On Sunday and Monday this week, I helped my baby sister move into her first real apartment. She is going to be attending medical school in Philadelphia starting this fall, and I had to help her get her stuff down there. It makes me feel both proud that she is smart and talented enough to get into med school, and just a bit old that my baby sister has graduated college and is now going onto med school. Time does fly sometimes.
The most interesting part of the move, from my perspective, was shopping for furniture for her at IKEA. I’ve never really gotten anything from them before, and it was rather interesting to see their massive warehouse filled with unassembled furniture. Weird side note: we discovered that the covers for the couch she wanted to get came in several colors, with most colors selling for $159 and white covers selling for $11. Luckily for my credit card balance (as I was playing the good big brother and paying for the furniture until my mother could reimburse me), she opted for white, although she did end up getting a total of three covers. I’m proud of her frugal nature (although, I wish she had done more of the work assembling the furniture herself).
On the subject of going back to school, Studenomics offers up a few suggestions for Ways College Students Can Make Money Fast. A pretty decent selection of money making ideas for students, including reselling your old textbooks and increasing your hours at a summer job. My favorite suggestion is to get a job at your school during the year; it’s an excellent way to make money during the education process. (Although, it doesn’t strike me as very fast…) Some other interesting posts:
Library Fines Don’t Support Your Library – One of the more depressing things I’ve read this week (which might show how much of a geek I really am), Mrs. Micah shares the fact that paying late fees doesn’t directly support your library in many cases. Luckily, I perked up a bit when she listed some ways to help your library, like donating your time or old books.
When Will My Investment Double? – A short but sweet post from Stephanie of Poorer than You, reviewing the Rule of 72. Don’t know what the Rule of 72 is? Well, the short version is that, if you divide 72 by the rate of return you are getting, you can find out how many years it will take your investment to double, assuming a reasonable rate of return. (The rule breaks down at extremely high return rates, although that’s the sort of problem we all want to have.)
TED Spread-What is It? – On My Life ROI, there’s an interesting post explaining the TED Spread, the difference between three month Treasury bills and three month Eurodollar contracts. It’s used as a proxy to indicate how much banks trust each other; lower TED values indicate more trust. The chart he presents for the past two years is interesting: until late 2007, the spread is quite reasonable, then around October it increases and bounces up and down for most of last year, before spiking in October 2008, and then slowly settling down. The goodness: we seem to be back to normal, according to TED, which is a good start.
- What Christmas Ornaments Taught Me About Money
- Thoughtful Thursday: The Government Is Not Giving You Money
- Debt Repayment Test
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