You're retired. You've got time. The working world is now your oyster, if you can still digest one.

By Stanley Bing
Last Updated: June 17, 2009: 9:48 AM ET

(Fortune) -- Ah, the bucolic fields of retirement! How they beckon! Time to sit with your feet in the sand and your head in the clouds. After a lifetime of labor, the golden years stretch before us like ... a blasted tundra. Wait a minute. That's not right. The land of the retired is calm, restful, and ... about as exciting as a dead fish. Okay, the truth is, as enticing as it might seem to hang up one's socks, years and years of unbroken leisure can grow stale real fast. The good news is that a host of happy careers awaits the energetic, ambitious retiree who has avoided the shoals of recessionary disaster. Each offers its own enticements.

Treasure hunter

All you need is the time, a beach, and a good metal detector!

* Job description: Must be willing to spend great amounts of time on a beach, in an empty lot, or at a garbage dump, slowly combing the surface with a magnetic gizmo. Must be willing to defend substrata acquisitions from wily competitors and have a good relationship with sales outlets for sometimes disdained inventory.
* Qualifications: Applicants must have own bathing suit and flip-flops, as well as state-of-the-art technical apparatus. Certain arm strength and stamina required.
* Compensation: That big score could be right around the corner, just like when you were hawking tech stocks at Bear Stearns!

"Before" picture model

Okay, you don't look as good as you used to. You have less hair and more avoirdupois, or perhaps less, if you're the scrawny type. Fortunately, our society is big into makeovers, and magazines, websites, and pay-TV infomercials are in constant need of people who look as if they could use one.

* Job description: Appear in variety of media looking miserable, showing off your worst attribute, unless you're concealing something even more deplorable.
* Qualifications: Look like hell, be willing to show it.
* Compensation: Antimodels make big bucks, even if they can't walk down a runway without tripping!

Miniature-golf caddy

* Job description: Lurk around miniature golf courses looking for opportunities to carry other people's club. If somebody actually allows you to do so, perform with distinction.
* Qualifications: Clean clothes. Must be courtly and polite to avoid possible police interest.
* Compensation: You can keep all your tips.

Plant person

Feeding. Watering. Plants are living creatures too, even though they don't move around as much as you do (marginally). A particularly important assignment in the desert climes where you'll be spending a lot of your time.

* Job description: Go to offices and homes to feed and water flora and the occasional fauna that's been left alone while owners are out.
* Qualifications: Must have own watering can, although water to be utilized is generally free and available. Possible need for personal hose, although that is negotiable.
* Compensation: Minimum wage, although promotion to dog-sitting has been known to happen.

Artisan-cheese taster

In some cases it's hard to tell a cheese that's turned from one that's just naturally stinky. But it's an all-important question for those seeking to charge $18 a pound for it.

* Job description: Must taste all kinds of cheese without gagging and be capable of giving appropriate response. Certain cheese-related jargon is required, such as use of the terms "aroma esters," "coulant," and "morge." Fair knowledge of mold is also advisable.
* Qualifications: A working nose and somewhat pretentious mien. Ability to drink wine while nodding for a long time without falling over.
* Compensation: Quite good for those who ascend to the party circuit; all the cheese you can eat (often with bread, crackers, and fruit).

Writer of iPhone apps

There isn't anything too stupid to sweep the world. You have years of providing that kind of value under your belt, don't you?

* Job description: Write applet for iPhone; sell to Apple; collect big bucks.
* Qualifications: Must know Apple code and be comfortable with any idea that a sane person would consider "way too small."
* Compensation: Infinite. Some guy has made a bundle creating the illusion that when you tip the iPhone, you're actually "drinking" a glass of beer. Another applet "ripples" the screen when you touch it. How about a fly walking across the display? Has that been done yet? No? It's my idea! Mine!

Greeter

People often feel a little bit at sea right after they've parked their cars, walked to a store, and entered. In recent years the opportunities have blossomed for individuals who want to crouch in a secure location and then leap out and say hello to people.

* Job description: Wear T-shirt. Stand in prime location to encounter those entering retail establishment. Smile. Say, "Welcome to YOUR STORE HERE," inserting the name of your store there. Do NOT actually say "YOUR STORE HERE." It defeats the purpose.
* Qualifications: No drool on chin, except in certain chains now in Chapter 11.
* Compensation: Minimum wage, but a great opportunity to meet people! And it's 14% less boring than watching the stock crawl all day.

Airport chauffeur

Many people your age do not drive well enough to pick up the grandkids at the airport. But you do, as long as it's very bright outside and there isn't a lot of traffic and they don't keep changing the layout of the airports the way they always seem to be doing and the passenger pays the tolls and gas doesn't get any more expensive and something about your oil filter. What was it again?

* Job description: Drive people to and from the airport.
* Qualifications: Driver's license, car, chauffeur's cap (optional).
* Compensation: $50 each way, more or less. (Make sure to get it upfront.)

Mall cop

See that kid in front of Fuddruckers? He's running with an ice-cream cone!

* Job description: Must keep an eye on all matters of interest at both external and internal areas of local mall facility. Intercede where possible, as long as there is no danger of injury to self. Must stand for hours on end without falling asleep on one's feet.
* Qualifications: Two feet or the appropriate prosthetics. Scheduling flexibility. Capacity to deal with small children without resorting to nightstick.
* Compensation: Steady if unimpressive. Possibilities for advancement if willing to handle mop.

Grass monitor

Cutting grass at your retirement community is an expensive proposition for the board that runs the facility. It's a well-known fact that a "watched pot never boils." What's less understood is that the same concept goes for lawns, even those that are sod.

* Job description: Mow lawn.
* Qualifications: Must be able to negotiate with aggravating condo board, and then be able not only to cut the grass but also to suffer continual advice and criticism from fellow residents. Must provide own golf cap.
* Compensation: $7 per hour; occasional glass of lemonade.

Early-bird specialist

Diners often hate it when they go to a restaurant and find nobody eating there. Your job in this case is to arrive for a full steak dinner with unlimited salad and huge dessert cart at 4:30 p.m. every day to make the establishment look busy. You can do that, can't you?

* Job description: Show up when the restaurant is about to open. You do that anyway, don't you? Sit down, taking up as much room as possible. Eat. Unbuckle belt. Return home and go to sleep at 6 p.m.
* Qualifications: Must be able to wolf down an 18-ounce New York strip while others are just waking up from afternoon nap and the sun is still high in the sky. Sometimes requires altering entire meal schedule to accommodate breakfast at 4 a.m. and lunch at perhaps 10 a.m.
* Compensation: The very best table at the cool spots that everybody is fighting to get into once it gets dark out.

CEO of a bailed-out, TARP, or Chapter 11 corporation

Just listen to what the guys in Washington are telling you to do, and you'll do fine for a while. Try not to snore during conference calls.

* Job description: Must be willing to sit quietly in one's office and wait for instructions from Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Geithner, Mr. Bernanke, Ms. Clinton, Mr. Wieselfreund (who runs the commissary), or if you're really in trouble, Paul Krugman.
* Qualifications: Must have run a prior iteration of some large corporation into the ground.
* Compensation: $1 per year, but all you can eat in snacks.

Former Vice President of the United States

He's the poster child of all retired working people, and of anybody who might have felt that once they left their former employment they would be marginalized. Heck, he's in everybody's face!

* Job description: Get out there and defend!
* Qualifications: Must be ill-tempered and willing to go to the opening of an envelope.
* Compensation: Unclear. But there may be a book in it somewhere.

Matthew B. Crawford, 06.17.09, 04:55 PM EDT
The skilled trades--carpenters, electricians, plumbers--can't be outsourced to China, and the work can be deeply satisfying.


When I graduated from college with a degree in physics, I moved to Los Angeles to look for work in the aerospace industry. But I got no response to the many résumés I sent out. My time in college began to seem less like an investment and more like a form of consumption--an expenditure of four years and a fair bit of money with no clear economic rationale (though it certainly had other attractions).

My savings depleted, I found myself going around the parking lot of a home improvement store, putting fliers on the windshields of cars to advertise my services as an electrician: "unlicensed but careful." This was work I had done throughout high school and college. The flayers generated immediate response; there was clearly more demand for my services as an unlicensed electrician than as a credentialed physicist. Further, I always took pleasure in the moment, at the end of a job, when I would flip the switch and see the lights come on.

These days, most people are grateful to have any job. But since the economy is currently getting reshuffled, this is also a good time to reconsider some basic assumptions about what a good job looks like. In the last 30 years, we have learned that manufacturing jobs are insecure in a global economy because anything that can be put on a container ship will be made wherever labor is cheapest.

In the last 10 years, a similar logic has emerged for the products of intellectual labor that can be delivered over a wire, as Princeton economist Alan Blinder has pointed out. Accountants, editors and architects in the U.S. find themselves competing with educated, English-speaking people in other countries. But some services can be performed only on-site. The Indians can't fix our cars--they are in India. Nor can the Chinese build you a new deck.

The work of electricians, plumbers and auto mechanics cannot be outsourced. That is reason enough for a young person to consider going into the trades. But let's take a broader view of the matter and consider also the possibility for real satisfaction, which may or may not be present in the work we do. Human beings seem to be built in such a way that we want to see a direct effect of our actions in the world and feel that these actions are genuinely our own.

Consider the striking fact that when Henry Ford introduced the assembly line in 1913, most workers simply walked out. His biographer, Keith Sward, wrote, "So great was labor's distaste for the new machine system that toward the close of 1913 every time the company wanted to add 100 men to its factory personnel, it was necessary to hire 963."

Obviously, the men who walked out had other options. Early on, the automotive industry had recruited people from carriage shops and bicycle shops--all-around mechanics who took pride in their skill and knowledge. To merely pull the same lever over and over on an assembly line was stultifying, and insulting too. Eventually Ford raised wages enough to keep the line staffed, and people got used to it.

This story has a parallel in our own time. White-collar work too gets routinized and dumbed-down. This fact often gets obscured by the fact that you may need an academic credential to get the job. I went to graduate school in the early 1990s and loved every minute of it. With my new master's degree, I landed a job as an "indexer and abstractor." I was to write brief summaries of articles in scientific and other academic journals.

It sounded really challenging. But my quota, after 11 months on the job, was 28 articles per day. The only way to meet the quota was to stop thinking, and in fact I was given rules for writing these summaries that were based on the supposition that it could be done in a routinized, unthinking way. The job paid $23,000 a year. I never did get used to it.

As far back as 1942, Joseph Schumpeter wrote that the expansion of higher education beyond labor-market demand creates for white collar workers "employment in substandard work or at wages below those of the better-paid manual workers." What's more, "it may create unemployability of a particularly disconcerting type. The man who has gone through college or university easily becomes psychically unemployable in manual occupations without necessarily acquiring employability in, say, professional work."

The current glut of college graduates, many of them with heavy debt loads, may need to overcome this problem of being "psychically" (not physically) unemployable in manual occupations, a disability acquired from sitting in classrooms from age 5 to age 22. I am happy to report that it is possible. After getting a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, followed by another prestigious-sounding but soul-killing job at a think tank, I opened a motorcycle repair shop.

Motorcycles are made on assembly lines, but the work of fixing them isn't too far removed from what those craftsmen in the bicycle and carriage shops were doing. There's a lot of thinking involved, and it is always my own thinking. In fact, the work of diagnosing mechanical problems is often more intellectually challenging than my think tank job was. "Motorcycle mechanic" is a less prestigious answer to give at a cocktail party when someone asks what I do, but in saying it, I feel more genuine pride.

Entrepreneurship in the trades carries certain hazards. It helps to have a spouse with health insurance and a steady paycheck. All around, it's a mixed bag. But so is the white-collar job market. The most compelling reason to consider the trades is that there is a basic human satisfaction to be had from taking a tool in hand, and seeing a direct effect of your actions in the world.

Matthew B. Crawford is the author of Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.

Ten Autos That Will Sap Your Wallet -- and 10 That Won't
By COURTNEY PANNELL
Forbes.com
June 14, 2009

From seeking greater fuel efficiency to carpooling, some American drivers are looking for ways to save on ownership costs.

But one thing most can't do without is car insurance. Each of the nation's 50 states has laws that require drivers purchase liability insurance or provide enough "proof of financial responsibility" to cover a claim in case of an accident.

Premiums are dropping; the average in May was at its lowest point in a year at $1,871 per car, down from the national average of $1,982 in October, according to Insurance.com's RateWatch, a Web site that tracks annual average insurance rates. But they continue, for most, to be a major outlay. Still, consumers worried about the bottom line have options.

The 185-horsepower, 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe costs an average of $832 a year to insure, the lowest of a list of just under 300 2009 models surveyed. The Saturn Vue costs an average of $911 a year to insure, and a Kia Sedona can be covered for an annual cost of $857.

Owners of luxury autos such as the BMW M5, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and the Porsche 911 pay for that kind of prestige--$2,020, $2,088 and $1,819, respectively. But those who drive the $80,790 Nissan GT-R, the 2009 Motor Trend Car of the Year, pay an average $2,533 a year. The sports car's super-charged 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged 24-valve V6 engine helped it to the top of the list.

Behind the Numbers

Our numbers come from Insure.com, an online information clearinghouse for consumers. The company calculated nationwide average car insurance premiums for almost 300 2009 model-year vehicles. Averages are based on a 40-year-old male driver who commutes 12 miles to work. This driver has policy limits of $100,000 for injury liability for one person; $300,000 for all injuries and $50,000 for property damage in an accident; and a $500 deductible on collision and comprehensive. This policy also includes uninsured motorist coverage. Rates were averaged across multiple ZIP codes and insurance companies.

Of course, a car's value will jack up a driver's outlay, as will the driving record of the person behind the wheel, says Jack Nerad, executive editorial director and market analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

Other factors can play a part too, such as potential loss. For example, the Hummer H2 was the eighth-most stolen car in America, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which determined its list by claims per 1,000 divided by average loss payment per claim; it is also eighth-most expensive vehicle to insure on our list.

A consumer's ability to compare is another factor. Shoppers may be most familiar with big companies with representatives located nationwide. Comparing the rates at these brand names with those found online and at independent agencies will yield the best deals. Make sure to compare limits and features side by side.

Driver stereotypes also play a role. Expensive, high-performance autos often attract "riskier" drivers, says Nerad, and such vehicles are more expensive to fix or replace when involved in accidents. Likewise, autos like sports cars that are popular with younger drivers usually have a higher premium since younger drivers are considered riskier drivers.

Larger vehicles like SUVs and minivans are more likely to be family vehicles driven by mothers, who are historically less dangerous drivers. With lower risk comes lower loss potential, and thus a lower premium. Eight of the top 10 least expensive vehicles to insure are either minivans or SUVs.

But even those with a need for speed are likely to see premiums drop slightly. And, along with premiums, insurance rates have fallen after an increase last year of 8%. Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah and Idaho experienced the largest rate decreases in May, from 9% in Wyoming to 5.5% in Idaho.

As insurers compete for increasingly discerning consumers, expect this downward trend to continue for the rest of this year.

This guide will provide you with an overview of how to determine what business suits you, what you can afford, and how to perform due diligence on the business.

By: Darren Dahl


Amidst all the bad economic news these days, there is a silver lining: It might be the perfect time to buy a business -- for the right buyer, that is. The volume of businesses sold is reportedly way down for the year, more than 70 percent according to some business brokers, which is more of a result of the tightening of the credit markets than a dearth of opportunities. In fact, organizations that track the industry like the International Business Brokers Association, which represents the nation's 1,950 business brokers, as well as online markets like BizQuest.com and USABizMart.com, which post business-for-sale opportunities, report that the listing volume is steady or up compared to past years.

In many ways, the market for businesses is running in parallel with the housing market: supply currently exceeds demand. When you add together the dearth of motivated and financially qualified buyers with an ample supply of businesses for sale, you wind up with a buyer's market; the first many brokers say they've seen in decades. That means that those buyers that can go knocking on doors with cash in hand, or at least with a solid credit score, will find they have far more power to negotiate the terms of buying the business of their dreams. At the same time, given the number of companies struggling through the tough economy, buyers have to be more careful than ever about making sure they don't get stuck buying a lemon.

So where do you get started? The first step you need to take if you want to buy a business is to find a business you want to buy. This guide will provide you with an overview of how to determine what business suits you, what you can afford, and how to perform due diligence on the business.

Searching for a Business Opportunity

1. Determine Your Commitment
When it comes to buying a business, the window shoppers seem to outnumber the serious players, says Larry Greene, managing partner of Business Team, a brokerage in Newport Beach, California. "I get calls from the same guy every few months asking me about my new listings," he says. "He's been doing that for six years." While there's nothing wrong with having some fun by shopping around, finding your dream business will require an organized search in which you can narrow your focus on those businesses that both fit your skill set and your financial requirements -- both how much you can spend as well as how much income you can expect to bring home.

2. Establish What You Can Afford
Brokers say that most people go about looking for a business backwards by looking at some "magic" income numbers such as the same salary they made from their last corporate job, rather than looking first for an industry where their skills could translate. While few would begrudge the investment banker who dreams of buying a restaurant or a bed and breakfast, the truth is that he or she probably couldn't land the necessary financing to fund such a radical career switch. That's why it's important to you're your finances into account. Here's a quick checklist to help you determine what you can afford:

* What kind of down payment can you afford to make? With an SBA loan, you will likely be required to foot at least 20 percent of the total purchase price up front.
* Do you have the kind of good credit, typically a FICO score of more than 700, which would enable you to secure financing from a bank or other lending institution?
* What kinds of collateral, such as equity in your home, can you bring to the table?
* Do you have access to any other sources of income?

3. Figure Out What Skills You Have
Before you even begin searching for a potential business, you should narrow your choices by asking yourself some of the tough questions up front that will help get your search off on the right foot, says Larry Martin, head of Benbrook Business Services in Chester, New Jersey. Begin by looking at your own qualifications. Ask yourself the following questions:

* What skills do you have that would translate best to owning a business? For instance, do you feel comfortable selling?
* Is there a particular business sector like retail, service or manufacturing that matches up well with your skills?
* Are there any specific qualifications like a professional license that you would need before acquiring a particular business?
* Do you want to manage employees or would you rather run the company yourself or with your spouse/partner?

4. Consider Lifestyle Impact
Todd Gilson spent three years looking for a business before he finally bought Accent Purchasing Solutions, a printing shop located in Fort Collins, Colorado, in early 2008. In addition to looking for a business that would benefit from his 12 years working in marketing, Gilson says he and his wife (who has a job outside the business) used three main filters in narrowing down their choice: what they could afford, what the business would earn, and whether it was within 60 miles of their home. It's crucial to consider the impact that buying a certain business would have on your lifestyle, such as what type of hours you are willing to work, whether you're willing to relocate for a business opportunity, and whether your spouse would be willing to be part of the business and/or use your home as collateral in a deal. Using a network of brokers and e-mail alerts he set up on sites like BizBuySell.com, Gilson says he finally found a business that met all his criteria: the shop earns about $2.5 million in annual revenue with good cash flow and is located just a few minutes from home. "So far it's the best thing I've ever done in my life," he says. "But I still lose sleep over the debt."

Narrowing the Search

Once you have lined up your support team and done your homework on your financing options, it's time to begin drilling down into specific businesses you have interest in. This is the point where you research needs to move from the phone and computer and into the four walls of your new potential business. But this is also where many breakdowns begin. Many buyers approach sellers fully expecting to get every proprietary detail of the business up front like detailed tax returns and customer lists, "but that's simply not going to happen," says Peter Berg, of Transworld Business Brokers in Florida. Consider that most sellers will be approached multiple times by potential buyers, so understanding that you won't be able to get every piece of information about the business up front is something you'll need to be comfortable with, at least for a while.

1. Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement
The first step then, is to agree to sign a standard non-disclosure agreement and then schedule a meeting with the seller. At that point, you'll also get access to other cursory, though more detailed information on the business such as a pro forma financial statement that shows the kind of cash flow the business has generated for the owner over a certain time period, including any benefits and perks paid directly to the owner – a figure known as the seller's discretionary cash flow. Larger businesses might even share audited financial statements, which would highlight the business's EBITDA. (See Sidebar for a more detail look at the difference between SDCF and EBITDA).

2. Meet with the Seller
This is also where you should schedule a phone call and an actual site visit with the seller. A mistake buyers make at this stage, at least, is ignoring the fact that the seller likely hasn't told his or her employees that he or she has put the business up for sale, Berg says. That means the buyer needs to be somewhat flexible in communicating with the seller – such as by willing to talk or visit after normal business hours or on weekends to avoid creating tension in the workplace.

3. Be Prepared with Questions
When you do get your audience with the seller, it's your chance to begin crossing out the inaccuracies you might find between what you found in the listing and what you see with your own eyes, such as the condition of the building or the amount of inventory in the warehouse. "This is where you start to follow your instinct and to see if something smells wrong to you," Berg says. This is also where you can start asking seller the kinds of questions that will help you either get excited or cold feet about buying the business. The goal, again, is to try and get a feel for the business beyond what any numbers might tell you by asking questions of the seller like:

* Why are you selling?
* How has the business been coping with the down economy?
* What part of the business drives the largest part of revenues?
* Who are you customers? Do any of them make up more than 10 percent of revenues?
* What keeps you up at night about the business?
* How much vacation do you take each year?
* How much salary do you take home?
* What's kept you from expanding the business?
* Would you be willing to stay on as a consultant to the business?

After learning what you can from the seller, it's time to ask yourself, "Is this a job I could have fun in?" and, "Is this the kind of business I can really grow?" Trusting your gut might lead you to walk away -- or even plunge ahead.

The Difference between Income and Cash Flow

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) is the figure that offers a fairly reliable estimate of the kind of cash a business generates to pay down debt, pay taxes and offer a return to investors.

Sellers' Discretionary Income (SDI) or Seller's Discretionary Cash Flow (SDCF), on the other hand, is a figure used more often in smaller businesses because it accounts for the salary that the company's owner pays himself, along with any other benefits or perks like a company car or life insurance policy.

In other words, SDCF = EBITDA + owner's salary + perks & benefits.
Inc.Com

Advice From 'Good Morning America' Financial Pro Mellody Hobson on Which Bank Account Gives You the Most Bang for Your Buck


By ALICE GOMSTYN
June 11, 2009

As the economy and the stock market continue to churn stomachs across the country, more and more Americans look to simple bank accounts for a safe place to park their cash. This year, the personal savings rate has risen to 5.7 percent, the highest since February 1995.

So which account is right for you? Here's what "Good Morning America" financial contributor Mellody Hobson, the president of the money-management firm Ariel Investments, had to say about the matter.

Comparison Shopping

Hobson says you should head to the Internet to find a bank that will give you the highest interest rate on your savings. Web sites like Bankrate.com report national and local rates for all types of bank accounts.

But, she said, it's also important to note that sometimes banks pay a fee to be listed on comparison sites, so it's in your best interest to investigate multiple sites when trying to find the best possible rate. Don't, however, base your decision only on rates. The fees, restrictions and minimum balances required by each account should also factor into your decision.

Generally, you'll find that Internet banks offer higher rates than traditional banks because they do not have support all the costs that go into running a brick-and-mortar bank.

Make sure that whatever bank you choose is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC insures accounts up to $250,000 per person. For more information, check out www.myfdicinsurance.gov.

The Highest Yield: CDs

Certificates of deposit, or CDs, will give you the best interest rate, but they also require that you keep your money there for a set period of time. The duration of a CD is determined by your bank, but they usually range from three months to five years.

The longer the CD's duration, the more interest you will earn. Right now, a six-month CD currently averages about 1.58 percent, while a one-year CD averages 2.10 percent and a five-year CD averages 3.10 percent. You can, however get better rates. Ascencia Bank, an Internet bank, is offering a six-month CD with a rate of 2.03 percent, and a 4 out of 5 star rating from Bankrate.com on its scale of "safe and sound" banks.

Ally Bank, the online banking arm of GMAC Financial Services, has a one-year CD with a rate of 2.49 percent, with no minimum deposit and a 3 out of 5 star rating at Bankrate.com, which means it's at least as safe as the average bank.

Savings Accounts

The national average for savings and money market accounts is about 1.33 percent right now. Both accounts are very similar, but you can't write checks from a savings account, and the number of transactions you make in a money market per month is usually limited.

Right now, the best interest rate on a high-quality savings account is at iGObanking.com at 2.02 percent. The bank doesn't require a minimum account balance, and you only need $1 to open the account, and it has a 4-star rating from Bankrate.com.

For money market accounts, Zions Bank has a very good 1.92 percent rate and a 3-star rating from Bankrate.

Checking Accounts

Checking accounts are convenient, but that convenience comes at a price. Their interest rates are markedly lower than rates on other types of accounts.

"Just know that you're never going to make a lot of money on a checking account," Hobson said.

The average checking account currently yield 0.71 percent. You can get a higher rate at Salem Five Bank, which offers 1.4 percent interest. Charles Schwab Bank, meanwhile, pays 0.75 percent, which is close to average, but what it lacks in interest it more than makes up for in benefits, Hobson said: The Schwab account has no ATM fees nor any account minimums and it's a very trusted brand.

Christina Couch
Bankrate.com

In addition to receiving housing information and their class schedules, students heading back to campus this fall should look out for one more crucial piece of mail this summer.

Beginning July 1, the majority of families who hold federal Stafford, Grad PLUS or Parent PLUS loans will receive notices that their loans have been bought by the Department of Education, says Sam Nelson, director of client relations for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

"To help lenders stay in the student loan market, the federal government is buying on the secondary market and servicing the loans themselves," says Nelson. "Six out of every 10 student loan dollars are now made with federal money instead of with private capital."

Although the change is no cause for alarm, students should be aware that the switch in loan servicers could affect certain borrower incentives and will affect where payments should be sent. Here's what to do if the federal government scoops up your student loan.

Consider your incentives
"Having your student loan purchased by the Department of Education doesn't really change much for the student borrower," says Jason Delisle, director of the federal education budget project at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington, D.C. "The terms and conditions of the loan are already spelled out by the federal government. They won't change at all. The only thing that changes is who's servicing the loan."

Delisle adds that while interest rates, loan limits, fees, repayment conditions and default options will stay the same for new loans and old ones currently in repayment, borrowers who took out student loans before the Department of Education started purchasing them in 2007 could lose certain borrower incentives.

"Before 2007, when the Department of Education started buying loans under ECASLA (Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act), lenders offered certain discounts. For example, you might get a fee waiver before you start payments, or you might get 2 percent off of your remaining principal after making two years of consecutive payments," says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the financial aid Web site Finaid.org. "When ECASLA took effect, lenders who wanted their loans to be purchased by the Department of Education had to stop offering almost all of those incentives."

Most large student lenders -- including Wachovia, JPMorgan Chase, KeyBank, Edamerica and the National Education Loan Network, or Nelnet -- switched to the ECASLA program and dropped all borrower incentives except one: ECASLA gives borrowers who set up automatic payments on their accounts a 0.25 percent interest rate reduction.

A few lenders, such as Wells Fargo, service loans outside the ECASLA program and still offer a broad range of incentives. Although students who took out loans before 2007 with lenders who switched to ECASLA have already lost their incentives, those who have stuck with non-ECASLA lenders could lose their current incentives if they consolidate non-ECASLA loans with those sold to the Department of Education.

"That means that if you received any front-end discounts, like a cash principal reduction after you graduated, you could get a letter saying, 'Please pay that back,'" says Kantrowitz. "It may be worthwhile to keep a loan out of consolidation just to keep the discounts."

To figure out if consolidation will mean losing lucrative benefits, Kantrowitz recommends that students considering consolidation ask their lenders about benefit loss before combining loans.

Stay in contact
On top of consolidation woes, a change in loan servicers could also affect where and when students should send in payments.

"The biggest thing borrowers need to know if their loan is sold is that they may need to send payments to a different address and to notify the new servicer if they move," says Nelson. "One of the easiest ways that students end up in default is that the mail never gets to them because the student never tells them where they're moving. If a borrower wants to be proactive, stay on top of that issue."

Sending payments to a different address is no big deal for borrowers whose loans were all bought by the Department of Education. However, borrowers who hold multiple loans, some dating prior to 2007, may find that some of their loans have been bought under ECASLA and others haven't. In that case, students may need to send payments to two different loan-servicing agencies.

To ensure that they're on top of payments, students should contact their lenders as soon as possible to verify where to send payments and to which servicers, especially if multiple lenders are involved, says Frank Gittens, CEO and co-founder of Advance Your Institution, a Goodyear, Ariz., company that provides liquidity for school-sponsored student loans.

"If I have a Bank of America loan from last year and a Citibank from this year and both entities are selling to the Department (of Education), I would call and ask, 'How is that going to get reconciled when it comes to paying back my loans?'" says Gittens. "Are they going to combine payments? If not, I'd think about consolidating those loans. When you graduate, you're not going to want several different bills to pay."

Students can bypass the change-of-address problem and save a little on interest by enrolling in an automatic payment system that directly withdraws from a bank account each month. Students and parents can also pay loans online at www.dl.ed.gov.

Employers Have a Hard Time Filling Jobs for Engineers and Nurses

ByTARA WEISS
Forbes.com
June 6, 2009

For the second year in a row, engineer is the hardest job to fill in America. Why are engineers so hard to find? "We have whole generations of people loving liberal arts, not going into science and math," says Larry Jacobson, executive director of the National Society of Professional Engineers.

Other professions on the staffing firm Manpower's list of the 10 hardest jobs to fill in the U.S.: information technology staffer, nurse, machinist and teacher. The survey of 2,019 employers was done in the first quarter of 2009.

It might be hard to believe that any employer is struggling to fill positions, since the unemployment rate reached 8.9% in April, up from 5% a year before. But the Manpower survey found that employers are having a very hard time filling jobs for skilled workers in specific niches. "The overall unemployment rate is a killer," says Jonas Prising, Manpower's president for the Americas. "To see something better, you have to look at specific jobs."

It is definitely an employers' market, broadly speaking. In 2006, 44% of U.S. employers surveyed reported having a hard time filling jobs; this year, only 19% did. Still, Jacobson anticipates a shortage of engineers into the foreseeable future.

There are several reasons. First, the federal stimulus program is hastening the rebuilding of America's highways, bridges and tunnels, and the refitting of buildings to be more sustainable, which is making the demand for engineers soar. Also, the demand for new sustainable energy sources such as wind farms is increasing too. Meanwhile, the profession's most experienced workers are retiring in droves.

"Companies are looking to replace more than half of their engineers over the next eight years, because baby boomers are retiring," Jacobson says. "When you have 80,000 engineers working for you, as Lockheed Martin does, that's a lot of jobs." He says that even if every single seat in the nation's engineering schools is filled, that's only 75,000 engineers being trained annually.

That won't come close to making up the shortage. Engineering is a field that requires years of experience before you take on major responsibility. It's one thing to learn the theory of building a bridge or a tunnel in school, but it's quite another to have decades of work at it behind you. Also, any government-funded project--including ones resulting from the stimulus package--requires an engineer to have passed the test to get a professional engineering license. Only one in 10 engineers has that advanced-level document, Jacobson says.

Those who do become engineers find they're in a lucrative field that doesn't require as much schooling as say, being a doctor or a lawyer. Beginning engineers need only an undergraduate diploma. Salaries vary based on specialty and degree. The average starting salary for a civil engineer with a bachelor's in 2007, the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was $48,509; for environmental engineers, it was $47,960; for petroleum engineers, $60,718; and mechanical engineers, $54,128. Those who attend one of the top engineering schools--Princeton, Stanford or Caltech--are likely to get at least six job offers when they leave school.

Of course, you have to be a stellar math and science student. To get admitted to a top-tier school, you need to take pre-calculus by your junior year in high school--not an easy feat for most teenagers.

The next profession on the list, nursing, also requires an interest in math and science. But that isn't why there's a shortage of nurses. The demand for them is higher than ever because the aging American population needs more and more health care, and advances in medicine are enabling nurses' patients to survive and need treatment longer, while many nurses are reaching retirement age.

Exacerbating the shortage is a lack of educators able to train the next generation. Karen L. Miller, dean of the nursing school at the University of Kansas Medical Center, laments, "If there aren't enough teachers, we can't make more graduates."

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