Filed under: Savings Experiment, For the Home, Lifestyle

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When you have a cold or are suffering from allergies, tissues are a must-have, but the cost can rack up when you’re buying them all the time. Have you ever considered using toilet paper instead? Here are a few good reasons why you should.

We’ve all grabbed a few squares from the bathroom roll in a pinch, but using toilet paper over tissues is actually a more cost-effective choice in the long run. On average, a box of tissues has 65 sheets and breaks down to about 2 cents per sheet. However, a roll of toilet paper has nearly four times as many sheets as a box of tissues and costs half as much.

Of course, you’re not going to toss a roll of toilet paper to your guests when they have the sniffles. With a pair of scissors, an empty tissue box and a little bit of tape, you can refill your dispenser to look just like a store-bought version.

First, take a roll of toilet paper and cut down the length of the cardboard center with your scissors. Remove the tube. Take an empty square tissue box and cut three sides along the bottom. Pull the inner sheet through the top and tape the bottom shut. You’ll have a great looking tissue box in minutes, and can count your savings with each and every pull. And that’s nothing to sneeze at!

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Filed under: Savings Experiment, Holidays

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Valentine’s Day is a time when you can show your loved one how much you care, but you don’t have to dig deep into your wallet to do it. Here are some great tips on how to switch things up this year, and save in the process.

Let’s Do Lunch
A Valentine’s lunch is a sweet treat, especially if you and your mate don’t get enough one-on-one time during the day. Restaurants often offer cheaper versions of the same items during lunch hour, so you’ll get a delicious meal for a budget-friendly price. Impress your date and try more exotic fare, like sushi or Korean BBQ, without breaking your piggy bank.

Fast Food Nation
If your true love truly loves fast food, then head on over to White Castle. That’s right, White Castle. You may need to make a reservation, but you’ll get the royal treatment, complete with a plastic red table cloth, free dessert and a photo opportunity. It can be a fun and unique experience for a can’t-beat price.

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Research Romance
You can treat yourself and your mate to great food, just do your research beforehand. Many restaurants have Valentine’s Day specials, including chains like Ruby Tuesday, which offers a three-course Valentine’s special for $19.99 per person. Also, check out Restaurant.com, a site that offers coupons for up to 80 percent off of your favorite places to eat. Just remember to check the fine print to ensure you can use your voucher on the holiday.

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Filed under: Energy, Investing, Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Economizer

By Joe Mont, TheStreet.com

Investing doesn’t just have to be about increasing wealth. It can also be a means to preserve it.

Successful investors — from speculative day traders to steadier 401(k) participants, for example — will adjust their holdings to craft a portfolio capable of meeting or beating the rate of inflation. With the price of home heating oil on the rise, and likely to keep increasing due to global politics, now might be a good time for investors to place a bet on the price per barrel to hedge against the costs of staying warm this winter. As they say: “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the mild winter thus far in the Northeast, where there is the highest concentration of oil-heated homes, has mitigated some expected cost increases.

The typical household is projected to use about 650 gallons of heating oil this winter, a decrease of about 4% compared with last winter. The cost per gallon will increase, however, averaging about $3.82 a gallon — up about 13%, according to EIA estimates issued last week. The average home heating bill will total about $2,500 this year, an increase of roughly 8.4%. The good news, thanks to warmer-than-expected weather, is that the EIA initially estimated a 10% jump last month.

Those projections could prove to be moving targets later in the season due to a variety of threats to the world’s oil supply chain.

On Monday, the European Union voted to support U.S. calls for a ban on imports of Iranian oil as punitive persuasion to get that nation to back away from an effort to develop nuclear weapons. Iranian officials have threatened to blockade the Straits of Hormuz, the oceanic shipping route for most oil-producing countries in that region.

“If the Straits of Hormuz close, oil will rise above $200 per barrel,” warns Chris Faulkner, CEO of Breitling Oil & Gas, an independent exploration and production company based in Irving, Texas. “It is the one bottleneck that allows Iran to choke the West’s oil supply.”

Seventeen million barrels of oil per day passed through the Straits last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency — approximately one-sixth of global oil production and nearly 20% of all the oil traded worldwide. Iran itself exports between 2.2 million to 2.5 million barrels a day.

Iran isn’t the only hot spot that could lead to tightened supplies and higher prices. Political conflict in Nigeria threatens its output of 2.5 million barrels a day. Tensions between Sudan and the newly independent nation of South Sudan over oil-related transit fees could curtail the nearly 500,000 barrels per day that flows from that area.

Domestically, it remains to be seen whether there will be any price-related pushback to President Barack Obama’s refusal to grant a permit for the politically charged Keystone XL pipeline expansion pitched as running from Canada through Montana and Oklahoma to refineries in Texas for export.

Hedge Your Home Heating Bill with Energy Stocks

All that volatility may not necessarily be terrible news from an investing standpoint, especially if your goal is to mitigate that 8.4% price increase for heating your home this winter by betting on companies in the oil business that profit while consumers get hit.

The big oil companies of the world — ExxonMobil (XOM), BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhilips (COP), Occidental Petroleum (OXY), Devon Energy (DVN), Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and Anadarko Petroleum (APC) — are well-positioned to benefit when the global commodities marketplace inflates crude prices.

For example, in October, ExxonMobil announced that its quarterly profit of $10.3 billion was up 41% from a year earlier, in part due to rising crude prices. In April, the company’s Q1 earnings spiked 69%.

Investing in the top oil companies will also net you a dividend yield that typically ranges between 2% and 4%.

Sponsored Links

If these individual stocks are too pricey for your budget, you may want to seek out mutual funds that include some of these top companies among their heavily weighted holdings.

Supply disruptions overseas — even in the short term — increase demand for alternative sources, which is good news for companies focused on drilling and exploration. Anadarko, for example, has oilfields in several U.S. States and, further North, Canada’s vast oil sands could be a continued boon for Suncor Energy (SU).

North Dakota and Montana are home to “The Bakken,” a formation of shale covering about 200,000 square miles that is estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to have as much as 4.3 billion barrels of potentially recoverable crude. Among the companies working to extract that oil are Continental Resources (CLR), Hess (HES), Oasis Petroleum (OAS), Kodiak Oil & Gas (KOG), Northern Oil & Gas (NOG), MDU Resources Group (HEW), EOG Resources (EOG), Whiting Petroleum (WLL) and Marathon Oil.

Pipeline owners such a Constellation Energy (CEG) may also their stock price rise in concert with oil prices, as could Schlumberger (SLB), the world’s largest oilfield services company.

Oil refineries feel the pinch of rising costs per barrel as their costs to buy oil go up even as demand for their finished product drops. Offshore drilling companies such as Transocean (RIG) — despite the Deepwater Horizon disaster — and SeaDrill Limited (SDRL) are key players in that arena.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated

The simplest way to hedge against oil inflation for most Main Street investors is to consider ETFs designed with that very goal in mind.

In its prospectus, United States Heating Oil Fund (UHN) is described as “a way for investors and hedgers to manage their exposure to energy” and an ETF “designed to track in percentage terms the movements of heating oil prices.” Year to date, the fund is up 5.6%, and it saw a return of 15.64% for a one-year period.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) is designed to track the price movements of light, sweet crude oil. Unfortunately its returns have been far from stellar, down approximately 21% so far this year and at -54.5% since its inception in 2006.

Other funds worth investigating are the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil TR Index ETN (OIL), SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP) — which has a three-year return of over 22% — SPDR Oil & Gas Equipment & Services Fund (XES) and the PowerShares DB Crude Oil Long ETN (OLO) — up a slight 0.14% for the year.

More on The Street.com

• 10 ‘American’ Products That Aren’t American
• Banks See Rise in Mortgage Bond Disputes
• Union Plans to Picket Mitt in Florida Over Bain
• ETFs Look for Boost From Apple’s Earnings
• 5 Big Deals That May Flop in 2012

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Filed under: Family Money, Personal Finance

After the overspending, overeating, and general overextending of December, it’s hardly surprising that so many people choose to spend January turning over new leaves. But even beyond the month of new diets, new workout programs, and new strategies for resisting the siren song of cheesecake, the beginning of the year is the perfect time to try out new ways to manage your money.

Admittedly, personal finance websites are hardly new: For years, Mint.com and similar sites have offered users a centralized place to view their accounts, manage their money, and — in many cases — even pay their bills. But for many of the new entries to the game, online money management isn’t just about watching accounts and moving money: It’s also about changing the way people look at and manage their finances.

As anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking can attest, changing basic behaviors is hard, and a method that works for one person may be ineffective for another. The three websites below — LearnVest, Payoff.com and ReadyForZero — use very different approaches. In the end, though, they all have the same goal: Helping you take control of your finances.

The Personal Trainer: LearnVest

When Harvard business school student Alexa von Tobel decided to create a website to help people manage their money, she set her sights high: “I wanted to build a Weight Watchers for personal finance.”

At the time, von Tobel notes, there were sites that aggregated accounts, sites that offered news-based investing advice, and sites that led users to large banks, but she wanted something a bit more user-oriented. “I wanted a site that would give trusted, straightforward financial planning help that was unbiased and not news-focused.”

LearnVest, von Tobel’s site, is certainly straightforward. In addition to providing a space where users can link their bank accounts, it also offers a variety of free resources, including three newsletters and a selection of seven “Boot Camps,” educational programs that take 10 days apiece and help users tackle very specific problems, like buying a home, building credit, or preparing to have a baby.

“The boot camps are very goal-oriented,” she says, “They have very specific to-do lists.”

In addition to its free offerings, LearnVest also offers personal financial counseling at prices that, von Tobel claims, are far below the market rate. The site’s basic budgeting plan costs $69, for which users get a one-time phone consultation with a financial planner, three months of e-mail access to the planner, and enrollment in a budgeting course. For $269, users get access to all of LearnVest’s courses, an additional phone check-in to consult with their planner, and an additional three months of e-mail access to the planer. The website’s premium offering, the $349 “Complete Financial Plan,” includes six more months of e-mail access and two more phone check-ins.

Providing affordable financial planning advice is a major part of LearnVest’s purpose: “The average financial planner in America charges between $150 and $250 per hour, and setting up a full financial plan can take forty hours or more,” von Tobel says. “Our goal is to make financial planning available to millions of people who couldn’t afford it otherwise. If you don’t have a lot of money, you probably need financial planning more than somebody who does.”

The Best Buddy: Payoff.com

Financial planning can often feel like visiting the dentist: a moderately painful, but necessary, chore.

“Most money sites are utility-oriented,” says Scott Saunders, founder and CEO of Payoff.com. “We wanted to create a site that is lighthearted and fun.”

And when Saunders and his partners were building Payoff.com, they quickly discovered one reason why money management has gotten such a negative reputation: banks.

“You don’t hear from your financial institution unless you’ve done something wrong,” Saunders says. “We wanted to change that. We want to motivate users and applaud their good behavior.”

Payoff.com Product Explanation from Payoff.com on Vimeo.

To achieve that goal, Saunders consulted with game designers, behavioral psychologists and academics to create a fun, engaging site. “We use games, awards and community support to help motivate our users,” Saunders says. “We help them set goals and dreams, which they can then share on Facebook and Twitter. We try to create feedback loops to encourage good behavior.”

One of the site’s techniques should be familiar to any fan of Foursquare: It awards badges for financially responsible behavior. “We give users badges for anything that we can verify,” Saunders says. The site also regularly quizzes users about their finances, generating pop-up questions about everything from credit card balances to the cost of recent purchases. In return for correct answers, users get points, which can then be applied to prizes.

Underneath the fun, Payoff has a serious goal. “On a foundational level, we want to help individuals get out of debt,” Saunders stresses. With that in mind, his site tries to offer the kind of support that banks rarely provide. “We want to treat money management through preventative medicine. Instead of waiting for customers to get in trouble, we want to work with them from the day after they sign a loan. We want to root for their success.”

Payoff directly links a user’s spending to specific retailers, like Starbucks and Target, instead of lumping it under broad categories like “restaurants” and “department stores.” Partly, Saunders suggests, this is because it more closely mimics the way people view their expenses — while they might not be aware of how much money they spend on “snacks,” they probably know how often they go to McDonald’s.

Beyond that, Saunders hopes to partner with retailers: “If companies care about your well-being, they can build long-term relationships with you.” In order to help these relationships, Payoff is trying to get retailers more closely involved with users. “We’ve put together a financial ecosystem in which any interested party can participate toward the financial betterment of their customers.”

The Nagging Mother: ReadyForZero

When it comes to financial planning, some people need a little more structure. That’s where ReadyForZero comes in. “Debt is complicated, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed,” says Rod Ebrahimi, the site’s co-founder and CEO. “We’re trying to take the thinking out. ReadyForZero gives its users highly-opinionated advice about what you should do with your money.”

The idea for the site came from Ebrahimi’s experience counseling his girlfriend. “When she got out of college, she had a ton of debt,” he explains. “She thought about going to one of those guys on the radio who promises to clean up your finances. When she got all the paperwork back from him, we found that it was confusing and full of charges.” To help out, Ebrahimi created a spreadsheet that helped her understand her debt, and plotted a way for her to improve her finances. The program he created became the earliest version of ReadyForZero.

Simplicity is key at ReadyForZero. One thing the site does is add up all of its users’ debt — including credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and auto loans — into a single, easy-to-understand number. It then lets users know how much they are paying off every day, as well as how much money they are paying in interest.

Unlike LearnVest and Payoff, which address financial education and motivation, ReadyForZero is narrowly focused on paying down debt. “When you’re ready to tackle your debt, this is the place to go,” Ebrahimi says. The site regularly reminds users of their finances, payment due dates, and the effect of their purchases through e-mails and text alerts. The site even offers users special stickers to cover the numbers and data strips on their credit cards, which make them harder to use. “You’d be surprised at how effective the stickers are,” he says. “When you’re standing in line, pulling the stickers off your cards, you think twice about using them.”

ReadyForZero has been in business for a year; in that time, Ebrahimi claims, it has helped manage more than $150 million in debt. “According to our records, regular ReadyForZero users get out of debt twice as fast,” he says. For that reason, the site has also drawn the attention of banks: “We change people’s payment behavior and keep them out of trouble. We’ve been approached by banks who are trying to partner with us to help create incentives — like better interest rates — for our users.”

While they use different methods to help users deal with their finances, von Tobel, Saunders and Ebrahimi all agree on one thing: Understanding your finances is the key to getting them in order. As Saunders points out, this means being honest with yourself: “You need to make realistic assumptions — not wildly optimistic assumptions — about your expenses.”

Bruce Watson is a senior features writer for DailyFinance. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.

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Filed under: Starbucks, Savings Experiment

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There are those of us who should not be allowed in public without having a cup of coffee first. That said, java is also an expensive habit. Luckily, you can have your cup and drink it too by cutting certain corners.

Look Before You Leap

Abstinence is the best policy with respect to saving money; but for most of us, when it comes to coffee, that’s neither possible nor desirable. So before you take any drastic measures, simply track what you spend. Don’t alter your buying habits; just spend a week chronicling your expenses. Though it may feel cumbersome at first, it can be illuminating to learn how, when, why and where you spend money.

You don’t have to save all of your receipts, as there are so many apps to help you track your spending right on your phone as you make your purchase. One favorite is the Latte Factor, which helps you add up your total daily expenses and average spending over time. The app’s calculator can generate your daily, weekly, and monthly average. Once you measure your averages, you can click on the Latte Factor’s “see savings” button to see what you could be earning, albeit approximately, in one, five or ten years time if you invested that money instead of drinking it. It may help you look before you leap, or at least before you lap up another latte.

Test Your Taste

Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting a better bean, or a tastier one. Starbucks (SBUX) is getting more expensive — the company recently announced a price hike — but New York Magazine food critic Adam Platt found that patronizing the Seattle-based chain might not be worth it: In a blind taste test, Platt discovered that Starbucks ranked last in termed of taste — and it’s 31 cents more per cup than Dunkin Donuts. Opting for Dunkin Donuts (DNKN) over Starbucks could save you almost $230 a year. But it’s always possible to be penny wise and pound foolish. There are also hidden costs: For instance, investing in fair trade coffee will save you and the planet more money in the long run. Common sense can also result in saving cents.

BYOM

Bring your own mug. You’ll be kinder to the environment and waste fewer plastic, paper, or — gasp! — styrofoam cups. It might also prevent you from impulse buys at overpriced cafes. The same can be said for owning the other tools of the trade, like a coffee maker, to avoid the temptation to always go out.

If you’re out and craving coffee, bringing your mug may also result in saving some money. Many mom-and-pop coffee shops, as well as chains like Starbucks, will deduct anywhere from a dollar to ten cents for sparing them an extra cup. If you did that 360 days out of the year, you would save — you guessed it — $36.

Customer Care

Always ask if your favorite mom-and-pop coffee shop offers a punch card for regular customers, or free refills or other deals. If you purchase whole bean or ground Starbucks coffee to brew at home, you can bring in your empty bag and receive a free small cup of joe. Some places offer rewards on your birthday. And it’s not just major chains like Cosi that reward returning customers. Small, local coffee stores like Joyce Bakeshop in Brooklyn thank patrons for their routine business with a free coffee after a certain number of purchases. Other coffee shops, like The Mustard Seed Cafe in Los Angeles, offer free refills! When it comes to coffee, customer loyalty incentives abound.

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Skim the Top

Why waste money on a lousy latte or questionably concocted cappuccino when you can save by buying a regular coffee and adding milk yourself? Another thing to remember is that iced coffee tends to be more expensive, so when you can get a hot coffee and an extra cup with ice, do. At Starbucks, you can order a tall coffee and a cup of ice for free and mix them. You’ll save about forty cents a cup.

Coffee isn’t the worst impulse buy, nor should it break the bank. Like all things that taste or feel good, you’ll want to use moderation. It’s easier to think straight after one or two cups of coffee, but the inverse can be true if you’ve had three or four.

Gallery: 13 Ways to Get Free Money

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Filed under: Company News, Wal-Mart Stores, Dollar General, Economizer

Dollar stores are luring a lot more consumers these days.

While it’s no surprise these discount retailers gained popularity during the economic downturn, their rock-bottom prices aren’t the only reason for their still growing appeal: Dollar store chains have undergone major makeovers in recent years, sprucing up their dingy digs and adding more compelling merchandise.

“At the start of the recession, they decided they didn’t want to be recession-dependent retailers, but that they would become mainstream,” Dave Marcotte, senior vice president of market research and retail consultancy Kantar Retail, tells DailyFinance.

The strategy appears to have paid off as the chains, which have long been patronized by the cash-strapped, have managed to capture more business from higher-income shoppers.

For example, Dollar General (DG), which just announced plans to open 625 stores this year, noted recently that its fastest growing customer segment is shoppers who earn more than $70,000 a year. And Dollar Tree (DLTR) was called out by Kantar Retail as one of the country’s fast-growing retailers in a December report.

Here’s why the dollar chains, including top players Dollar General and Family Dollar (FDO), have become some of the hottest places to shop.

Upgraded Merchandise

Once synonymous with generic goods of dubious quality, dollar stores have made a big push in the past few years to upgrade their product mix with the addition of well-known brands — from Tide laundry detergent to Kellogg’s cereals.

“The addition of national brands brings consistency to the merchandise mix and appeals to brand-conscious consumers,” Deborah Weinswig, a retail analyst with Citi, tells DailyFinance.

They’ve also sprinkled their store shelves with items that have a “wow” factor and can spark an emotional purchase — what the retail industry calls “treasure hunt” goods — which has created “a sense of excitement in dollar stores,” Weinswig says.

And in their selections of general merchandise, these chains have increasingly moved away from “really cheap knockoff stuff” towards better-quality clothing and home goods. They’ve also standardized their inventory so that shoppers can expect more consistent product offerings year round.

About two years ago, Family Dollar launched Family Chef, a proprietary line of housewares, including cookware and kitchen gadgets, that marked a major upgrade from its prior “very spotty” offerings, Marcotte says.

Meanwhile, Dollar General added in more national brands like Hanes to its apparel mix, he says.

Compelling Grocery, Drug Store Alternative

Also in recent years, the dollar chains improved their food and consumables offerings, which has boosted foot traffic in the stores, Weinswig says. “They’ve added coolers, quick prep, and ready-to-eat food.”

The dollar chains are also giving drugstores a run for their money by carrying much of the same health and beauty care products as a Walgreens (WAG) or a CVS (CVS), for example — but at lower prices, Marcotte says. Family Dollar, for example, is emphasizing those deal with in-store signs that urge shoppers to compare its prices to drugstore prices, he says.

The upgrades are poised to “have the greatest impact on the food and drug retailers, as the dollar stores’ convenience and competitive pricing gives consumers another option for making convenient purchases,” according to Weinswig’s Citi report, “Dollar Stores Well Positioned for Success.”

Dollar chains have also given their stores facelifts.

“They’ve made the stores much easier to shop and simpler to navigate,” Marcotte says. Today, many of them “are clean, attractive and well lit.”

Convenience Fits with New Shopping Patterns

More consumers are forgoing massive shopping trips where they load up on household goods that will last them a month — a shift that has been a boon for the dollar chains, Peter J. Keith, senior research analyst for hardline retail and consumer products for Piper Jaffray, tells DailyFinance.

“In terms of the dollar store popularity, I would say the greatest reason is convenience,” he says. “Consumers are now preferring to make smaller purchases on a more frequent, as needed basis. This type of shopping lends itself well to dollar stores where you can park right by the front door and get in and out in five minutes. Conversely, a trip to Walmart (WMT) might take 30 minutes with the large parking lot and large store to navigate.”

Meanwhile, some dollar chains are becoming even more bargain-conscious in their pricing due to the nation’s lingering economic malaise.

Dollar General, for one, has expanded its offerings of $1 priced items in response to “the high unemployment levels among customers without a high school diploma,” says Weinswig’s report.

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Filed under: Video, Economizer

With unemployment high and wages stagnant, now’s a rough time to be entering the job market. Historically, when an unwelcoming economy awaits, graduating college students tend to run for grad school. But the monetary value of an advanced degree varies greatly depending on major, school, and how much debt you take on to get it.

A forthcoming article in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics outlines the dangers of starting a career during an economic downturn. According to the study’s authors, it can take up to 10 years for high-level workers entering the job market in a recession to narrow the wage gap between themselves and their peers who entered in better times. As for less-skilled workers, their earnings “can be permanently affected by cyclical downgrading” — in other words, a weak start on wages can lead to a lifelong disadvantage.

For most people, the best move is to delay entry into the job market until the economy is stronger and workers are in higher demand. And when it comes to orchestrating that delay, few methods are better than graduate school: Not only does an advanced degree improve employability, but it can also have a huge effect on earnings. In fact, the median salary for someone with an advanced degree is $73,738 — over $13,000 more than the average salary for someone with only a bachelor’s degree.

But not all degrees are created equal. Based on an analysis of Census data, Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce determined that the payoff from a graduate degree can vary wildly, from a 1% salary bump to a 190% wage explosion. And the degrees that deliver most bang for the education buck may surprise you.

On the low end of the scale, the worst graduate major for salary improvement is meteorology, which only improved wage prospects by 1%. Only marginally better were studio arts (3%), petroleum engineering (7%), oceanography (11%), mass media (11%), advertising/public relations (12%), pharmaceutical sciences (13%), forestry (15%), computer engineering (16%), and miscellaneous education (16%). The reasons for the low salary bumps varied: In some majors, such as petroleum engineering and computer engineering, workers with bachelor’s degrees already earn high salaries, which aren’t much improved with higher degrees. In others, such as studio arts and mass media, the job market is weak regardless of how much education one has.

Degrees That Are Worth the Money (and How to Tell)

On the happier end of the spectrum, some graduate degrees can vastly improve your earnings. The big winners are health and medical preparatory programs, from which graduate or professional degrees can increase salary by 190%. Similarly, social sciences (134%), zoology (123%), molecular biology (115%), public policy (107%), biology (106%), biochemical sciences (101%), chemistry (93%), pre-law (81%) and physiology (78%) majors can all expect to get a major dividend from pursuing graduate or professional degrees.

The differences are hardly academic: The average undergrad leaves school with more than $25,000 in student loan debt, and graduate students routinely finish with $30,000 or more added on to that tab. Degrees that increase salary by 10% or less can take a long time to start paying off.

When it comes to determining how much a degree is worth, the “starting-year salary” guideline is a good rule of thumb. Basically, prospective grad students should calculate what their expected salary at graduation, then borrow no more than that amount. According to the Student Loan Network, most federal student loans follow a 10-year repayment schedule, which means that students who limit borrowing to a year of salary can expect to dedicate about 10% of their paychecks to paying off their educational debts — a manageable percentage. By contrast, they note, students who borrow 15% or more stand a much greater likelihood of defaulting.

For some students, such as those in MBA programs, this isn’t much of a problem: Average income for MBAs after graduation hovers around $91,000, while the average cost of a two-year program is about $80,000. By comparison, law students face a tougher road: According to one survey, almost 90% graduate with $80,000 in loans, only to land in a glutted job market that pays an average starting salary of $62,000.

For many people, graduate school is a chance to follow their passions and study what they love. But when the biggest dream is finding a job, it pays to choose a degree that the market will reward.

Bruce Watson is a senior features writer for DailyFinance. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.

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Filed under: Economizer

You love Grandma, but you’re not feeling that floral jumpsuit she gave you for Christmas. And that gift card from Omaha Steaks won’t quite work: Auntie seems to have forgotten that you’re a vegetarian.

‘Tis the season for unloading those albeit well meaning — but unwanted — holiday presents. Here’s a few tips to help you get something back in return.

First Try For a Store Return

If you know where the gift giver bought your unwanted present, check the retailers’ return policy online or by asking their customer service department.

“Retailers tend to be a bit more liberal with their return policies around the holidays, knowing people get things as gifts and don’t have receipts,” Sue Perry, deputy editor of ShopSmart, Consumer Reports‘ shopping magazine, tells DailyFinance. However, without a receipt you likely won’t get the cash back, but a store credit instead, she says.

“And one more thing to keep in mind: If the item went on sale, you probably will get the sale price and not the full price the giver may have paid.”

Unload Unwanted Gifts on eBay

The most common unwanted holiday gifts are clothing, accessories — from footwear and handbags to jewelry — and consumer electronics, Jim Griffith, dean of education for eBay (EBAY), tells DailyFinance.

Here’s a basic rule of thumb to follow during the holiday unwrapping fest: “Even as you’re saying, ‘no, you shouldn’t have,’” to the gift-giver, be mindful to open all gifts carefully, keeping the packaging pristine in case you want to return or sell it later, Griffith says. Hold on to the boxes and don’t remove the tags.

While this tip might seem like a no brainer, it’s one key way “to help you realize better value” on eBay as the more merchandise appears new, versus used, the better it sells, Griffith says.

Clothing

Clothing and fashion accessories that reflect specific tastes – - which might not be yours — “you either love UGG boots or you don’t” — are big post-holiday sellers on eBay, Griffith says.

That’s why listing the size of an item on the site isn’t enough. Because clothing sizes varies greatly, include measurements in your product listing to maximize its resale value, he says.

For tops, common measurements include underarm to underarm, and from the top of the collar to the bottom of the hem on the back of the shirt.

Accessories

When it comes to handbags, make sure to show photos of the front, back, sides of the bag, and pictures of any labels, in your listing. Also, “the most common mistake that sellers make is not photographing the interior of the bag,” so include that as well, Griffith says.

Sellers also leave money on the table when they post photos of jewelry that fail to capture its sparkle. With jewelry, closeups are important, so use the macro feature — as opposed to the zoom — on your digital camera (most cameras have one) which allows you to take a sharp, tight shot of the item from just a few inches away, Griffith says.

Electronics

The online marketplace recently launched InstantSale, a trade-in program designed to help sellers easily purge unwanted electronics for cash. “In a nutshell, tell us what you have, we’ll take you what it’s worth,” Griffith says.

With eBay’s traditional selling option, sellers handle the listing and manage their items themselves.

Sellers send their electronics with a pre-paid postage label to the site, and eBay will reimburse the seller through PayPal based on the item’s condition. (Sites like Gazelle.com and NextWorth.com also offer shoppers cash or store gift cards for their unwanted electronics, but an eBay spokeswoman said eBay can occasionally offer better value than other programs.)

When listing electronics, include a photograph of the serial number of the item, which helps the buyer validate that the item they’ve purchased is the same one that appeared in the listing, Griffith says.

Sell, Trade in Unwanted Gift Cards

A hefty $2 billion in gift cards will go unredeemed in 2011, according to TowerGroup, a research firm for the financial services industry.

But leaving a gift card unused is like throwing money away. Instead, tap the gift card resale market. Sites such as CardCash.com, GiftCards.com, Plasticjungle.com and Cardpool.com will let you sell your card for cash, often for up to 92% of its value, or trade it in for another gift card.

And Dec. 26 is Gift Card Exchange Day – a one-day event designed to raise consumer awareness about exchanging gift cards for cash. Shoppers can enter the store name and gift card amount on the site to receive instant bids from resellers interested in purchasing their card.

Cash in Those Daily Deals

More consumers gave coupons from daily deal sites like Groupon (GRPN) and LivingSocial as gifts this year. If you received one that you’re disinclined to use (maybe that mango and papaya facial just isn’t your thing), look to unload it on sites such as Lifesta.com, DealsGoRound.com, CoupRecoup.com and CouponTrade.com, which allows consumers to sell unused daily deals. Sellers can also buy a daily deal they prefer from these sites.

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Filed under: Economy, Family Money

Eight years ago, Charlie McGloughlin and his wife, Amy, extended a helping hand to his parents. His dad was in poor health, and his disability had reduced the couple’s income. A house of their own had become too much for the elder McGloughlins to handle.

So Charlie and Amy bought a five-bedroom home in Philadelphia — big enough to accommodate themselves, their two children, his parents, and a guest. Charlie’s dad died shortly thereafter, but his mother, Judy, has since moved in.

As it turned out, the consolidation of the households was a win for everyone.

“We put it out there that we would take care of them, but with this economy, I’m not sure we would manage without her,” says Amy of her mother-in-law. Judy’s contribution to the mortgage and groceries makes a huge difference — especially because of Amy’s student loan debt. And since Amy works full-time as a pastor, Judy’s help with the grandkids is invaluable. “When I was in school she took on a lot of the child care responsibilities,” says Amy. “She picks up the slack.”

The number of multigenerational households in this country is growing fast. As of the end of 2009, 51.4 million Americans lived in a home with three or more generations under one roof; that’s one in six of us. And it’s nearly 5 million more than the 46.5 million Americans in such households in 2007. Put another way, it’s an increase of 10.5%, according to statistics from the newly released Family Matters: Multigenerational Families in a Volatile Economy from Generations United.

It’s a trend that’s unlikely to reverse anytime soon, even if the U.S. eventually experiences a robust recovery. The reasons are varied, but among them are the 78 million aging baby boomers who will increasingly need assistance, and the country’s growing Hispanic and Asian populations, which have cultural traditions of living in extended families.

Easing Financial Burdens

Traditions aside, for many, the reason to set up house with relatives is economic. According to a Generations United survey, 66% of people in multigenerational households cited the economy as a factor, while 21% said it was the only factor. Others attributed the move to a change in job status or underemployment (40%), the burden of health care costs (20%), or a foreclosure or other housing crisis (14%).

And while nobody would say living in a blended household is without challenges, it does ease financial burdens. More than 70% of those surveyed said that going multigenerational improved the financial situation of at least one family member, and half said said that living together made it possible for a family member to continue school or enroll in job training. And then there are the emotional benefits: a whopping 82% agreed that family bonds strengthened despite the stresses.

“If anything good has come out of the recession, it’s the lesson that we need each other,” points out Donna Butts, executive director of Generations United, which promotes intergenerational collaboration. “Families coming together is not a shameful thing, it’s the roots of our country.”

Heading Off Potential Problems

Family finances are complicated enough. Add elderly relatives or adult children with kids of their own into the mix and things can easily go off the rails. Children may need help paying bills; grandparents may need help with medical expenses. Grocery and utility bills go up. You might even have to remodel. If you’re not prepared, you can end up taking on debt, postponing life events, maybe even delaying retirement.

So if you’re already living in a multigenerational household, or thinking about it, what steps can you take to better manage your money — and your sanity?

For starters, be clear about the reasons for the move. Did the adult couple with children move in to take care of aging parents — or so that the parents could help take care of the grandkids? Did Junior come home after college because he didn’t feel like working or to help pay off student loan debt? The clearer you are up front about motivations, the easier it is to anticipate–and head off–potential conflicts.

Pay attention to emotions. Living together can reveal previously buried fault lines in a relationship. If there’s a history of conflict between parent and child, the adult child may worry their newly dependent position will be used against them, says Joshua Coleman, Ph.D., psychologist and co-chair of the nonprofit Council on Contemporary Families. Grown children may feel guilt or shame at having to depend on Mom and Dad again. Parents may worry about putting a strain on the marriage of the adult child they’ve moved in with.

To reduce stress, any family member who moves in with relatives ought to make a financial contribution to the household if at all possible, Coleman suggests, or find other, non-monetary ways to help out. “Not all family members have the same resources,” he says.

Making a Family Plan — And Sticking to It

Before anybody even touches a moving box, make sure you’ve tackled the tough questions. Who pays for what? How long is the arrangement going to last? How much is it going to cost?

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Have a discussion about roles and tasks. “The child returning from college may want everything to be like it was in high school, where the parent paid for everything,” warns Daniel Keady, director of financial planning at TIAA-CREF Financial Services. “Establish that the level of financial support is not the same.”

In cases when health issues have driven the consolidation of households, create a care-giving budget. Make a list of estimated expenses and determine how much the aging parent, the caregiver, and/or siblings can contribute, says the NEFE’s Golden. Encourage parents to share their financial records. Caregivers need their charges’ financial account information, the names and contact information of their advisers, and the locations of key documents such as wills.

Brainstorm about what each person thinks is the ideal breakdown on responsibilities. Be clear about roles and boundaries — who cooks, who cleans, who buys what? What is the standard for looking for a job? What are the expectations?

Talk early and often. It may seem awkward at first, but try holding family meetings, formally or informally.”The homeowner has the trump card, the last word, but consensus is better for everyone,” says Butts — though there are exceptions. “If the homeowner is about to lose their home and needs the relative’s income, they don’t quite have the final say.”

Good Times, Hard Times, Family Times

For the Spencer family (pictured below), it’s the logistics that are most challenging. Josephine Merrick, 89, initially resisted leaving the North Carolina home her husband built when they first married. But Merrick, a diabetic, wasn’t eating properly. A few times she lost consciousness and was found on the floor of her home.

So three years ago, she agreed to move to the 5-bedroom house in Virginia Beach, Va., where she now lives with her daughter and son-in-law, several adult grandchildren — granddaughter Que Spencer lives there when she’s not away at college — and soon, a great-grandchild. But Merrick has kept her North Carolina doctors, some of whom are three hours away. “It’s been tough for my parents, who work full time, to take off work to get her to doctors’ appointments. She is never going to switch,” says Que.

It’s been great having her grandmother around though, says Que — especially her cooking. “We all pitch in, make sure she has her medicines and help her get around. We’re a close-knit family. We’ve always taken in family and friends over the years.”

The New Normal

Multigenerational households like the McGloughlins and the Spencers may be becoming the new normal. “America is used to being the No. 1 economy in the world, but we’re seeing a re-emergence of global competition,” says John Hauserman, a certified financial planner with RetirementQuest Wealth Management. “Living together is here to stay. This is not the America with its picket fences, where you put mom and dad in a nursing home.”

Generations United suggests that more should be done to meet the needs of multigenerational households. Among their many recommendations, they call on banks and other mortgage lenders to adjust requirements for these borrowers, and for corporations to offer more generous paid-leave options.

Amy McGloughlin says she and Charlie have learned a great deal from the experience. “The old thinking was that everything belonged to one person. But our house is for more than us. All we have is to use and share. It doesn’t make sense to hold on to things so tight.”

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Filed under: Technology, Apple, Family Money

Lately, our home has come to look like an Apple (AAPL) store. There are four iPods, two MacBooks, a MacBook Air, an older iMac, a set-top box — and as of this week, two iPads.

Our 11-year-old son owns a fair amount of the geekery, including one of the new iPads. He is, in a word, spoiled. Except that he really isn’t.

Both the Air (his computer) and the iPad 2 he just got were purchased with money he earned performing chores, mowing lawns, and selling old gear. But you know what? Even if he hadn’t earned all of this tech, I’d still be OK getting him a tablet for Christmas.

I know, I know. How could we possibly justify such a purchase for an 11-year-old? Three ways:

1. It’s better and more interactive than traditional TV.
2. It encourages reading.
3. It’s a teaching tool in the hands of the tech-savvy educators at his school.

There’s also a fourth benefit. While there’s no going back on putting a TV in a child’s room, a portable iPad can be confiscated, an iTunes account locked, and video privileges withdrawn. Tablets and computers can also be outfitted with parental controls for displaying and downloading only age-appropriate content. Personalized systems can be controlled in ways that community options (like the living room TV set) can’t be.

The Built-In Money Lesson

Owning a sensitive piece of electronics demands care. Fail to provide and costs rise quickly — costs the owner must bear. Imagine your 11-year-old saving up money for a repair. Or how about saving to get new apps, books, or movies?

Best Buy (BBY) bought the Geek Squad repair business because it’s profitable. Amazon.com (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) charge for digital content. The experience of owning advanced equipment like a tablet can’t be easily disconnected from proper money management, unless you’re the sort of parent who shields children from financial decisions. (Please don’t.)

Even extreme circumstances can carry lessons. For example, how would you react when a favored item is lost or stolen? Would you replace it? We didn’t when our-then younger son lost an iPod Mini he got one birthday. Instead, we made him wait years to get a new iPod Touch. Only later, after learning the value of caring for gadgetry, did he decide to save up for the Air and iPad. Our out-of-pocket costs for his toys have been minimal, as it should be.

So, yes, I would buy my 11-year-old an iPad for Christmas because the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Namely, the experience of using advanced gear for learning, of caring for it, and of saving for add-ons and software. Kids have to learn responsibility sometime — it may as well be with a device I can control.

Would you get your tween a tablet? How are you teaching them financial responsibility? Please let us know using the comments box below.

Motley Fool contributor Tim Beyers owned shares of Apple and Netflix at the time of publication. Check out Tim’s portfolio holdings and other columns. The Motley Fool owns shares of Best Buy and Apple. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Amazon.com, Apple, and Netflix, as well as creating a bull call spread position in Apple and writing covered calls on Best Buy.

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