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20 something

Banking Tips For 20-Somethings
Money

Helpful Banking Tips For 20-Somethings

I remember receiving my first paycheck postcollege – along with my first checking account fee.
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I remember receiving my first paycheck postcollege – along with my first checking account fee. While you're a student, many banks will prompt you to sign up with a free checking account, but things change when you graduate. I was startled and annoyed at this fee, but little did I know the few years preceding college, I would rack up several others. Here are five important things you should be aware of when banking in your 20s.

  • Know the fees associated with your account. Ask what types of fees to expect and how you can avoid them. They creep up, and your bank might not prepare you for new fees either. For instance, large banks like Bank of America are instating monthly fees for debit card usage. While charges are between $3-$5, it's still a pretty significant fee for debit card users.
  • Your purchasing habits are stored. In the ever-connected modern day world, purchases made by debit and credit cards are stored and analyzed. This might not mean a whole lot to you in terms of your debit card usage, but companies could use the data to determine your interest rates for credit cards. Keep that in mind if you tend to make not-so responsible choices like purchasing huge items spontaneously or blowing your paycheck in a 24-hour period. Otherwise, opt to make more cash purchases.

Read more must-know banking types for 20-somethings.

How to Become Financially Independent After College
Editor's Pick

Financial Time Line For 20-Somethings

While we'd like to blame the economy, Generation Y — often called the Boomerang Generation of Americans born in the '80s and '90s — have earned that snide title for their inability to land jobs after college and for commonly moving back in with the folks several years after graduation.
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While we'd like to blame the economy, Generation Y — often called the Boomerang Generation of Americans born in the '80s and '90s — have earned that snide title for their inability to land jobs after college and for commonly moving back in with the folks several years after graduation. In an effort to move away from this common trend, here's a list of goals and a realistic time line to help you move toward an independent, adult life.

Last Year of School and Graduation

While some college students apply for jobs or graduate programs during their last semester of school, you might feel overloaded if you start the search while you have a full schedule of classes, an internship, and even a part-time job. Rather than trying to juggle all of those tasks at once, focus on completing your degree. Do make use of your college career services, so you have websites and resources at hand when you are ready to seriously start the hunt.

If you have savings or financial support from your parents, go to Europe or take that dream vacation you've always wanted. It's important to take a break after graduation to decompress before jumping into a job search or a new job. Even if it's just a road trip with your friends, take the opportunity to celebrate your graduation.

Click here to read what to do during your first and second year after graduation.

Investing Strategies For 20-Somethings
community

3 Things Advisers Are Doing to Get Millennials Excited About Investing Again

We're thrilled to present this smart Business Insider story here on Savvy!
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We're thrilled to present this smart Business Insider story here on Savvy!

It's no big secret that millennials are scared silly at the thought of investing in the stock market.

With employment still sputtering along and home ownership little more than a pipe dream, the so-called graduates of the recession are mainly focused on finding a job and investing in what they need to get by.

"We look at where they are almost similar to a generational thing we saw in the 1930s," said Chris Hobart, a financial adviser. "These investors look at money totally different than their parents did, and they see the stock market as being extremely scary and that the opportunity may not be worth the potential."

This wary outlook has made it harder for financial advisers to lure young investors into stocks and savings vehicles in general, wrote Jane Hodges in the Journal. Advisers are having to come up with new and unique ways to get millennials excited about financial planning, but what's surprising is that many of these tactics aren't all that new to begin with. Here, we outline a couple trends taking hold among Gen Y investors:

Investing like Buffett

Perhaps the biggest step in getting millennials to plan for the long-term is changing their mindset, said Hobart. (See why having the wrong mindset might be keeping you poor.)

"Adopting the Warren Buffett approach tends to get them interested," he said. "The idea is that they should find something that people need or want, understand why they need or want that and then buy it."

Drawing from everyday experience makes the act of investing feel more accessible to millennials, he said. It feels like less of a chore.

Hobart has also found that Gen Y — early 30-somethings included — tends to gravitate more toward privately-owned shares of tangible products such as oil and gas.

"Being a small owner of a small piece of land that produces oil represents a larger value," he said, noting Gen Y's desire for a sense of ownership despite its reliance on the Cloud and social media. "It gives the investment a solid feeling."

For what else is working, keep reading.

Twenty-Somethings Still Seeking Parental Aid
education

Twenty-Somethings Still Seeking Parental Aid

An MSN Money article asking why Gen Y is broke started out as a typical article, arbitrarily wondering why we're incapable of managing our money (and asking questions like, "Is Gen Y dumb or just lazy?"), but nestled within are a few startling statistics.
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An MSN Money article asking why Gen Y is broke started out as a typical article, arbitrarily wondering why we're incapable of managing our money (and asking questions like, "Is Gen Y dumb or just lazy?"), but nestled within are a few startling statistics.

This one is particularly striking: According to a recent Pew survey, 68 percent of baby boomers are supporting at least one of their adult children financially. It's hard to believe that only a third of 20- and 30-somethings are financially independent.

The reason for so many dependent young adults becomes clear with some of the other stats the article mentions. The average college debt for recent grads is more than $20,000; those between ages 25 and 34 make up 22.7 percent of all U.S. bankruptcies; the median credit-card debt of those aged 18 to 34 earning low- and middle-income is $8,200.

The good news? The more financial education we get, the less likely we'll be broke in the years to come, and we'll be able to teach our own children important lessons in financial literacy. Are you still receiving some help from your parents here and there?

Source

Millionaire By Thirty
Money

Becoming a Millionaire by 30

The authors of Millionaire by Thirty: The Quickest Path to Financial Independence claim that by adopting the principles outlined in their book, "you can be earning enough to not only meet your living expenses but also to guarantee a happy, wealthy future."
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The authors of Millionaire by Thirty: The Quickest Path to Financial Independence claim that by adopting the principles outlined in their book, "you can be earning enough to not only meet your living expenses but also to guarantee a happy, wealthy future."

They've created a 12-question quiz that supposedly measures how close you are to becoming a millionaire by 30. Answer a couple of the questions here so you know what you're in for!

Take the Quiz
Making it Work in the City That Never Sleeps
Money

Making It Work in the City That Never Sleeps

Maybe it's the resurgence of Sex and the City that has prompted all of the profiles of New Yorkers getting by on their salaries in an inflated city, but they seem to be popping up all over The New York Times during the past couple months.
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Maybe it's the resurgence of Sex and the City that has prompted all of the profiles of New Yorkers getting by on their salaries in an inflated city, but they seem to be popping up all over The New York Times during the past couple months. The notion of what is fiction and what is reality is written between the lines, though the realities they picture really aren't much different from how 20-somethings around the country try to balance the cost-of-living with having a social life. The most recent piece published in the Times described the money tactics of various NYC newcomers, specifically "those who are neither investment bankers nor being floated by their parents." Discover some of the ways they sustain living in the most expensive city in the US when you read more

Kiplinger June 2008 Issue
taxes

Tax Breaks For 20-Somethings

Graduating from college comes with a slew of mixed emotions and a world of opportunities, including some that may not have crossed your mind.
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Graduating from college comes with a slew of mixed emotions and a world of opportunities, including some that may not have crossed your mind. Kiplinger's June 2008 issue recognizes that tax breaks aren't part of most students' college curriculum and rounded up all the tax breaks it could think of for newly graduated 20-somethings.

  • Moving expenses: New grads can deduct the cost of moving themselves and their belongings to their first job out of school, as long as the job is at least 50 miles from their old residence.
  • Saver's credit: Depending on their income, some young adults can trim their tax bill by up to $1,000 as a reward for contributing to an IRA, 401(k) or other retirement plan. The credit is available to singles with an adjusted gross income of less than $26,000 and married couples whose AGI is less than $52,000.
  • Student-loan interest: Young people can write off up to $2,500 of interest on student loans each year even if they don't itemize deductions. And now they can also write off student-loan interest paid by their parents. The IRS considers payments by parents on a child's loan to be a gift to the child.
  • Roth IRAs: Roths are primarily for retirement savings, but they're flexible enough to be used for a down payment on a house. You can withdraw contributions to a Roth at any time without paying taxes or a penalty. And after the account has been open for five years, you can also withdraw up to $10,000 of earnings tax- and penalty-free to buy a first home.
  • Tax forms: In order to get all of these benefits, it's important that young adults not file the Form 1040EZ. Filers can't claim the saver's credit, write off moving expenses or deduct student-loan interest on this simplified form. Instead, they should use the standard Form 1040.
How to Handle Loans From Parents
How To

How to Handle Parental Loans

There are many sources out there that will tell you to consider any loan to a family member as a gift.
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There are many sources out there that will tell you to consider any loan to a family member as a gift. And while going into the situation with low expectations would serve a relationship well, what about the loaning person's finances? Many 20-somethings are turning to their parents for help in the midst of a tougher mortgage scene, and are counting on them to pull through with a familial loan.

Any situation where money passes through related bank accounts should be handled with care. Especially when it's a large sum — a down payment for a new home or a heavy medical expense — where it's obvious that you're asking for a loan and not a gift, which means you intend to pay your parents back in full. These transactions should come with some guidelines. To see what you should consider before entering into this type of arrangement just read more

Are College Students Considered Adults?
Student

Abstract Adulthood: The Vague Years

A Brigham Young study found that 80 percent of parents don't consider their 18- to 25-year-old college students to be adults.
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A Brigham Young study found that 80 percent of parents don't consider their 18- to 25-year-old college students to be adults. They're calling the group that's wrestling between adolescence and adulthood "emerging adults" and that label doesn't quite sit right with me. I do think there's a real gap between identifying as a teen and calling yourself an adult, but I'm not sure why academics are trying so hard to pin down every year of our lives as one thing or another.

We all have unique life experiences that cause us to feel more adult at times and less so at others, but the whole emerging-adult thing makes me feel like they're making the age group into a product. Responsibility in terms of driving, drugs, alcohol, sex, and language were factors that parents used to determine their children's levels of adulthood, while parents and their kids agreed that accepting responsibility for actions was the most important factor.

I don't think there's an "it" moment when you suddenly become an adult, but I do think it has more to do with paying your own bills and contributing to society than learning how to brake slowly. When did you start considering yourself an adult, or are you there yet?

Source

Entry Level Jobs Will Increase in 2008
career

Entry Level Hiring Projected to Increase in 2008

CollegeGrad.com estimates that employers offering entry level positions will up their hiring by 11.8 percent this year, which would be the biggest increase in entry level hiring in three years.
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CollegeGrad.com estimates that employers offering entry level positions will up their hiring by 11.8 percent this year, which would be the biggest increase in entry level hiring in three years. The companies and organizations on the site's Top Entry Level Employers for 2008 vary in size and industry focus, and the list even projects the number of entry level hires each company will make this year. Here are the top ten on the list.

  1. Enterprise Rent-A-Car
  2. Americorps
  3. Walgreen Company
  4. Internal Revenue Service
  5. Progressive Insurance
  6. Teach For America
  7. Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
  8. Target
  9. Peace Corps
  10. Ernst & Young

Source