Financial Flash-Forward
Posted on July 27, 2010
Under Advice, Do Everything Better, money | By Ashley Singh
Ever since I graduated from college, I have been more even more conscious of the way I spend my money. I’ve always been independent as far as my money goes, but I have never consciously thought about rent, grocery budgets, and spending money. It’s really hard trying to balance all of that along with everything else that I have going on. And then there is the weekly adventure of going grocery shopping; I’ve learned that food has gotten crazy expensive—maybe it’s inflation, or the oil spill, but I’ve never really noticed how expensive things really are until I started buying things for myself.
In light of my recent revelations, I have compiled some rules for money management post-college because it’s amazing how much you actually spend, and you don’t realize it until the check comes and then you remember that you still have to buy groceries the next day.
1. Stop paying attention to all the studies about how much money people who graduated with certain degrees make, it will just make you more anxious about yours.
2. The day after you get paid, think about what you want to do within the next week and how much everything will cost you.
3. As well as budgeting out your paycheck, always pay yourself first—put at least ten percent in your savings account and don’t touch it, take out money from your checking account.
4. Make a list when you go to the groceries, because if you don’t you will end up walking around extremely confused.
5. If you took out college loans, you generally have six months after you graduate to start paying them back—relax, but make sure you’re setting yourself up right.
6. If you’re not sure if you are, see rule # 7…
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you had your parents’ help throughout college, don’t be proud enough to think that just because you’re out and about on your own that you will not need help with your money or anything else.
8. Remember that you can treat yourself, even if you are living paycheck to paycheck, like me as well as the rest of America. Think of it as the airplane philosophy—you have to take care of yourself first before you can take care of others.
9. If you want to go shopping, by all means go shopping, but don’t use your grocery money to buy what you want. Instead, when you want to buy something think about it for a full day and if you still want it, then go back and get it.
10. If you have been a spender instead of a saver your entire life (or vice-versa), you’re not going to change anytime soon, it’s about making good choices for you and for your life.
Bottom line: It’s all about balance. Being financially independent is an important aspect of life. It is something that should be taken seriously, but should not rule your life and make your decisions for you.
If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say
Posted on July 20, 2010
Under Column as I See 'Em, Media, Scandalous!, Uncategorized, Video, Words, words, words | By Ashley Singh
I tend to have a very light sense of humor so I find most things in this world highly amusing. I watch the Miss America pageant because there is a good chance that someone will fall; one of my favorite shows is My Boys, a show that nobody except me enjoys. But what has gotten me lately is that two grown women are fighting on national television.
The somewhat controversial comedian Kathy Griffin is once again in a very public feud with ‘The View’ co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. This time it’s over a comment made by Griffin on her show “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.” She refers to a comment made by Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, who said in his acceptance speech that his two daughters were “available.” Griffin then made a joke that “he has two daughters that are prostitutes.” Hasselbeck then fired back this morning on the talk show by saying that, “In general, if someone called your daughter a prostitute, would you think they’d be scum?…I’d call them scum.”
The most irrational part of this whole thing is that Griffin has had trouble with the show before and yet they continue to invite her onto the show. She has been banned from the show twice: once in 2006 for not getting along with Star Jones, and again in 2008. When she made a joke in one of her specials involving Walters and then was called by producers and told, ‘you were too mean to Barbara [Walters] on your last special, so you can’t come on’. So this is essentially strike three for the comedienne.
It is no secret that Griffin and Hasselbeck don’t get along. In an appearance on the show in June of this year, things turned ugly once again when they began talking about Griffin’s act and Hasselbeck said, “you’ve said things about people here that are A) untrue and B) not funny, so do you ever feel uncomfortable coming here?” Griffin fired back with, “this is what I live for, so bring it.”
So if there is anything to be learned here, it’s that history repeats itself. Two people are going to make themselves look worse than they already do at this point. From a PR perspective, using their public outlets to blast each other is not doing either one’s image any good. At the same time though, both of these women are paid to have an opinion and each of them are doing exactly that. But it’s like my Mom used to tell me: “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Dear Abby
Posted on July 12, 2010
Under Column as I See 'Em, Media, Uncategorized, Weird. Wacky. Wild. | By Ashley Singh
Most kids hope for a car for their sixteenth birthdays. When Abby Sunderland turned sixteen, she dreamed of a different kind of freedom—Abby wanted to circumnavigate the world on her boat she adequately named Wild Eyes. Abby grew up around boats, her father being a shipwright and owner of a yacht management company. She is the second of seven children and has been sailing since she was six months old. She began single-handling when she was thirteen and hasn’t looked back since. It has been her mission since then to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world…solo, without stopping once on land.
Fueling her passion for her adventure is her brother Zac, who became the youngest person to solo circumnavigate the world in July 2009, sailing 27,500 nautical miles in 13 months. His record was soon broken when British teenager Mike Perham later did the same. Maybe under all that sibling rivalry is a little bit of feminism. Only one other girl has ever achieved the coveted title of youngest person ever to sail around the world; Australian Jessica Watson did it on May 21, 2010 non-stop and unassisted.
The quest to circumnavigate the world is one that has been held for centuries. Anyone who’s taken an American history course knows that it all started with the desire to discover the New World and to uncover what lay ahead. Of her mission, Abby says,
“I had begun to think that dreams are meant to be no more than dreams and that in reality dreams don’t come true. Then my brother (Zac) left on his trip. It was amazing to see all the support that he got from around the world and to see how everyone worked together to help make his dream reality. Watching him do this really made me believe that I could too.”
When Abby’s boat was in the Indian Ocean, it got struck by massive waves on June 10, where she was rescued two days later by a French fishing boat. The fishing boat took her to Reunion Island, where she was reunited with her brother Zac. Wild Eyes was lost to the unforgiving sea and while she is disappointed that she did not get to complete her adventure, she doesn’t regret a minute of it. Says Sunderland:
“Any sailor that goes out to the water knows that being hit by a rogue wave is a risk, no matter where you are…That was a risk that I was willing to take…You can’t eliminate risk, you can do a lot to minimize it but it’s always there.”
Currently, Abby is settling into a normal life at home with her newest sibling, a baby brother named Paul-Charlie. What I admire most about Abby’s journey is that she was willing to take it. She knew the risks involved and she still had the courage to laugh in the face of danger. And even though she is not the youngest person to sail around the world, she doesn’t regret a moment of it. I used to think that her family was crazy for letting her go on such a trip, but now I really commend them for having so much faith in their daughter. Keep sailing, Abby!
Pic Via the BS report
A Family Affair
Posted on July 7, 2010
Under Column as I See 'Em, Media, Scandalous!, Weird. Wacky. Wild., money | By Ashley Singh
The first thing my Dad said when I got my college acceptance letters was, “Congratulations Ashley! Now let’s look into financial aid.” I’m sure my Dad isn’t the only parent who has said that after finding out their child got into college. Even if they didn’t say it, I’m sure they were thinking it. Most parents save money for their child’s college education. When Dana Soderberg’s father decided to stop paying her tuition, she sued him.
Now, this is no ordinary case of father and daughter arguing over college tuition; when Dana Soderberg’s parents divorced in 2004 they made an agreement that her father, Howard, would subsidize the college education of all three children. Dana decided that it would be smart to get her part of that agreement in a written contract, of which her father signed [Ed. this was extremely smart]. The contract stipulated that her father would pay her tuition “until she turned 25 as well as cover related expenses such as textbooks and car insurance. For her part, she agreed to apply for student loans that her father would cover if she received them.”
Dana’s father stopped paying her tuition just before her senior year, which left her no choice but to take out a $20,000 loan. She then turned around and sued her father for breach of contract. In court, Howard tried to make Dana the guilty one, stating that “his daughter nullified their contract first when she—supposedly—didn’t try hard enough to apply for student loans. He even filed a counterclaim alleging that she dropped a few classes and kept the money for herself.” But family attorney Renee C. Berman pointed out in Dana’s defense
“that Dana was forced to drop some courses due to the continued tardiness of her father’s tuition payments…After two-day trial, the judge ruled that Dana had indeed fulfilled her part of the contract and awarded her about $47,000 in damages, which covered the initial loan, interest and attorney fees.”
I’m on Team Dana. If somebody promises you money for something as serious as your college education and they don’t come through for you, I think you have every right to sue them and make sure you get what you deserve. So Dana, wherever you are if you happen to be reading this, congratulations on graduating college and way to set an example by going after what you want!
From Tassels to Diamond Rings
Posted on June 28, 2010
Under Column as I See 'Em, Uncategorized | By Ashley Singh
Everything changes when you go to college. You grow up a little, the people who signed your yearbooks throughout the years, who you swore you would keep in touch with, aren’t even in your cell phone anymore. You read their status updates on Facebook thinking, wow it’s been a while since I’ve talked to them. And then, around your senior or junior year, you’re doing internships and seriously considering going to grad school because there is absolutely no chance that you’re going to a get a job that is remotely related to your degree in this economy, when all of a sudden you hear that your best friend who you go all the way back to the sandbox with is engaged and having a baby…and then it begins. The next thing you know, it seems like that’s happening with all of your friends.
In the forties and fifties, it wasn’t uncommon for women to get married in their early twenties and if they waited until they were at least thirty, they were given a bad rap. It wasn’t that long ago that, if and when, women went to college, they went for their “MRS. Degree.” Nowadays, we’re going to college not to find a husband, but to find our bridesmaids. In some cultures, girls as young as thirteen are handed off to marry men in their thirties by their families. My own mother got married when she was twenty-one and my father was twenty-five and they had three kids by the time they were thirty. And yet, as ecstatic as I am for my friends living their lives in wedded bliss and knitting baby booties, I always ask myself, why?
At the same time though, I’ve always had a problem seeing things from other people’s perspectives; and maybe it’s me, but there is so much to do in life and so much to see, so many people to meet. The idea of being a twenty-something asking somebody else if you can do something when you are clearly grown enough to make the decision by yourself is a little ridiculous. Pregnancy is another topic to talk about because that is a serious life-changing event that forces you to put your whole life aside and to put another’s life ahead of your own.
The way I see it, marriage is a legitimate choice, one that is not to be taken lightly at a time in your life when you are supposed to be focused on discovering who you are as a person and your presence in society. I’m not condemning getting married young—to each his own. When you find that person whom you think is just right for you and you know you could spend the rest of your life sitting on the porch in your rocking chairs turning up your hearing aids because you can’t hear each other say, “Eh” then I wish you many years of happiness. I, for one, will be sitting tight until I see the seven wonders of the world.
How “For Profit Schools” Can Hurt your Wallet
Posted on June 17, 2010
Under Column as I See 'Em, Media, Politics, The Newspress Express, Uncategorized, money | By Spencer Lund
You’ve probably seen the ads on subways, and every time you try and log in at some job referral site like Monster or Career Builder. The ubiquitous presence of DeVry University and University of Phoenix ads can be nauseating to many of us, and downright money-depleting to others. Promising $-free educations, these colleges still cost a ton of money—you might want to avoid them at all costs (pun intended).
Read more
Define Yourself
Posted on June 14, 2010
Under Advice | By Ashley Singh
Four years ago, at around this time, I was waiting on pins and needles. I had placed my future in the hands of fate, hoping and praying that I was enough—on paper at least. I had taken the SAT twice, one of the first class to take the new version. I, like everybody else I knew, was not expecting that shining 2400 to come in the mail, smiling up at me from that page of results. Instead, I placed above average, and as I stared at that paper it seemed like it was sarcasm, judging me, laughing at me, saying, “there goes your college education! Hahahahaha!” To the contrary, dear above average; I was determined to make up for the lack of a shining SAT score with my college essays. I remember not having very much trouble with them at all. I just said what came to my mind about the topic at hand, and it worked—I got into every college I applied to. College entrance essays are what most applicants find so difficult about the whole process; that and waiting to hear back.
One of the most elite universities in the world, Oxford University, holds the record for the toughest admissions essay. Applicants are given three hours to write an essay based off of one noun. This essay was a “requirement for All Souls College…it was meant to test intellectual agility, but sometimes seemed to test only the ability to sound brilliant while saying not much of anything.” But the eager applicants to Oxford will soon have nothing to worry about when it comes to the entrance exam, because All Souls has recently decided to get rid of the one-word essay prompt. The essay
“has been offered annually since 1932…as part of a grueling, multiday affair that, in one form or another, has been administered since 1878 and has been called the hardest exam in the world. The unveiling of the word was once an event of such excitement that even non-applicants reportedly gathered outside the college each year, waiting for news to waft out.”
The exam lasts 12 hours over two days, half the exam focusing on the applicants’ academic specialties, the other half on general subjects. Past questions have included: “Do the innocent have nothing to fear?” “Isn’t global warming preferable to global cooling?” “How many people should there be?” The one-word essay, (known simply as “Essay”) has featured words that are chosen by the fellows, such as: “style,” “censorship,” “charity,” “reproduction,” “novelty,” “chaos” and “mercy.”
This task makes American college essays look easy. Two years ago, Emerson College’s entrance exam question was: “much of the work that students do at Emerson College is a form of storytelling. If you were to write the story of your life until now, what would you title it? Why?” My personal favorite was Tufts University’s:
“self-identity and personal expression take many forms. Tastes in music, food and clothing can make a statement while politics, religion and ethnicity often act as defining attributes. Buttons on your backpack; a tattoo; the blogs you read and the web sites you visit; the minutia on your refrigerator or the doodles on your notebook are clues to your passions and viewpoints. Are you a vegetarian? Do you prefer You Tube or test tubes? Are you the drummer in an all-girl rock band? Do like to tinker? Are you the umpire or the pitcher? Use the richness of your identity to give us insight: Who are you?”
Bottom line: when you’re stressing over your entrance essay/exam, just think—at least you don’t have to do the one-word essay!
Humanities Students and Understanding “The Big Shaggy”
Posted on June 14, 2010
Under Advice, Column as I See 'Em, The Newspress Express | By Spencer Lund
A recent Op-Ed in the NY Times from David Brooks highlights the growing chasm between the humanities and our current economic climes. It seems that not only have the number of liberal arts students declined over the last couple of decades (I blame Wall Street), but that they will continue to do so as our increasingly cutthroat economy swallows up another graduating class of students and spits them out all over the unemployment lines. Why study something unrelated to gaining employment? Brooks tries to answer that question and convince college students of the importance of a liberal arts education. It’s the key to understanding ”The Big Shaggy.” It’s not Scooby’s buddy either. Come find out what he means. Read more
Natalee & Stephany
Posted on June 7, 2010
Under News | By Ashley Singh
I think we’ve all said it at one time or another: “It can’t happen to me.” We look at the news, seeing story after story of people getting kidnapped and murdered, innocent people going about their lives who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And then there are cases of those who just…disappear. Almost everyone has heard of an 18-year-old named Natalee Holloway. She mysteriously vanished on the island of Aruba the night before she was supposed to come home from her trip. She died allegedly at the hands of one Joran van der Sloot, who has insisted ever since her death five years ago that he is innocent, but still remains the prime suspect in the case. One would think that after one is accused of such a horrific crime, that one would just slip into the abyss never to be heard from again. But no, not this time.
Van der Sloot may have struck again the weekend of May 30th (coincidentally, the five-year anniversary of Holloway’s death), allegedly murdering 21-year-old Peruvian Stephany Flores. Investigations are still taking place on the murder of Flores, but unlike the murder of Holloway, there seems to be enough evidence for conviction. Flores was found face-down with a broken neck in his hotel room, wrapped in a blanket. “Police released video Saturday taken by hotel security cameras showing van der Sloot and his alleged victim entering his hotel room together and the Dutchman later leaving alone with his bags. Stephany Flores is seen trailing van der Sloot, her head bowed, after he is given his room key. She is in the same attitude when she follows him into the room. Later video shows the Dutchman leaving the hotel in a patterned shirt, a day pack on his back and a gym bag in his hand.”
The connection that I’m seeing between the Natalee Holloway story and the Stephany Flores story, as tragic as they are, is that both girls left with someone they didn’t know. What confuses me about Stephany is why she would go off with this guy; he killed somebody (allegedly)! Then again, it is very possible that she didn’t know who he was. I’m not trying to tarnish their memories in any way, shape, or form, but I remember when I was not much older than seven and being taught that you don’t talk to strangers or get in a stranger’s car. Stephany’s funeral was Thursday, and her father, Ricardo Flores, hopes the death of his daughter will help put to rest the mystery behind Natalee Holloway’s death. “My daughter was an instrument for [Natalee],” he said, “so that there can be justice.” I think the rest of the world feels the same; we all just want the madness to end, so that these girls’ deaths will not have been in vain.
Walmart.edu?
Posted on June 4, 2010
Under Media, News, money | By bmckenna
Walmart has become a byword for cheap, poor quality, anti-union, local store killer, etc. (see this Unigo review of the University of Arkansas for how it can even be used to demonize an entire university). Now, however, the store is taking greater steps to improve the lot of their employees by helping to fund an online education endeavor with the Internet-based American Public University. According to the school’s press release announcing the corporate-educational partnership, “associates will be awarded job learning credit in current degree offerings in programs such as Management, Transportation and Logistics, and Security Management. APU plans to offer new concentrations in retail management and other related disciplines.”
In other words, education will be used in this context to improve the store experience for customers through strengthened training using APU’s programs - with most Walmart managers rising through the store ranks, this will help more of them attain college degrees (many currently do not). It will be quite interesting to take a closer look at the long-term results of the program; it would be nice to see a mutually-beneficial relationship between employee and employer flourish, but only time will tell.
I also wonder about APU - has anyone ever taken courses with them? Chime in via comments.
Photo courtesy of Justin Cozart
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