Investments

Graduates, welcome to the real world, the place with full-time careers and bills and timeclocks. But don’t worry, it’s not all as ominous as it may sound. Chances are good you’ll have some money in your pockets now. And every once in awhile, you’ll have that glow from a job well done. It’s the usual yin and yang of life.

Now as we all know, some jobs are better than others. Heck, some jobs are way better than others. Maybe it pays more. Maybe you get to travel. Maybe your boss is Will Ferrell. What we’re going to list for you here are careers that have been rated very highly for 2011 by U.S. News in relation to job-growth projections via the Labor Department. Below are the top three careers for each career category.

Mother Nature is trying to kick Old Man Winter to the curb. Let’s put out the welcome mat for spring!

Sure, we’re still fluctuating between snowfall and short sleeves, but blooming gardens and the smell of freshly cut grass are just around the corner. Open the windows and let the fresh spring breeze replace that stale winter air. It’s a time of renewal, so why not renew your vows to get your financial house in order? Now’s a great time for some spring financial cleaning! Let’s get things minimized and organized with some tips from money.com.

Do you ever sit at your desk, paying all the bills, dreaming of a life without mortgage payments? It’s kind of like dreaming about winning the lottery. Wouldn’t it be nice to rid yourself of the most significant monthly bill you have?

Have you thought about paying off your mortgage early? If so, have you asked yourself the following questions?

$32.8 billion.

That’s the dollar amount put on unclaimed property in state custody, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA).

Is there a forgotten or lost treasure out there with your name on it? It would be a shame for it to sit in the “Unclaimed” file when you could use a new refrigerator or set of tires. Why not do a bit of online investigating? For just about every type of unclaimed property, there’s a government department out there ready to host a reunion party.

So that New Years resolution to save some money isn’t working out so well? Your budget has more leaks than WikiLeaks. What are you doing wrong? Why don’t we concentrate on what you can do right. Let’s plug those money-draining holes and keep your budget afloat with some relatively simple ideas on how to save up to $500 over the course of a year. Really, they’re quite simple.

The W-2s are in the mail, if they haven’t already found your mailbox. Guys dressed like the Statue of Liberty are dancing around intersections near you. It can only mean one thing—tax season!

While some of us kind of like the tax season because it means refunds (and that’s whole other story if you’re giving Uncle Sam an interest-free loan every year), most people will admit they hate the actual job of preparing their tax returns. It never seems to get any easier. As a mater of fact, the government seems to delight in confusing us. But there are a few things you can do to make tax season less, well, taxing. The following mistakes have been charted by the good ol’ IRS and reviewed by MSN Money. They show up on returns year after year, so make note and take care to not make the same mistakes and create a headache for yourself.

We’re having an evolution at Vantage January 23, and it’s going to make managing your budget that much easier. Our personal financial management tool—My$Manager—has undergone a renovation and will show off a new look and feel complete with enhanced features and greater accuracy.

In a nutshell, here’s what you’ll experience:

Exercise more. Lose weight. Finish that project in the basement. The New Year is here, and with it come all the usual resolutions. Why not make saving one of them? Building your personal wealth can be both satisfying and comforting. But how is it done? There are a number of ways to achieve a slice of your own personal wealth, some easy, and some that need dedication. As you can probably guess, for most people, the dedication thing is the way they’ll have to go. But just for amusement sake, wouldn’t it be nice if you could…

Taxes. Does the word leave a bad taste in your mouth? If it’s not paying them, it’s the hassle of getting all your records together so you can prepare them...so you can pay them. Ugh. But millions of Americans will be looking past the unpleasant aspect of preparing their taxes this year because there’s a dividend at the end of all the meticulous work, a 2010 tax refund.

If you think you’re in line for a refund this year, it’s to your advantage to get your tax return in as early as possible, and that means getting a head start on preparation. As we all know, the hardest part of most any project is getting started. Here are a few pointers to help you get your tax prep in order:

And the winning Powerball number is...

What? You won? You WON?!!

It’s a dream for many of us, whether we play it or not—winning the lottery. Ah yes, enough riches to realize all our dreams and beyond.

Of course, basing any future financial circumstance on winning the lottery is a bit starry-eyed and unrealistic. The odds of winning a lottery is minuscule; a state lottery is about one in 18,000,000 while multiple state lotteries like Powerball can leave you feeling very unlucky at about one in 120,000,000. Long odds no matter how you look at it. So long, you’re much more likely to be hit by lightning. According to the National Safety Council, your chance of being struck by lightning is in the neighborhood of one in 2,650,000.*