Do you gamble or make speculative investments without your partner’s consent?

Once you get married, your finances become conjugal. In this sense, proceeding with high-stake ventures without the consent of your significant other is a betrayal – both emotionally and financially. For a relationship to grow and move forward, both parties need to learn how to be transparent.

Do you have bank accounts or credit cards your partner doesn’t know about?

If you have deliberately chosen to keep some of the financial aspects of your life in secret, this might be indicative of a lack of trust and communication between couples. You should be able to discuss these things early in the relationship to better guide your financial lives.

Do you cover up market losses, rather than bringing them to your partner’s attention?

This doesn’t mean that you’ll have to report even the slightest dip in your portfolio. A loss is inevitable. This means that when the loss becomes significant, you should be able to communicate the problem to your partner well. Remember that a major loss is his/her loss too.

Do you hide purchases from your partner or fib about how much you actually paid for them?

If you know that your partner will be disappointed to hear the price of an item, yet you bought it anyways, then you’re committing financial infidelity. This becomes more upsetting when your partner thought you share mutual financial goals, but you seem to be not doing your share to realize them.

Do you put off or avoid discussing financial topics with your partner?

This isn’t really financial infidelity. But assuming that money becomes the main reason for fights and discussions, putting off or avoiding the topic will just lead to more misunderstandings in the future. It’s not fun discussing financial goals and problems. But it’s one sure way to make the relationship work.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/09/financial-infidelity.asp

If your student loan confuses you, now is the time to figure it out.

It’s time to not only familiarize yourself with the details, but also to understand every bit of information regarding your loan. This might help you pay it off as soon as possible.

Start saving for the short term.

If you have plans on living independently, you must have the means to support yourself – to pay for an apartment, to buy food, to have money while looking for employment.

Start saving for the long term.

Invest in your future. It pays to have something reserved for the rainy days. And if you’re lucky enough to keep a large amount of your saving, at least you’ll have head start on your retirement fund.

Decide whether you really need a car.

If you have plans on moving to a place like Los Angeles, you’ll definitely need a car to move around. But remember that car payments and gas can really be expensive for fresh grads. Instead, you can consider cities and other places with good public transportation systems.

Ask about benefits.

Once you land a job, ask about health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, employer-matched retirement plans and other subsidies. These things are as important as your paycheck.

Figure out a budget.

There’s nothing wrong with dreaming – just know how to temper your expectations. It might help to take the time to research and compute the cost of living in different areas where you want to live and the expenses needed to keep a particular lifestyle.

Life after college is tough. It’s full of uncertainties. The last thing that you want to do is to cry and run home to mommy for the financial failures that you should’ve preempted.

http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0311/7-Personal-Finance-Tips-For-College-Grads.aspx

Do the math. How much do you still owe? This includes credit card debt, car loans, and the mortgage. See how much you’re in the hole and calculate how much you pay.

Pay them quick. For smaller debts like credit card charges, it’s best to deal with them straight away. Pay the whole amount and never settle for just the minimum payment. Interest kills.

Some credit cards offer charge transfers from other cards for less interest. If you can, consolidate them under one card so you only have to manage one account. Then cancel accounts and cut up those other cards.

Work out how much extra you can pay. For larger loans like car loans and house mortgage, work out how much extra you can pay each month. Trimming off extra years or even months on the term means less money lost on interest.

Student loans are supposed to cover the skyrocketing costs of tuition but the draw of the frat party lifestyle is so much of a draw that spending the loan other than enrollment’s pretty easy to do.

How many graduates (and dropouts) end up paying tens of thousands of dollars for loans that they took to earn a college degree? And how much of that’s really spent on education of the formal and academic kind?

The key thing here is to make sure that whatever loan you take out, you spend on its real purpose. Student loans are supposed to be spent on school expenses and not accessories or booze.

Now one other side to this is that some of those who do work part-time spend the money they earn to fund their lifestyle which isn’t really smart.

If you can earn something extra, better save it and make payments on the loan. Getting rid of the loan as quick as you can saves you on compounded interest down the line.

Paying everything up front maybe scary since you get to absorb the full cost right away. In such an occasion where there will be no price difference in the total cash out against the total of installment plans, getting things at 0% interest is a good deal indeed.

However, if the payment plan involves paying interest, then you have to check how much you’ll have to spend in total.
With larger purchases that would require you to take up a loans (including mortgage) like with car and home purchases, you might be losing quite a lot with interest alone.

For cars, for example, zero down payments and small monthly payments often translate in longer terms and thousands
in interest. Combine that with the money you lose in depreciation and you might notice that you’ll end up paying for two cars.

The best way still is to pay as much as you can up front (full purchase, if possible) and draw it out with prime consideration for your monthly budget so as to minimize the money lost in interest.

Always think of the whole and longer term impact.