If you’re graduating this spring and you don’t have a job lined up, you mayhave a tough time finding one. Even graduates from the class of 2009 are still finding their degrees not as useful as they had hoped. A study reported by the New York Times shows that of all 2009 graduates, 22.4% aren’t working. Of the 77.6% with jobs, 22% have jobs that don’t require a college degree.
These numbers are bleak, but not impossible to overcome.
In a study reported by CBS, 55% of college graduates believe their education helped them prepare for a job or career.
Read the full post
Job, Job Search
MasterCard saw its first-quarter profits spike by nearly 25%, outpacing the predictions of industry analysts. The company reported a profit of $562 million versus last year’s results for the same period of only $455 million. The surge in revenue is being attributed to the fact that consumers are using their credit cards more to make routine purchases.
The companys shares gained more than three percent in response to the positive earnings report, and MasterCard’s CEO said that while company growth was widespread, much of the positive news can be traced to the American consumer who is spending more with credit cards, including discretionary purchases.
Read the full post
Mastercard
Congratulations to you, recent grad! You’ve just received your degree, and now you’re ready to enter the world.
But get ready, because you’re not in college anymore.
Whether you’re entering the working world or continuing your job search, you’re going to need to budget, especially if you’ll be paying off student loans, like over a third of Credit Karma users.
Consider some of the following tips for making smart money choices to budget your money.
Watch your costs.
Credit cards. In order to build your credit, a credit card can be a useful tool. But if your
Read the full post
Here at Credit Karma, we like to stay in-the-know and on the cutting edge of new and innovative financial tools to help you spend wisely, save more, and pay down debt faster.
Finovate is a conference series forum where the newest and best of financial technology gets to strut its stuff. This year at Finnovate Spring 2011, we discovered some new tools that we want to share with you.
With many new startups focused on payment solutions and smartphone apps, here are several of the “Best in Show” winners as well as the service we are most excited about, listed at the end. Take a look!
Dwolla: Traditionally, you can pay for online goods and services with plastic. Wit
Read the full post
The news media company Reuters reports that now when customers of Bank of America miss a monthly credit card payment they may get socked with a really stiff penalty. Instead of just hitting them with the usual one-time fees and charges, Bank of America says that it may also impose much higher interest rates on future credit card purchases as a punitive measure to discourage delinquent payments.
These rates are no joke, either, because they can go as high as 30%. To put that into perspective, if you add 30% to a debt each year then the debt will more than double in just three and a half years.
Read the full post
May Pay, Pay
What huge event is celebrating its 137th anniversary today?
That’s right, it’s the Kentucky Derby! Lots of well-dressed fans will be donning big hats and sipping mint juleps this weekend to celebrate a race that lasts two minutes, but takes hours upon hours of preparation.
I’m no horse jockey, but I’ve spent some time running races of my own. With lots of 5k’s, several half marathons, and two marathons under my belt, I’ve learned a thing or two about preparing and training for races, and the methods I use can be applied to saving money, too.
Here are the steps I take to get ready for a race, and how they can each be applied to your own “financial race.”
1. Choose a race.<
Read the full post