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Health & Fitness

Budget Mondays 8/19/2013

Note: Before we begin today, I am happy to announce that, as of today, I am officially a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) in addition to being Certified Public Accountant in the state of New Jersey.

Monday – 8/19/2013

It’s Monday – a painful day for most people, yours truly included. Sometimes it is made even more painful as we remember just how much money we ended up spending over the weekend.

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Budget

It’s one word that can make people cringe, angry and sad all at the same time; a rare occurrence indeed. There are plenty of reasons for this – people are told at work that their budgets are being cut, their ideas cannot be funded because they are not in the budget, and in our personal life, our budgets don’t usually quite match up to our desires.

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This edition of Budget Mondays is an extension of last week’s discussion regarding back-to-school shopping. I had some feedback that confirmed my belief that this period of shopping can be both very expensive and very stressful for people. This edition is more focused on back-to- school shopping for college-age students, will focus specifically on the tablet/laptop wars, and will highlight some of the things to think about when deciding.

•The first thing you should think about when deciding whether to bring laptop or tablet to college with you is what you are going to be using it for. Many students (regular people, too!) who choose laptops over tablets refer to the multi-tasking ability that they have on the laptop that simply is not available on a tablet. One of my personal favorite questions about tablet use is this: have you ever tried to use Excel on a tablet?

•Another thing to keep in mind when it comes to deciding between tablets and laptops is price. This column is called Budget Mondays for a reason, don’t forget. Frankly, an additional incentive to purchase a laptop over a tablet for back to school is the fact that most, if not all, PC makers offer significant discounts on their products during the back-to- school shopping season. This increased affordability is certainly something to be considered.

•Tablets are fantastic for social media, gaming, videoconferencing, are lighter and more portable than laptops, and can fit more comfortably onto the small desks that plague college campuses nationwide. Both technologies can be extremely useful, but both have their pros and cons. It is up to you to decide which one is the best fit for you: I have attached a few links that outline some of the advantages and disadvantages of both.

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