It seems like the coronavirus pandemic has impacted everyone a bit differently. My thoughts and thanks really go out to all of the hourly-paid, lower-income workers who still must continue showing up at work, dealing with mass volumes of people, and putting themselves at risk, all while earning much less than they deserve during this time. At least so far (knock on wood), my family has been pretty lucky regarding how the coronavirus has impacted us. Nevertheless, it has derailed us from our normal routines, and I wanted to share some of those impacts with you all today...
Category Archives for Make Money
College or Trade School: Which Should You Choose?
If you’re a high school student, you might be wondering whether college or trade school is the right option for you. The answer to that question can be hard to find...
12 Hobbies That Make Money
I don’t believe you should go into a hobby simply with the desire to make money. However, if you have a hobby that you really enjoy, why not get paid for doing what you love? These are just 12 hobbies that can produce income, but there are certainly many more that would also do the same....
How to Prepare If You Might Lose Your Job
Job loss doesn’t always come out of the blue. If/when this happens, take the time to lay the groundwork to survive financially without a job for a few months and to find a new job in as short a time frame as possible by following these tips...
11 New Businesses You Can Start This Week
There are a lot of people who wish to start their own business but are intimidated by the amount of time and money it takes for most entrepreneurial pursuits. Fortunately, there are many startup business ideas that don't require a huge initial investment or spending a lot of energy to get started...
Getting There is Half the Fun
Have you ever wished you would win the lottery or suddenly inherit scads of money? If so, be careful what you wish for. You might miss out on most of the fun – getting rich can be more fun than being rich!
4 Moves to Make So You’re Not Tied to Your Job
Are you stuck in a job you hate but can’t leave it due to your finances? Let me share some moves you can make that will help you have more options for changing to a career you love. Here are four things you can do that will put you in a position to obtain freedom from a job you aren’t crazy about...
How to Keep Up Your Working Skills as a Stay-at-Home Mom (or Dad)
Having a stay-at-home parent while a child is young can save big money in childcare expenses. But, what happens after the child starts school? Check out this article to learn how to keep up your workforce skills while being a stay-at-home parent!
Securing An Internship (And The Best Companies For Them)
The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Toi Williams, who is a professional finance blogger for MarketBeat. She has backgrounds in personal finance, sales, and real estate.
For many students and graduates, the pathway to employment starts with landing the right internship. An internship is program offered by an employer to potential employees that allow interns to work either part time or full time at a company for a certain period of time. The Random House Dictionary defines an internship as:
“Any official or formal program to provide practical experience for beginners in an occupation or profession.”
Internships are an essential pipeline for talent for employers and a great steppingstone for students. Many students try to do a few internships throughout college to get a feel for what career they’d like to pursue. Internships are most popular with undergraduates or graduate students who work between one to four months.
Internships allow you to experiment with a career that interests you. Most American internships are work experience internships. There are also research internships, which are more common in scientific fields. Some internships offer college credit for the successful completion of the program.
Internships can be paid or unpaid. Paid internships for college students are less common than unpaid internships. Unpaid internships are usually subject to stringent labor guidelines. U.S. federal law mandates that unpaid interns must not be used to displace the work done by paid employees or benefit the company economically. Some states have additional laws that govern the activities of unpaid interns.
Just about any internship program would be a good entry on your resume, a great way to gain references, and help you with networking. You’re not bound to work for your employer after the internship is over. However, a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers that polled U.S. employers with interns found nearly 7 out of 10 internships result in a full time job offer after successful completion of the program.
If you’re hoping to change geographic location for your internship, there are some things to keep in mind. The first is where you will live during your time with the company. Some internship programs offer housing to students or include a stipend for housing and expenses. Others have developed some financially accessible options so their interns can focus on doing the job rather than worrying about their housing. Make sure you know where you will be living before you make your choice.
Today, employers are being a lot more specific about the skills they need from their interns. These days, interns at some of America’s most popular companies are responsible for a wide range of high level projects. Many companies use their internships as trial runs for potential hires or future promotions. Law firms and investment banks have operated like this decades.
According to a new report by jobs site Glassdoor, the 25 best-paying companies for internships generally pay their interns a median of more than $4,500 a month. Those companies are all generally pay their workforces well above average wages. The intern programs at Facebook, Google, and many of the other Silicon Valley companies on the list are notoriously competitive and challenging, somewhat justifying the higher pay.
Topping Glassdoor’s list is Facebook, with a median pay for interns at $8,000 a month. Microsoft was next, with a median pay of $7,100 a month. The rest of the list is as follows:
• ExxonMobil ($6,507)
• Salesforce ($6,450)
• Amazon ($6,400)
• Apple ($6,400)
• Bloomberg LP ($6,400)
• Yelp ($6,400)
• Yahoo ($6,080)
• VMWare ($6,080)
• Google ($6,000)
• NVIDIA ($5,770)
• Intuit ($5,440)
• Juniper Networks ($5,440)
• Workday ($5,440)
• BlackRock ($5,400)
• Adobe ($5,120)
• MathWorks ($5,120)
• Qualcomm ($5,040)
• Capital One ($5,000)
• Chevron ($5,000)
• Accenture ($4,960)
• Deutsche Bank ($4,640)
• AIG ($4,616)
• Bank Of America ($4,570)
While New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are the primary metropolitan areas for internships in the U.S., there are plenty of other locations that offer great unpaid and paid internships for college students. There are hundreds of thousands of internship opportunities available with employers across the country. You can focus your internship search by where you live, by your college major, or by specific company.
There are many avenues available for securing an internship. Internships.com calls itself the largest internship marketplace online, listing “202,897 internship positions from 123,218 companies located in 9,152 cities across all 50 states.” Another resource is Indeed.com, which lets you search for internships in your local area or any other US location you are interested in. WayUp is advertised as “the #1 place for college students & recent grads to get hired and launch their careers,” listing both available jobs and internships for companies across the nation.
Burning Glass Technologies, a research company that collects employer postings for internships, has released a list of the top 20 fields for internships by number of online postings. Those fields are:
1. Business Operations
2. Marketing
3. Engineering
4. Sales and Business Development
5. Media, Communications, and Public Relations
6. Data Analytics
7. Finance
8. IT Development
9. Arts and Design
10. Project and Program Management
11. Human Resources
12. Science and Environment
13. Health Care
14. Educations and Human Services
15. Database Administration
16. IT Support
17. Economics And Policy
18. Legal
19. Retail
20. Event Planning
Securing an internship will provide you with a wide range of benefits. You get a valuable opportunity to talk to real workers in the fields that you are interested in and experience what working for a particular company would be like first hand. Internships also give you a chance to hone your skills and improve your leadership talents. Employers overwhelmingly point to internship experience as the most important factor they consider in hiring new college graduates for full-time positions. Research shows that 85 percent of companies use internships and similar experiential education programs to recruit for their full-time workforces.
How about you all? Did you use an internship to start your career?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/inl/3466738936/sizes/l
Personal Finance To-Do’s in a Good Economy
The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Laurie Blank. Laurie is a wife, mother to 4 and homesteader who blogs about personal finance, self-sufficiency and life in general over at The Frugal Farmer. Part witty, part introspective and part silly, her goal in blogging is to help others find their way to financial freedom and to a simpler, more peaceful life.
According to recent reports, the economy is in a state of thriving optimism. Check out this recent news article snippet:
“Upbeat economic data continue to emerge from the U.S. economy despite the turbulent political atmosphere. Leading indicators suggest that activity is firming in the first quarter of 2017 after GDP growth slipped in the final quarter of last year. The ISM manufacturing index rose to an over-two-year high in January, retail sales grew healthy and employers added jobs at the quickest pace in four months.” (Source: http://www.focus-economics.com/countries/united-states)
After many years of digging out of trouble since the 2007-2008 housing bust, things might actually be starting to seriously improve for America’s citizens, at least from a financial standpoint. So what can you do to take advantage of a good economy and use the opportunity to improve your personal financial situation? Consider these options.
Assess Your Financial Situation
How have the last nine or ten years affected your finances? Have you gotten into debt? Depleted your savings? Ignored your retirement accounts as you work to be able to pay the bills? Make an assessment of your current financial situation and set some goals for where you want to be financially. Then make a plan for how you’ll get there and start moving forward with your plan today.
Make More Money
Jobs are being added at a quick pace, which means you have more opportunities to increase your income. Consider taking on a second job if necessary or getting overtime hours at work if they are available in order to help you reach your financial goals. Take advantage of the chance to increase your income while things are good and business owners and consumers are in a spending mood.
Don’t Get Too Comfortable With the Boom
In the years prior to the Great Depression, Americans had a “What could possibly go wrong?” attitude about their money. The stock market was thriving and the Roaring Twenties had people buying houses on credit, cars on credit and living a life of financial reckless abandon.
When the crash hit, many people lost everything and the foreclosure rate skyrocketed to over twenty-five percent.
History shows that every boom is followed by a bust – eventually. In a thriving economy that bust may come years down the line, or it may come in an instant due to a terrorist attack or other major widespread issue like a major drought that causes an increase in food prices.
In order to protect yourself and your finances, stay reserved about the immediate economic success and continue to plan for future economies as opposed to simply taking comfort in the current good one.
Beware of Potentially Rising Interest Rates
We’ve lived with super low interest rates for the last several years as the government worked to make it possible for people to keep spending in spite of the housing bust and its after effects. Now that things are looking up we can expect rising interest rates which will affect mortgage loan rates and credit card rates as well, so borrow carefully.
A good economy is a great thing, but it’s also a great time to keep in mind that economic booms don’t last forever and to prepare to be financially stable no matter what the economy may be doing. Ditch your debt, increase your savings and work your way to a healthier financial situation while the getting is good.
How about you all? What steps are you taking to improve your current financial situation?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/koalazymonkey/3596829214/in/