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Study up on these 5 ways to save on college textbooks

College textbook publishers apparently haven’t heard there’s a recession going on.

The average college student spends $1,137 a year for textbooks and other course materials, up from $988 three years ago according to collegeboard.org.

There are some cases where students just can’t avoid buying new books, especially if the new edition comes “bundled” with a CD or online access code for supplemental materials. These are often stripped or damaged with rented or used books, and if you buy them separately you could end up paying as much or more than you would for a new book with everything intact.

The only bonus of buying new is that you can make some money selling books back after you’re done using them. My daughter, a college junior, tells me her college bookstore pays a small fraction of a book’s original cost when she brings it in for resale. Because she’s a science major, her books are updated so frequently that they often don’t take them back at all. Her experience with college bookstore stinginess when it comes to buying back books is not unusual. Get a better price by selling books yourself through web sites such as half.com, BetterWorldBooks.com orvalorebooks.com.

The drawback? It takes some time and effort, but nobody is going to cry for a college student about that.

When you can avoid buying new, however, it’s going to save money, and today’s c0-eds have plenty of options. Here are ways for new and returning students to slash textbook costs by one-third or more as they head to school over the next few weeks:

Pssst, wanna buy a stolen Rolex or diamond?

Wanna deal on a diamond? Time to get a new Rolex? Sure, they might be stolen goods, but it’s all perfectly legal.

Seriously.

Say what?

Police departments nationwide recover all sorts of stuff when they arrest bad guys and there are some real gems amidst the eclectic array of goods that gather in evidence rooms. Enter PropertyRoom.com, a site that has grown exponentially over its dozen years of life.

PropertyRoom.com has become the agent for some 2,600 police departments that have to purge their evidence rooms of items where there the owner can’t be found, insurance has already been paid out and the insurer has no interest in the item. More than $36 million generated by sales from the site has gone back to municipalities.

CEO Tom Lane said he was caught up in the big burst of auction sites in the late 1990s and was trying to identify sources of inventory to sell. He harkened to his days as a detective on Long Island charged with purging the department’s property room.

Lane reached out to some old friends, who had risen up the ranks and allowed him to post the items on his site. The result was a boon to police departments (and municipalities) nationwide whose auctions went from sparsely attended local affairs to nationwide bidding contests.

“War for talent” has employers ramping up employee benefits: survey

If there’s a silver lining to be had following the financial crisis that shook the global economy in 2008, it’s this: more employers are feeling increasingly responsible for the fate of their employees — and that’s translating to more comprehensive employee benefit plans, a new survey finds.

The downside? Nearly 60 percent of the employers polled say most of their employees fail to take advantage of the resources available to them.

“The disconnect we’re seeing today… is that despite the fact that employers are making financial education and advice programs available to employees, many employees do not engage in these programs because they do not find the information relevant enough to them personally,” says Andy Sieg, head of retirement services for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which commissioned the survey.

Despite the fragile economic recovery and high jobless rate, the labor market is in a so-called “war for talent,” Sieg says. In fact, a recent report from the American Society for Training and Development found that by 2015, 60 percent of all new jobs will require skills held by only 20 percent of the population. Add in the fact that two out of three employees at big companies are looking for the exit sign, Deloitte reports, and there’s legitimate reason for employers to be jittery about losing top talent. As a result, workplaces are ramping up efforts to not only attract younger employees, but to retain older employees for a longer period of time.

Among the efforts underway:

• 50 percent of employers surveyed offer flexible or customized work schedules
• 33 percent are implementing retirement and healthcare education
• 22 percent are giving employees the chance to work remotely
• 21 percent are offering extended benefits to older workers

With Social Security worries plaguing Americans, employers are beginning to recognize the need for a workplace benefits program that goes beyond the standard auto-enrollment plan.

Groupon regret: How great deals make you spend more

Justine Rivero considers herself a bonafide personal-finance expert. She’s an adviser at the credit-tracking website Credit Karma, doling out tips on how to control spending, avoid crippling debt and keep your credit record pristine.

But even Justine Rivero is powerless against the lure of popular daily-deal site Groupon. When faced with a seemingly incredible bargain, she finds herself compelled to click that mouse again and again – against her own better judgment.

“I regretfully admit to totally blowing money on Groupons I never used,” says Rivero. “A dinner cruise for six people, a paintballing weekend, yoga classes. I swore it off for awhile, until something else popped up that I couldn’t resist. I should know better.”

Rivero isn’t alone in her hopeless addiction to the site. Think of it as a new strain of the virus that has long bedeviled shoppers at big-box retailers like Costco, Walmart or Target: The compulsion to buy a five-gallon jar of capers, or a gross of electric toothbrushes, because the deal is just too good to pass up. As a result, you end up spending far more than you would have otherwise.

“When we see that ticking clock stating there are only 45 minutes left until the offer expires, we lose our minds,” says Farnoosh Torabi, a personal-finance expert and author of the books Psych Yourself Rich and You’re So Money. “Our dopamine levels skyrocket, and we begin to imagine taking that balloon ride for 50 percent off or enjoying those buy-one-get-one-free smoothies. We end up making an impulse purchase — only to regret it soon after.”

And yet, we can’t seem to help ourselves. Maybe that’s why the recently-announced Groupon IPO appears to be such a hot property: The site already boasts 83 million subscribers in 43 countries, and has been noted as one of the fastest-growing companies in history.

That’s despite the fact that 20 percent of voucher deals end up going unused, according to industry estimates. That figure, just like wasted gift cards, amounts to pure profit for both the coupon site and the retailer — and indeed, allows them to offer the attractive deals in the first place.

How safe are your savings?

Let’s say a broker or banker offered you a way of reaping market gains while protecting your principal. You’d jump at it, wouldn’t you?

Thousands did and were burned to the tune of more than $113 billion in complex “structured” products since 2008, including Florida businessman Charles Replogle and his 86-year-old mother. They were told that the principal-protected notes sold by UBS Financial Services were safe. He bought the six-percent-yielding Lehman Brothers notes from UBS for his mentally disabled brother and mother.

Replogle trusted his broker, a friend whom he had known since he was nine. The Replogles lost every penny of the $130,000 they invested in the notes when Lehman went bust in September, 2008.

“There was no mention of Lehman Brothers,” Replogle said. “I felt UBS deceived us. You can’t sell a guaranteed product and not guarantee it.”

UBS neither admitted nor denied that it was involved in wrongdoing, even though it was fined a paltry $2.5 million by the securities industry self-regulator FINRA on April 11 and ordered to pay $8.25 million in restitution for “omissions and statements that effectively misled investors.” UBS sold about $1 billion of these dogs.

(A UBS spokeswoman told Reuters on April 11 that the bank “pleased” to settle the case, which concerned “a limited number of investors who purchased certain Lehman principal protection notes during a discrete 3 1/2 month period of time.” She said a “significant majority” of UBS’s sales of Lehman structured products were conducted properly.)

If the Replogles were the victims of a Madoff-like Ponzi scam, you could shrug your shoulders and attribute the incident to outright fraud.

Recession’s price tag: $2,300 a year

The so-called “Great Recession” has taken a permanent bite out of everyone’s retirement and not just at a macro level. Today’s workers will lose an average of $2,300 a year each in retirement benefits because of the anemic wage growth which started in 2008, according to a new study written by Urban Institute analysts and released by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research. Younger workers and wealthier workers will lose even more.

The study came as Social Security and Medicare trustees reported that both of those programs would run out of money earlier than had been expected. Medicare will exhaust its funds in 2024, not 2029, and Social Security will run out of money in 2036, not 2037, the trustees said. Legislators may be prompted by those findings to shore up or revise those programs, but even if they do, that would not reverse the decline projected by Urban Institute study authors Barbara A. Butrica, Richard W. Johnson and Karen E. Smith.

They said the real impact of the recession for workers was not in transitory unemployment, but was in permanently lowered future wages that would then feed into Social Security formulas in a way that would permanently lower benefits. “The reduction in wage growth affects nearly all workers — not just the relatively few who lost their jobs — and lasts for their entire post-recession career,” the report said.

Young workers will be harder hit, because the length of the careers they have ahead of them will magnify the effect of the lost wage growth, the study said. Their income at age 70 will be almost five percent lower than it would have been, or about $3,000 per person.

But higher income workers will have the most to lose and will lose the most. Young workers in the top 20 percent of wage earners will lose an average of $7,500 a year in their 70s, the study said.

Besides losing sleep worrying about it, is there anything future retirees can do about the new shortfall? They can be aggressive about their careers, hoping to squeeze bigger than expected raises out of their bosses, or changing jobs more frequently to climb the ladder quickly.

Or, they can try to save more on their own to make up for the loss. A rough rule of thumb is to multiply the amount you need to withdraw every year by 25 to see how much you’d need to accumulate to fund it. So, a 25-year-old who expects to need an extra $2,300 a year when he is 70 would have to build an extra $57,500 nest egg before then. In an account earning seven percent, that would mean just tucking away an extra $15 a month.

4 retirement tips for twentysomethings

By Yesha Shah

In today’s dismal job market, it’s no wonder college grads are focused on finding a job instead of socking away money for the future. Unfortunately, young people aren’t the only ones befuddled by their post-career plan: 55 percent of Americans say they don’t know how to achieve their retirement goals, an ING survey finds.

But saving early is the key to building up a nest egg. A panel of experts brought together by Merrill Lynch Wealth Management last month offers twentysomethings this advice for getting started on reaching their retirement goals:

Get out of debt

It’s common for students to graduate with thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and thousands more in high-interest credit card bills. “Don’t forget that paying down debt is … the financial equivalent of saving. So if you have some debt, be focused on paying that down,” says Andrew Sieg, head of retirement services at Bank of American Merrill Lynch.

Be flexible

Don’t count on working at the same place for your entire life. Traditional jobs — where you work one place for your entire career — are gone; pensions, gone, says ABC host and panel moderator Charles Gibson. “You really are responsible in 401(k)s for yourself, in effect, in retirement. Social Security is a little iffy. You can work yourself into a panic about this,” Gibson says.

The allure of dying broke

With the economy still struggling, unemployment still lofty, and retirement savings lacking, more Americans than ever are terrified of the idea of dying penniless.

Financial adviser and author Stephen Pollan wants to remind you: That’s the whole idea. Not the prospect of outliving your cash; no one wants that. But the idea of using up all of your savings while you’re still here to enjoy it? That’s the mark of a well-lived life. Says Pollan, always outspoken: “You’re a jerk if you leave a single penny.”

First published almost 15 years ago, Pollan’s book Die Broke seemed like pure heresy at the time, overturning just about every accepted tenet of personal finance. The old model of success: Work yourself to the bone, and scrimp and save every nickel in order to leave a vast estate to your heirs.

Poppycock, says Pollan. The new model: Use your money to build a great life while you’re still around. Whether you’re Paul Allen collecting sports teams and Jimi Hendrix memorabilia, or Bill Gates trying to cure malaria — put your money to work while you’re still above ground.

“You’re stupid to die with any money left over, because the amount of your estate is not the measure of your worth,” says Pollan. “People have realized that there’s nothing shameful about not having anything when you leave the Earth. The message of Die Broke used to be counter cultural –  but now it’s become mainstream.”

That message appeals to people like Bonnie Russell. The Del Mar, California-based owner of Personal Public Relations grew up in tony Marin County, and she developed her own die-broke philosophy after seeing the corrosive effects of inherited wealth. “I met so many trust-fund babies who were so screwed up because they never had to earn a living,” says Russell. “That’s why if I plan it right, the last check I ever write will bounce. And I’ll leave behind nothing but a great tan.”

But that doesn’t mean Russell is selfish — far from it. In fact she donates much of her time and money to her favorite charitable causes, so she can enjoy that fulfillment while she’s still around, instead of just bequeathing a dollar amount in a will. Russell doesn’t plan to pass on a bundle to her children and has no designs on her parents’ wealth, either. “I don’t expect any largesse, and I’m so cool with that,” she says. “It’s their money and they can do whatever they want with it.”

Tax problems? The art of negotiating with the IRS

Whether it’s the NFL player who forgot to mail in his tax return or the person who exercised his stock options and triggered a huge tax bill, negotiator Jim Camp has seen a lot of people get into sticky situations with the Internal Revenue Service.

With 25 years of experience, Camp sat down with Prism Money to offer advice on how to successfully negotiate with the taxman.

Is it well-known that the IRS is willing to negotiate with people?

The IRS is more than willing to negotiate. I don’t think a lot of people realize that or understand that. The IRS can stop penalties and interest. They’ll reduce the bill. A lot of tax cases get settled for a lot less than what the IRS demands. You can have a successful conclusion.

(Reuters spoke to IRS spokesman Anthony Burke, who says the IRS offers several programs for those struggling to pay the tax bill: They can apply for an Offer in Compromise (OIC) to settle upon a reduced bill, or apply for a payment plan to pay the tax bill in installments.)

What should one do before negotiating with the IRS?

My first tip is that the worst person to negotiate for yourself is yourself. Negotiation is a terribly emotional arena. There are tax attorneys who do it (negotiate on your behalf) and tax services who can do it. I recommend they go to a tax specialist. I would recommend everyone pursue those services and find out what the cost is before they wade into negotiations with the IRS. It’s always better to have someone represent you.

How to avoid boomerang kids

Attention blissful empty-nesters: there’s a good chance your college graduates will be moving back home.

That’s the not-so-pretty picture being painted by a handful of grim reports, including Monster.com’s “2010 State of the College Workplace,” which found that a whopping 52 percent of recent grads are living with their parents, up from 40 percent in 2009.

While the sluggish economy doesn’t help — nearly 40 percent of 18 to 29 year olds are jobless or out of the workforce, according to Pew Research Center — there are steps parents can take to prevent their children from “boomeranging,” experts say.

The key? Start early, says Janie Schiltz, director at Northwestern Mutual.

“Financial security isn’t something where you turn 25, snap your fingers and say, ‘I’ve got it!’ ” she says. “Good habits start very early on in life … and it helps when parents learn how to stop giving in to their children.”

In other words, stop being bulldozed by your kids. Schiltz warns of the “easy money” phenomenon highlighted in a recent poll by TheMint.org: it found that over 80 percent of parents are always or occasionally giving in when their kids ask for money. “It’s always easier to say ‘yes’ than ‘no’, but you’re really not teaching your child the financial discipline for building resources and handling money,” she says.

And unless you want to be doling out cash until you’re 80, start now by establishing rules around spending, saving and differentiating between wants and needs, Schiltz says.