I’ve been told plenty of stories about people who have gone straight into the job market after high school to become car salesmen or servers in restaurants and seem to make significantly more than their peers who attended college.  Not only that, but they’re perfectly content and not nearly as deep in debt.  And I agree with these people—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  If your job provides stability, comfortable pay, and you don’t loathe going to work everyday, why on earth would you consider a change?

College Salary vs. High School Salary

The College Board also reports that it can take up to 14 years for a college graduate to match the salary of a high school graduate, taking student loan payments into consideration.  It’s also a fact that once you do obtain a higher salary, you’ll be in a higher tax bracket.  Bummer.  Next, consider that college costs continue to rise while financial aid becomes less available.  Schools and companies that provide scholarships are always more than happy to make getting an education a little easier, but the recession has hit them, too, limiting the funds that they can set aside for those scholarships.

Tough Job Market

There might be many more college graduates without jobs right now than there have ever been, but despite all this bad news, I believe college is still worth it.  First of all, in a tough job market, your degree gives you an edge.  The sharpness of that edge may have decreased due to the high number of unemployed graduates, but that’s simply a numbers game.  You still want to be part of the crowd with degrees that will at least be considered for the position you apply for.

And if you do want the higher-paying jobs that allow you more responsibility or more creative freedom and less packing and sorting, you’ll need a degree.  Occasionally, you’ll come across a listing that asks for a degree or equivalent experience, but in most cases, it’s difficult to get the experience without the degree and a portfolio to prove your skill.  It’s in your college classes that you’ll be able to take sufficient time to learn and hone the skills related to your field, and more importantly, apply them.  You’ll also get more opportunities for internships so you can use those skills in the job market itself, and an internship could always turn into a full-time job right after graduation.  (A word to the wise, don’t let those opportunities pass by!)

Is College Part of Your Dreams?

Here’s a small tip, though.  Especially because of today’s market, you’re better off knowing what you want to study before you enter college.  You may not get to attend the college you’ve been dreaming about because of financial aid obstacles, so you may have to choose either a different school or a different field.  Know what the average salary is for people in your field.  If it’s not sufficient enough, or if your field doesn’t bring you enough joy to make up for the discrepancy in pay, choose a different field or forego college altogether to avoid the unnecessary debt.  Or if manual labor or selling cars fits your personality, makes you happy, and provides a comfortable, steady income, the college experience may not be worth your time and money.

I tell people that I graduated college with a Starving Artist degree—I went after more artistic pursuits in writing, theatre, and music.  Not too unexpectedly, my pay-the-bills job is not in any of those fields, and if I were only now entering college, I might rethink my majors, but I know I’d probably still go with the same ones despite all that rethinking—I’m too much of an optimist.  And I wouldn’t trade my college experience for anything.  I learned quite a bit there about my fields and myself that I don’t think I would’ve learned, understood, or accepted as easily and quickly on my own.

But like many things, college is always going to be a personal decision.  If you know what you want and believe that a college education can help you get there, don’t let the recession hold you back.  Don’t be discouraged by the lower number of scholarships around; apply for every single one you can find, and don’t forget about grants.  They don’t have to be repaid, either.  If your field doesn’t require a degree, you might consider college for the experience, but you should consider the recession and perhaps wait for better days.

• Aerobic Aeropress.  This handy gadget costs about $29 and will save you time in the morning.  You know it’s always cheaper to brew your own coffee, and now it can be quicker, too.  The Aerobic Aeropress has your morning jolt ready in less than a minute—and this is regular coffee, too, not instant.  When you’re running late, you’ll appreciate this gadget even more.  Those are the days when you really need your caffeine!

• A Smartphone. Phones like the Blackberry can make life easier all the way around.  You can check and send emails, do your online banking, keep memos and to-do lists on hand—the possibilities are already endless and yet technology finds new handy features to add to our cell phones almost every day.  The cost will vary depending on your service carrier and the specific features you want, but a smartphone can help you keep up with the constant changes in life.  Just be careful with your usage…they’re addicting!

• DVR. If you’re like me, most of your days are planned out from start to finish, and unless an emergency arises, it’s just not practical or even feasible to rearrange the order of your plans just for a TV show.  Gone are the days of remembering to set the VCR, pop in a tape, make sure everything is turned off and that no one will be using the TV to watch something else during your show’s slot, and so on.  Today you can set your DVR to record multiple shows without worry.  The costs vary here, too, depending on the specific service you choose.  Companies like DirecTV offer free DVR service with their contracts, and outside services like Comcast require you to purchase DVR hardware as well as pay a monthly fee.  But it can be well worth it to be able to watch your shows when you’re good and ready and really need some down time.

• Mini Laptops. Laptops have always offered a world of convenience, but even the MacBook Air can be cumbersome to lug around.  Enter the mini laptop.  This will fit in your briefcase and most purses, and you can have an easy way to type up that document your boss wanted at 9am today that you forgot about until you stepped onto the bus.  Or you can just use it for easy access to the internet.  PC World compared a few that are currently out and more that are on the horizon.  The Acer Aspire One seems to be the most appealing; whereas you can run into issues with the keyboard and screen size with some minis, this one manages to produce a decent size for both while still remaining about as small as a book.  Minis will run about $300-$600 depending on size, features, memory capacity, etc., so do some research to figure out which one is worth your money.

• Sleeptracker. The Sleeptracker is a watch that doubles as a smart alarm clock.  This gadget monitors your sleep cycles.  Rather than set a specific time for it to go off, you set a window of time during which it would be ideal for you to wake up.  The watch then senses for your most “almost-awake” moment (that’s the technical term!) and then the alarm will go off.  The result is that it’s easier for you to wake up, so you’ll feel more rested and refreshed.  It runs about $179.  I don’t know about you, but I’m sold on anything that will allow me more energy during the day.  I know I’d be more focused and able to accomplish more, leaving more time for relaxing!

With more and more women obtaining advanced degrees, entering the workforce, and obtaining high-level jobs, there is a big surge to provide scholarships for women to help make this possible for more people.

If you are thinking about returning to school, there are plenty of resources available to find and obtain financial aid in order to pay for some, if not all, of your college expenses. Some of these programs are based on merit, while others are awarded based on income or even particular fields of study.

Whether you qualify to receive scholarships for women, minority grants, or financial aid for studying microbiology, there is no reason not to tap into these resources to help make your educational experience an affordable one. Here are two great resources that can help you quickly get the cash you need to go to back to school.

• Online Scholarships – Simply enter to see if you qualify for their $10,000 free student scholarship program. You’ll be notified if you qualify for some of this cash to help you get your degree that never has to be paid back.

• Course Advisor – Enter the areas of study that interest you, and this search database will match your background and interests to the programs that are best suited for you. This is a great tool if you are in the process of looking for the most affordable degree program and college that matches your interests and desired income.

There’s no limit on the number of free student scholarships, grants or educational loans that you can receive. Cast a wide net by collecting as much information as you can in order to alleviate the cost of books, housing and tuition. Regardless if you are looking for scholarships for women, as a single mother, or low-income status, the money is available.

And things only continue to get better and easier. They recently launched a beta of their Financia Fitness tool, which makes personal finance and money management simple and painless by doing the work for you. Financial Fitness identifies five core areas to an overall succesful financial lifestyle, and provides personalized tips on how you can improve your situation.

What are the five core areas?

1. Know Your Money
2. Spend Less Than You Earn
3. Use Debt Wisely
4. Invest Your Savings
5. Prepare for the Unexpected

Because Mint.com’s software automatically monitors your income and expenses, they can alert you when something is not right and you are straying away from a healthy financial balance sheet. You’ll find out specifically what you need to do in order to improve your finances, and learn about why it is important that you are doing the things they instruct you to do.

It’s like having a personal financial adviser that works for you 24×7 and doesn’t cost you a dime.

Check it out if you haven’t already… Go to Mint.com

Not only does Mint break down your spending behavior, it will alert you when your balance is low, when a bill is due or when you have overspent your budget. But wait, there’s more! Mint.com also give you personalized money savings tips based on how you are spending your money.

But is Mint Secure?

Mint consolidates all your accounts, creates pretty pictures and offers great advice based on all of the financial data it has pulled from your accounts. That’s great, except you have to give them your bank account numbers and passwords to all your financial accounts. All it takes is one smart hacker to get access to your Mint account to see all your personal finance data. Are you comfortable with that?

You can feel confident that your data with Mint.com is safe. After you enter your banking information in your account, your user names and passwords cannot be viewed in any way. Your data is not stored in any way, and financial transactions cannot be made with Mint. That means Mint employees and Mint hackers will never have access to this information.

Mint.com also uses Yodlee, the same online banking service provider that is used by leading US financial institutions. You can feel confident your account is safe and sound with Yodlee, as they are audited by the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, among others.

If you have multiple bank and credit card accounts, which most people do, Mint.com can actually provide an extra level of security. Since it is unlikely for you to check all of your accounts on a daily basis for unusual transactions, Mint can provide a one-stop-shop to view all accounts. You can even create alerts for Mint to inform you of suspicious activity and changes in account balances.

For more information on Mint.com’s security, visit the Is Mint Really Secure forums. Otherwise, another popular option is to test drive Mvelopes program for free.

Millionaire Money Habits: It is tough to build wealth if you can’t keep your money. While the many personal finance software programs that exist can simplify your life and help you achieve your financial goals, make sure your identity and account information is safe and secure.