Before the Internet, you needed thousands of dollars to make an investment that would generate a decent return. But the Internet and smartphones have made it much easier for anyone to invest, even if you only have a small budget.
An app like Acorns, for example, rounds up the purchases you make with your credit or debit cards and invests that spare change for you. Sounds interesting? Read more about it in this Acorns app review. It suffices to say that today, there are plenty of ways to save and invest your money.
However, statistics show that saving is not as simple as it seems (let alone investing). Apparently, 65% of Americans save little or nothing, and 50% of Americans could end up struggling in retirement.
Even if you live from paycheck to paycheck, there are ways to save up some money. And it starts with the right mindset.
Change Your Thinking
First of all, you need to believe there is plenty of money to go round for everyone. Anything that you want is abundantly available if you give it time and dedicate yourself properly. When you move from thinking that everything is scarce and hard to get by, to thinking everything is abundant and available, opportunities will present themselves.
In terms of saving, the key is to start small. In the beginning, start with $10 a week. Put it in an envelope, shoebox, safe, or the good old-fashioned cookie jar. Or an online savings account. That $10 a week will amount to over $500 a year.
When you feel comfortable, slowly increase that the money you want to save. Could you make it $15? Try $15 for a few weeks. Make it a habit to regularly put some money away every week.
Invest Your Money
Once you feel you have enough money saved up and you have a rainy-day fund to cover sudden expenses, you can look to invest some of your saved money.
If you have any debt, your number one priority should be to pay off that debt first. This is particularly the case if your interest rates are double digits. You won’t find an investment that can consistently perform better than the interest rates of your debt, so pay off your debt first.
But if you don’t have any debt, a great way to invest is in your employer’s retirement plan. Again, start small. Invest 1% of your salary, to begin with. Then slowly increase that percentage. The tax deduction will make your required contribution even smaller!
Otherwise, you could look to invest in US Treasury securities. Although they certainly won’t make you rich, it’s a great place to park your money and earn a bit of interest. Some US treasury securities are also protected against inflation.
And once you feel you’re ready, you can invest your money in stocks, bonds, collectibles, commodities, and more. They’re higher risk, but they produce a higher return too. Educate yourself and step into a world where instead of working for money, your money will be working for you.
Juggling between attending class, joining school organizations, acing examinations, and doing essays is not an easy feat for students. If you think being a student is difficult, imagine being a student entrepreneur.
Student entrepreneurs have to work smarter and harder to make things work in terms of academic and business progress. One of the challenges is to save money. So, we have researched and came up with money saving tips for the student entrepreneur.
Research on Technology and Software Deals for Students
Being a student has a lot of advantages when it comes to deals because of the requirements needed for the school such as laptops or tablet and computer software. You can use these deals in helping your business such as the use of Microsoft Excel in tracking or Photoshop for image creation. Back to school deals are also common so be sure to not miss that.
Choose a Student Friendly Credit Card
This tip might concern you as it is supposed to be tips for saving money and not spending. Credit cards have a bad reputation for putting people in debts but only for those who have no idea of how to maximize its potential. However, nowadays, there are Credit cards that offer credit scores
which doesn’t have an annual fee, and some have rewards or cashback programs that can save students hundreds of dollars a year.
Research on Grants
Another advantage of being a student is being able to apply for grants depending on your chosen field. It’s a great opportunity to start your business and have someone support it through a grant. Therefore, it will help you save money instead of using it for research and execution. It’s also a great avenue for introducing and marketing your brand without a cost!
Make Use of Free and Available Support
Being a student gives you access to amazing research tools which are usually free and available. Make the most out of it by reading on the industry you want to enter. Students usually have access to major newspapers which can keep them updated with trends and finance news. You can also utilize the experts, such as mentors, that surround you. You can share with them your business plan and have their feedback. Use them while they’re still free because consulting an expert after college will cost you a lot.
Being a student gives you the opportunity to mingle with fellow students, professors, and field experts. The more people who you can share your product or services with can mean a spread of word of mouth for your business. Interaction with these people can help develop your social circle, references, and support. Ensure that you have a perfect business pitch which is highly structured and easy to understand. If you think that going to college parties or general assemblies are not your thing, then you can explore social media. Social media can be very helpful and it’s easy to find peers on this platform.
Consider Starting a Retirement Plan
While investment means spending, it can help you save money in the long run. Having a retirement plan can prepare you in the future since you don’t have an employer to pay it for you. But don’t be pressured into buying a retirement plan at the early stage of your business as it can be a burden in the long run. Make sure that your business is already doing good and you can afford to invest in a retirement plan. If a retirement plan has interested you and you understand the investment, research on terms to help with ease of payment such as paying for a lower premium but on a longer time frame.
Take Care of Your Credit Rating
Credit rating is like a shadow that’s going to follow you even after college. Having a credit card while as a student will help you start building your credit history. Avoid creating risks that can lower your credit rating as it can decrease your chances of obtaining business loans in the future. It’s easy to have your card swiped for a lot of purchases and lose track of how much you have spent. Track your purchases by differentiating personal and business. Comparing credit cards, bank rates and savings accounts online could be an immense help and save you a lot of money.
Track Everything
As mentioned on tip # 3, track everything – from your allowances, income, expenses to budgets. It’s important to not lose sight of your financial goals. It’s not that easy especially if you’re just a student and want to have fun. Student entrepreneurs will always exert double the effort than those students only but expect to have a doubled reward in the future as well.
Create Segmentation with Your Accounts
In support of tip # 8, keeping your personal and business transactions separate can help in tracking your income and expenses. And you can start with opening a bank account for your business transactions. Opening an account is not that complicated and it usually doesn’t require a big maintaining balance.
Utilize Assignment for Business Research
Essays are the usual assignment for students that will require them to tap into their resourcefulness, patience, and understanding. Doing essays can be a chore if you don’t see any advantage from your point of view aside from passing English literature. Find passion in research as it can help you learn more about the business industry.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it’s not easy to balance education and business, especially in a financial aspect. But with focus, determination, and the right mindset, you can be successful in anything you set your mind into.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
If you’re here, you’re probably among those people who updated their iPhone to iOS 12 and are not pleased with all with it. We come with great news: you can go back to iOS 11.4.1. We’ve prepared some steps for you to follow.
Why should you do it, though?
Everybody knows that iOS 12 comes with some issues that make the overall experience bad. It slows down your device and it uses too much of your battery. You need to keep in mind that you cannot downgrade to the last version of iOS after the digital signature expires.
At present, downgrading is possible. But you need to take into account the fact that you only have about two weeks to decide what do to, before Apple stops signing the iOS 11 version. Also, any kind of change you made while you were using iOS 12 will disappear after you downgrade to 11.4.1.
What will you need?
To downgrade, you’ll need the iOS device, be it iPhone, iPod and iPad. Also, the iOS 11.4.1 IPSW file and a computer with Windows or MacOS.
How to do it?
First, you need to get the firmware from Apple’s website. Make sure you get it from a trusted source (never download it from an unknown site). Then you need to dave the file into your computer. Turn off the the Find my iPhone feature right from the Settings – you find it under your name in the iCloud settings. Then, you have to connect your device to the computer. Then, open iTunes. Click on the restore button, and at the same time hold Alt or the option for Mac and Shift for Windows. Then, select the IPWS file from your computer, and then confirm that you want to make the changes.
We all know Pokemon Go is Niantic’s popular game and we come with great news: it’s about to get better! The team behind the game has revealed that the PvP trainer battles are soon to become a thing for the game. The game was released in the summer of 2016 and it soon becomes a bit among players. Since then, there’s been a lot of updates, but none seems even to give the idea of PvP elements that can allow players to fight with other trainers. However, that’s about to change just about now.
In the first year of the release, the game has made 750 million global downloads, and in summer, the money arrived as to $1.8 billion. It’s true, the number of initial players has decreased substantially since it was first released, however, the game kept being updated and came with a friends list, new pokemon additions, and even trading – so some of the players started to play again, some others only met it then for the first time.
How is the PvP going to work
The PvP is set to get back in the game even more players, and Niantic has given us a first look at how those battles are going to work. To make sure that everyone gets access to many players, there are going to be 3 Trainer Battle Leagues: Great, Ultra, and Master. However, there’s a difference between them: pokemon CP (combat points) and Great League, with 1500 CP for each Pokemon, , Ultra League at 2,500 CP for each Pokémon, and the Master League not capped at all.
Players are going to be limited to 3 pokemons for every team for Trainer Battles, and for Great and Ultra, players will have to be more strategic, and not just rely on maxed-out CP.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
Have you ever wondered who would win if we were to start a competition between Google Play and Apple’s App Store? It seems we finally might have an answer to this dilemma. Modern conversations usually start with a few general questions and don’t miss the opportunity to find out more about the other person’s mobile – what the manufacturer and its operating system are.
Both Android and iPhone users have access to an interactive app store which constantly brings them updated versions of their favourite apps. However, it looks like Google Play is more popular than the virtual store powered by Apple, since it is used on more than 2 billion devices which are powered by Android systems.
Google Play is so popular because it comes preinstalled on the devices that use it. In this case, people can simply look for the app they need, download and install it. According to AppBrain, Android fans can choose from 2.5 million apps existent in Google Play’s library nowadays. Most of them are free, but not all of them.
An updated version of Google Play APK is available for download
There’s no doubt that Google Play is Android users’ best friend. Here they can find everything they need: apps for communication, music, movies, e-books, health, cooking and many more. If you are curious to see which the top choices for each category are we will mention them now:
When it comes to games most Android users installed Candy Crush Saga;
Facebook is the most popular choice when it comes to social apps;
The most popular song is Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran;
Adele’s 25 is the most common choice when it comes to music albums;
Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James seems to be the most popular book.
Those who want to keep their devices up to date should know that a new update for the Google Play APK is now available for download. This time, is 12.1.18 and before you start downloading it make sure that your software can support the new version.
Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post. In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.
