education - Surviving and Thriving

School shopping and other topics.

July 31, 2014 by Donna Freedman

Haven’t started your back-to-school shopping yet? You’re not alone.

According to the National Retail Federation, 44.5% of parents will shop from three to four weeks before school starts. Another 25.4% will wait until one or two weeks before the first day of classes.

Despite the rising cost of basics like food, fuel and utilities, we will be shopping. That NRF survey indicates that combined K-12 and college spending will reach just under $75 billion in the United States this year.

However, we’ll be pickier about how and where we buy. For example:

The complete college list (enhanced).

January 23, 2016June 5, 2014 by Donna Freedman

Over at A Mom, Money and More, my blogging buddy Sonya Ann has reprised her “Complete college list,” originally put together after packing her older child off to college.

Novices would do well to heed this detailed account of everything a student needs, from cards to bed sheets.

You don’t necessarily need all of these things, mind you. (Bug repellent? Movies? A Hairdini?)

However, the list is a great reminder of the things we’re so accustomed to having that we don’t really think about them.

That is, until they aren’t there. If the average freshman needs dental floss or shoelaces or cough syrup, which of these two scenarios is more likely?

He’ll load a mobile coupon app onto his smartphone and then walk to the CVS six blocks away, or
He’ll head to the on-campus store and pay the inflated price for Robitussin.

Of course, even the most exhaustive list can use a fresh pair of eyes. No offense, Sonya Ann.

Jean Chatzky wants to school you on finances.

August 26, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Want to take charge of your debt, your spending, your retirement or some other aspect of your finances? Maybe it’s time to go back to school.

Jean Chatzky’s “Money School” opens Sept. 10 – and since friends don’t let friends pay retail, I can offer you a discount code.

The financial editor for NBC’s “Today” show and the author of eight books, Chatzky will teach half a dozen virtual personal finance classes in real time (more on that in a minute).

You can choose one or two or take all six for an additional discount. Bonus: You won’t have to worry about mean kids who slam you into lockers or steal your lunch money.

What’s on the syllabus? So glad you asked.

Giveaway: A book all young people should read.

April 9, 2013April 7, 2013 by Donna Freedman

Know someone who’s graduating from high school or college in the next few months? Have I got a grad gift for you.

Zac Bissonnette’s “How to Be Richer, Smarter and Better-Looking Than Your Parents” would actually be good for any young person who’s flailing around right now. Say, someone who finished a degree in December but hasn’t been able to find himself, a passion or even 40 hours of work per week.

The author was 23 when the book was published — and it wasn’t his first book. Slacker.

The life I once led.

November 26, 2018March 12, 2012 by Donna Freedman

Eight years ago today I headed west. I had no idea what I might do, no idea that I was about to be reborn. In fact, I couldn’t see any kind of future for myself. The only thing I knew for sure was that the life I’d lived up until that moment was no longer bearable.

I left while my then-husband, also a writer, was covering an event several states away. The day before I’d flattened a rear tire in my Chevy Cavalier to keep him from driving it instead of his own vehicle. (Mine got better mileage.)

After getting the tire repaired, I packed what would fit into the little sedan, put Liz Phair’s “The Divorce Song” on the CD player and peeled out.

In less than three days I drove from Chicago to Seattle, a trip made notable by the fact that I somehow managed to get a speeding ticket in Montana.

Back-to-school sales: What, already?

January 24, 2016July 25, 2011 by Donna Freedman

Kids all over the country are in mourning, having seen “back to school” signs and adverts since early July. Today’s circulars included deals like 1-cent manual pencil sharpeners (Office Depot), 25-cent crayons (Kmart), free-after-rebate yellow highlighters (Staples) and $9 backpacks (Target).

It’s not time to buy yet, though.

How to graduate debt-free.

June 16, 2018August 19, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Americans are now deeper in college-loan debt than they are in credit-card debt. We owe some $829.785 billion for those sheepskins, compared to the $826.5 billion in consumer debt.

But you don’t have to go broke to go to college. You probably don’t even have to borrow money.

The unbearable heaviness of student debt.

June 16, 2018July 25, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Maybe you read the article about the doctor with $555,000 of student loan debt. In addition to that horrific sum (which started out as $250k in 2003) were a few other scary numbers:

A laid-off factory worker whose $300 unemployment check is garnished down to $180 because of the PLUS student loan she took out for her son.
A woman who after 14 years of deferment and forbearance (and bankruptcy) saw her Sallie Mae loan leap from $28,000 to more than $90,000. Her monthly payment was once $230; now it’s $816.
An estimated $730 billion of outstanding federal and private student-loan debt exists, and just 40 percent is being repaid. The rest is in default, deferment or forbearance.

Gargantuan loans taken out with no clear idea of how they’ll be repaid. Sound familiar?

Actually, there’s a crucial difference between subprime mortgages and student loans: You can’t return your diploma to the school and walk away from college debt. In fact, such debt can’t even be discharged in a bankruptcy. With few exceptions, student loans stay with you until you pay them back.

My first laptop, finally.

July 21, 2015May 31, 2010 by Donna Freedman

Two years ago I wanted a laptop. I thought my life would easier if I could write during my 50-minute bus rides to the University of Washington.

But then I examined the potential purchase the way I examined all others:

Can I really justify the expense vs. the payoff?
If I got it, would my life be significantly improved?
If I didn’t, would my life by substantially diminished?

No, no and no. Buying the laptop would have meant dipping into my nascent emergency fund. It also would have meant one more thing to carry – and a backpack jammed with textbooks and my daily brown-bag lunch already had me feeling that I was toting my house on my back.

In other words, it would have amounted to a very expensive shoulder ache.