Transition

I applied to two universities my senior year in high school, one was a long shot I had a 1% chance of getting in, at the other I was a shoe-in. A few months ago I went online to check the school I knew I would get into. I logged into my submitted application, clicked on the status check, and to my horror I was staring at a paragraph explaining I had not been accepted. College is one of those things that is constantly in the back of your mind while going through high school, and one of my greatest fears had finally come true. Just as I was beginning to cope with the fact that I would live at home with my parents the rest of my life I got a call from the university explaining they had made a mistake and were very sorry. During that time I felt a great sigh of relief sweep over me, but now righting this the day before I begin my freshman year of college I'm anxious and a part of me is sad.
I know college will be a great experience, I'll make new friends, share fun experiences, and I'll end up really enjoying it, but no one warned me about the transition time. The time where you miss your old home, your friends, parents and move into an awkward new arena where you don't know anyone. I'm beginning to realize that life is made up of a lot of small changes and several large transitions. I somehow thought that after you finished your first weeks of middle school you had somehow graduated from the "transition time" and now moved on to something much smoother, but I'm finding I was dead wrong and somehow I feel the transitions in life, whether it be a new marriage or a new home, only get harder. I wish I could freeze time, even if it's just for a few more days just so I could stay where I'm at, stay content, but I realize that if I just stayed where I was I would never grow. I would never become who I'm meant to be because I would end up sitting in the same spot my life and never moving forward. Ultimately the transition time we all experience in life is meant to bring new purpose, and even though going through it is hard, when we come out on the other side we're better for it. And some of those things you don't want to let go of right now somehow seem to come back to you later on in life.

4 Useful Websites You Should Try

These free sites, in no particular order are ones I've found intuitive but most of all, useful.

ChaCha.com - In a seemingly autonomous web of information it's nice to have a human touch every once in awhile. ChaCha is "people powered search" which means you type in a query and a real person starts searching the internet for you (after you've registered, sorry). This is useful when you just can't find what you're looking for and need some help.

Answers.yahoo.com - I used to love Google Answers, it was really useful when you needed a quality answer to your question. Thankfully Yahoo Answers survives the question/answer format, however it is much more open, which is a double edged sword. On the one side you get answers from anyone and everyone which gives you a wider range, on the bad side you get answers from everyone and anyone who thinks they know a thing or two about your question.

Zecco.com - This is an online discount broker who offer free (read $0) stock trades. Now if you're big into trades, options, margins, and want all the bells and whistles then Zecco is not for you. However if you're an investor just getting started, with only a little spare cash who won't be trading much the difference between a $0 trade and a $5 trade can start to become a sizable percentage of your investment money. Disclaimer: I am not telling you what to do with your money and with brokers of any type you usually get what you pay for, which means your trade may not be executed immediately, I recommend reading the fine print on any brokers website before signing up.

NikePlus.com - You've probably seen ads for Nike+ and essentially it's a sleek combination of an advanced step counter + clever marketing + jumping on the iPod bandwagon, but it equals a fun and productive tool for anyone who already owns an iPod nano, and you don't even need a pair of Nike shoes to use it. Once you start running (or walking) with the sensor ($30) attached to your shoe Nike+ begins tracking your distance, time, pace, gives you audio cues such as "2 miles to go" and once you plug it into iTunes will upload your running data to this website where you can set new goals and challenge other runners across the world.

Mailplane Invites

I've been using a beta application on my Mac called Mailplane which is a standalone client made for Gmail users that allows you to view, send, receive, get new mail notifications, and attach files in a similar fashion to Outlook on PC. It's invite only right now but I've just been given 5 invitations, so if you've got a Mac and a Gmail account comment with your email below and I'll send one your way.

A Small Money Tip

I was just at a blog called DebtKid.com which is essentially a horror story of how one college age kid has gotten himself into over $300,000 bad debt... yeah scary. I don't know a whole lot about finances, but if you're a know-nothing investor like me and don't have an MBA there are a few small money tips that I think could be helpful.
(Disclaimer: I take absolutely no responsibility for your financial decisions in any way shape or form.)

• Open a high yield online Savings Account. If you're the type that usually lets spare cash sit in your bank account without spending it immediately this is a no-brainer. I have an account with ING that is a 4.5% Annual Yield and currently at Washington Mutual they're offering 5%. Basically you earn about 5% every year on your account, painfully simple and the only drawback is that after you make a deposit it takes a few days to be eligible for withdrawal and your limited to a certain number of withdrawals a month. If you decide to open an account with ING let me know before you sign up and I'll send you a referral which gives you a $25 bonus and me a $10 bonus after you have deposited $250 in your account.

• Invest in an Index Fund. This tip is straight from Warren Buffet, if you are a know nothing investor put your money in an index fund and leave it alone. An index fund is essentially a mutual fund that attempts to mimic the movement of an index such as the S&P 500 or what most would consider the stock market. In general index funds do a good job at staying even with the market, so if the S&P went up 8% in a certain year the fund should be yielding about 8% as well. The hardest part about the process is choosing an index fund thats best, I'll try to blog on that some time soon.
  

Children's Books

I've just had a "nostalgia" moment, you know where you see a small thing from your childhood and it brings back a flood of memories along with it. This nostalgia was caused by browsing through the book list near the back of The Dangerous Book for Boys. After seeing a few great titles like Sherlock Holmes and a few children's books I was reminded of a classic book called Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sandek, a classic to be sure. I would like to read it again, but before I could Google it I was reminded of another children's book whose title I forgot long ago. This book involves a black ink pen scriblling things late at night on a desk lit be a lamp. I know this is not much to go by and it may be lost forever in the recesses of my mind, but if you know the book I'm talking about I would love to know it.

If you're feeling nostalgic here's a little Reading Rainbow for you;