* Threshold amounts are the amounts at which income becomes taxable. 2006 teen employment thresholds are: earned income, $5,150; unearned income, $850; self-employment (SE), $400. (Most amounts are adjusted annually.)

* Earned income is ANY income or wage earned from a job. It includes cash as well as any income for which the worker receives a Form W-2 or Form 1099-MISC.

* Unearned income comes from investments such as savings accounts, dividends from stock and mutual funds owned in custodial accounts, and capital gains for the sale of stock or mutual funds. Students with more than $850 of unearned income owe federal income tax.

* Self-employment (SE), social security (FICA), and Medicare are all considered SE taxes. Self-employed teens must pay SE tax on any net income over $400 and report their income and SE taxes on Form 1040. Frequently additional forms and schedules are required as well. “However,” notes NATP member, Dawn J. Renner, CPA, from Minnetonka, MN, “Teens under age 18 who work for their parents’ business are not subject to FICA or Medicare tax unless the business is incorporated, a partnership (unless each partner is a parent of the child), or an estate.”

* Teens who are household employees do not owe SE tax; however, income is reported on Form 1040, Line 7, broken out from any W-2 wages. The household (also called domestic services) income amount should be indicated with a code of “HSH”. Household employees are housekeepers, maids, babysitters, gardeners, and others who work in or around private residences as employees.

For more of these and a study of certain scenarios for clarity, head on over to her article at TaxProfessionals.com.

In a nutshell, your expenses must not exceed your income. For some, it’s a given. For others, it takes a lot of getting used to, especially if you come from a certain background and expect to maintain a certain lifestyle. In my opinion, if you have the cash, then spend it as you please. The problem with credit cards is they fool you into thinking you have more money than you really do. Usually, it’s too late when you realize you bit off more than you can chew.

That’s why it’s important to have a monthly budget. Scale back and prioritize. Fire up an Excel spreadsheet (or a free variant like ThinkFree or OpenOffice) so you’re aware about where your money goes, if you’re going overboard, or if you have savings left for a rainy day. Set up goals like “at least 20% savings every month”, or “reduce non-essential spending”.

Experiment with things that could stretch your budget like cooking your own meal instead of always eating out. The side benefit is that you can eat healthier, have more options, and even impress a date. If you wanna watch a film, find a theater that offers student discounts. Same goes for other establishments. Buy used CDs and books or swap with your friends. If you don’t live that far from campus, ride a bike instead of a car.

For many people, there’s no choice but to get a college loan. Be diligent in finding the best deal for you with the lowest interest rate, and take only what you absolutely need. Don’t go to a school just because it’s popular even if it’s way expensive. There are probably schools out there that offers the same quality of education for less. A good-looking resume is an advantage, but it’s what you have between your ears that will really matter in crunch time.

As much as you can, pay cash. Credit card can be convenient for some purchases, especially online, but it make it too easy to buy items on impulse. Before you know it, you owe the credit card company a ton of money, plus interest. Personally, I’ve tried to stay away from credit cards purchases. When I like something, I save for it, and then I buy it. Call it old fashioned, but it works for me.

One way to implement this technique is to find three subscriptions that you CAN live without. Cancel them and do the A La Carte Method. Do this for one month and compare the amount you have spent before (with the subscription) and after (doing the A La Carte Method). If it doesn’t work, then just revert to your old subscription method. This way, you become conscious about what you spend on, and there’s less chances of overspending on something you don’t really take advantage of. You also tend to value each and every single item you pay for. Now that’s real value for your money.

Let’s get this straight at the onset. First, the money you lend to anybody should always be disposable income; something you’d likely spend on something you don’t need. Second, it is always a bad idea to lend money to friends particularly if you can’t pay for your own expenses yourself.

You will find that dealing with friends can be quite difficult and…different, when you know that they owe you money. It changes the relationship. They are indebted to you; not only because you have been kind, but because they have something very concrete, which happens to be yours. The entire situation becomes personal. Remember, money is replaceable. Friends just aren’t. When you do lend, it will also give them the precedent to borrow some more in the future.

As the saying goes, don’t feed the man; teach the man to fish. Do the same for your friends. Seeing as you’re the entrepreneur, you be able to give them advice on how to acquire the money given their own special skills.

Explain to them why you don’t want to lend them the money and offer them help in kind. Have them draw up a financial plan. Show them opportunities to earn their money instead of having it handed over to them. This may include advice from your own experiences or work they are qualified to do in your business.

Lending money to friends can be a hindrance rather than a help. If it happens that they are good with money and they need it for an emergency, be ready to give them the money as a gift, not as a loan. If you do decide to give them a loan, draw up the necessary documents and protect yourself legally, just like with any business transaction.

A friend who would like to borrow from you will likely have borrowed from other people. It can be a surprisingly hard habit to drop. It’s your prerogative to deny them a loan but it is your duty to explain why kindly and concisely.

And you ought to know what that scene is. It’s the stock exchange – the typical visual used whenever the news is on economy and business-related stuff.

But do you know what the stock exchange really is about? If you don’t, that’s okay. Not so long ago, all I knew about the stock exchange was people gaping at the changing numbers and codes on display screens as if they’re watching movie trailers.

So what is the stock market? It is the market where securities are sold and bought at agreed prices. Securities are company stocks, bonds, options, and futures that are listed and traded on a stock exchange.

Stock exchanges are entities that enable buyers and sellers to meet either through a physical venue, or a virtual or electronic one. Some examples are the New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ, and the Paris Bourse.

In stock exchanges with physical locations, transactions are done on a trading floor where buyers and sellers engage in verbal bidding and negotiation known as the open outcry method. In the virtual stock exchange, buyers and sellers enter their bids and offers through telephone or computer network. Buyers and sellers of stocks ask for prices that they want. Prices are negotiated until buyers and sellers agree and sales of stocks take place.

You may have heard of stock brokers and wonder what they do. Basically, they are the ones who trade on behalf of their clients in exchange of commissions for closing deals. They’re somehow different from stock dealers who buy and sell financial assets on their own. They earn by selling assets at a price higher than what they originally paid for it.

Stockholders, or those who have stocks, earn in this way. However, it also happens that the company in which the stockholder owns stocks fails to give them dividends or returns probably because of bad business deals. At this situation, the stockholder can opt to sell his shares albeit at lower prices – a case of asset turning into liability.

Following market principles, prices of stocks and other financial assets are determined by the supply and demand. The lesser the number of shares, the higher its prices would be. But besides the number of stocks, demand is also determined by the expected profitability of the company stocks being sold.

A little background on my college finances:

• I pay 75% of my tuition
• My college costs close to $18,000 a year
• Do the math

I am using some loans and have been fortunate to receive a few scholarships that make the first year or 2 fairly manageable. But starting in the fall of 2009, my reserves will be running dry. So the main objective for those with any type of reserves is to put the money to work for you. Initially, I planned on investing in stocks short term, making 10%, and liquidating whenever. However, I finally figured out I don’t have the skill set [yet] to invest in that fashion succesfully. So instead, I’m trying invest my $X,XXX in safer, high interest, short term investment vehicles since I can look at my finance spreadsheets for the next 3 years and precisely see how much and when my bills will be due.

So now that you got my objective / philosophy, here are some options I am either doing or considering.

Short Term, Safe

1. Zopa CDs - Zopa is a peer to peer lending company, similar to Prosper.com and LendingClub.com (kind of covered previously). Zopa CDs are CDs based on interest derived from loans given to members. It’s more of a non traditional bank loan that earns the interest for your CD. These CDs are FDIC insured so you know they’re safe, and they also give better interest rates than typical CDs. (I got 4.25% for 1 year last week, but they fluctuate frequently).

2. CANROYs – known formerly as Canadian Royalty Trusts, these are somewhat riskier investments that offer potentially great, stable yields. CANROYS are Canadian trusts (usually in oil) that are not taxed by the government because they distribute all of their profits to shareholders. However, in 2011, the Canadian government will start taxing them at a 40% rate, which has made them a little more risky in the short run for irrational reasons. The upside is that CANROYs pay anywhere from 8% to 15% annually in the form of a dividend, so any capital loss could potentially be offset by dividends. So although a little riskier, they do offer liquidity and high short term yields. Some examples are SJT, HGT, and PWE.

Other possible options… not as good in my opinion

1. Blue Chip, Dividend Stocks – Some people think the market is bottoming, in which case the high yielding blue chips would probably be a pretty good investment. I’m not convinced of this, so I find it hard to recommend. If you have faith in a particular sector, look at the blue chips and you’ll probably find some good values.

2. Prosper, Lending Club – Prosper and Lending Club, mentioned above, offer good rates. By investing in many credible, qualified borrowers, risk can be limited and returns can range from 5-10% depending on the borrowers found. I’m a huge advocate of both clubs (moreso Prosper cause they’re bigger, even though customer service is really bad), but their greatest drawback is that your money stays tied up for a mandatory 3 years under the terms of the loans. If you can afford to tie your money up for 3 years earning 8.50%, by all means go for it. I and most college students, however, probably shouldn’t have that illiquid of an asset on our books.

So up to this point, these four traditional investment vehicles are the best option for college students looking to gain a little better interest on their reserves while keeping it safe and liquid.   If anyone has any other options, definitely share them.  And as always, I am not a professional advisor, so consult with others before investing and do not take my opinions as fact. I, nor college-startup, is liable for your decisions.

An emergency fund is a three to six months worth of business expenses. It could serve as a financial buffer against very lean times like when you lose clients, you bill customers later than usual, or one of your ventures doesn’t do well.

If you’ve already experienced financial lows with your business, you should be more determined not to be in that situation again. Start stashing away some of your business profits as the emergency fund.

If you’re the type who hasn’t even dipped down financially and gets adventurous and dares to get penniless, think again. Don’t spend extra cashflow on expensive equipment you don’t need or fancy hardware upgrades. Save for your business emergency fund first, and spend on the exciting extras later.

Don’t even think that a credit card is a good substitute. Like everything, your card has a limit. Your business might stay afloat on it for the first few months but you might pay hard for it for the next few years. Many college students fall into credit card debt and spend several years after graduation trying to undo the damage. Don’t let that happen to you.

It would be better to separate your business’ emergency fund from the account you generally use so you’d be less tempted to withdraw it. Also, consider insuring some aspects of your business such as expensive equipment, personal term life insurance for yourself, etc. These will help lessen the cost when emergencies arrive.

Start building your emergency fund now because more than making you secured during rainy days, it keeps you afloat when it floods.

Let me tell you. Credit cards were very tempting to me. I could have gotten an N64 and Goldeneye. I could have gotten a nice tv. I probably could have gotten a decent used car (downpayment with the card).

But I told myself early on: don’t live beyond your means. If you use a credit card, make sure your can pay it off before you start paying high-interest rates. That’s the key.

As a former college student, let me just emphasize how important it is that you not dig yourself into massive credit card debt. Credit cards themselves aren’t bad. In fact, you can make some nice rewards off them (see our list of best college student credit cards). But I have many friends who dug themselves into debt and end up putting 1/4 their paychecks towards interest payments. It can get that bad. Don’t let it happen to you. Take a real, hard, long look at your financial situation and don’t get suckered into thinking that you can afford things you really can’t afford.

I’ve been following the world markets very closely ever since I started playing around in the stock market , and the economic downturn has definitely gotten the best of my investing ventures. When I was reflecting on what to do with my money, I realized that my online business seems relatively unaffected.

So why do online content based businesses seem unaffected?

• Consumers will still consume your free content, and will in turn still see and/or click on ads
• It’s hard to tell whether the recession is affecting a firm’s online advertising budget for your sites, especially when Google brokers the ads through Adsense
• Our increasing inflation has not really increased the consumer price index as a whole yet

For those reasons, it is easy to forget the economy’s poor condition when working in a niche like online business. But the truth is, the average ‘recession proof’ businesses will eventually be hurt with the devaluing dollar. By the end of the year, $1 may only be $.80, and that will definitely hurt your purchasing power and bottom line if your wages don’t increase similarly.

I know this is kind of a rambling, reflective post on the economy, but I am concerned with my past profits and bank account being eaten away by inflation getting up to 5 or 6%. So I end with 2 questions:

Is your online business directly feeling the recession? If so, how?
Do you plan to hedge your business or capital against the deflation of the US dollar at all?

When we say negotiation, we mean the process of discussing and compromising of two or more parties to agree on something. In business, one’s goal would basically be either to sell or to buy. And since everything comes with a price, that’s the first and foremost thing that gets to be negotiated – the price of goods, of services, of rent, of labor, etc.

To make things simple, we’ll divide negotiation into two parties, the one who wants to sell and the other who wants to buy.

Read on to learn about basic negotiation tactics.

The Seller
Every salesperson wants to close a deal. But though you’re dying to do so, do not easily give in to the customer’s price negotiations. As what negotiation guru and author Ed Brodow said, be prepared to defend your price or your customers will think lowly of you.

Why? It’s because if you don’t stand firm by your price, your customer will think that you can afford to lower your price so much that the real value of your service is really far less than your price.

Don’t think that if you refuse to lower your price, your customer will immediately look for your competitors. Refusing to negotiate might actually give your customer the impression that you probably have something worth spending for that you risk losing a customer to your competitors.

Be confident. Justify your price and emphasize your strengths and the benefits the customer could get if he/she buys from you.

This, however, does not mean that you should never budge and negotiate the price. Let your customer make concessions. Lower your price or offer a discount only if the customer would order more or the merchandise you gave is flawed.

The Buyer
As a buyer, you only have to make these two things meet: your budget and your needs. You have to get what you need by using as little of your budget as possible.

If you’re a regular customer, you can bank on that fact and ask for a regular’s discount.

Try to squeeze your seller for a lower price by negotiating what other features you might remove from or add to your deal. Tell them how much your budget is and they might be even able to lower their price accordingly or help you spend it for their service more efficiently.