Finovate Startup 2009 held in San Francisco was an exciting conference that featured the DebtGoal product. Here’s video footage from April:

DebtGoal Demo

Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs.  DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.

Here’s the top ten frugal ways to celebrate graduation without putting a dent in a wallet – either that of your parents or your own. Most of these ideas are equally applicable to college or high school.

10. Skip the photos. Well, don’t skip photos altogether, just the photography services on site that cost an arm and a leg for an eight-by-ten developed picture. Have friends or family members with camera experience snap the shots, or if you really want professionally-done images, pool your resources with a group of friends and hire a modest photographer to handle a couple of shots for each person.

9. Get smart on the party. Instead of hosting a full-blown event in a facility, consider inviting just the closest of friends and family out for some casual drinks. Save a ton by commiting to having only one or two drinks. Inject a drinking game that actually limits spending, like, having each person tell a memory from college and the person who guesses right gets their graduation drink covered by one of the other friends. You get the idea: there’s a way to have fun and save money at the same time.

8. Carpool to the event. There’s no need for all of the friends and family that plan to show up on campus to drive separately. Enough said.

7. Skip traditional graduation announcements. Or, if you opt to announce to the world that you will shortly have your B.A./A.B./B.S. etc. in hand, use it to suggest that graduation gifts be limited to cash contributions to your “get out of debt” fund.

6. Admittely, there’s not much you can do on the graduation regalia. Of course, rent instead of buying, unless you can somehow split the costs of buying it with other people planning on walking this year or soon. The idea here would be to find people graduating on different days, or at least during different times on graduation day. Maybe skip the extra accessories that do not serve a function during the ceremony. In other words, use common sense: even though it’s a big day, the value of an extra thread or better quality gown probably isn’t worth the splurge.

5. No diploma frames. Honestly, a lot of people buy expensive diploma frames, yet don’t end up even displaying their diploma. I don’t even remember being asked to present the physical copy of my diploma when interviewing for jobs right out of college. Wait — if I were asked to present the diploma, it would be easier to grab and take to the interview if it were NOT glued down in a frame!

4. No rings. Ok, some students attend schools for which it is nothing short of an institution to get their class ring or the standard ring that every alum actually wears. I’m still going to suggest a break with the tradition, but leave it up to the individual to decide. However, my advice for the vast majority of students remains  the same: don’t buy it. A graduation ring is unlikely to be used once it’s purchased. Also, nowadays graduation supply companies will sell you a graduation ring long after you’ve left school, so you can buy one in the future once debt is a distant memory.

3. Graduation party obligations… A touchy situation can be when you have a social obligation to go out for a grad night or other trip since all of your friends are going. If it’s school-sponsored, consider offering to help plan it, staff during part of the event itself, set up, or clean up in lieu of paying to attend.

2. Avoid graduation vacations that require a flight. Since there’s a lot of variation on how people celebrate graduation, a good rule of thumb is that a trip out of town is excessive. If you do spring for anything more than a day of fun and/or drinks out, keep the costs to a minimum as much as possible. The DebtGoal general rule for vacations is also helpful: minimize the number of days on vacation, since the typical person can fully recharge in three days or less.

1. Don’t eat out! Eating out at a restaurant not only costs a lot per person, but with family-oriented events like graduation, the potential for a bill on the order of hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars exists. Instead, hold a celebratory dinner at a friend or family member’s home. There are many variations on this theme to get even cheaper: hold a joint graduation dinner with another newly minted alum and split the bill, or do it potluck style.

Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs.  DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.

John Muntz’s testimonial on his struggle with debt consolidation is particularly heartening, especially given how taboo talking about personal finance can seem.

Thanks to John’s brave confessions, we can glean many helpful lessons on what not to do moving forward. Afterall, one of the greatest causes for hope – seriously – is that no matter the financial mistakes anyone has made in the past, there is always room to change for the better and get back on track starting NOW.

That said, here’s a quick list of some of the lessons learned. Feel free to add comments, thinking of your own lessons learned about what not to do regarding credit cards, spending choices, or even debt in general.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• After receiving one credit card and thereafter getting into debt, never sign up for an additional credit card — UNLESS you have assessed your financial status, have decided on an effective and realistic debt elimination strategy, and one component of that strategy is to use the zero percent offer option to cut off interest-driven balance growth while the debt is aggressively paid down.

• In almost all cases, do not opt for the services of a for-profit debt consolidation company. Not that so-called “nonprofit” debt consolidation companies are going to be a big help, but consolidation services for most types of consumer debt usually cost more in the long run, either through higher interest rates on your outstanding debt balances, or other worse terms of repayment, such all a lengthened repayment period. Get out of debt the smart way by using a free debt service that aggregates, organizes, and prioritizes the debt amounts for you!

• If the minimum payments cannot be swung, call the credit card lenders directly and explain your financial situation. Explain to them your willingness to repay the debt, and need for more reasonable terms. In all honesty, this strategy may or may not work, but it is definitely worth the attempt. Part of what makes a lender more likely to renegotiate unfavorable terms on your existing debt is fear that it will somehow not be repaid, either simply due to the real inability to do so, or through another means, such as being discharged, possibly through bankruptcy.

• Realize that protecting your credit rating is important, but that reducing and ultimately eliminating debt is even more critical. We’ve written articles on credit ratings, and interestingly, one’s credit score even impacts one’s ability to get out of debt! But certainly the wrong thing to do is fret over moderate nicks to one’s credit score if a particular course of action can lead to significant debt paydown.

Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs.  DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.

Here’s a list of the blog carnivals from that past week with some of the most interesting content on debt and other personal finance issues:

Carnival of Debt Reduction

Bankruptcy and Debt Carnival

Carnival of Twenty Something Finance

Rich Life Carnival

Carnival of Road to Financial Independence

Carnival of Everything Money

Carnival of Wealth, Money, and Life

Personal Finance News Carnival

Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs.  DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.

“UNBROKE,” the television special on ABC, just aired. The one-hour program was designed to reach out to Americans and explain some basic economics concepts, stocks, bonds, 401(k)s, and debt. On the whole, the program was good as a primer to get people motivated to get up and do something about their financial problems. The trouble is, though, the advice they give doesn’t always pass muster. If you caught the show, here’s some of the content seen through the “DebtGoal” filter:

• The UNBROKE host tells the audience to think about housing as an investment. Really? Calling housing an investment would be slightly more compelling if there was guaranteed income to swing mortgage payments, but in our current economic environment, income insecurity is a major factor in the risk part of the home ownership equation. Housing historically hasn’t even been the top competitor with other forms of investment, all corollary costs of ownership included. It is much more accurate and helpful to treat housing as an expense in one’s budget.
• The UNBROKE host makes an unforgettable quip about retirement: counting on social security checks alone to fund one’s retirement places them at the poverty income level.
• And Seth Green? Lots of entertainment, but little commentary on the specifics to his decision-making process on the right moment to buy a home, invest for retirement, or money management. The best part of his presentation is his admitted modesty when it comes to housing.

My most glaring issue with the presentation is that they encourage a target audience that may carry substantial non-mortgage, non-educational debt, like balances on their credit cards, to invest in stocks right now. This is hands down a bad idea: credit card debt, auto debt, and any other high interest loans should be prioritized for elimination before investing in the stock market, especially in a non-retirement account for which there is no immediate or future tax advantage or matching employer contribution. This is not to say that one should liquidate one’s existing retirement accounts — an action that comes with penalties — but rather completely stop making additional contributions to retirement and non-retirement investment accounts and instead funnel cash into high interest debt reduction as soon as possible. This advice holds even for those who are at high risk of defaulting on their mortgage — the potential gain from buying stocks and bonds right now is unlikely to be justified when faced with the foreclosure and loss of one’s home.

Raj Patel writes for DebtGoal.com, a do-it-yourself system for getting out of debt and lowering your interest costs.  DebtGoal.com incorporates all of the techniques discussed in this post and can help users understand and get visibility to and manage their debt finances.