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Getting Financially Fit - Five Tips for Starting Young
May 12, 2010
Here at Google we’re working on promoting financial fitness across the company. Googlers recently asked for more resources to explain the company’s compensation plan and retirement fund options, as well as information about personal budgeting and investing. This request has sparked a new program of financial classes, speakers, and online resources for our employees. With this in mind, we’d like to share a few ideas with you, because it’s never too early to take charge of your finances!
All of us have (or should have) financial goals. For some the goal is to save enough to buy a car; for others it’s to pay for college without student loans. Longer-term goals might include buying a house, and definitely include building your retirement savings. Whether your goal is to retire as a multimillionaire in your 30s or something more modest, your best bet is to start saving right now. Here’s how to get started:
1. Avoid debt.
Credit cards lure many students with their instant purchasing power. With interest rates for many cards now in the 18-25% range, even if you make the minimum payment on time every month, your debt can linger for several years. And if you’re late with a payment, you’ll be hit with overdue payment fees and higher interest rates. The best bet is to avoid credit cards altogether and only purchase things you can afford
right now
. Seriously.
2. Be frugal.
You’ve probably already heard the common tips for cutting costs -- skip the $4 latte, pack a lunch instead of eating out, watch
Netflix
movies instead of going to the theater, yadda, yadda, yadda. (These are all true, by the way.) But there are many additional ways to be frugal and keep more cash in your pocket. You probably already buy your textbooks at
Amazon.com
or
Half.com
, but if not, check them out (or Google “cheap textbooks” to find more options). You can also save money by buying clothes at local department stores instead of paying high-prices at the mall -- it’s okay, really. Bottom line: Look for ways to cut costs and eliminate purchases that aren’t absolutely necessary.
3. Pay yourself first.
At the beginning of each month, budget your expenses for the next 30 days and include savings as one of your budget items. Then, put the allotted money into your savings account
first
before you pay the rest of your bills. By paying yourself first, you ensure that you’ll stay on track with your saving plan. Note: Many online savings accounts offer a higher interest rate than traditional brick-and-mortar banks, so do your research to get a better return on your money.
4. Build an emergency fund.
Financial experts recommend having a 3-6 month emergency cash fund. This means having enough money in your savings account to cover 3-6 months of all your expenses like rent, food, utilities, cell phone, transportation, etc. While this is a lot of money to set aside, especially on a student’s budget, don’t let the idea overwhelm you. Simply start saving now and grow your fund bit-by-bit.
5. Sign up for your employer’s 401(k).
In the United States, a 401(k) plans allow workers to save for retirement. When investing in a 401(k), you don’t have to pay taxes on the money you contribute -- or on the interest that grows on your investments -- until you take the money out in your retirement years. Now, you probably won’t be eligible for an employer’s 401(k) until you’re working full-time, but keep this in mind for the future because a 401(k) is a great way to build a solid retirement fund.
Speaking of retirement plans, Google’s 401(k) plan offers an industry-leading company match of up to $8,250 per year. So, for employees who contribute the IRS maximum of $16,500 per year, Google chips in another $8,250 for a total of $24,750 a year! This is just one way Google helps our employees build a secure financial foundation.
Whether you’re in school or venturing out into the workforce, taking charge of your finances is the smart thing to do -- so get started today!
Posted by Jeff Brady, Google Benefits Program
8 Ways to Organize Your Life After College Using Google Docs
May 5, 2010
Outside of work many of our Googlers have other lives as popular bloggers. From cooking to advice giving to product reviewing, Googler blogs reflect the varied hobbies and interests of our amazing employees. At Google Students we realized that many of these Googler bloggers may have something to offer to our audience, so we decided to start a guest posting series in order to showcase some really cool blogs, as well as allow Googlers a chance to share their knowledge with all of you!
With 2010 graduations already underway, what better way to kick off this series than with a post from
Life After College
author Jenny Blake! Jenny has worked at Google for four and half years, and is currently a Career Development Program Manager and coach. She also blogs at
LifeAfterCollege.org
, where she provides simple, practical tips about life, work, money, happiness and personal growth. Jenny’s goal is to help you focus on the BIG picture of your life...not just the details. Follow her on Twitter
@jenny_blake
.
Life after college can be confusing and chaotic. As a veteran Googler, life coach, blogger, and productivity geek, it might not surprise you to know that I run my life with Google Docs. I’ve created templates to help organize almost every aspect of life after college, and I’m hoping they’ll help you get a handle on things too!
The great thing about using Google Docs & Spreadsheets is that they are easy to edit, accessible anywhere (any computer or your mobile phone), and you can share them with friends for added accountability and feedback. So without further ado...
1. Prepare for job interviews with the
Job Interview One-Sheeter
This template condenses nine key questions into a one-page "Cliff’s Notes" for your next job interview. Quickly articulate and refer back to your answers on nine key areas, including: strengths, goals, work-style, ideas, challenges you've overcome, questions for the interviewer and an answer to that dreaded "weaknesses" question.
2. Set career goals by creating a
Professional Development Strategy
To succeed in your career you need to take an active role in your learning and professional development. No one else will do it for you. This template will help you set a strategy around your professional development goals by walking you through three areas: Your Vision (short and long-term brainstorm about your desired impact, and what you want to do & have), The What (skills, knowledge, education, experience), and The How (quarterly benchmarks and resources).
3. Track conversations, professional contacts and potential mentors with the
Networking Tracker
Use this networking spreadsheet to track names of people you meet that you want have follow-up conversations with. The template eliminates the need to refer back to business cards - people's information is easily accessible online (and stored in one place). The tracker also makes it easy to skim through your list of contacts every few months and drop people a note if you haven't talked to them in a while.
4. Get your finances under control with the ever-so-simple
Four-Step Budget Template
Most budgets are too cumbersome to be useful (in my humble opinion). Check-out this handy four-step budget: After filling in income, must-have expenses and nice-to-have expenses, you'll get a "monthly allowance" for you to spend on discretionary items as you'd like, with the peace of mind of knowing that your main expenses are taken care of.
5. Have some fun! Dream big by creating a
Life Checklist
The principle of the life list is simple. You list all the things you want to do in life - big and small - then cross them off as you do them. This template will help you create a life checklist of your own. To see an example of my life checklist,
click here
.
6. Take an overall temperature check of your life with the
Wheel of Life
The Wheel of Life is a commonly used coaching exercise. It can help you examine each of the areas of your life and determine where you want to focus your attention. In this template the wheel is clearly a square :), and the cells automatically change color based on the values you enter (1-4=red, 5-7=yellow, 8-10=green).
7. Hold yourself accountable for strong health habits with the
Fitness & Activity Weekly Tracker
We all love checking things off a checklist, right? Use this template for tracking your weekly fitness activities (or anything else you want to track). You set the target goal for each activity (ex: run twice per week, strength training three times per week), and the spreadsheet will give you a countdown as you check-off various activities. It also totals your minutes per week, with a column for keeping notes and a place for tracking your weight.
8. Set-up a system for managing appointments with the
Simple Appointment Tracking Spreadsheet
If you do not have a place to keep track of recurring appointments (medical or otherwise), you will always be scratching your head trying to remember when you are next due – or forget about making the appointments completely. Set up a simple spreadsheet to track all of your recurring appointments and the relevant contact information in one place, then schedule reminders to actually make the next appointment one month before you are due.
I’d love to hear what you think after trying these - and please get in touch if you have requests for future templates!
If you liked this guest post, consider subscribing to Life After College via
RSS
or
email
. Jenny also has a book coming out in Spring 2011. To get the inside scoop on her book project (email updates with personal stories, tips and resources)
sign-up here
.
Grad tip: Go Google at work
August 14, 2009
In the spirit of graduation season, we've been doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors. Check them out
here
.
With summer soon coming to a close, we want to leave those of you who've recently started a new job with one last tip:
Go Google
. If you love using Google products in your personal (or school) life, why not help your company (or future company) go Google? Check out this video for inspiration, then
find out more and spread the word
.
For more Apps news
To get updates and news on all the Apps products, check out the Google Apps Blog.
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Grad tip: An easy way to journal using Blogger
July 24, 2009
In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so
stay tuned
for more!
Whether you're starting a new job, or traveling for a few months, or moving to a new city, you might want to keep a journal of this time in your life. Personally, I've been very unsuccessful with keeping journals or diaries over the years. It was always something I aspired to, but my notebooks would ultimately be full of blank pages.
For a while, I tried blogging as well, but my commitment to writing daily posts waned over time. That is, until I learned a useful feature in Blogger that made documenting the day-to-day events of my life super simple. And since then, I've kept up with my posts for over 2 years!
I essentially photo blog, meaning instead of writing lengthy text posts about my life, I just capture what goes on in pictures that I post online. What makes this process even simpler is that I'm able to take a spontaneous photo on my mobile phone, email it to my blog's address, and have the photo published within seconds.
After doing this for two years, it's amazing to go back and look at what I took a picture of months or a year ago, and to remember what I was doing or who I was with at the exact time and moment the photo was posted to my blog.
If you want to do this, here are some steps to get started:
Follow the steps at
www.blogger.com
to
create a new blog for yourself
(if you don't already have one).
After you've created your blog, go to "Settings".
Click "Email & Mobile".
Under "Posting Options," fill in the field to
create a Blogger email address
for your new blog (make sure to keep this email address secret!).
Select "Publish emails immediately".
Click "Save Settings".
Now take a photo on your mobile phone, and email it to the Blogger address you created. The subject line for the email will be the post's title, and you can include text in the body of the email that will appear along with your photo on your blog.
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Grad tip: Check off your to-do's with Tasks
July 17, 2009
In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so
stay tuned
for more!
Tasks just graduated from Gmail Labs this week, and it's a useful feature that can help you keep track of the many things you probably need to get done as you're getting your post-college life set up -- from meeting project due dates at your new job to remembering you and your roommates' list of groceries for the week. You can create separate lists for groceries, errands, work, etc., and you can assign dates and add notes to each task. You can even turn a Gmail message into a task.
To get started with your first list, just click "Tasks" under the "Contacts" link above your Gmail chat list. And since Gmail isn't the only place where you need access to your check lists, Tasks is also available on
mobile phones
(so you can get stuff done on the go), in
Google Calendar
, and you can even
add Tasks to iGoogle
.
Watch this video to see Tasks in action:
For more Apps news
Did you know that Gmail and Google Calendar are just two of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products,
check out the Google Apps Blog
!
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps team
Grad tip: K.I.T. using Gmail's voice and video chat
July 10, 2009
In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so
stay tuned
for more!
It wasn't until after my friends and I had graduated and left the bubble that was our college life that I realized how much I'd taken our years of proximity for granted. For four years, we were never more than a 10 minute walk or a quick bike ride away from each other. And now we're in all parts of the world, in different time zones, and sometimes separated by long flights.
If you and your friends are scattered across cities too, you should try keeping in touch with
voice and video chat in Gmail
. You can either make a voice call (pretty much a phone call, but it's free and you don't have to use up your cell phone minutes!), or if you have a web cam, you can make a video call to chat with friends "face to face."
To make use of this free service in Gmail:
Download
the voice and video chat plug-in.
Log back into Gmail.
Make a voice or video call to any friend that has a camera icon next to their name in your chat list by selecting their name and clicking "Video & more."
So even though graduation may make you feel far away - now you can stay close with Gmail!
For more Apps news
Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products,
check out the Google Apps Blog
!
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Grad tip: Manage home expenses in a Google Docs spreadsheet
June 26, 2009
In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors, so
stay tuned
for more!
Transitioning into post-college life can be pricey, so chances are, you're living (or planning to live) with roommates. Managing expenses and a tight budget can be tricky, especially when you're not just managing your own.
So we're letting you know about the
'shared house expenses' spreadsheet
available in the Google Docs templates gallery. It covers all the usual house hold expenses: electricity, gas, water, Internet, phone, groceries, etc. Just enter dollar values for how much people spend on each item, and the spreadsheet will automatically display charts and details like how much each person owes everyone else.
This spreadsheet template was actually created by Googlers who live together and have to manage their own household expenses together. Here's a video of them talking about their own experience.
And if you're also interested in better managing your own money, you can
browse the template gallery
to find other helpful tools, like the
personal budget tracker
and the
credit card payoff calculator
.
For more Apps news
Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products,
check out the Google Apps Blog
!
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Grad Tip: Don't start your resume and cover letter from scratch
June 19, 2009
In the spirit of graduation season, we're doing a series of posts every Friday throughout the summer that provide tips for graduating seniors,
so
stay tuned for more
!
It wasn't
too
long ago that I was packing up my college dorm room and trying to line up job interviews -- OK, maybe it's actually been a while... But even though it's been a few years, I still remember what it was like getting ready for the real world, talking to recruiters, and prepping for interviews.
I learned a lot in school, but as much as I wished for one, there was never a 'How To Prepare for Interviews 101'. By the time I had to get my resume and cover letters ready, I felt a bit lost. Luckily, I had savvy friends who gave me good tips and advice, and they helped me get those materials together.
Fortunately, students today (like you) don't have to start from scratch. If you've been procrastinating on finishing your resume, or you're hoping to re-polish it, you can just start with one of the many
resume and cover letter templates
available in Google Docs.
The gallery lets you preview different templates, and you can sort through them by 'hottest,' 'most users,' and 'highest rating.' And since everything is hosted online, you can easily publish your resume as a web page to make it easier for your potential employers to access them.
Personally, I'm a fan of the simpler, cleaner looking resumes, like this one that's specifically designed with graduating students in mind:
And here's the matching cover letter to go with that resume:
Visit the
Google Docs templates gallery
to choose the styles that match your personality, and put your best foot forward when impressing your future boss.
For more Apps news
Did you know that Google Docs is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products,
check out the Google Apps Blog
!
Posted by
Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
Introducing our Grad Tips series: Make the most of your new alumni email address
June 12, 2009
It's graduation season, so congratulations to those who've walked down the aisle recently, donning cap and gown! To help you with your transition from college life to "the real world," we're using our
usual Friday series
to bring you some Google tips geared towards graduating students. The following is just one in a series of posts we'll be doing every Friday throughout the summer, so
stay tuned for more tips
!
If you're a part of the class of '09, you're likely leaving behind a lot of great college memories and taking with you a new alumni email. So we want to remind you of a few Gmail tips that should help you get the most out of this new address.
Set up mail forwarding or fetching
Instead of checking a separate account for emails sent to your alumni address, have all your messages appear in your Gmail inbox. You can either set up mail forwarding from inside your alumni account for all new messages, or use Gmail's Mail Fetcher to have all messages (old and new) automatically downloaded to your Gmail inbox.
Learn more about both options
.
Send 'From:' your alumni address
If you still want to show your school pride, you can add a custom 'From:' address to your Gmail account that lets you list your alumni address as the sender for outgoing emails.
Learn to set up a custom 'From' address
.
For more Apps news
Did you know that Gmail is just one of several products in Google Apps? To get updates and news on all the Apps products,
check out the Google Apps Blog
!
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Google Apps Marketing Manager
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