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UNIGO - Find Over 3.6M Scholarships & Grants - Unigo.com

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Find Over 3.6M Scholarships & Grants - Unigo.com

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Finding the right school shouldn't be hard. From K‑12 to college to grad school, we make it easy to discover and connect with the best ones for you.

No application. No waiting.

With Direct Admissions, colleges can accept you based on the information in your Niche Profile.

We give you all of the data, reviews, and insights in one place to make your search as easy as possible.

No Heavy Lifting

We analyze the data so you don't have to.

The Good, The Bad, & The Honest

Our user reviews let you hear directly from families and students to give you an honest and holistic view.

Like A Glove

We personalize your search based on what's most important to you.

Niche has helped millions of students and families find their fit.

During my college search, I was having a difficult time narrowing down what I wanted in a school, so I used Niche to help. I especially liked looking at the rankings for different aspects of the college experience, like the campus, academics, and much more!

I am so grateful for Niche and their resources. Schooling children at home has truly had its challenges. But having resources has made it so much easier. Finding the right programs for my little ones has been invaluable.

When I was applying to college, I had no idea what I was looking for. Niche helped me explore different schools and see breakdowns on many aspects of their programs! Thanks to Niche, I found a school that was a perfect fit!

We'll help you build your list, track your progress and get new recommendations as your search narrows.

With the information you care about on every school in America, we make it easy for you to compare schools and colleges to make your decision.

We combine the reviews and the data to put together these comprehensive lists to get you started.

Are you a college or K-12 school representative? Learn more about how you can partner with Niche to connect with students and families throughout the school search process.

Tell us what matters most to you and we'll create a custom list of schools tailored to fit your needs.

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Finding the right school shouldn't be hard. From K-12 to college to grad school, we make it easy to discover and connect with the best ones for you.

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Different places are more affordable than others. How much will you need to earn to make a living in different cities?

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One of most important determinations you need to make before moving to a new city or town is how much it will cost to live there. "Cost of living" is the amount of money you need to sustain a certain lifestyle in a given place.

Because the price of goods and services varies from one city to the next, calculating the cost of living will determine how affordable it is to live in a certain area. The expenses that factor into cost of living can include housing affordability, transportation expenses, food prices and entertainment costs. Cost of living is also tied to income, as salary levels in a geographic area are measured against these expenses.

Housing costs: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest bill consumers pay each month is for housing. Whether that's a mortgage or rent, a large percentage of your salary will go toward your housing expenses each month. Home prices, property taxes and monthly rents vary from state to state, city to city, town to town and even neighborhood to neighborhood.
For homeowners, there are more expenses to consider than just the monthly mortgage payment. There's also maintenance, upgrades, taxes and fees to take into account when deciding where to live.

Transportation: Unless you're lucky enough to work from home, you will need to factor in transportation costs when deciding where to live. According to the BLS, transportation is the second-largest expense consumers have.
For some, these costs include taking public transportation. For others, it involves driving your car, and that means factoring in car repairs, gas, tolls and parking. Proximity to employment is an important consideration because it can drastically impact your cost of living.

Food: Weekly trips to the grocery store can add up, especially if food costs are high where you live. According to the latest BLS data, consumers average over $7,000 per year on food expenses. There are ways to trim that down. You could eat out less, cut back on takeout and cook more often. But even then, the price of groceries is going to significantly influence your cost of living.

Entertainment: A movie ticket, a pint of beer, box seats at a baseball game - they can all come with a different price tag depending upon where you live. And it adds up. Americans spend nearly the same amount each year on entertainment as they do on health insurance, according to the BLS. Just like with food costs, you can curb how much you spend on entertainment by altering your behavior.

A cost of living index allows you to directly compare what it costs to live in one area against another, helping you understand how far your money can go in each place. For example, the cost of living in San Francisco is twice that of Boise, Idaho. Whether you use a cost of living index or a cost of living calculator, each will help you feel more confident in deciding where to live.

NerdWallet's cost of living calculator is powered by data from The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). According to the council, "C2ER produces the Cost of Living Index to provide a useful and reasonably accurate measure of living cost differences among urban areas. Items on which the index is based have been carefully chosen to reflect the different categories of consumer expenditures."

C2ER was founded in 1961, and continues to exist today as a nonprofit organization, "comprising research staff of chambers of commerce, economic development organizations and agencies, and related organizations throughout the United States." C2ER has published its quarterly Cost of Living Index since 1968. It is comprised of "nearly 100,000 data points gathered primarily by C2ER members located in 400 cities."

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Cost of Living Calculator | NerdWallet - City and Salary Comparison Tool

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Moving to a new city? See how far your salary will go to maintain your standard of living using our Cost of Living Calculator. We offer you not only costs and income, but also information on schools, quality of life and demographics.

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Lots of ideas on how to get through college debt free.

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I listen to this guy.  You can get this podcast on itunes, spotify or other podcast apps.  He also has a youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/DaveRamseyShow

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Listen or watch recent episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show for FREE, on demand! Dave Ramsey shows you how to get out of debt and effectively manage your money.

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Another Perspective on how to retire wealthy

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Another Perspective on how to retire wealthy

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Rich Dad/ Poor Dad author's ideas

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Rich Dad | Financial Education & Coaching for Everyone

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Why savers are losers and spenders are winners in the modern economy

When it comes to getting rich, so-called experts are full of advice on how to save your way there. There's no shortage of articles about couples who saved their way to $1 million or "expert" tips on how to save more money.

And these articles are true. You can save more money following their advice. But you have to consider the cost. Because the saver mindset is a very different and dangerous mindset about money than how the rich think about money.

All you need is a million?

Take for instance the couple, Carl and Mindy, who saved $1 million on four years. Their instincts were right.

"I was having this horrific day at work," 42-year-old computer programmer Carl told Farnoosh Torabi on an episode of her podcast. "I was 38 at the time, and I'm like, 'There's no way I can do this until I'mr 62 or 65 or whatever age people normally retire at."

Many people feel trapped in their jobs but do nothing about it. Congrats to them for taking action. But in the end, it is still the action of a poor-person mindset about money.

The couple started by analyzing their spending habits. "My wife and I wrote all of our expenses in a book," Carl explains on their blog. "Every time we returned from shopping or paid a bill, we logged it."

Based on their logs, they determined they could live on $24,000 a year. To be safe, they added a $6,000 cushion and bumped that estimate up to $30,000 a year.

To get there, they decided they needed $1 million saved up to retire by age 42. To achieve this, they did the standard saver playbook: they downsized and cut expenses, while working side jobs and investing in their personal residence and the stock market.

Not a future proof-retirement

While it is great for Carl and Mindy to retire today-and having $1 million in the bank is certainly better than most-their retirement plan is not future proof in my mind.

They use what is called the 4% rule, assuming if they take out 4% of their retirement money per year, they won't run out.

Perhaps this makes sense for them now in their 40s while they are relatively young. But what will happen when they get older and require more medical attention? Or what if their property taxes go up significantly over the next twenty years? Or what if inflation continues to grow over the next forty to fifty years at 2% a year? Or what if they get tired of living so frugally after all?

Without significant income, they won't be able to stay afloat. They may enjoy life at $30,000 a year right now, but it will not be sustainable for their entire retirement.

The conventional advice is all about saving

This is not Carl or Mindy's fault. They were raised in a world that teaches them that saving is the best way to be rich.

Take for instance Mic's " 30 easy money hacks to get a little richer every single day this month ". They include things like:

Shop generic

Check for Health Savings Account eligibility

Review your 401(k) fees

Grow your own herbs

Transfer $10 a week to an IRA

Buy a slow cooker (on sale no less)

Use cloth napkins

Of the entire list of 30 ideas to get rich, only one has to do with generating income. The rest are all ways to do exactly what Carl and Mindy did: downsize and cut expenses.

Your mindset about money counts

As a kid, my poor dad, my natural father, had this same mindset. Whenever we wanted something in life, he would say, "We can't afford that." Perhaps your parents said something similar like, "Money doesn't grow on trees!"

My rich dad, my best friend's father, asked a very different question. He would ask, "How can I afford that?"

The difference between my poor dad and my rich dad's mindset about money was fundamentally one of saving versus earning.

My poor dad always looked to be saving money and cutting expenses. My rich dad always looked to be making money and investing in both his wealth and his quality of life.

Now, which person do you think lived a happier, fuller life? Unfortunately, it was my rich dad. I say unfortunately because it was very hard to watch my poor dad later in life when he had no money, struggled financially, and was very bitter. He worked hard his whole life, but his mindset about money did not serve him well in the end.

Savers are losers; spenders are winners

All of this goes to show that the Rich Dad mantra of " savers are losers" is a vital thing to understand if you want to be truly rich. After all in world where Brexit can happen and global currency markets can wipe out $380,000 of a tennis star's prize money in a day or two, or where the President can say the dollar is too strong and push it's worth down half a percent in a day, putting your faith in how many greenbacks you have saved versus how many you can make...makes no sense.

In today's financial world, spenders are winners and savers are still losers. Of course, by spenders, I mean those who use their money to build their business or invest in cash flowing assets. And to spend wisely this way, you need financial intelligence that goes beyond just downsizing and cutting expenses. You need to understand how to create wealth, and in your own way, actually make money grow on trees.

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When it comes to getting rich, so-called experts are full of advice on how to save your way there. There's no shortage of articles about couples who saved their way to $1 million or "expert" tips on how to save more money. And these articles are true.

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An article about how to prepare financially for the future.

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Investing & Retirement

As you approach adulthood and start to think about your future, are you ready to be financially responsible for yourself? If you answered yes, congratulations-you're ahead of the game! But if you answered no, don't worry-there's still plenty of time to set yourself up for success.

Whether you've never stepped foot in a bank or you are actively saving and investing for your future, all it takes is a little effort and a lot of patience to become confident in your financial decisions.

A Millionaire's Best Friend

One awesome thing you can take advantage of is compound interest. It may sound like an intimidating term, but it won't be once you know what it means. Here's a little secret: Compound interest is a millionaire's best friend. It's really free money. Seriously. But don't take our word for it. Just check out this story of Ben and Arthur from our Foundations curriculum to understand the power of compound interest.

Ben and Arthur were friends who grew up together. They both knew they needed to start thinking about the future. At age 19, Ben decided to invest $2,000 every year for eight years. He picked investment funds that averaged a 12% interest rate. Then, at age 26, Ben stopped putting money into his investments. So he put a total of $16,000 into his investment funds.

Now Arthur didn't start investing until age 27. Just like Ben, he put $2,000 into his investment funds every year until he turned 65. He got the same 12% interest rate as Ben, but he invested for 31 more years than Ben did. So Arthur invested a total of $78,000 over 39 years.

When both Ben and Arthur turned 65, they decided to compare their investment accounts. Who do you think had more? Ben, with his total of $16,000 invested over eight years, or Arthur, who invested $78,000 over 39 years?

Believe it or not, Ben came out ahead . . . $700,000 ahead! Arthur had a total of $1,532,166 while Ben had a total of $2,288,996. How did he do it? Starting early is the key. He put in less money but started eight years earlier. That's compound interest for you! It turns $16,000 into almost $2.3 million! Since Ben invested earlier, the interest kicked in sooner.

What You Can Do Now

The trick is to start as soon as possible. Talk to your parents or teachers about how to open a long-term investment account so you can become a millionaire, too. And remember, waiting just means you make less money in the end. So get moving!

Start your college journey off right with The Graduate Survival Guide! You'll learn about common mistakes college students make, including student loans, credit cards and more. Order your copy today!

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Investing & Retirement As you approach adulthood and start to think about your future, are you ready to be financially responsible for yourself? If you answered yes, congratulations-you're ahead of the game! But if you answered no, don't worry-there's still plenty of time to set yourself up for success.

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The church's manual for a 12 week course on personal finances. IT IS AWESOME!

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For those who want better control over their finances. Group members will learn how to eliminate debt, protect against financial hardship, and invest in the future. They will create a financial plan and follow a budget. Spouses are encouraged to attend together. This workbook includes the booklet My Foundation for Self-Reliance.

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For those who want better control over their finances. Group members will learn how to eliminate debt, protect against financial hardship, and invest in the future. They will create a financial plan and follow a budget. Spouses are encouraged to attend together. This workbook includes the booklet My Foundation for Self-Reliance.

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How much money will you need in order to live the lifestyle you want after you graduate from college or finish job training?

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Fill in the choices on the next page to see if you can afford your dream life. You might be surprised at how much that life will cost. While local salaries, wages and lifestyle costs will vary throughout the United States, the internal data used in this calculator are national averages. The results will indicate a ballpark relationship between your expenses and the income you will need to support your dream lifestyle.

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Jump$tart's Reality Check - Jump$tart Coalition

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Fill in the choices on the next page to see if you can afford your dream life. You might be surprised at how much that life will cost. While local salaries, [...]

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This one takes longer, but it is more effective in helping you control your budget.

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Connect your bank for faster expense tracking and easier budgeting with EveryDollar Plus

Get transactions directly from your bank, see your account balances, and know exactly how much you're spending.

Start your free trial when you sign up.

Get Started

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Connect your bank for faster expense tracking and easier budgeting with EveryDollar Plus Get transactions directly from your bank, see your account balances, and know exactly how much you're spending. Start your free trial when you sign up. Get Started

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Budgeting App with links to your bank accounts

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Budgeting App with links to your bank accounts

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Keep tabs on your
money in one place.

Link your accounts from more than 17,000
financial institutions and view your connected
transactions across them in
one place.

Track your monthly spending and more.

Review your transactions, track your spending by category and receive monthly insights that help you better understand your money habits.

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Budget Tracker & Planner | Free Online Money Management | Mint

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Take charge of your finances with Mint's online budget planner. Our free budget tracker helps you understand your spending for a brighter financial future.