The Class of 2010 is probably all too familiar with hearing doomsday-esque warnings about Graduation Day from everyone including the guy sitting beside them at Starbucks to close relatives and even their nosy neighbors, saying, “We’re in a recession”, “Unemployment is still on the rise”, “Your liberal arts degree isn’t very useful, is it?”, and, “What are you going to do after you graduate, in this economy?”

Getting ready to graduate and move on to the “real world” is not as promising as it seemed when this year’s soon-to-be college grads were eager freshmen back in the day. And in the face of fears like unemployment, large student loans, and nosy neighbors, there are lots of reasons to think this year may be the worst time to be a college senior.

Don’t let these reasons depress you–these are five reasons why you should see the college senior’s half-empty glass as, actually, half-full:

1. Jobs– Yes, the unemployment rate will probably hit 10% by graduation next June and you will probably experience the average 6-8 months of unemployment that many young professionals are currently going through. No, you do not need to despair. First off, unemployment is a natural part of the cycle of a career; it is not a failure and it does not stall your life–looking for a job is still actively progressing towards your career. What is going to be important five years from now isn’t that you were unemployed at this time, but how you handled being unemployed. Remain persistent and ambitious about the job you want and keep sending out resumes daily because you will come across opportunities. For many it may be better to settle for a lower-paying job in the field you actually want, instead of getting stuck in a career path you have no interest or passion in. As a college graduate, you do have a job right after you graduate and that is to look for a job, so approach your job search with as much work ethic and dedication as you would your first job.
2. Housing– You might be homeless post-graduation when your college apartment lease expires, but fear not! You could move back into your parent’s house and save yourself some money; its the life of “being taken care of” and blowing your money on things like shopping and entertainment, but just remember that Mom still makes the rules. Opting for rentals is expensive because no one is buying new homes, but you can cut costs by doing what you’ve been doing for the last four years—rent with roommates. Sharing appliances, furniture, utility bills, rent, and space will be beneficial to all of you and will help your household adopt a frugal and cost-conscious mindset.
3. Student Loans– Student loans will begin repayment period within 6 to 9 months of graduating, so be prepared to pay by then. Regularly budgeting it into your monthly expenses will make it less of a stress and more of an accepted part of your finances and your life to be dealt with as efficiently as possible. As long as you pay at least the minimum payment (more if possible!) on-time, your credit report will stay healthy.
4. Budgeting– It will no longer be as simple as budgeting for eating out, movies, clothes, and other fun stuff. Graduating takes away Dad and Mom’s monthly checks; you will soon be responsible for rent, utilities, car insurance, food, internet, transportation, and more. Since this will take some help and getting used to, check out personal finance management sites that can do all the work for you: they automatically pull your accounts together and calculate your spending so you can see how you’ve been spending your money and where to cut back. If you want to keep it simple, sit down with a pen and paper and write your monthly income, subtract all necessary expenses like bills (don’t fool yourself—eating out twice a week is not necessary), and whatever is left over after is what you can spend or save.
5. Debt– The average college student graduates with just over a $3,000 balance on their credit card, and tack on student loans in a few months, and you can end up spending most of your 20s trying to dig yourself out of debt from college instead of saving up for your first house or investing in a 401(K) plan. The best way to start dealing with the burden of debt is to start paying it off NOW so you don’t have to fear dealing with it later when more interest will have accrued. Another plus side to paying off debts now is that your credit report will become healthier and healthier, which means a healthier credit score that will help you when it comes time for a home mortgage, auto loan, or new credit card.

With the new school year just around the corner, count on student loan websites SimpleTuition and GreenNote for last-minute help to secure money for everything from dorm rent to the first semester’s textbooks. The average $25,000 sticker price for a college education is making it harder for students to make ends meet after Dad and Mom are all tapped out, federal aid still isn’t enough, a part-time job is impossible with a student schedule, and there are still bills to be paid. At the eleventh hour, SimpleTuition and GreenNote are your loan alternatives to cover your education and all your student expenses, and still have money left-over to eat more than just noodles every day.

Picking a loan has never been so easy

SimpleTuition is a loan search engine that matches private and federal loans to your financial situation and takes the work out of searching hundreds of student lenders to find the best student loan option for you. Once you input information such as your college and requested loan amount, the site generates an easy-to-compare chart of big and small lenders. I was able to compare PNC Bank, Sallie Mae, and Federal Stafford Loans to see who could offer me the lowest APR, most affordable monthly payments, along with the shortest repayment period

Finding last-minute funding through SimpleTution is especially valuable to the busy student because SimpleTuition does all the legwork of comparing all types of loan options. There is a lot of money to be saved by comparing different loan options before you make a decision. Students can also get support at SimpleTuition through a wealth of information-rich resources like a student loan blog, federal aid programs, advice on choosing the right loan, and tips on how to get better loan rates. Having all the information you need to know about loans in one spot makes the site especially useful and a good learning tool for students new to loans.

With time running out and tuition bills needing to be paid in full this semester, SimpleTuition offers an efficient search process to help you save you money from the convenience of your computer.

“Get student loans from people who believe in you”

That’s GreenNote’s tagline, reflecting a unique, non-traditional loan alternative that enables you to arrange loan agreements within your own personal network of family friends. GreenNote works like this: students ask their personal social network for small loan pledges via email. Once your loan pledges, each pledge of a $100 minimum, reaches $1000, GreenNote verifies and packages them into a single loan agreement between the student and the Pledgers.

How do the pledges get repaid? GreenNote handles all the paperwork, including the billing, servicing, and repayment allocations. For the student, the best feature of this unique peer-to-peer lending platform is that it lets your pledges select “gift my pledge” to the student as a much-appreciated graduation present. Let’s see a big bank do that.

While the 6.8% APR, which tends to be lower than traditional student lender terms, is sweet for the student, Pledgers should keep in mind they may never get the money back – this happens to lenders all the time. At GreenNote, there are no credit score requirements, no reviewing the credit report, and no co-signer requirements. While the pledges likely do know where you live, their options are limited if you default on your loan.

Borrowers get into the dangerous waters of involving financial life with personal life where a borrower’s fiscal responsibility is brought to the close attention of family members and friends alike. You may experience uncomfortable holiday moments when you look around the table and know Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom are expecting those payments come December. Be prepared for the conversations to begin revolving as much around your future job possibilities and income as much as it does your grades, classes, and dating life.

It’s almost the first day of class…what are you waiting for?

GreenNote and SimpleTuition are two easy steps to help you find the funds to pay for your college education without going through the hassle and inconvenience of tediously looking up loan offers one by one, or even being limited to traditional loan offers at all. Now you have no excuse for not paying off your student expenses when getting you through the door to higher education is only a few mouse clicks away.

Picking out your cell phone is like being torn between best friends—there’s the rock groupie who attends every concert, the overachiever prepping for grad school, and the one plugged into Facebook at all times. Cell phones have personalities which match different features and perks, but the trick to picking the right phone is figuring out what fits your needs and lifestyle. These are my top 5 picks for back-to-school shopping 2009, and with cell phones this great, you’ll want to tote your little buddy in your backpack everywhere you go.

For the text-messaging junkie texting during lecture

The LG enV Touch perfects text-messaging convenience and style with a spacious, easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard, a dedicated text-messaging button, a Favorites keyboard button for favorite contacts, and two brilliant touch-screen displays. High-end features like the added 3-inch touch-screen on the front upgrades the enV Touch with a sleeker design than its Voyager and enV3 predecessors. You definitely won’t be disappointed with the integration of touch-screen interface and flip-open full keyboard that will hold your attention way longer than that last text message conversation.

For the aspiring Mr./Mrs. Trump with a Business degree

The RIM Blackberry Curve 8900 Smartphone is a necessity for the grad school wannabe who needs fancy multi-tasking capabilities so they can edit their resume and schedule their week all while recording notes for class. With its full, improved HTML web browser, Wi-Fi network with UMA support , built-in GPS, the thinnest full QWERTY Blackberry keyboard yet, more downloadable productivity tools and applications, and a thinner, light-weight design, the newest Blackberry definitely delivers. The new UMA support allows for free calling within the Wi-Fi network. This phone’s balance of work and play will help you transition seamlessly from student to mobile professional.

For the music junkie at every campus concert

Sony Ericsson W760a is the multimedia lover’s dream with some of the best music and gaming features of any phone on the market.
Highlights include TrackID to record and identify unknown songs, Shake control to change tunes, gaming functions that include tilt control motion sensor, Media Go entertainment organizer that drags and drops media between PC and phone, Walkman quality tuner and sound, SensMe playlists created according to your mood, and picture blogging capabilities direct from your phone.
Add in the MegaBass stereos right on the face of the phone, and you have a virtual concert tucked away in your backpack.

For the one with the latest, high-tech gadgets in his dorm

Sony Ericcson Cyber-Shot C905 blows other camera phones out of the water with an extraordinary 8.1 megapixel Cyber-Shot camera poised on the other side of the phone. It has shares lots of smart features with the Sony Cyber-Shot camera including four different resolution settings, face detection, Smart Contrast, Photo Fix, and GPS tagging, plus a 160 MB internal memory and a memory stick slot to add up to 16 GB to your picture capacity. With a camera this killer on your phone, you might find yourself spending more time taking snapshots then making calls.

For the Trust Fund baby/Ivy League School student

The Samsung Memoir is ridiculously expensive, tricked out with top-of-the-line features, and the most uber-luxurious toy a student could ever need. If you’re looking to splurge, this would be it. The near $600 price tag comes with a high-res 8 MP camera with 16x zoom and Xenon flash, perfected TouchWiz interface with customizable drag-and-drop widgets and easy navigation, strong multimedia capabilities, HTML browser, and a virtual touch-screen QWERTY keyboard.
It’s main focus is the feature-rich camera and its solid construction. If you are willing to spend on it, you might find yourself eating Mac&Cheese for a few months, but you’ll be styling with a really sweet phone.

Cool Phone Disclaimer:

If you are signing up for a standard two year contract with a wireless carrier, your credit score may be checked and bad credit could stand in the way of you and your perfect mobile companion. A poor credit score might not stop you from texting, but it may mean you have to pay full price for your phone instead of a promotional price. Also, the carrier may require you to sign you up for a prepaid calling plan if they find too much bad static on your credit report and score. Here is yet another significant reason to keep your credit health in check: it might just cost you a really cool cell phone.

When the Credit CARD Bill of Rights Act goes into full effect February 2010, special provisions aim to safeguard consumers under 21 from getting in over their heads with credit card debt by placing restrictions on how credit card companies market and issue credit cards to young people. With college-aged students graduating with an average of $2,292 in credit card debt and an average credit score of 636, the protections built into the Act, especially for consumers under 21, help young people develop healthy credit habits and graduate with a clean credit report.

The Bill steers the relationship between credit card issuers and consumers under 21 in a more positive direction. Understanding that college students are typically inexperienced with credit cards, the Bill introduces new rules for credit card issuers to abide by when issuing credit to young consumers including limiting total credit extended, requireing a co-signer, limiting total fees associated with a new card, and forbidding card issuers popular unsolicited gifts for application on campus. With added speed bumps to keep young consumers from taking on too much credit, training wheels with a parent on board, and making campus sidewalks closed course once again, the following provisions help build a foundation for young consumers to manage credit wisely.

Stricter limits on access means more protection

No more peddling credit cards on campus

In spite of the recession and the credit crunch, credit card issuers remain in hot pursuit of college students as new customers; additional protections provided by the CARD Act are welcome additions on campus. Credit Health and Personal Finance should be required courses for all majors, each providing young consumers the credit know-how to make informed decisions and step into the real world armed with a good credit score and healthy credit habits.

Designed with college students in mind, the Chase +1 Student MasterCard rewards young people for doing what it takes to build a good credit history and healthy credit habits. Chase +1’s“Karma” points system does not revolve around the classic student credit card mantra of “Spend, Spend, Spend,” but instead gives Karma points to consumers for maintaining on-time monthly payments, using credit well, and learning more about how to handle credit and general finances.

In the karmic world of giving to get something in return, Chase +1 shows young card members that good credit behavior can get you Karma points. Chase+1 shares a good lesson in teaching the right credit habits by rewarding card members +2 Karma points for each bill they pay on time and an additional +8 Karma points for six months of consecutive on-time bill payments. This especially caters to young people learning to handle paying their credit card bills for the first time. Promoting on-time payments sets them on their way to building a strong on-time payment history which is the foundation of a healthy credit report and, generally speaking, can comprise nearly 35% of a consumer’s credit score. In addition, providing credit to a younger card member helps set the clock ticking on another important credit score component—the length of credit history—which generally accounts for 15% of a consumer’s credit score.

The Chase+1 card also gives consumers +20 Karma points for their first purchase. We have seen it is not enough just to have credit, but consumers also need to demonstrate regular and responsible credit utilization to have a healthy credit score. Lastly, Chase +1 card rewards +5 Karma points for learning how to use credit wisely by participating in a short quiz at www.chaseplus1.com.

Once you have become an on-time payment pro and an overall credit guru, what to do with all the Karma points you’ve earned? Chase+1 passes on the goodwill by allowing card members to share their Karma points with their Facebook friends or donate to a good cause like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the World Wildlife Federation (WWF).

If you would rather keep your hard-earned Karma points to yourself, Chase+1’s online store has a huge selection of gifts from small purchases to luxury items that you can redeem with your Karma points. The top products on my Karma points wish list are the Time Traveler’s Wife book for only 9 Karma points, 30 Rock Season Two for 24 Karma points, an Apple iPod Shuffle for 45 Karma points, and my big splurge of a Sony Cybershot Digital Camera for a whopping 230 Karma points. My credit score is going to skyrocket with all the on-time payments I’ll be making to get my Karma goodies.

As you can imagine, this does not all come for free but Chase+1 tries to keep rates low and fees reasonable. The Chase+1 card comes with no annual fee, no penalty for going over the credit limit, and 0% APR for 3 months. After the 3 month introductory period, the Chase+1 APR bounces to up 14.99%, so think twice about placing large purchases on the card. Small, regular purchases you can pay off monthly will be rewarded with Karma points and good Credit Karma in your credit score.

Chegg.com, the self-proclaimed Netflix of textbooks, enlightens broke college students with an ingenious philosophy that stretches their dollars farther and encourages sustainability—stop paying full-price for textbooks and rent them instead.

The secret to their wild success is one part creativity and one part practicality. The easy-on-the-wallet concept of Chegg.com puts a fresh solution to an old problem—a textbook rental service solves the college gripe of the expensiveness of buying a textbook for only a short-term use, and makes it more affordable and convenient to rent and return. College students simply log-on, find their textbooks, rent it at a fraction of the price for a given time, and return it to Chegg.com at the end of the term.

Chegg.com claims consumers can save 65% - 85% by renting with them instead of purchasing college textbooks elsewhere. In addition to significant savings, Chegg.com provides a 30 day “Any Reason” guarantee, flexible rental terms, and prepaid shipping labels for more convenient book returns. The ‘Any Reason’ guarantee provides a 30 day no questions asked refund guarantee, which is great news for picky students who drop a class or picky professors who cancel classes. When it comes to rental terms, customers have the choice of a 125 day semester rental term, 85 day quarter rental term, or 60 day summer rental term. In addition to “recycling” books through renting, which cuts down on the number of books in circulation each semester, Chegg.com pledges to plant a tree for every textbook they rent or they purchase via the Buyback program. Chegg.com’s dedication to green, sustainable practices along with significant cost savings for consumers is why we simply love this company.

Being a college student, I decided to put the Chegg.com’s savings claim to the test. I’m very happy to report that it definitely saves to rent and return rather than let purchased textbooks collect dust on my shelves. With my upcoming 5 class course load of 23 books, renting from Chegg.com will cost me $317.78 while buying new books direct from my university bookstore would ring up $801.21 on my student credit card – a potential savings of $483.43 or 60%. My only complaint is that I didn’t find out about Chegg.com sooner—maybe I could have saved myself a few thousand dollars and planted a forest by now.

The savings aside, Chegg.com is not for everyone. The books Chegg.com rents out are in brand new or excellent condition and have to be returned in nearly the same condition, so if you require significant highlighting or like to take notes or doodle in the margins, you’ll find yourself paying for the book at the end of the rental term. There is also a 25% late fee if you go over the rental term. Finally, Chegg.com is still building its database so they may not carry your specific book or currently have it in stock, but Chegg.com does try to track down and add any requested book not currently in their 2.4 million book catalog.

I’m not the only one thrilled about Chegg.com; hundreds of thousands of students on over 5,000 U.S campuses have jumped on the money-saving, earth-friendly bandwagon too. Competitors like textbooks.com, ecampus.com, and even some colleges launching their own rental services are cashing in on the opportunity to rent to broke students, but Chegg.com remains king. Chegg.com has saved students over $42 million by renting instead of purchasing, and the savings will keep growing and the trees will keep sprouting as long as students keep reading. So, if you find yourself sticker-shocked at the campus bookstore register, try renting—your wallet and the earth will thank you.

Saving up for a college fund is a luxury in today’s economy, so Upromise is turning the usual shopping trip, grocery run, and fill-up at the gas station into a daily opportunity to earn money for college. Upromise’s business model makes it easier for families to start saving for college early by making the most of what Americans do best— shop.

Upromise, going strong with 10 million members and nearly $500 million in member rewards, is one of the largest private sources of college funding contributions in the United States.

This is how the completely free program works: you start by creating an Upromise account and registering your credit, grocery, or loyalty cards. Then, you shop, shop, and shop as usual and make purchases at any of their participating 21,000 grocery and drug stores, 14,000 gas stations, 8,000 restaurants, thousands of retailers, and over 600 online shopping sites. A percentage of your purchase at these participating retailers and products goes directly into your Upromise account.

From your account, you can transfer savings over to a 529 college savings plan where you can decide where and how to invest the dollars your purchases earned you for your child’s education. You can use these rewards to save up for college, pay for an existing student loan, or you can opt for a check in the mail for college-related expenses.

If you’re not convinced yet of getting free money for college, Upromise’s $100,000 College Dream Sweepstakes should sweeten the deal. Upromise is giving away $10,000 to 10 lucky winners from now until August 21, 2009. To qualify, simply join Upromise and install Turbosaver, an online savings reminder tool.

Upromise is a simple and effective free rewards program to start earning savings for college early and easily. It takes no more effort than shopping as you usually do, unless you actively seek out Upromise merchants to accumulate savings faster. Either way, you earn savings in small, incremental ways that could add up to the cost of a textbook, part of your dorm rent, possibly even a year of tuition. Even friends and family can contribute to your Upromise savings the same way you do: simply have them register with Upromise, add their loyalty and credit cards, shop, shop, shop, and then direct their savings to go to your account.

The only downside is how slow it may take to accumulate savings. You aren’t likely to pay-off all the expenses of four years of tuition just by buying participating orange juice and butter products. The highest contribution percentage comes from shopping online with Upromise, providing members the opportunity to earn 1-25%. Participating restaurants also provide a significant savings opportunity with earning power of up to 8% of your total bill.

Upromise gets you cents and dollars to pad your college fund. The idea is not to save money for college by curbing spending habits, but how to make the most of the fact that if you are going to shop anyway, at least shop specific brands so you can earn some savings in return. Because free money for college, is still, free money for college.

Going to college these days is nearly requiring that students take out a loan to cover the ever increasing college tuition. What puts students and their parents in a tough situation is the task of deciding how large of a loan to borrow in order to cover the costs of college. It all comes down to doing the research and figuring out how much is right for the parent and student before making the decision and going into debt.

The student loan landscape is ever changing, and may have been true for the parent, may or may not be true for their child. So it is important to take the time to work with the college and your child’s high school counselor to learn about scholarships and grants, which do not need to be repaid, and federal programs that are available. All of these programs need applications and will take hard work on the part of the student and parents in getting them.

Before all of that, the parent should sit down and go over their finances in order to figure out what they are able to afford and how much assistance they need. Getting a student loan that is too large will end up costing big when it comes time to pay back the loan, especially if money is just sitting there waiting for a college expense. Once you have a reasonable estimate for what is available to the student, how much is able to be provided each month, you need to figure out how much is needed. This will not only include tuition, but the ever increasing costs of textbooks, housing, car and car repairs, gas, food, fees for various items, and so on. This will take a little while, but once the parents have a number, they should only borrow that amount.

It would be easy for the parents to dump it on their children, that they will have to work in order to make up any shortcomings between the needed money and the loan. However, college is a lot of work and there will be little time available for the student. What ever job they do have, most likely it will be work that is for minimum wage or close to it. If the student does have the time for a job, they should work with their school and department to find a situation within their field of study, as it will provide them with experience and connections that will help in the long run. Just know that there will be little money earned from it.

Once a number is determined for the size of the student loan, the last step is to research the numerous companies and agencies that provide student loans. Campuses are required to be unbiased when it comes to offering selections for lenders, but any advice there should be independently researched. What is important is that the parents do not just get a loan. They should research the fields, know exactly how much will be needed and from whom they borrow the money.

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There are stories all over America right now that are talking about college students finding themselves in severe debt. These students find it impossible to tell their parents and are overwhelmed.  They are completely unaware of the fact that there ways to come back from debt and bad credit. Rather than seek help, they simply gave in.

The first step in order to repair your credit history and credit score is to gain a better understanding of the number that determines your credit worthiness. Your payment history generally comprises about 35 percent of your score, meaning that you need to pay every bill and every credit card payment in advance, rather than just on time. This will tend to tell potential lenders that you are much more likely to pay them off in full and on time all the time without any hassle.

The more recent the mistake is, the worse it will be for your credit report and score. 30 percent of your credit score is based on your current outstanding debt, including how much money is still owed on car loans and home loans, and how many credit cards you have that are at or close to their limits.

You should have a few credit cards, and they should always be 35 percent or less of their limits. This is going to indicate whether or not you are in control, using your limits wisely, and whether or not you are actually living on your credit. How long you have had your credit for also plays a part, contributing about 15 percent to your score. This is because lenders are going to want to know that you have a long standing history of paying as a responsible borrower.

Another 10 % of your score is based on how many inquiries exist for your credit reports. If you are constantly applying for tons of credit cards and loans, then this is going to indicate that you are in financial trouble and may steer lenders away from you.

The final 10 % of your credit score is usually based on what types of credit you have. This should be a mixture of unsecured credit cards and revolving loans, showing that you are capable of handling your money. Credit report repair should begin with making payments on a timely basis, working your balances down to below 30% of your limit. To repair your credit score numbers you will need to improve your credit history by finding out what caused you to fall behind and figuring out a way to rectify the issues. You can usually call your creditors for smaller monthly payments, smaller interest rates, new due dates or longer terms in order to better manage your debt.

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The peak holiday shopping period is right around the corner. In a tough economy, any saving is a nice bonus so we compiled a list credit cards with 0% APR for 6 or 12 months on new purchases to help consumers stretch their Holiday shopping dollars. Combined with the 0% APR, the rewards and cash back features could save you hundred dollars this holiday season. Here is a short list of the cards you may find useful. Keep in mind you will need good credit (640+) for most of these offers.

Consumers with Good Credit

Student Cards

Keep in mind that credit cards should be treated as a convenience and used responsibility. As such, we suggest using these cards as a way to make cash back or other rewards on gifts from your list. If you don’t think you have the discipline to pay off the balances during the 0% APR introductory period, we strongly suggest using cash.

Here are a few more tips to help manage your credit and credit cards this holiday season.

1. Don’t Apply for Too Many Credit Cards. Too many credit inquiries are bad for your credit score. As such, do your research first and find the right card based on your credit score and your spending habits.
2. Know the Details. Some cards have great rates for purchases but poor balance transfers rates or vice versa. Virtually all cards pay the balance with the lowest APR first. That means if you have a Balance Transfer of 0% APR and a purchase rate of 15% APR, all your monthly payments go towards paying off the lower APR balance transfer first while your purchase balance keeps accruing interest at 15% APR. Don’t fall for it! Be smart.
3. Keep Credit Card Utilization Low. If you carry a balance, make sure it stays below 35% of your credit limit on any single card. Carrying a balance higher than 35% could negatively impact your credit score and possibly increase the interest rates on your existing cards.
4. Pay On Time Each Month. Most credit card companies are counting on you to be late on your payment. Don’t get caught paying late fees or giving credit card companies the right to increase your APR. Pay on time or even a couple days early!