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How to Live Abroad Without Paying for Housing

Take the Strain of Room Accommodation Out of Your Budget

Traveling without paying for housing takes a lot of strain off of your budget. Here's how to travel extensively if you don't have the money for rooming accommodations.

If you're young and you want to travel the world but don't have the finances then consider doing a work program abroad. There are different kinds that feature different kinds of jobs, but they let you travel the world on a very small budget. Rent or hotel costs can be the most expensive part of any trip and if you're able to live somewhere for free then you're cutting out a huge part of your budget. This type of travel is becoming increasingly common for people who want to take a gap year to travel or who want to spend an extended period of time in a new country. These programs have an extensive network that is set up everywhere in the world.

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How To Quit Your Job Like A Boss

We've all had a job that we hated. Here's how to leave in class and style.

2016 saw job turnover rates hit 17.8% - which is the highest it has been since the Great Recession. Machines are automating many jobs, companies are using the independent contractor route to avoid liability and higher compensation. Which means employees are less and less satisfied with what the workplace has to offer. Are you ready for an upgrade? Finally going out on your own, taking a raise at another place, taking time for yourself, or whatever other reasoning you can have for leaving a job - there's a classy way to do it. Sure we'd all love to mimc Dave Chappelle's classic "I quit" sketch, kicking over trash cans, flipping off supervisors and co-workers, and leaving a big fart in the room right before we leave - but burning bridges never helped anyone, and you never know when you may need a reference, or just to not have being an asshole as a stain on your reputation.


Make Sure You're Sure + Have An Exit Strategy

Having one bad day, then telling everybody off and going out in a blaze of glory looks great on TV, but in real life, this probably isn't the best way to go about things. First things first is the make sure that you are absolutely ready to leave an organization that you have invested your time, energy and hours on and vice versa. If you're sure staying isn't a viable option, then it's time to plan your escape. Save up money, find other job options, know what you're going to be doing with your time. This will make your transition period way smoother. Having a plan will also make enduring those last few days that much more pleasant as you'll already know the bright future that lie ahead of you.

Give Notice, Do It Face to Face

Best practice is to deliver a letter of resignation two weeks in advance and deliver it hand to hand. This can be both a terrifying and exhilarating experience. If circumstances do not permit for a face to face, email is your next best option. This is a delicate phase, but as long as you express gratitude for your tenure with the company, and that you are simply moving on, usually everyone remains amicable and very positive. You're not obligated to say much here, and you shouldn't. Avoid gloating about your new endeavor and going on negative rants about the current company. You're moving on, so let's leave on a high note.

How to Handle the Flip Out, The Counteroffer, and the Request to Stay for Longer

At this point, you've mentally moved on, you've laid foundation for your new beginnings and you've given your notice. No matter how professional you are, you never know how your soon to be ex boss will handle this. Sometimes people take it very personally when an employee wants to leave. They may yell or attempt to belittle, stand your ground, remember why you're moving on. Sometimes however you may be hit with a counteroffer - more money, more perks, better treatment. You have to decide for yourself if any of these incentives are reason for you to stay somewhere you've just made up your mind to leave. Sometimes an employer may request that you stay longer to help with your transition. Remember that while you have no obligation to stay any longer than you've given notice for, it can be good practice to see any projects you're working on all the way through. This is a good indicator to your new employer that you are team player who is aware of the bigger picture.

Get a Reference While You're Still Hot

After a great conversation and presenting your well written letter, now is the ideal time to ask for a letter of recommendation and/or a reference. Don't give too much time for this to linger, but capitalize while the feelings are high and in good favor. This will go a long ways down the line and it's a really easy request at the end of your resignation meeting.

Claim What's Yours, Leave What's Theirs

Clear your desk, your computer, your hard drives, etc. Everything that is yours that you have built that you are not under contract to leave with your company, you take. Contacts, resources, info, all of it, you worked to earn it, so don't rush out the door empty handed. Conversely if you agreed that certain things remain property of the company than leave those things - no need for lawsuits and pursuits against you down the line. Also make sure you check for any paid sick days, vacation time, bonuses owed, 401K and retirement savings. Often times there's some extra money and perks waiting for you upon your exit, but if you don't ask, don't expect your former employer to go out of their way at all to get any of it to you.

Best of PayPath

3 College Majors With Significant ROI

College is expensive, and the times are changing. In fact only about two-thirds of the current generation are opting receive bachelors degrees or higher. And for those that do pursue higher education, the price tag is higher than ever, and it's rare that your degree doesn't come unaccompanied by a load of debt. That means college is a business and we've got to start thinking like businesspeople. If you're going to spend at least 4 years and mess up some comas, let's look at the numbers. Here are a few college majors with pretty high ROI.

Marketing

The American Marketing Association has defined marketing as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." A four year education that costs on average $52,596 is the toll for a degree in marketing. Good news is, with an after tax salary averaging about $75-80,000 you can have those student loans paid off in as little as 5 years, and start making bank. Cue up the theme from "Mad Men"

4 years.

$52,596 cost of tuition

$74,935 after tax salary

5.3 years to pay back

$937 per month in loan payments

Engineering

Including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings the Civil engineering discipline deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, Civil Engineering has been around since antiquity is predated as a professional engineering career only by military engineering. Because civil engineering takes place in the public sector from municipal through to national governments, and even in the private sector from individual homeowners through to international companies, work as a civil engineer is always abundant. 4 years of schooling for about $53,000, but with a salary that maxes out near $80,000, you should have it paid back in under 8 years.

4 years.

$52,596 cost of tuition

$76,286 after tax salary

7.4 years to pay back

$704 per month in loan payments

Economist

Practitioners of the discipline of economics study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and they also get paid to write about economic policy. Technically to be considered a major league economist you have to obtain your Ph.D., teach, and have published literature on economics. Then you're Ben Bernake and you run the central bank of the most powerful economy on earth.

While you won't be running the Fed or shifting the global economy with just your bachelors degree, with an average price tag of $52,000 and an average salary upwards of $90,000, we're sure you'll be just fine on your way to the top.

4 years.

$52,596 cost of tuition

$92,786 after tax salary

6.5 years to pay back

$785 per month in loan payments

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Urban Investor's Dictionary: Quant Funds

What Are Quant Funds? Why Are They All The New Craze? Should You Invest?

The biggest and fasting growing trend in investing is the increasing use of Quant (Quantitive) Funds. As it stands somewhere between 16-25% of current trade volume is made up of quant funds. Quant funds are a product of the growing trend of quantitive analysis. The same technology that is defeating world class chess champions, and propelling self driven cars is slow becoming a dominant force in the financial world as well.

Quantitive analysis is a form of analysis based on mathematical measurements, calculations, statistical modeling and research. It's aim is to use the data and the statistics to gain an objective understanding and predictably to the behavior of events, markets, companies, financial instruments, etc. Computer based models are designed and then used to determine the attractiveness of an investment.

The early progenitors of quantitive analysis and quant funds are often referred to as "quants" themselves. Even with their growing popularity quantitive funds still face skepticism. No one really understands how their algorithms work and thus the process is sometimes referred to as "Black Box". Not all investors are fond of the mystery behind quant funds.

Conversely actively managed quant funds are beginning to consistently outperform their counterparts. With a data driven, testable, and easily reviewable as to the errors approach, quant funds are attracting more and more investor dollars.This in turn leads to more development of the technology and methodology behind quantitive analysis, hence making it more effective and attracting eve more investor dollars.

Late 19th - early 20th century French mathematician Louis Bachelier is credited as the early pioneer for quant analysis and funds. In his Ph.D. thesis titled "The Theory of Speculation" Bachlier makes use of statistical analysis to study and understand stock price fluctuations. As with most pioneering genius, Bachelier's ideas were initially met with skepticism and scrutiny. Decades later his work would be properly recognized.

The financial crash in the 1930's led two Columbia professors - Benjamin Graham and David Dodd to publish a book titled "Security Analysis". The placed an impetus on developing a new investing strategy that was more disciplined in its framework. This approach focused on the analyzing a company's financial statements and comparing it's market value against it's intrinsic value. It would lay the foundation for what is now know as "value investing". As the technology developed with the theory, more investors and academia jumped on board.

The earliest versions of activity managed quant funds were developed and launched in the first half of the 1980's. Since then software has rapidly evolved to suit the purposes of gathering, analysis, and making predictions based on the data. Ahead of the 2008 market crash, quant funds began to exhibit strange behavior. As if they had predicted the crash a year before it happened, quantitive funds across the board began entering into sell positions. While some viewed this as erratic behavior and felt cause for concern, others saw the true potential in the quantitive analysis process, and since then quant funds have more than tripled in market share.

Small Business

Interview with Bedros Keuilian: The Fitness King Who Built an Empire From the Ground Up

Meet Bedros Keuilian.

He's a best-selling author, business coach, and Founder and CEO of one of the nation's fastest-growing fitness franchises, Fit Body Boot Camp. Fleeing a communist nation as a child, Keuilian started a difficult life in America where his family struggled to put healthy food on the table. But his is more than a typical rags to riches story. Keuilian's school is the school of trial-and-error, and his aim is to knock out all the misconceptions about starting a business and get up-and-coming entrepreneurs headed in the right direction with the right tools. Paypath got the chance to chat with Keuilian about how he trained both his physical and entrepreneurial muscles to get where he is today.

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Fuel Up on More Nutritious Brain-Boosting Foods – P, Q, and R

Get ready to grab something good for your gray matter!

Our brain-boosting posts are having PayPath readers on the ball and sharp as tacks, so here are more brain-boosting foods – P, Q, and R - to add to your healthy grocery list. Last time we covered mackerel, nuts, and oats, so it's time to bring on even more variety for a diet that's good for the body and mind.

Aside from being delicious, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, and rosemary are all beneficial to the brain and will keep you focused and clear-headed while at work and well into the night while with friends and family. Knowing you're eating right will steer you towards feeling energetic and as smart as a whip. Get ready to grab something good for your gray matter!

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The Best & Worst Places to Start a Career for 2017 College Grads

Graduation may be the end of an era, but as you embark on a career, new beginnings are right around the corner

It's graduation season meaning thousands of recent college grads are embarking on their journey into "the real world," full of interviews, relocation, first jobs, and the transition into true adulthood. Exams have been scored, dorm rooms are cleared out, and the empty red Solo cups are left to dry out on frat house floors. Career time is here and college graduates are revved up and rearing to start their work lives with the same excitement and spirit they had as college freshmen.

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Best of PayPath

3 Hacks to Rent a Nice Place With Poor Credit and No Security Deposit

Rents are skyrocketing, and incomes are not. One in five millennials are living in poverty, and are either stuck with parents, couch surfing, or on the street. And it's not for lack of effort. Even $15 an hour, in major cities like New York and San Francisco, is just enough on a single income to cover expenses and have maybe have some social life until the next check. God forbid an incident or major expense come up. Tack on having no or poor credit - it's hard to get credit with no credit, and we never learn about this sort of thing in school - and finding an apartment becomes quite the challenge. Add on a security deposit and you see why many young folk are crashing couches or wherever they can. You work hard, you deserve a nice place to rest your head. Here's 3 hacks to rent a nice place with poor credit and no security deposit.

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