As part of my internship at Xanga, I worked on a site called Dollarish, which is kind of a catch-all personal finance and job blog geared towards high school students and college students. Since I left, they’ve opened up an advice section of the site where there have been some good questions and some horrible ones. There was one this week that I just couldn’t leave alone.

What do you think an adequate allowance is for a college student that isn’t able to get a part time job?

Wanna know what my college allowance was? Zip, zero, nada, nothing. As a kid and a teenager, I didn’t get an allowance either. I pretty much just hoarded any money given to me for holidays and birthdays and used that over the course of the year. I had friends who would ask their parents for a $20 bill when they wanted to go to the movies. I asked my parents once for that because I didn’t have enough money myself, and I still remember that day. I was extremely embarrassed to ask them for it, even though they didn’t act like it a big deal. Since then, I haven’t remember asking my parents for money for anything. My parents buy me stuff sometimes, but even now I go back and forth on whether getting the item (generally clothing) is really worth the price, whether I think they can spend the money, etc, and I put back about 90% of what they offer to get me. I’m even like that with my own money and my boyfriend laughs at me for it: I look at an item, look again, think about getting it, work out how I can afford it, think maybe not, then think about getting it, then I almost buy it but ultimately put it back. When I write this out, it’s pretty ridiculous, but hey, it’s cheap.

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This was my last post at Dollarish, as I just finished my Xanga internship.

Everybody has a dream job in their head; you know what you’d love to do, but you just don’t know how to get there. Maybe you do know how to get there, but you’re convinced you need to wait until you’re done with school to get started. While that might be true for some things, for many professions, you can get a start at any age as long as you know what you want. When you have the schooling to get your dream job, you’ll have the experience to go with it.

Journalism/Author: Get a blog, today. Buy a domain, install WordPress, pick a topic, and write about it (and keep your personal stuff out of said blog unless it matches your topic). Submit editorials to your local newspaper. Interested in fiction? Write stories for contests. Pretend any month is NaNoWriMo.

Veterinarian/Animal Handler: Try to get a part time job at a local vet. Walk dogs and pet-sit for people. Volunteer at an animal shelter or an animal rescue organization.

Teacher: Become a tutor in a subject you’re great at. Apply to become a substitute teacher or paraprofessional. Work a summer as a camp counselor.

Politics: Make a blog and share your views. Write editorials, call in to radio shows. Apply for internships for a lawmaker, or volunteer to campaign for one.

Business: Start your own, or get a part-time job at a small business. Working at a small business is a great way to learn how to run one (and how not to run one).

What is your dream job? How could you get started on it today?

Have you heard of MyRate? It’s one of the car insurance options at Progressive. You plug their little MyRate device into your car, it watches how you drive, and you get a great rate on your car insurance. Until they see that you don’t full stop at stop signs. Or go 70 MPH along with everyone else on the road in a 65 MPH zone. How about being quick on the brakes? Your insurance costs will climb right up if you’re not careful, and they might not go away.

You might think about giving away a little privacy to save some money, but you really need to think about it first. Find out more at Dollarish.