I volunteer from time to time at an organization that is there to help college students talk about their problems and get a different point of view.  I recently talked to a student (I won’t mention names) that had some problems in school.  He happily shared his journey with me and I thought I would share it with you, to inspire you and teach you to never give up.

"I was always smart as a child and always received good grades in school.  I never would have guesses that, as an adult, I would be diagnosed with a learning disability.

The first symptoms of dyslexia that I had came to me a teenager.  At this point, words were not the problem, but numbers were.  I could not, for the life of me, manage to get a phone number straight. 

As I got older, other symptoms slowly started to surface.  Words were now starting to confuse me.  I knew something was wrong, but chose to ignore it.  As I struggled through my junior year of college, I knew that I needed to do something.  I joined a study on learning disabilities and the students who were running the study had me do a dyslexia test.

The results were positive - I had dyslexia.  This had never crossed my mind before I did the test.  I was grateful to be able to pinpoint my problem.  I did intensive studying of the topic and learned much about my disability and what I could do to make it less of a struggle. 

I am happy to report that I am nearly finished my senior year and it was a breeze."

It really hasn’t been that long since I started using the Internet - it will be about ten years this year.  While that may not seem long, it hasn’t been until recently that I truly understood the power of the Internet in a typical persons hands.

Just like any tool you need to know how to use it.  Over the last ten years I have had to learn about email, web browsing, and online auctions.  Lately though, I have realized perhaps the greatest power of the Internet: it is a shopping tool.  Now I am not talking about it the fact you can shop without ever having to push a real shopping cart, but rather I am talking about the fact I can shop around, without ever leaving my home.

Shopping around is not a new concept.  Traditionally, it has always been a time consuming task, and in some respects a waste of money.  It makes me think of the story of the parents clipping coupons out of the paper to save $0.50 on a package of hamburger, but they drive across the town to do it.  Was it worth their money?  Probably not.

The Internet is not quite like that.  Sure you need a computer and pay for an Internet connection, but that is about it.  What really gets me excited is my ability to compare financial products online.  What I am talking about is comparing credit cards, doing a car insurance comparison, and even finding the best savings accounts.  The beauty of this is you are not confined to one institutions products, rather you can pick from everything that is available.

Not only do you save time doing comparison shopping online, but you save money.  You get a bigger choice of products compared to brick and mortar store with the convenience of doing it at three in the morning.  Man, I love the Internet.

It seems just days ago that I wrote my first article about "Money on the Brain", about how all the events during my day revolved around money.  Strangely enough, I have had another day that was all about money, whether on purpose, or just a string of coincidences.

You see I woke up this morning to my clock radio.  It seems that I woke up during an ad for car loans and how that anyone could qualify for a loan.  Do I need a car?  Well, if they were going to give me the money for it, maybe I should get one.  I decided to look into it when I came home.

Later on at work we went for lunch to the food court at a mall near our workplace.  Sitting there eating my Chinese food, I couldn’t help but look at the large plasma television.  Strangely enough, the advertising on there was about an outlet in the mall that offered cheap loans - only a credit check away.  They would offer unsecured loans of up to $5,000 instantly.  Well, I could use a new computer right?  Great… now I was thinking of other ways to spend my money.

Man it was strange to have two days like this not even a week apart.  I hope this is a sign that I will come into money (without having to borrow it)… but I will have to wait and see.

Studying for exams can be tough.  You organize your notes, highlight your text books, and read, read, and read some more.  Sometimes you assemble a study group and work on past exams in an effort to grasp the subject.

For me, I do those things and it works ok for me.  I also do other things such as make “cheat sheets” about the various topics.  What I do is put the sheets I make in my pocket, so that when I have a few minutes, I can take it out of my pocket and study.  Whether it be on the bus, or waiting in line at a restaurant, it allows me to maximize my studying time.

Today I am making a sheet about loans.  You see we have a finance exam coming up about loans and mortgages.  I am writing down the sheet for loans at the moment.  I have already written the details about unsecured loans, and I am now working on secured homeowner loans.

I also try to keep these sheets so that they fit on a single page without having to write super-small.

Alright, the test is in a few days so I need to get back to studying…

It is funny how some things can trigger a thought.  For example, today I got a credit card offer in the mail.  It was of course the "best credit card" I would ever get and I was pre-approved for a $10,000 limit.  Well, way to get money on the brain!

The day continued and I found myself waiting at the bus stop.  The bus pulled up to the stop and I noticed the advertising on the side of the bus: it was a bank ad urging that I compare bank accounts and realize theirs was better.  Of course it made me think that perhaps I should do that when I got home.

After coming home tonight and sitting on the couch, I turned the television on.  Who would guess that the first commercial on the television was about cheap car insurance, and how I could save by switching to their company.  Hmm, save more money eh?

Well, it is time for bed… I hope that my dreams tonight do not contain money, though after today, I have money on the brain.

I have a buddy that is moving out of town.  In fact he is moving out of the country all the way to South Africa.  We have been looking online for the past month in an attempt to find a property he could buy - he just needs somewhere to live.

In our search we came across some valuable resources that we are now taking advantage of: a good real estate company and a home lender.

The real estate agent we are working with is from Pam Golding International - the largest independent real estate company in South Africa.  The reason that we went with them is we wanted a company with experience as well as a good reach to be able to find my buddy a good deal.

He also needed financing for his new home.  Seeing that his bank didn’t have a branch down there we were forced to look outside of the box.  Thankfully for us, our real estate agent recommended Seef Homeloans and they were very helpful in getting financing with his home - even when he was new to the country.

Now that he has a home and financing all we have to do is get him packed.  He took me down to his basement today, and he has a lot of stuff…. we’ll be packing for awhile.

I am in the market for a loan.  Now you might ask what I am thinking of buying - and I will tell you.  You see I need a new computer for my business and I also need to renovate our kitchen.  I thought I could probably get one loan to do both, but I wasn’t sure.

I went on my computer and opened an Internet browser.  I used this time to compare loans that were available to me.  After about an hour of research, I found out that I would need two different loans for my two purchases.

For the computer, I would get a personal loan.  Basically, my bank would lend me the money based on my credit rating with a short repayment plan (in my case three years).  The interest rate is the same as prime for me due to my good credit rating.

My loan for the kitchen was a little different.  I would need to get a secured personal loan to pay for my renovations.  This type of loan allows you to take advantage of the equity you have in your home - effectively allowing you to take a second mortgage on your home.  The big bonus I found is that you can stretch your payments over the life of your mortgage and in some cases up to twenty five years.

With my new found knowledge, I am going to talk to my banker next week to get my financing in place.  Now that I know what I am talking about, I will better understand our meeting.

If you look into the personal finances of some high-class celebrities, you would be quite amazed.  Although most of them have no mortgages they can be pretty crazy in debt.

I myself cannot imagine being in debt at all if I was pulling in millions of dollars per year.  But, they somehow manage to do so.  Maybe it is because of the car insurance on their many vehicles. 

I just really don’t get it.

But then, I could not fathom to understand the lifestyles of these people.  And the saying is probably true that the more  money you have, the more money you want.  I suppose I am happier just being a nobody where no one really cares much about my personal finances except for my husband.

Well, I am going to get a credit card - but I don’t know what one I should get.  There are just so many option out there, one can’t help feel overwhelmed by the choices.

So I decided to hunt for the best credit cards out there.  Now, this ruled out just heading on over to my bank as they wouldn’t tell me what I was missing out by going with them.  I just wanted to see the best of the best without wasting a lot of time doing it.

After comparing cards online for an hour or so, I came to one conclusion:  I didn’t want a 0% credit card.  First off, I was not going to carry a balance on the card, and secondly I didn’t have a balance to transfer from another card anyways.

What caught my eye was the cash back credit card offers.  I really can’t believe that they would be paying me to spend my money.  Though, I am not so silly that I don’t notice that they are doing it in the hopes I spend too much and pay interest.

I did find a few cash back cards that interest me, but I am going to sleep on it.  Instead of making a rash decision, I am going to make my decision tomorrow, when I feel fresh and alert.

I was talking to my friend today who is a mortgage broker about her work.  I was curious how life was sitting on the other side of the desk.  It seemed to me that it would be an interesting job as she would deal with people from all walks of life and all different sizes of properties. 

She told me that her job was rewarding and that she enjoyed seeing the faces of her clients after their mortgage was approved.  It was even more rewarding watching the excitement of first time home buyers getting their first mortgage - many times she even cried.

But sometimes the job wasn’t so happy.  She had clients from time to time whose mortgages were not approved.  Sometimes they yelled, screamed and got angry at her - but it wasn’t her fault (she did what she could do).  Other times she had to deal with clients that were ashamed of their credit history - just today she had a fellow that was embarrassed when he came in to get a bad credit remortgage.

All in all she said she loved her job.  What other job do you have such a large responsibility for so many dollars and can change so many lives?