Tag Archives: finance

10 Things We Need Before Graduation (aka AnnE’s Graduation Registry)

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It occurred to me recently that upon entering the Real World I’ll need to be armed with more than my Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. So I’ve been soliciting advice from real live grownups (and created some of my own) about what we actually need to function in the real world.

FOR THE HOME:

1. A George Foreman Grill

I make really excellent cereal and Poptarts, but my talents end there, hence this recommendation. A George Foreman Grill has you covered for everything from a panini to chicken breasts, and BONUS, it’s really easy to clean.

George Foreman Grill

2. A rice maker

Rice is delicious, cheap, great with absolutely any dish, and really easy to make perfectly once you have one of these gizmos. Much adult. Very grownup.

rice cooker

3. A crockpot

Did you know you can just put food in a crockpot in the morning and when you get home you have a meal?! THAT IS SO COOL. This totally feels like cheating at adulthood, but I’m ok with that.

crockpot

4. A refined taste in alcohol

When attending a Happy Hour or cocktail party at work, it will no longer be appropriate to request vodka and Redbull, vodka and whatever-Crystal-Light-package-you-have-on-hand, vodka shots with orange juice chasers, or Natty Light. Put the “adult” back in “adult beverages” and learn to order something like a boring glass of wine and refrain from openly gagging when drinking a Manhattan.

5. Renter’s Insurance

This advice comes from one of CP&R’s own career counselors, Lesley Bonds, who watched the ceiling of her apartment fall down onto everything she owned because of a broken water heater in the apartment above her. She spent the next few months on friends’ couches until her apartment was repaired and had to pay for all of it herself. Needless to say, she highly recommends renter’s insurance.

6. Laundry know-how

Yes, this was supposed to be something we learned in college, but we didn’t. So, here’s how to fold a fitted sheet, here’s how to know what spin cycle and temperature to use, and here’s what all of those mysterious symbols on your tags mean.

FOR YOUR CAREER:

7. Financial knowledge

This requirement breaks down into 3 sections: budgeting, investing, and saving. We need to learn to budget because allegedly part of this whole career-thing is that someone is going to give us money every 2 weeks or so, meaning, we’ll need to start keeping track of how we spend it. Here’s a helpful guide for learning to budget (and another) (and another)! As for investing, it may not be as essential as budgeting, but knowledge of the stock market does seem to be one of the topics that is important at boring grownup dinner parties, so we should probably learn about it. (Here are a few other reasons investing might be important, in case you aren’t convinced.) Which brings me to the hard one: saving. As I said, money is going to be put into our account EVERY MONTH. THAT’S SO EXCITING, but according to my budget, I can’t spend all of it on ice cream and Golden Oreos… A lot of that salary is going to need to be saved for future expenditures like vacations and houses, but also for more prudent investments like retirement. This seems like a lot, but we still have 2 months and CP&R regularly hosts finance workshops that I highly recommend!

8. A baby lamb voice

If you aren’t lucky enough to know Grace Ditsworth, this title might not immediately make sense, so I’ll explain: Grace has a voice that can calm any pushy employer, annoyed parent, or overwhelmed student and quickly convince them that everything really will be ok. This voice will be absolutely necessary in any stressful work environment, airline confusion, and family engagements. DO NOT graduate without it. So far, I don’t have any references for how to attain it, but I’m hoping that Grace will teach an EPP class on it soon.

9. An (Updated) LinkedIn Profile

There’s much debate about this, so let me start of by saying, Pre-Med Students: no, I’m not talking to you; please don’t get frustrated with me. Everyone else, why not make one while you can still get help from Valinda Lee (Assistant Director of CP&R and Scripps’ Unofficial LinkedIn Master)? Pros: more and more people are using it these days; networking becomes super easy; and (my favorite part) there’s no one page limit! Cons: yet another thing to do.

FOR GENERAL SURVIVAL:

10. Bravery.

Let’s face it, there’s a theme to my blogs this semester: THE REAL WORLD IS SCARY. We’re leaving our very comfortable Claremont bubble and aren’t really sure about what’s ahead. But, as Rory not-so-eloquently states in the penultimate episode of Gilmore Girls, “There are a just a lot of things right now in my life that are undecided. And that used to scare me but now I kinda like the idea that it’s just all kind of… wide open.” So we’ll need to be brave and gain a sense of adventure.

 

… while keeping our parents on speed-dial and remembering that we can continue to make appointments with CP&R even after graduation.

Fullbridge Program Day 3: Personal Finance

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Day three of Fullbridge focused much less on group activities and required more attention to individual tasks. The workload was quite dense, and none of us wasted time chatting. On-task and quiet, we immersed ourselves in a world of tutorials, videos, PDF files, and Excel. Most of us listened to music while we worked. I frequently stood up to stretch and give my back a break from sitting too long.

Personal finance stood at the forefront of the day’s work, complete with facts and figures full of jargon. We explored a range of financial settings. These included learning the difference between variable, fixed, and discretionary expenses, as well as the value in renting v. buying a house. While I did not find this information immediately applicable for myself, I knew it would help to know the information later down the road— perhaps after I graduated from Scripps. Even now, some students choose to live in a house with others instead of opting for on-campus housing.

Another topic fell under the category of how to choose a bank based on a three-pronged guide: fees, convenience, and interest paid. Although many of us may already own savings or checking accounts, CDs or mutual funds, we can always benefit from securing additional knowledge. After all, the economy literally changes overnight and new policies appear more often than we might think. Personally, I would have appreciated information about traditional banking v. online banking, given the recent shift to the latter.

By the end of the day, my mind had accumulated a wealth (puns!) of information about personal finance– enough to make me rethink my spending and saving habits. I reflected on the way I had spent my paychecks last fall, and resolved to act more thoughtfully this semester. I set a new budget for myself, and have followed through with it this spring. As of now, I’m happy to say my piggy bank’s been nothing but smiles.

On a tangential note…

My personal accomplishment of the day was working out at the gym for the first time since my arrival at Oxy! Given how difficult it is to find any extra time outside of work, I felt extremely accomplished. I imagined what it would be like to find similar pockets of time for fun or recreation in the future, and am thinking about it still.

When one works an 8 A.M.-5 P.M. work week, one either has to work out early in the morning, or late at night. Eat. Get dressed. Drive to the gym. Work out. Shower. Get dressed again. Sit in traffic. Work. Eat again. Sleep? Throw in a family and kids (which I’d like in my future), and no wonder people in the “real world” can seem so stressed out! The eight-hour workdays at Fullbridge have led me to think more concretely about the kind of lifestyle I hope to adopt in the future.

What priorities do you currently stress in your life? How often do you take the time to sit down and re-evaluate these priorities? Does a budget make its way into the picture? I hope your piggy bank finds a reason to smile. 🙂

Winter Break at the Fullbridge (Business) Program

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Hello everyone. How are you doing?

My name is Jessica and I’m currently a sophomore, English major at Scripps. I am passionately in love with art, and this year, I’ve made it part of my New Year’s resolutions to teach myself how to paint! In my free time at the 5Cs, I love swing dancing with my friends on Friday nights. I’m also president of the Claremont Soul-idarity Club, where we talk about health, wellness, and spirituality.

I’m a new blogger at CP&R this year. This semester, I’ll be writing about my experience with the Fullbridge Program (FP) over winter break.

So what exactly is the Fullbridge Program?

Fullbridge is a hands-on program aimed at getting liberal arts students a foot in the door when it comes to the business world. This is the first time Scripps and Occidental College (Oxy) have worked together to host FP.

To give you a better idea of what exactly it was I did at Fullbridge, I’ve decided to make each weekly posting a detailed (and hopefully, interesting) itinerary of what I did each day. I’ll be sure to include pics and fun stories.

That being said, today will be a little less exciting. I’m going to talk about the FP application and preparation process, which I hope will apply to other applications and opportunities you encounter along the way.

Application

The  Fullbridge application included a few essay questions, but a resume was not required. I spent several (two to four) hours writing responses to the essay questions. I would recommend writing a draft and going back to edit it with fresh eyes after a couple of days. Working in stages can seem less daunting than tackling it in one sitting.

Skype Interview

The interview was actually my first-ever Skype interview, so I followed some basic tips from Google. Here’s my version:

a) Lighting: I positioned a table lamp next to my laptop, as well as an additional floor lamp next to my seat. Make sure the interviewer can see your face! If your face is hidden in the shadows, it might as well be a phone interview (which often happens!)

b) Phone: Is this a bad thing? Yes and no. While you may not lose points, employers who specifically request a Skype interview want a face-to-face interaction. Your interviewer will be much more impressed if you can pull off a trouble-free Skype session!

c) Internet: Don’t depend on Wi-Fi. Use an Ethernet cord. If you don’t have one, borrow one several days before the interview.

d) Sound: If possible, use earphones or headphones instead of relying on the computer’s mic.  Over-the-head (those big ones) headphones work best.

e) Location: If possible, it’s recommended you set up in a quiet room (your dorm, perhaps) without interruptions or distractions. Ask your roommates—pretty please—to turn down the music for 30 minutes. Most people are pretty chill and understanding about this kind of thing.

f) Posture and Position: I’m only 5’1’’ so I propped myself up on a pillow and a folded-up blanket to ensure I was level with my computer sitting on the desk. Do not interview with the laptop in your lap! If you do this, it will make it look like you’re looming over your interviewer the whole time. Awkward. Don’t do it.

g) Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3: Ask a friend/significant other to Skype with you a few minutes before the interview. Check on lighting, sound, etc. Kindly ask your friend ahead of time in case he/she/they/etc. doesn’t usually wake up that early.

Have any questions? I’d love to answer them in my next post.

Tune in next time to hear about my first day at Oxy and the Fullbridge Program. In the meantime, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. (Please send me a message if I don’t already know your name and school. Thanks.)