Boomerang Kids vs. Parents: How to Minimize Conflict

Joe Liebeskind interned with the Young-Adult-Leaving-Home560x350New Jersey Nets (now called the Brooklyn Nets) in the summer of his junior year of college. At the end of the internship, his coordinator said a job would be waiting for him once he finished school. But the diploma he received in December 2008 wasn’t the golden ticket he thought it would be—bad timing meant the team couldn’t hire him.

After graduating from Pennsylvania State University, Joe moved back in with his parents in Hillsdale, N.J., for three-and-a-half years. However, his decision to live at home wasn’t a result of not landing a job with the basketball team. “I was always planning to move home for at least a year to try and [save] some money, as to not be living paycheck to paycheck with the cost of rent,” he says.

Many of today’s college graduates follow Joe’s path. An estimated 3 in 10 young adults have moved back in with their parents in recent years, according to a Pew Research Center survey released in March. Saving money is their chief concern, as nearly 80 percent of those currently living at home say they don’t have enough money put away to lead the kind of independent life they want.

Many of today’s graduates—known as “boomerang kids”—are turning to their parents for monetary support. They’ve returned to their childhood homes, hoping that living under their parents’ roof will enable them to find a job and save enough money to move out.However, moving back home can lead to arguments between kids and their parents and can potentially damage their relationship in the long term. Parents who prepare for these challenges before greeting their kids at the front door have a better chance of avoiding these hardships. Click here to read the article.

How to Convince a Prospective Employer to Overlook Poor Credit

Job seekers have plenty to worry628x471 about these days. Stiff competition and fewer available jobs are holding many Americans back from joining the labor force. Unfortunately, job seekers with poor credit have yet another thing working against them.

Nearly half of U.S. employers conduct credit background checks on job candidates, according to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Red flags differ among employers but could include late payments, maxed credit cards, or other financial black marks that indicate a lack of responsibility in a hiring manager’s eyes.

The good news: Even if job seekers have a lousy credit history, they can still make a strong case for why an employer should hire them. In fact, among organizations that perform credit history checks, 80 percent say they have hired someone despite a poor credit report, according the SHRM survey.

A key factor is how well the applicants present themselves. Click here for tips on how to play up one’s strengths and use a poor track record with credit to their advantage.

Is Your Teenager Ready for a Credit Card?

Teaching teenagers how to save and Teen-with-Credit-Card1spend responsibly is one thing. But teaching them how to use a credit card? That presents a host of new challenges, with the potential for slipups that could have damaging long-term effects.

To apply for a credit card, anyone younger than 21 must either have a cosigner or verifiable income that proves they have the means to repay the credit.With stricter requirements in place today for, teenagers interested in using credit must rely on their parents. Before handing them a credit card, though, parents can gauge their child’s financial responsibility by seeing how well they manage a checking account.

Many banks offer checking accounts for applicants as young as 13, and they come with monitoring tools for parents. If the checking account is used responsibly, parents can start discussions with their teenager about credit cards.

Read this article to learn more about how parents can measure their child’s responsibility before handing them a credit card.