Being in college, it is sometimes really hard to have enough money to live, let alone extra money to invest! However, because of interest rates, it is obviously in your best interest to start investing now. Most of us don't have consistent salaries while we’re in college, so how do we consistently invest money?

The answer is to simply do your best. It might be impossible to save a thousand dollars a month, but if you can scrounge up 100 bucks or so each month, you will be able to get your investments seeded, so that when you actually do have a salary, it will be extremely easy to fund it and increase your investments. However, if you only have a little bit of money that you can afford to save right now, here is what I would do:

1. Check your savings - If you can find $3,000 (ask your parents?), you will be able to open up an IRA and fund it pretty well for its first year. Although it might seem like a lot of money to come up with, don't forget that $3,000 now will be worth over $350,000 in 40 years, thanks to compound interest.

2. If you are close to having $3,000, save your money for a few months in a high-interest savings account. Once you get enough money, you will be able to open up the IRA.

3. If you won't be able to raise the minimum amount required, open an IRA at an account with low minimums. There are many funds to choose from with low minimums.

4. Alternatively, invest in a non-IRA account until you've saved enough to open up an IRA with the minimum investment. For example, you can make some P2P loans on Lending Club with as little as $25 per loan and then deposit the proceeds in your savings account.

Once you have saved up enough, open up your IRA. Now, you have to fund it.

5. Figure out how much you will have to invest each month. Err on the side of caution here -- how much will you definitely have?

6. Set up an automatic investment - Set your account to automatically take the money from your bank account and deposit it in your fund. By doing this, you will be paying yourself without even seeing the money, removing your own grubby hands from the savings equation. Your fund will have information on how to set up automatic investments.

Once you've followed these steps, you'll have your account set up! That's all there is to it. Pretty simple, huh?

In part 1 of this post, I discussed some money-related tips for planning international travel. This second installment has some suggestions for what to do once you get there.

Use Your ATM to Get Money
There are many options for getting money in a foreign currency. My preferred method is using an ATM machine. ATM machines tend to give very competitive exchange rates. They typically use the average rate for the past few days or weeks, so you won’t be subject to daily fluctuations. Be aware of your bank’s policies on international withdrawals. Sometimes the fees for such transactions can outweigh the savings you’ll get from a good exchange rate.

If You Exchange Money, Use a Bank
It’s always a good idea to have some cash on hand when you travel. Though you may not get quite as good an exchange rate as through an ATM, you can usually get a decent rate at a local bank. Avoid exchanging money at airports and train stations, as these tend to have the worst rates. You may need to exchange a small amount of money right when you arrive, just to have some local currency for taxis, snacks, etc, but save your bulk exchanges until you’ve found a stand-alone bank.

Don’t Bother with Travelers Checks
In the few places that travelers checks are accepted, you’ll be charged a fee to cash them and typically get a poor exchange rate. Adding in the cost that your bank charged you to purchase them, travelers checks are one of the most expensive ways to get money in a foreign country. They are better off left at home.

Don’t Re-Exchange Money Before Returning Home
Unless you have a large amount of foreign currency left over, don’t exchange it back to dollars before you leave. It’s not worth paying the commission again on a small sum of money, and it's nice to have a little bit of foreign currency available for your next visit. If you expect to need some cash when you arrive home, you might want to set aside a small amount of your travel money to keep in your own native currency.

Watch for Scams in Touristy Areas
While guide books are great for seeing the sights, they generally don’t tell you about the latest scams that tourists are subjected to in your destination country. Upon arrival, ask at your hotel if there are any popular tourist scams that you need to be aware of. You can also find a lot of useful information, as well as travel advisories, at the US Department of State’s website.

While these tips certainly don’t cover everything you’ll need to know for a successful trip, I hope that they do make your travels more pleasurable. These suggestions, along with the other topics discussed on the Lending Club blog, should help you to be particularly money conscious during your trip. If you need help paying for that trip of a lifetime, remember that a P2P loan from Lending Club is a much more affordable financing option than charging your way across the country or around the world.

A few days ago, I wrote about the different types of IRAs, and I recommended that everyone open up an IRA and try to fund it the best they can. How do you open up an IRA? Piece of cake. It's a 3-step process that doesn't take as much time as you think.

#1 - Choose a location for your IRA

First off, you need to choose a broker for your account. You can choose from any number of brokers. If you are setting up a new account, you might look for brokers offering low fees and an easy-to-use web site. Check out this cool page on The Motley Fool site, where you can compare a couple of brokers together.

#2 - Open the account!

Now you need to actually create an account. Regardless of which type of IRA you choose, all you have to do is enter in your bank account info to automatically transfer over money, or you can mail in a check.

#3 - Fund your account

Now that you have money transferred over, you need to invest it. Roth-IRAs have a max of $4,000 a year, so you should be trying to invest as close to $4k as you can. Other types of retirement accounts will have different limits, so you should check your account rules carefully. Next, you just need to search for a ticker symbol or browse by index and mutual funds, choose one you like, and buy it. For beginners, I definitely recommend basic index funds---they are simple, easy, and very profitable.

That's all there is to it! Like I said, piece of cake.

Having lived, worked, and traveled abroad, I’ve had many experiences dealing with money internationally. Below are some of the lessons that I’ve learned in my travels. While the majority of my travel has been throughout Europe, these tips are likely to apply to most foreign destinations.

The time of day, day of the week, and number of days before your trip can all have a huge impact on the cost of your airfare. I’ve found that just after midnight (Eastern Standard Time) is one of the best times of day to book my travel. It seems as though many temporary ticket holds expire at midnight, freeing up more options for you to choose from.

The day of the week that I choose to book on varies with the airline. Different airlines announce their latest deals on different days, so get to know the release schedule for your preferred airline. Many of their websites give suggestions on finding low fares, which often includes this information.

Remember to clear your browser’s cookies if you compare fares frequently. Some airlines will use cookies from recent visits to their website to only show you fares that you’ve already seen, even if lower fares now exist.

Tell your bank and your credit card company about your trip. While this might seem like a waste of time, some companies automatically deny credit on foreign transactions unless they are aware of your trip. Generally, purchasing an international plane ticket on the card will alert the company that you’ll be traveling. If you plan to use cards, other than the one you used to book your travel, then a quick phone call to the issuer may save you a headache later.

If your ATM card has a pin that is less than six digits, you might want to increase its length. Many international ATMs require at least 6 digits for your pin. If you do get stuck abroad in this situation, you can try adding zeros before your pin to make the length six digits. That will work in certain situations.

Some of the best deals abroad can be found by pre-purchasing before you leave. I found flexible train tickets at an incredible price, with the only caveat being that they had to be shipped to a US address. So planning was well worth it.

While this post gives tips for what to do before your trip, stay tuned to the Lending Club blog for part 2, which will cover your actual time away. Together, these posts should help you to prepare, execute, and experience a trip at reduced cost and with less money troubles.

If you read my article on how to get rich, then without a doubt you are asking yourself one question: "How are you so smart, Maneesh?" But besides that, you are also probably wondering how to start down the investment path. There are many types of retirement accounts that you can open, so let's look at some of the major ones:

1. IRA - A standard, tax-deferred account.

2. Roth-IRA - This account is not tax-deductible, but the distributions from this account are tax-free. This means that when you take money out of the account, you don't pay any taxes.

3. SEP-IRA - This account is for business owners who want a simple, low cost retirement plan.

4. 401(k) - This plan is offered by employers and allows for pre-tax savings and, if you're lucky, employer matching.

5. SIMPLE - This type of plan is for small businesses that want to offer a 401(k)-esque plan without the complexities of actually setting up a 401(k).

There are a few more, including Money Purchase Pension Plans and Profit Sharing Plans, but we’ll focus on the above five since they are the most common types. First of all, SIMPLE IRAs (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees) and 401(k)s are generally offered by companies. If you are self-employed, you might consider opening up a SEP-IRA because they are very simple to deal with and contribute to.

Depending on your own financial situation, you might want to first look at a Roth-IRA. Unlike traditional IRAs, Roth-IRAs don't give you a tax-deduction when you deposit money into the account. However, when you withdraw from it, the money is tax-free. This means that you actually get to keep ALL the money that you made in interest when you pull the money out. Check out my article on compound interest --the tax savings from this can be HUGE.

If you have the opportunity to fund a 401(k) with employer matching, definitely fund that as much as you can. With employer matching, your company adds money to your account equal to the amount you invest, up to a certain amount. Basically, it’s free money.

For me, I have a Roth-IRA and a SEP-IRA. I fund my Roth completely every year (about $4,000) and the SEP as best I can (25% of my income). I put any money left over into my E*Trade index funds.

Check out this article for a lot of detailed information on retirement savings plans.

In a future article, I will discuss how to open up an IRA. Meanwhile, here is the main takeaway—strongly consider opening an IRA if you have the means to do so. As I noted above, I prefer the Roth-IRA because the tax-free withdrawal is absolutely amazing and its maximum deposit cap is decent. If you put a sufficient amount of money away for your retirement over a long enough timeframe, a comfortable retirement is inevitable. Do it.