campus.
• Tech support.
• Exam invigilator.

What’s better than getting your school work done while getting paid?

Try part time work first and SLOWLY transition over.

Start off at 5 hours a week and try adding an hour each week until you reach your maximum capacity. What is your maximum capacity? Only you can figure this out. You might realize that your boss is cool and your co-workers are super friendly, and you’re going to be able to work all of the time. On the other hand, you might find a stressful job with annoying colleagues and you won’t be able to handle this for more than 10 hours per week.

I recommend that you try out a few part-time gigs at varying hours until you find something that works for you. It won’t always be easy to find full-time work, but you can find something for sure. You’ll be on your way to making money in college.

Cut out pointless stuff from your schedule.

How much time do you waste? The biggest myth amongst college students about time management is that we don’t have enough time. Time is the one thing that we have an abundance of. I suggest that you cut out the crap that’s holding you back. What does this consist of?

• Sleeping in forever.
• Watching pointless reruns.
• Creeping on Facebook.
• Sitting around.

You notice I didn’t mention partying? I support going out and clearing your head in college. It’s supposed to be the best time of our lives! You just need to get your school work done and have some money coming in.

Sleep in when you can.

We all love to sleep in but how great can it be when done every single day? The thing about working full time while studying full time is that you’re going to lose out on some sleep. I got by thanks to my caffeine addiction (is it an addiction if you enjoy it?) and consuming serious caffeine. However, once a week at least I would clear my schedule so that I could sleep in. I would not set an alarm. I would fall asleep and rest until my body was ready to go. You need this to get by as a student that’s working long hours.

Sacrifice is needed.

College is a party. College is a blast. You can still sacrifice a little bit in college. As mentioned above, you might have to cut out some activities from your life. The trade-off will be the benefits of working full-time in school. You’ll have less student debt and valuable work experience. Is this worth the sacrifice to you?

That’s how you can work full-time in college. What’s holding you back? Are you going to try to work full-time in school?

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I challenged a few pieces of conventional wisdom. I decides to stand out in the crowd. I decided to do things differently. 

Today I wanted to look at financial myths that all college students need to not only challenge, but slap right across the face. These are myths that will only hold you back in your 20s. Do you want to be held back? I didn’t think so.

What are some financial myths that college students need to stop believing?

Myth 1– You need to pay for college with student loans.

Do you need to borrow money for college? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

The biggest financial myth in college is that you need to borrow money to cover the costs of your education. This is not true. I avoided student loans at all costs. The last thing I wanted was any student debt to be holding me back.

How can you pay for college? 

• Bursaries
• Working full-time.
• Taking time off to work.
• Working in the summer.
• Grants
• Scholarships.

As you can tell, all of these ideas are rather extensive and deserve their own blog post (in the future). For now I just wanted to throw these options out so that you know that you don’t have to turn to student loans.

Myth 2– There’s no point in saving money in college because you’re not making real money.

That’s another load of crap that students believe in. Saving money isn’t just for the rich. The rich make lots of money. The middle class make a little bit of money, but they focus more on saving money and building wealth over time.

The best habit that you can develop in college is to learn how to save a little bit of money. I started off by saving $20 a week. I quickly realized that this would give me just over $1,000 per year. Then I got instantly hooked. If you start saving little by little, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much money you can have in your bank account over the span of four years.

You can graduate in debt or you can finish college with some serious savings. The choice is yours.

Myth 3– You can just chill out in college.

While I support the idea of having fun in college, I’m not a fan of just chilling out. College is supposed to be fun. College is supposed to be a great time in life. That doesn’t mean that you have to spend all of your time doing nothing in college. You have so much energy and youth on your side, that you pretty much should feel invincible all of the time.

College is the best time to start a business. It’s also the best time to make some major moves that will shape the rest of your life. You can still party on the weekends. You don’t have to chill out every single day. There’s a lot that you can accomplish with your plethora of energy in your early-20s.

Those are financial myths that college students need to stop believing. If you challenge these three myths, you’ll be far and above away from the rest of the group. You’ll have more money than ever before and you’ll be much happier in your mid-20s.

Did I miss out on any finance-related myths?

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“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

Do you invest money in yourself? Do you believe in spending money to improve your quality of life?

I personally think the best way to invest money in your 20s is into education. There are many foolish ways to squander your money. There are also many ways to maximize your income to get the most out of your future.

What sort of education can you invest your money into? I would summarize this education under 3 general categories

1. Formal education.

The first option for education is the traditional route that most of us will consider after high school. This is the piece of paper (degree/diploma/associate’s degree) that you obtain from a formal post secondary institution. This is what most of us will do after high school. The standard plan is to finish high school, go to college, and then find a job a in the field. This is what a formal education will do for you.

What are the benefits of a formal education? A traditional education can land you a much better job than you could find without pursuing a higher education after high school. You can also find a specific job that you happen to have in mind. The reality is that jobs require at least a college degree.

The price is usually pretty expensive because it will likely take you up to four years to earn a formal education. You might also have to move to a new town to pursue your degree.

2. Self-taught education.

This is the information you extract from reading books on your own time, looking through blog posts, taking side courses, and paying for consulting. This is what you learn on your own. You won’t get a certificate or a degree for this, but the information that you pick up will be highly valuable.

What’s so good about learning on your own? Thanks to the Internet, you can learn anything you want these days. You go on Google and you can literally find anything. You can learn a new language, learn how to meet women, and learn how to make more money. What are you waiting for?

Most of the topics that you can learn on your own are either free (online), cost a little bit of money (online courses), or are easy to find (books).

3. Real life education.

This is the stuff you learn when you actually work and talk to people that know a thing or two. This is what you pick up by getting your hands dirty. A real world education is priceless because it will teach you how to navigate through this complex world.

How do you even get a real life education? You can find this simply by working. Everything that you learn in school or on your own is designed to prepare you for the so-called “real world.” I personally found that the only way to get a real life education is to actually get out there. It’s like preparing for war or a fight. You can train all you want. You’ll never be fully ready until you jump right in.

That’s how you can invest in yourself. The type of education that you choose to invest in depends on how much time you have, your financial situation, and how you learn new things.

What sore of education have you obtained in the last few years?

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“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” — Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Why’s everyone so obsessed with celebrities? I turn on the news to see what’s going on in the world and I hear about some party that The Situation got wasted at. Why should I care about this? This isn’t news to me. I want to know what’s actually happening. When I care about partying or fun stuff I do it myself. I don’t need to hear how Chris Brown and Rihanna were at the same club. I wasn’t there dancing with Rihanna so why should I care?

Celebrity news often surprises me because it can be pretty random.

My new personal favorite piece of celebrity gossip is this one…

Katy Perry is being offered $3.1 million big ones for a book discussing here divorce.

Is that even possible? You shouldn’t be compensated for writing about your divorce, even though I realize that there’s likely a big market for this. I just can’t wrap my mind around the idea that someone will make millions to write about a divorce.

Where am I going with this?

I never understood the fascination with celebrities. Are our own lives so boring that we have to worry about others? I personally get annoyed of reading about trips and experiences, because I want my own experiences. I want to live my own life. I don’t care which celebrities hooked up over the weekend to be honest. I care about how I’m going to pay my bills and increase my own income.

How does this relate to personal finance in your 20s?

Many of us worry too much about what others have to say and think. As a result of this, we end up spending money on crap that we don’t need. Even worse, we get influenced to spend money that we don’t even have. This causes us to pick up major debt in our 20s that’s going to follow us for the next decade or so.

I feel that our priorities are all screwed up these days. When you’re in debt, you should be pushing to become debt-free. When you have no savings, you should be working towards beefing up your savings accounts. When your income sucks, you should be working towards increasing it.

What about your own life? Are you where you want to be in life? Do you have an emergency fund? Are you crushing your debt?

My suggestion is that you take this time that you spend on celerity gossip and devote it towards your own projects. An ex-girlfriend of mine would bring these celebrity gossip magazines everywhere we went. While I would blog or work on my school work, she would read about celebrities and I never understood this.

If we spent more time on our own finances and improving our situations, we would be much better off.

“The whole celebrity culture thing – I’m fascinated by, and repelled by, and yet I end up knowing about it.” — Anderson Cooper

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How can you be careless in your 20s?

• You can go out often.
• Travel the world.
• Spend more money than you have coming in.
• Buy crap you don’t need.
• Max out your credit cards.
• Over-indulge.

What are the main negatives of being careless with your finances when you’re young?

1. No savings. You don’t want to be 40 years old and in a situation where you have no flexibility. The beauty of starting to save in your early 20s is that you can take it easy when you’re much older.
2. Stuck in debt. Even worse than having no savings is being stuck in debt. Imagine having to detail with a credit card bill that you racked up when you were 21 and out of control? I’ve seen many friends screw up their credit just by treating that piece of plastic like it’s free money. The money isn’t free and the consequences are pretty harsh.
3. Work in your older years. My old neighbor worked into his 70s because he never started saving money in his early years. I don’t want to mock anyone, but imagine working a job that you hate once your body has already given up on you. How would you feel?
4. Can’t follow your passions. As much as I get annoyed by the following your passions phrase, I still totally support the idea of finding work that you actually enjoy. Life’s far too short to spend your time on some job that you hate and don’t get fulfilled at.

Where am I going with this? It’s tempting to be careless in your 20s. To be honest with you, this post is coming live from Puerto Plata. All of my new found friends are out drinking and playing games by the pool. I’m here sitting in the lobby because I have obligations to fulfil. I have writing to do. Not to say that I’m perfect because I’m far from it.

I just wanted to let you guys know that as fun as it is to be careless in your 20s, the consequences can be severe. The trick is find a way to have fun without being totally careless. If you do all of your work and are on top of things, then there’s nothing wrong with going out for drinks. There’s nothing wrong with spoiling yourself. You just have to try to find that perfect balance. If you have no savings then it makes no sense to go on a trip, right? I met someone on a previous trip that used their student loan money to pay for the trip. I’m not sure they’re going to be happy with that decision in the future.

Can you be careless in your 20s? Only if you work for it. The best advice that I read in a travel book was that you have to earn your freedom. I stand by this totally. If you don’t earn your fun you won’t enjoy it as much and you’ll be stuck with credit card debt and other problems for many years to come.

Will you be careless in your 20s? Have you been careless? Have you witnessed the consequences of being careless with your money on your time?

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It’s time to debate what is arguably one of the most popular topics in the frugality realm, the cup of coffee. When I first started writing about personal finance my advice was simple. You know? Don’t drink expensive cups of coffee in the morning if you want to save money. Restrict basically anything fun and you’ll be rich.

As I progressed through college and my own financial life, I realized that the cup of coffee advice was useless. Why? For starters, I often drink more than one cup of coffee when I’m out during the day. Also, there are better ways to see bigger results. Enough of the introduction, it’s time to get into things.

Should you save money on coffee? Is it worth buying coffee?

Should you save the money and put it in a coin jar?

If you save $2 a day, you’ll save a ton of money in your lifetime. The calculations can be pretty scary actually. The problem is that you can say this about anything. Why go out when you can save the money? Why bother with traveling when you can just save? Why eat well when you can buy cheap food?

The point is that you can always use the scarcity mindset to save money. You can cut back on everything in your life. It’s not fair to simply look at price only.

What if you need that boost to start your day off?

Let’s assume that you want to cut back on caffeine due to financial or health reasons. The only problem is that not having a cup of coffee in the morning leads to you being tired all day (it happens to me). What can you do?

You can always try these alternatives for getting a boost in the morning:

• Working out.
• Eating food that provides plenty of energy (bananas or almonds).
• Sleeping more.
• Drinking more water.

I’m a daily coffee drinker so I’m in no position to be giving advice on coffee alternatives. When I don’t drink coffee, the tips above work well.

At the end of the day you need to find the perfect balance. Don’t listen to what a blogger tells you. Try out a few techniques and see what works for you. I couldn’t have gotten through college and working full-time if it wasn’t for caffeine. Perhaps you won’t need coffee to get by.

What if you don’t want to make your own coffee?

Whether you need the  caffeine or not in the morning is highly debatable. The common advice in the personal finance community on coffee is to make your own coffee. Well here’s a newsflash: not all of us want to make our own coffee or cook our own food. It just is what it is. You can live in the way the world should be or you can accept it for what it is.

If you don’t want to make your own coffee in the morning, there’s nothing wrong with buying coffee. There’s no need to feel guilty. Guilt doesn’t lead to anything productive. You need to work with your weaknesses and move on from there.

I want to leave you guys with this key takeaway– focus your energy on what truly matters. Save your money where it counts most. If you hate being stuck in traffic and then having to pay $15 for parking, you can try taking the bus. If you enjoy a cup of coffee with friends in the morning, why deprive yourself? Find other ways to save money.

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Congratulations to you if you fall under that category. Many of us don’t know what we want to do. Some of us (myself included) will graduate from college without knowing what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Many people in their 30s still have no clue of what they want to do next.

Today I wanted to deviate from the conversation about starting a business in college. I wanted to talk about your major in college and if it’s worth switching it.

After speaking to many friends that did this and those that avoided it, I wanted to discuss changing majors in college. Is it financially worth switching programs?

If your new course selection is 100%.

Are you totally positive that your new major will hold your interest? The harsh reality is that you need to understand why you even want to switch in the first place. Did you flunk out? If you didn’t put in the work, then it doesn’t matter what you switch to.

If your attitude is positive and your totally sure of what to do next, then go for it. One of my good friends wanted to be a Firefighter is whole life. His parents forced him to get a degree. The whole four years that he studied Social Work he knew that he wanted to be fighting fires. He stuck out the four years and then ten years (one whole decade) later ended up applying for his dream job of Firefighter. He could have switched. For some reason he just wasn’t 100%.

If you’re not near the end of your college term.

I’ve been told that it’s financially and emotionally draining to switch majors near the end of your run. I can totally see this because you’ve invested so much time and money into your education and now you have to start from scratch.

I have a friend that switched majors near the end of his term. He told me that it’s frustrating because he’s 25 years old sitting in a first year course with a bunch of teenagers. Are you willing to start all over again?

If you have the money.

I’ve been told that switching majors and starting over again can really make an impact on your finances. This especially holds true when you’re financing your whole education with student loans. Starting over again means that you have to start paying the same expenses all over again. Is this worth it? I don’t think so.

You’re now going to have to apply for more student loans and get into more debt. That means that your retirement planning is going to take a hit.

On the other hand, if you have the funding (family or scholarships), and switching majors won’t destroy your finances, then switching majors could be the best decision that you make.

Are you going to switch majors in college?

The decision is ultimately all yours. I hope that I gave you enough to think about and that you make the best possible decision for your unique situation because I can only suggest what could work for you. The rest is up to you.

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