How to Save Money with Prepaid Cell Phones

by Jamie Simmerman · 14 comments

Having a monthly cell phone bill can take a big bite out of your monthly budget, especially if your phone consumes large amounts of data. When cell service providers switched from unlimited data plans to capped data, many consumers started looking for alternatives.

Prepaid cell phones can save you a bundle — if you know what to look for.

Here are four steps to take when switching to a prepaid cell phone:

1. Drop the Data

The first thing to consider is if you really need data on your cell phone. If you have a tablet or e-reader, you can drop your cell phone data plan and use those to check email on the go. You can also opt for a data block on your phone, only using your home WiFi network to access apps and email.

Even a contract cell phone bill will drop drastically without data charges. If you’re sticking with a carrier plan, ask about putting a data block on your line to keep from accidentally incurring costly pay-as-you-go data charges. [ continue reading… ]

How the US Government Shutdown Could Be Affecting You

by Jessica Sommerfield · 2 comments

I have a friend who was recently married. Last week, she received a letter from the government stating they were unable to process her name change request due to the government shutdown. Ironically, she noted that someone was at least getting paid to send her the letter.

While many of us are still going about our daily lives, hardly aware of the empty offices in Washington, the shutdown has had a huge impact on others. Though fears of an economic crash, food shortages, and post-apocalyptic conditions are overblown, there are many legitimate problems arising from the government forgoing certain functions.

Here are three groups of people whose personal finances are being affected by the shutdown. Are you one of them? [ continue reading… ]

The Obamacare Alternative That You’ve Never Heard Of

by Jamie Simmerman · 30 comments

With the Affordable Care Act going live on October 1, many families and individuals are scrambling to find affordable alternatives to government-provided healthcare. While the Affordable Care Act itself is very controversial, the law still requires U.S. citizens to sign up for some form of healthcare.

But what do you do if you’re not sold on government-sponsored healthcare and don’t currently have coverage through a private insurance company? There are healthcare plans available through you local insurance broker, or member organizations like AARP, but not everyone can afford private insurance.

Even if it seems like you’ve reviewed all the options, there’s still one alternative solution that you’ve probably never heard of.

[ continue reading… ]

Should You Enroll in Obamacare?

by Jessica Sommerfield · 17 comments

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, has officially opened for enrollment. Coverage will begin in January 2014, and open enrollment will continue until March 31st.

Even though Obamacare has been a buzzword for most of the Obama administration, there are still many people in the dark about what exactly Obamacare is — and what it means to their personal insurance needs.

While I’m by no means an expert in the policy, here are a few facts that may help you decide whether you need to enroll in this historic government-provided insurance makeover. [ continue reading… ]

4 Behaviors That Will Lead to Your Dream Job

by Jessica Sommerfield · 5 comments

It’s a well-known fact that 60-70% of college graduates don’t end up in the career field in which they earned a degree. There are many reasons for this, including:

  1. Choosing a career field that offers few jobs, or highly-competitive ones
  2. Choosing a career field based only on salary and not on one’s abilities and interests
  3. The economy — fewer jobs, many lay-offs, saturation with over-qualified workers

While we can’t do much about the economy, we can choose what we go to school for. College is a huge investment of both time and money, so it’s wise to put plenty of thought and research into what path of study you want to pursue. Consider not only the current job market, but the projected trend over the next ten, twenty, and thirty years.

Get some experience in your intended field to get a taste for what you’ll be doing, as some careers aren’t what they seem. Most of all, make sure your degree track will be well-suited to your abilities, personality, and interests. After all, you’ll be spending most of your life at your job, so it should be something you enjoy.

While I could give advice all day about which career path to choose, none of it will matter if you can’t get a job in your chosen field. As statistics show, that can be a hard feat, no matter how amazing your resume.

The following four activities and behaviors will help you land that dream job you’ve put thousands of dollars, and years of your life, into achieving. [ continue reading… ]

Who Really Needs Your Social Security Number?

by Emily Guy Birken · 5 comments

We all know we need to protect our Social Security numbers from identity thieves. But what about your doctor, your supermarket, your cell phone service provider, and your child’s school? Even though you can (generally) assume that all of those service providers are on the up-and-up, giving out your Social Security number to everyone who asks for it just increases the risk that your data might be compromised.

So who are you required to give Social Security information to? And what can you do to avoid handing out that information when it’s unnecessary?

Here’s what you need to know about keeping your Social Security number private when everyone is asking for it: [ continue reading… ]

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