Forget stocks or hedge funds. The University of Texas is investing its endowment in gold.

The university, which has the fifth-largest endowment in the U.S., invested 3 percent, or $500 million, in the commodity. It is unusual for a university to invest in gold, and its value only increases during periods of inflation. Fears of an unsteady international financial market mixed with the probability of inflation have led them to purchase the precious metal.

“Recently, we’ve added 3 percent, 3 percent of our portfolio, into gold as a protection against inflation, but even more as a lack of confidence in financial markets due to extraordinary government fiscal and monetary stimulus,” Bruce Zimmerman, UTIMCO CEO, told the University of Texas board of regents last Wednesday. “I wish I could tell you the future looked rosy. Unfortunately, that’s not our view. At best, we believe the future is uncertain.” Read the rest of this entry »

College students are notorious for being broke. I cannot count the number of times each week I hear someone say, “Sorry, I can’t go out to eat/go to the movies/go to the clubs. I’m broke.”

However, maybe we college kids aren’t as broke as we think we are. Something that I find pretty interesting is that 66 percent of students receive funds from home each month, and the average amount of money received is $312. Another 49 percent of students have a part-time job and report an average monthly earning of more than $450.

So what do we spend our money on? Surprisingly, 40 percent of the average student’s money goes to discretionary spending, including 6.5 percent for entertainment, 6.7 for apparel and services, and 4.7 percent for travel and vacation. Another 26 percent of the budget goes toward room and board, two very important things if you don’t want to share a bridge with a few random rodents. Read the rest of this entry »

As a result of a $219 million dollar budget cut, 25 percent of the 172 Detroit, Michigan public schools will close starting in June of this year.

The loss comes from a plan to “create a leaner, smarter [Detroit Public School District] by taking into account city-wide demographic trends,” according to Robert Bobb, the emergency financial manager for Detroit’s public schools.

From 2000 to the beginning of 2008, the metropolitan Detroit area lost 150,000 jobs due to decline of the auto industry. According to The Detroit News, the number of Michigan residents leaving the state rose 25 percent between 2001 and 2007, while the number of new residents moving in fell by nearly one-third.

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When President Obama came into office, one of the first problems he addressed was the economic recession. Obama’s administration passed a $787 billion stimulus package; almost $100 billion of that stimulus package went straight for education.

In October 2009, officials said this stimulus saved 250,000 teacher, administrator, and other education-related jobs.

But now, less than six months later, many public schools are facing the financial danger of not having enough money to pay teachers, facilitate extracurricular activities for students, and offer elective classes.

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Everyone knows how hard it is to get a job in the current economic recession. Many students are graduating, and instead of landing a wonderful new job, they are simply keeping their college job. The New York Times reports that less than 20 percent of graduating college students found a job last year. John Challenger, a job market consultant, said job-seekers “will have to find new ways to get in front of hiring authorities, look where other people are not and be willing to take jobs that most people would avoid.” And that’s where Priority Candidates comes into the situation.

Lesley Mitler created Priority Candidates to help recent college graduates find a job. Priority Candidates has also partnered with the Greenberg Education Group, a tutoring company in New York City.

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When we hear “economic recession,” my friends and I don’t really have a strong grasp on what all is involved. We know that the unemployment rate is higher than it has been in years and that it is becoming harder and harder for college graduates to find a job.

We also know that more students are not able to go to college because they simply cannot afford it. But beyond that, my friends and I do not have a clear understanding of the financial crisis. It’s too bad that we don’t go to Columbia University.

Steven Fraser, an American studies professor at Columbia, is now teaching a class about Wall Street and this financial crisis, comparing it to similar crises in the past.

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Paying for college is expensive. The sooner you start saving for it, the better off you will be, and hopefully, the fewer student loans you will have to pay off after college.

So what’s the best way to save for college? Well, you could fill a glass jar with cash and bury it in your backyard. (On a side note, that really is how I saved for my first car. Other than avoiding the fire ant hill near my hiding spot, it was a great idea.) Or, if you still have a few years before you start college, you could invest in a 529 plan.

What is a 529 plan?

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I recently posted a blog about the Top 10 Best Value Colleges in the U.S. It made sense to me why these were good schools. They have reasonable tuitions, are respectable schools, and the average student debt is lower at these schools than the national average student debt upon graduation. But according to an article in CBS’ Moneywatch, maybe I should rethink my opinion of these schools.

Evidently the people at the Princeton Review who ranked the top public and private  best value schools forgot to take something very important into account: Scholarships.

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Move over Chegg.com. Barnes & Noble is entering the textbook rental arena.

Barnes & Noble is the largest bookstore chain in the country and has been the top selling chain for the past six years. Barnes & Noble sells most of its books through its almost 800 bookstores. However, its quickly growing website also offers over one million titles, and a new line of campus bookstores called Barnes & Noble College Bookstores operates at 636 colleges and universities.

So obviously, Barnes & Noble is a big company. And now, in an effort to help students combat the rising cost of college textbooks, Barnes & Noble is starting to rent its textbooks.

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The country’s economy has officially been in a recession for more than two years. This has made paying for a college education increasingly difficult for many students. It is not only harder to find a job, but it is becoming more difficult to find financial aid as government aid programs and private scholarships decrease in number. For many students, attending college is becoming more and more of a distant dream, due to financial limitations only.

In an effort to help students get the most bang for their buck, Kiplinger has released their list of the best values in higher education for the 2009-2010 school year. Kiplinger is a private company based in Washington, D.C. that publishes business forecasts and personal finance advise. They ranked the schools based on overall value, which is a combination of cost and quality of education.

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