School’s back in session, and with it come life-lessons in money management for students.

But
personal finance can be easy, even if you’re just starting out. You just have to know how it
works. All of the following are concepts I wish I had known before heading to college.

Money Management
Now that you’re on your own, you might be tempted to spend money on all the things your
parents wouldn’t let you have before. Go slow. If you play it smart, you can avoid the sort of
money troubles that plague many young adults.

 Join a credit union. Don’t just sign up for a random bank giving away t-shirts or frisbees
at registration. Track down a credit union in town, or do some research into online banks.
 Don’t get a credit card unless you absolutely need one. Don’t be a sucker. Those guys
sitting behind the sign-up table are not there to help you. They’re there to make money.
 Avoid non-academic debt. It might seem like a good idea to put that Xbox on a credit
card, but it’s not. Focus on developing good money skills with cash. Worry about credit
later.
 Save and then splurge. If you decide you must have that Xbox, then save for it. Wait until
you can pay cash.
 Pay your bills on time. Basic advice, but it’s surprising how many people lose track of
things. If you pay your bills as they arrive, you won’t have to worry about forgetting
them.

Organization and Planning

Some minimal organization will keep your finances in order. Each of these is an important adult
financial skill.

 Track your spending. Use a notebook, or use Quicken if you have it. Good records will
prevent you from getting overdrawn at the bank or charging more than your credit limit.
This habit also allows you to detect spending patterns.
 Make a budget. It doesn’t have to be fancy. At the start of the month, estimate how much
money you’ll receive and decide where needs to go. Remember: you don’t need to spend
it all.
 Save your receipts. Put them in a shoebox under your bed if you must, but hold onto
them. You’ll need to be able to compare them with statements at the end of the month.
And some you’ll need to keep for several years.
  Guard your vital stats. Don’t give out your social security number or your credit card
info except to known and trusted sources.

Campus Life
It seems like there are a hundred thing competing for your money. It’s hard to know what to do.
Here are some smart ways to save money on campus.

 Buy used textbooks. You’re just going to sell them back at the end of the term. (Or end up
wishing you had done so five years from now.) You don’t need new textbooks.
 Skip spring break. Forget the long road trips. You can have a lot of fun for cheap close to
campus. (My college used to organize economical group trips; yours probably does, too.)
You might be surprised at how fun it can be to stay on campus, too.
 Live without a car. Cars are expensive: gas, maintenance, insurance, registration, parking.
Stick close to campus. Learn to use mass transit. Find a friend who has a car.
 Don’t hang out with big spenders. Some kids have parents with deep pockets. Other kids
are well down the road to financial trouble. Hanging out with them can lead you to spend
more than you can afford.
 Take advantage of campus activities. There’s always something to do. Attend free movie
festivals. Pay a few bucks to see the local symphony every month. Support the sports
teams. Attend lecture series. Get the most from your student ID!

Personal Life
Take care of yourself. Your mother isn’t around to remind you to brush your teeth. Nobody’s
going to scold you for eating three bowls of Cap’n Crunch. Self-discipline is more important
now than it ever has been in your life.

 Go to class. You’re in college to learn. Everyone skips now and then, but don’t make it a
habit. What you learn and do now will have a profound impact on the rest of your life.
 Get involved. Staying busy staves off boredom. It also helps you build skills and form
social networks that will last a lifetime. Try out for a play. Join the astronomy club. Write
for the school paper. Find something that sounds fun to you and do it. Take risks!
  Stay active. A healthy body costs far less to maintain than an unhealthy body. You don’t
have to do much to avoid gaining weight in college. A walk around campus each day will
probably do it.
 Eat healthy. It’s possible to eat well on a small budget if you know what you’re doing.
 Limit vices. Beer, cigarettes, and pot are expensive. They also screw with your body and
mind. Take it easy on the vices. There’s nothing wrong with a drink or two on Friday
night, but don’t go overboard.
 Learn the art of the Cheap Date. The student’s guide to cheap dates suggests:
o Take advantage of mother nature
o Go for coffee
o Use CitySearch to track down cheap food and activities
o Attend campus events
 Have fun. Your college years will be some of the best of your life. It’s trite, but true.
Make the most of them.

Decision Making
Get in the habit of making smart choices now, and you’ll develop a pattern of behavior that will
stand you in good stead the rest of your life.

 Make smart choices. You can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything you
want. Decide what’s important to you, and pursue that. And remember to leave time for
yourself.
 When you want to buy something, ask yourself “Do I need it?” If you think you do, then
wait. Don’t buy on impulse. Write the object of your desire on a piece of paper and pin it
to the wall. Look at it every day for a week. If, at the end of the week, you still think you
need it, then consider purchasing it.

Making Money
I’ve saved the best for last. If you can master even one of these, you’ll have a head-start on your
friends. Master all four, and you’ll be on the road to wealth. No kidding.

 Spend less than you earn. Don’t earn much? Then don’t spend much. If your spending
and income are roughly even, you have two choices: earn more or spend less. When I was
in college, I worked as many as four jobs at once. This gave me a lot of spending cash.
(Unfortunately, I didn’t do a good job with the spend less part of the equation.)
 Be an outstanding employee. Good work habits can pay enormous dividends, leading to
recommendations and contacts that you can use after you’re out of school. Several of my
classmates turned work-study jobs into launching pads for future careers.
 Start your own business. Can you install a hard drive? Can you strip a computer of
spyware? Can you perform minor car repairs? Do you have a pickup truck you could use
to haul furniture? Are you a passable guitar player? Charge cheap rates and exceed
expectations. Word will spread. When you’ve built up a customer base, you can raise
your rates a little. This is an awesome way to make money.
 Learn to invest. Find a discount broker and begin making regular investments.
Sharebuilder is a great choice for college students. It costs only $4 to make a scheduled
 stock purchase, and you can invest any amount of money, even $20. Don’t obsess over
the details yet. You can worry about high returns and low fees later. Right now the most
important thing is to develop the investment habit. (Ad:
Buy Stocks for $4 at ShareBuilder. ) Ten years from now, you’ll thank yourself. If you
can find a way to invest $1000 a year for the next ten years, you can set yourself up for
life. No joke.

You’re ahead of the game just by reading this list. Now do yourself a favor: subscribe to Get
Rich Slowly via RSS or via email (see the sidebar). Then go visit I Will Teach You to Be Rich.
Ramit’s advice is targeted directly at young adults.

Also, if you can find it, pick up a copy of Young Money, a magazine for college students.
(Browse the magazine’s archive of money management articles online.) Finally, download the
free PDF “40 Money Management Tips Every College Freshman Should Know” from
Scholarship America.

Now stop fretting over money. Get out there and have some fun. I’ll be here when you return.

You Can Also Make Money Online from Affiliate Marketing

– But You Have to Take Right Steps
Posted by Alan Liew | 9:57 AM
0 comments

Guest Post by Stephen Phillips

You can easily make money using the internet. There are various useful methods which will help
you to make reasonable money online. You can take online surveys, turn a blog in to a cash
machine or sell other’s products (affiliate marketing) thus making huge commission. There are
other methods as well but affiliate marketing is considered as one of the most trusted ways to
make money from the internet.

Why Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is all about selling the products online and getting commission on each such
sale. If you are good in marketing, you will be able to make a lot of money from the affiliate
marketing. You will need to setup a website, although you can use free blogs also. Three best
things about Affiliate Marketing are:

1. You don’t need to have a product of your own.

2. You need not to worry about technical support and customer complaints. Product owner is
only one responsible for that.
3. You need not to spend money to start. You can start it for free.

3 Steps of Affiliate Marketing

1. Product Selection
In order to succeed in the affiliate marketing and making money online, you will need to select
the proper product. A product that suits your marketing style and at the same time is in demand
will surely give you a great start. If you want a head start then you should select a product which
you know a lot about. This will allow you to market it even more effectively.

2. Landing Page Creation

You will also need a high quality landing page with a good sales letter on display. Remember
that the sales letter and the landing page play an important role to increase the number of
conversions. You should also make sure that you are building a list from your landing page as
well. You can offer things like free eBooks etc in return for subscription. This will help you
build a wonderful list for the future prospects.

3. Online Marketing
You should ideally market your products on all the fronts. You should use the paid advertisement
and at the same time you should also try out the free methods. Some of the free methods are
more beneficial than the paid advertisement. For example, you can create a product page on all
the front runners in the social networks. This will help you to market your product directly and
without any cost. It will also help you to develop brand recognition among various sectors of
online society.

It is easy to make money online especially from the affiliate marketing but for this you will need
two things i.e. hard work and smart work. It is a hard truth that most of the affiliate marketer fails
because they don’t work in right direction. While hard work plays a role, the smart work enables
you to take the lead. Smart work will save you a lot of time and effort and will also make sure
that you are getting the maximum from your resources.

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Learn How...

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 any beginner can start earning money with affiliate marketing...

You Too, Can Make Money Online With Affiliate

Marketing, Earn Five or Six Figures From The
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   Even If You Never Made Money Online Before... Even If You Don't Have A
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   Usually, beginners who want money with affiliate marketing take the following steps... 

   They read a couple of articles about affiliate marketing, then, they register to an affiliate forum and start
searching for information on Google. After a week or two, they think they know how to do it, and finally
decide to register with an affiliate network and get their affiliate links...

   A couple of weeks later... still no sales.

   It's not their fault...

   It's exactly what I've done when I got started. I got it all wrong and didn't make a single penny for
months... I know exactly what you feel right now.

   Imagine that I give you the exact same ingredients that my grand mother uses to bake her best cake
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family? 

   Well... I'm not sure. Sure, you may finally bake a cake. But only after trying many, many times and
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articles, blog posts and forum threads you've read about affiliate marketing are just ingredients...

   Making money with affiliate marketing can be simple... but only when you have the right information (the
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   Before we start, I want you to answer a few questions...

   Did any of these already happened to you?

  Have you ever wanted to make money on the Internet but never got started because of all the
amount of information out there?

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wondering why it's so difficult for you?

 Do you have a website that makes a little money, but it seems like it should be a lot more for the
amount of hard work you've been putting in?

 Have you tried a lot of different ways to make money online... and you're still struggling to pay the
bills weeks, months, or years later?

 Have you ever wanted to prove to your family that you CAN do this - and that NO - you are NOT
wasting your time on the PC?

 Have you ever wanted to work from home... Not out driving, not tending bar, not working for
SOMEBODY else?

 Are you afraid that you will never be able to implement the tech side of things and  that making
money online might be out of reach for a non-techie?

 Have you ever wondered why you can't get any serious traffic to your website although there are
millions of people online... and became mad because of your lack of targeted traffic, poor
conversions and no sales?

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 So what is affiliate marketing?

 And most importantly how you will make money?  

  Affiliate marketing is the fastest and easiest way to make money from the Internet, and that's why
thousands of people who want to work from home choose this online business model...

  As an affiliate, you make money by promoting other people's products. So let's say that you are
interested in golf for example (a very lucrative market). 

  All you need to do to make money with affiliate marketing is:

    1.  Register for free with a free affiliate program

    2.  Grab your affiliate tracking link

    3.  Promote your affiliate link to get traffic (and sales)

    4.  Get paid (your commission) whenever someone buys through your link...

   As an affiliate you make money and there are...

 No product to create
 No employees
 No inventory to stock
 No customer support
 No worries...

  All you need to do is driving targeted traffic to your affiliate links and cash your checks.

  I really don't know an easiest and more lucrative way to work from home and make a lot of  money
online than affiliate marketing. You don't even need money to start.

  Before we continue...