My Personal Finance Journey

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My name is Jacob, a husband to a wine-blogger wife, father to two bouncy-boy toddlers, and I'm the owner/author of My Personal Finance Journey. By day, I am a scientist working in bio-pharmaceutical development. Personal finance has been my hobby since 2007 when I started teaching myself through books (that finance B.S. degree didn't teach me much!). Learning how to save, adopt a frugal mindset, and invest my own money soundly has allowed me to have a savings rate > 50%, increase my net worth by > 20 times, grow my career, and always do what I love. Check out the About Me page to learn more!

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Festival of Frugality # 281 – Graduation Statistics – May 24th, 2011 Edition

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Welcome frugal fanatics! Thanks for stopping by.

My Personal Finance Journey is very proud to be hosting this week’s edition of the Festival of Frugality. 

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Festival, its purpose is to spotlight excellent ideas that are floating around in the blogosphere to help readers squeeze a few extra pennies, nickels, dimes, or quarters out of every dollar. And, in this age, I believe that we all could use some good advice on how to do this!

This past weekend, many of the high schools, colleges, and universities up and down the East Coast of the US had their big graduation ceremonies. I actually got to attend one of these ceremonies here in Virginia, and it was quite nice! 

In honor of all the graduation “hoopla” going around, this edition of the Festival will focus on some interesting stats and the job market graduates are currently facing.

So, without further a due, let’s get on with the Festival!

Shown below are the top 3 picks out of this week’s submissions. Congrats to the winning article from Robert with The College Investor.

Leaders of the Pack – Top 3 Editor Picks

1. Robert @ The College Investor presents I Started Moving My Finances and Business To The Cloud… posted at The College Investor.

One of the cool things about being a personal finance blogger is that it enables me to stay “in-the-know” about new products, particularly online products, that come out that can help us manage our finances (and life in general). In today’s culture, it’s no longer sufficient to say, “Oh, that document is at home on my home computer.” People expect the documents to be accessible, on the fly, from any computer. This post from Robert reminds us of the utility and importance of using cloud (or online resources) computing to identify ways to improve our finances, save money, and live more frugally. Great job Robert! I am a big fan of Google Docs  as well.

2. Sandy presents $2M Lottery Winner Uses Food Stamps posted at Yes, I Am Cheap.

It seems like it is a rarity to hear of a lottery winner actually living frugally after winning the lottery. However, it appears that the $2M Michigan lottery winner described in this insightful article by Sandy is doing just that. By finding a loophole in the Michigan finance laws, the man is able to continue qualifying for food stamps because the law doesn’t classify lottery winnings as income. Interesting stuff! What do you think? Should lottery winnings be classified as income or assets?

3. Annabelle Foster presents Quiz: What kind of frugal are you? posted at The Year of Shopping Detox.

Go Blogger-hosted Blogs! Represent! This article by The Year of Shopping Detox (a site that I was just exposed to) presents us readers with a series of 6 questions about our spending habits and how we pass the time. She then provides guidelines as to what different trends in our answers can indicate in regards to the type of frugal person we are. Take the quiz and see how you score! I scored in the A category.

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Interesting Graduation Statistic # 1

Yale, Princeton, and Harvard all graduate >88% of their students in 4 years. Wild! Maybe they can do this because of the very selective screening process in who they let in to the school?
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Money Beagle presents No Stone Unturned: Expanding Our Search For Milk posted at Money Beagle.

FMF presents How to Win Friends with Coupons posted at Free Money Finance.

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Interesting Graduation Statistic # 2

Southern University at New Orleans graduates only 8% of their students and Carlos Albizu University in Miami graduates only 10% of their students. At The University of Arizona, only 20% of the men’s sports players graduate. Nice!
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Evan presents What Do You Have to Do Mathematically to Get to Your Goal posted at My Journey to Millions.

Boomer presents Maybe I Should Just Stop Watching TV! posted at Boomer & Echo.

Aparna presents Home-made face wash posted at Beauty and Personal Grooming.

Fanny presents 4 Cheap DVD Rentals posted at Living Richly on a Budget.

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Interesting Graduation Statistic # 3

Because of the lack of jobs and the large amount of student debt that the class of 2011 has, studies estimate that 85% of the graduating class will be forced to move back in with their parents.
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Sonja Stewart presents 25 Great Everyday Uses For Vinegar posted at Parenting Squad.

Rhonda Franz presents Simplifying Family Meals posted at Parenting Squad.

vh presents Shingles Shot: Pricey! But Worth It… posted at Funny about Money.

Kyle James presents 5 Reasons TLC’s Extreme Couponing is Extremely Lame posted at Rather-Be-Shopping.com Blog.

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Interesting Graduation Statistic # 4

Out of the students who took out student loans in order to finish college, the average total debt upon finishing is $27,000. Source – Huffington Post
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Glen presents How to Avoid Free Trial Scams and What to Do if You Suspect You are a Victim posted at Free From Broke.

Money Thinker presents Make Sure you Never Pay Full Price- 5 Tips posted at Money Thinking.

Tom presents Ways to Save Money on your Mobile Phone Bill posted at StupidCents.

Squirrelers presents Cheapskates Visit Vegas posted at Squirrelers.

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Interesting Graduation Statistic # 5

According to Beyond.com, the following 10 job fields offer the most plentiful entry-level job opportunities for college grads in 2011.

1) Clerical & Administrative
2) Sales & Sales Management
3) Merchandising, Purchasing & Retail
4) Arts, Entertainment & Gaming
5) Customer Service
6) Management & Business
7) Accounting & Finance
8) Information Technology
9) Healthcare & Medical
10) Engineering & Architecture
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Marjorie presents Card Hub’s Island Approach to Credit Card Spending posted at CardHub.com.

Novelet presents Save Money on Minor Car Repairs posted at The Working Poor.

Madison presents I Joined a Book Club… and Found the Electronic Library posted at My Dollar Plan.

Well, that wraps up this week’s posts! They sure were some great ones and very interesting to read through!

Get your articles in early for next week (Festival of Frugality #282). It will be hosted by our friends over at Smart on Money. Also, let Jim (the Festival organizer) know if you are interested in hosting as well. It’s a bit of work, but a great way to get your blog out there and meet new folks in the process!

If you were included in this list, please don’t forget to link back to the festival here. Thanks!

    ***Photo courtesy of http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5107/5667591596_1f7c8075b2.jpg

    About the Author Jacob A Irwin

    Hi folks! My name is Jacob. I am the owner and operator of My Personal Finance Journey. I started this blog in January of 2010 and have enjoyed the journey ever since. Since finishing up graduate school in Virginia in 2014, I have been working in biopharmaceutical development in Colorado. You can read more about me and this site here​. Please contact me if you have any questions!

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  • Annabelle says:
    May 26, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    Woot woot! Thanks for including me in your editor's picks! I'm proud to represent Blogger-hosted blogs everywhere.
    My recent post Day 145- Kim Kardashians proposal is kind of a frugal FAIL

    Reply
    • MyPerFinJourney says:
      May 27, 2011 at 1:56 am

      Thanks for stopping by Annabelle! I'm glad you enjoyed the carnival. But yeah, Blogger has been good for me. They don't provide everything from an SEO standpoint, but so far, I've been able to survive.
      My recent post Tips For Buying A Foreclosed Property

      Reply
  • Miss T says:
    May 25, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    Thanks for hosting. Gosh, with some of these facts, people aren't going to want to go to college.
    My recent post Can Electric Cars Really Save You Money

    Reply
    • MyPerFinJourney says:
      May 25, 2011 at 6:50 pm

      Thanks for reading Miss T! Looking back on these stats, some of them do put kind of a gloomy twist on college. But, they are interesting!
      My recent post Simplify Your Asset Allocation and Remove The Impossible From Your Investing Strategy With Bettermentcom

      Reply
  • pvcccourses says:
    May 25, 2011 at 5:18 am

    Thanks for including Funny's report on the $hingles vaccine.
    My recent post And the Winner Is…

    Reply
    • MyPerFinJourney says:
      May 25, 2011 at 2:39 pm

      Thanks for reading PVCC! That was an interesting one!
      My recent post Simplify Your Asset Allocation and Remove The Impossible From Your Investing Strategy With Bettermentcom

      Reply
  • Robert says:
    May 25, 2011 at 2:45 am

    Thanks for choosing my article as an editor's choice!
    My recent post US Dollar- What Does the Future Hold in Store for the Greenback

    Reply

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