Welcome
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I write about the ways we seek to better our lives through education, jobs, personal goals, and personal finance. I’m always seeking projects that make use of—and broaden—my experience.
I’ve written stories on slashing college costs, creating New Year’s resolutions you’ll actually keep, and giving your charitable donations a boost. I’ve profiled professors doing cancer research, college students making their campuses greener, and people who travel the world to help victims of natural disasters.
My work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and online publications.
When I’m not writing, you’ll find me running around Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, cheering for the Twins at the Metrodome, and listening to podcasts.
Contact: erin@erinpeterson.com
Starting Off Right
Friday, February 5th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sure, it’s a little late to jump on the New Year’s resolution bandwagon, but if you’re looking to make and maintain changes in your life this year, you might need a little inspiration to stay on track. This story that I wrote for Experience Life magazine offers up a range of different kinds of resolutions—and how to best take action on them.
Read the full article here.
Getting the Gig
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
With unemployment still hovering around 10 percent, it’s incredibly difficult to snare a great job these days. Just polishing your resumé and getting a nice interview suit isn’t going to cut it. For this Bankrate story, I talked to five people who got new jobs with smart and innovative job search strategies—think Twitter, Facebook, and the like. If you’re unemployed these days—or just looking for a change of pace in your 9 to 5—you might consider some of these tactics.
Read the full story here.
Name That Loon
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
When you write about money, having a sense of humor isn’t usually a qualification for the gig. Occasionally, though, I have the chance to tackle a story that’s outside of my primary area of expertise, and I do what I can to ham it up. So when Minnesota Monthly asked me to tackle a portion of their annual Uncommon Loon Awards story, I couldn’t resist. The yearly compendium of Minnesota-themed gaffes is simultaneously horrifying and awesome. Stories about guys who drive drunk in motorized La-Z-Boys kind of write themselves, but it doesn’t make them any less delightful.
Read the full story here.
The Smarter Barter
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Last year, I got serious about paying off my second mortgage early. Even though I write about personal finance issues all the time, I hadn’t realized what a crummy deal I’d gotten when I bought my house. The second mortgage came with a high interest rate and a balloon payment after 7 years. Delightful.
So as I edged closer to paying off the balance in full, I realized that I had an additional fee to contend with—a prepayment penalty that amounted to nearly two months’ payment. I wanted to negotiate that penalty down, but I didn’t know if it was possible, and I couldn’t find any tips online.
Of course, the delightful part about being a freelance writer is that when you’ve got an issue like this, you can write a story about it. You can get advice from the pros to solve your own problem, and perhaps the readers’ problems, too. In the end, I was able to sell the story—Six Steps to a Lower Prepayment Penalty to Bankrate.com. It also appeared on Yahoo! Finance.
As for me, I was able to cut my prepayment penalty by 35 percent and pay off my mortgage five years before the balloon payment came due.
Read the full story here.
Good As Gold?
Thursday, January 7th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Gold is selling at record highs these days, and that means that plenty of people are trying to cash in. Many are trying to turn their old gold into cash—but in some cases, the buyers make a whole lot more than you do. This story for Bankrate.com details the different ways you can sell you gold, and how to make the most money doing it.
Check out the full story here.
Smarter Holiday Spending
Thursday, December 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
It’s easy to spend a lot of money during the holidays without getting much bang for your buck. It’s become a cliché to talk about all those unfortunate sweaters, ties, and useless electronic gadgets that don’t make it into the new year. So when I was asked to write about a holiday gift that actually gets *more* valuable over time, I couldn’t pass it up. With just a little bit of advance planning, you can give gifts to a 529 plan. Sure, it won’t make a kid’s face light up like that Zhu Zhu pet, but let’s face it: they’re often more delighted with the packaging it came in, anyway. So consider an inexpensive toy and pair it with a gift to a 529 plan. That’s my plan for the holidays.
Read more about smart ways to help boost funding a child’s 529 account here.
Experts Weigh In
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I’m always talking to financial experts to ask for their advice on reducing debt, saving efficiently, and investing wisely. But very rarely do I ask them how they’re managing their own finances.
In this story for SavingForCollege.com, I asked experts about investing in 529 education accounts. But instead of asking them how people should ideally save, I asked them how they saved for their own kids. Their answers are revealing. In some pre-interviews, I discovered that some financial planners may tout them for their clients, but they haven’t gotten around to setting them up for their own children (ultimately, they weren’t included in the story). Others admitted that they maybe didn’t invest quite as much as they thought they would. But overall, it was nice to see that in general, experts put their money where their mouth was, and invested in the same way that they advised their clients.
Read the full story here.
Share Price?
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
When I’m not writing about personal finance issues, I often tackle features for college alumni magazines.
Recently, a story I wrote about the perks and perils of social media appeared in the Carleton College Voice. In part because social media is such a new phenomenon, plenty of people worry about how the information they offer up on sites like Facebook and Twitter will have an impact on them—and perhaps their children—years from now. Alumni and professors at Carleton on both sides of the argument wrestled thoughtfully with the implications, but my favorite quote came from a recent graduate, Taylor Odean, who now works at Google (and gets in a plug for his employer):
“A hundred years ago, we were still getting our information by telegraph and newsreel. Now anyone with a webcam can set up Google Voice and Video Chat and have a face-to-face conversation with anyone in the world. I think that when social networking has matured, future generations will be baffled by how we ever got by without it.”
Read the full story here.
Card Tricks
Friday, October 30th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I’m always looking to get a little extra with my cash, so when CreditCards.com asked if I’d update a story on getting gift cards for less than face value, I was all over it. I got expert advice on buying cards in bulk, picking up added-value restaurant gift cards during the holidays, and even using sites like Bing.com’s shopping portal to get 10 percent cash back on gift card purchases. Turns out that even if you are cheap, you certainly don’t have to look that way.
Read the full story on CreditCards.com here or on Yahoo!’s personal finance site here.