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Posts tagged ‘post grad’

Jan 26

Life Skills: Cheap Art

JP Allen ’11 initiated the Arts Runoff series and spent Winter and Spring ’11 as a MiddBlog Lead Editor. He is currently working as a NYC Urban Fellow. Read all life skills posts here.

JP's ticket wall

We’ve all heard Middlebury is a bubble. Most arguments that begin there end urging students to burst out. While that is great advice, there are also plenty of incredible resources within the bubble that can be easy to ignore or take for granted until graduation.

The arts are one of the biggest. Think about it: at Middlebury, $12 sounds extravagant for a theater or dance show that features talented people and high production values in a venue five minutes from your room. You’d be hard-pressed to find that kind of deal anywhere else.

So here is some advice for the potentially more awesome but definitely more jagged and expensive post-graduate art world:

Pay for what’s good

Art is expensive. Recent graduates are (almost always) broke. In order to bridge the gap, I suggest going for quality rather than quantity. You can take risks on cheap events and save your big money for stuff that’s been recommended by friends. I had a grand plan to review a play a week in NYC, but I didn’t have the time or the budget. Instead, I splurged on one showing of Sleep No More and am still thinking about it. Just remember: paying money for experiences tends to make people happier than paying money for objects.

Don’t be discouraged by what sucks

Because some art just sucks. One of the first plays I saw after college—paid $18 to see—was godawful, pretentious, poorly acted and too long. It was like small-town community theater minus the feel-good message and cute children. People were getting paid to make this garbage? Middlebury can spoil people in lots of ways. But you can build a base of good arts options in your next setting without too much difficulty. One great way is to…

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Jan 12

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Life Skills: Get on the Road to Financial Security

Read Brian Fung’s post last week on digital productivity, and check out all the “Life Skills” posts (an ongoing J-term series from previous MiddBlog editors).

by Brian Fung

You don’t have to be an economics major to know that achieving financial independence takes hard work and discipline, particularly if you find yourself living in a city with few support networks after graduation. In these situations, even a little advance prep can help. Here’s how to get on the road to financial security when you’re just starting out.

via flickr / alles-schlumpf

Get everything on the table

Before making any big decisions, it’s helpful to assemble the bits and pieces of your financial life into a single picture. Last week, I mentioned Mint.com — a free online tool that tastefully displays, among other things, how much you have in your checking and savings accounts, the balance on your credit card, and any other debts you hold. Once you sign up with Mint and populate the app with your financial information, new transactions get added and categorized automatically. Mint helps you track where your money is coming from, where it goes and, most importantly, how your spending patterns change over time — all with snazzy charts and graphs to help you understand.

If giving up your personal data makes you skittish, Mint is owned and operated by Intuit, the tax-prep company behind programs like Quicken. Mint can’t make transactions on your behalf, and only reads back to you what you’d find on your various bank websites if you were to log in there separately. Still, whether you should sign up depends on how highly you trust companies like these in the first place, and that’s something for you to decide.

Take willpower out of the equation

The biggest obstacle to saving is often our own selves. Putting cash under the mattress is a struggle — it’s inconvenient, there are bills to be paid now, there are things I want now, and so on. But saving doesn’t have to be an uphill battle.

Instead, consider automating your personal finances. That means setting up a system of rules with your bank(s) to manage your money — like a computer program for your income that you can set and forget. Not only does this system help you save cash by setting aside some of your paycheck before you have a chance to spend it all, but it also saves you valuable time and stress. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even use this system to automatically pay your bills, which vendors appreciate and sometimes results in a little discount for you. And the best part? Automating your savings means you can spend whatever’s left with minimal guilt.

To see how such a system works, watch this explainer by Ramit Sethi, one of a growing number of smart personal finance bloggers.

Help! What’s a 401(k)/403(b)/IRA?

Retirement seems like a long way off when you’re in college. But people are living longer these days even as the future of Social Security grows less certain, which makes it important to plan ahead so that you have enough to live on after you stop drawing a salary. You probably don’t need to start saving until after you leave Middlebury, but the longer you wait, the steeper your climb will be. Someone who starts investing at age 25 will need to put away much less each month and will still end up having more in the long run than someone who didn’t start saving until 35 or 45. Read more

Jan 9

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Life Skills: Deck the Halls

by Sarah Franco ’08

Sarah solo-authored MiddBlog in 2007-2008 from her library thesis carrel. She received her M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University in 2010, and currently serves as the Special Projects Coordinator for the Vice President for Administration (aka Tim Spears) at Middlebury. Read all “Life Skills” posts.

Your post grad walls could have your study abroad photos on them. (flickr / alttext)

I love to travel, I enjoy nights on the town with friends, and I get outside as often as possible, but ultimately I’m a home body. Coupled with my love of entertaining, it’s important that my living space be welcoming, comfortable, simple, and inspiring. And because I have the artistic skills of a kindergartener (no offense, kindergarteners), home design is one of my few creative outlets.

Life after Middlebury may be the first time that you’ll be responsible for decorating or furnishing an entire apartment or house of your own. Transitioning from your Brooker single–which simultaneously serves as your bedroom, study, living room, pantry, and attic–to a one- or two-bedroom flat will be a relief, but also a challenge. Here are a few principles and ideas to get you started.

It’s Not About Stuff. It’s not about making your home look like a Pottery Barn catalog or accumulating expensive, pretty things or projecting a certain kind of image to impress others. It’s about creating a space that is a reflection of you: what you love, what you value or find meaningful, and what’s comfortable.

What’s Your Style? Modern? Chic? Rustic? Urban? Baroque? Unhappy Hipster? The internet awaits to help you figure that all out. There’s Pinterest to “organize and share the things you love.” There’s also Polyvore for making mood boards–great for those of us who lack Photoshop skills. To give designs a trial run in a computerized, three-dimensional model of your home, try mydeco. Read more

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