Plan Your Free Online Education at Lifehacker U: Spring Semester 2015

Your education doesn’t have to stop once you leave school—freedom from the classroom just means you have more control over what you learn and when you learn it. We’ve put together a curriculum of some of the best free online classes available on the web this spring (yes, and winter) for the latest term of Lifehacker U, our regularly-updating guide to improving your life with free, online college-level classes. Let’s get started. via Plan Your Read more…

How to Calm Your Nerves Before Making a Terrifying Speech

A lot of the stress and fear comes from the unknown. You don’t know what’s going to happen, maybe you don’t know who is going to be there, and you may not be familiar with the space. You can reduce that fear factor some by eliminating as many unknowns as you can. Performance coach Edwin Rice at Noomii suggests spending some time in the space before other people get there if possible: via How to Read more…

Your Game Plan for Escaping the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle – The Simple Dollar

Take 30 minutes and go through this article and then put it into practice. This is the part of “fixing your finances” that many people associate with misery. They have this idea that any cutting back at all is going to make their life miserable and that any choice not to spend is absolutely painful. via Your Game Plan for Escaping the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle – The Simple Dollar.

How to Keep Your Internet-Connected Home Safe and Secure

Finally, it’s important to remember that the weakest link in the security chain is always the end user. That means you. If you don’t take the time to educate yourself on how to protect your data and your devices, you’ll leave holes in your home network that can lead to identity theft, fraud, or malicious users using your devices for their own purposes. That could mean your PC becomes a zombie in a DDOS attack Read more…

Can You Manage Finances Like a 12-Year-Old? –

Can you follow the requirements that 12-year-old boy scouts are given for their personal management merit badge?  Honestly if we could get more kids to do this or adults then we would have a better finance situation with less debt all the way around.  I think you’ll be shocked at the requirements and the amount of planning.  Could you do it? via Can You Manage Finances Like a 12-Year-Old? –.

The Secrets Behind Successful Budgeting – The Simple Dollar

Budgets alone don’t solve all of your problems, just like training wheels alone don’t make you into an expert bicyclist. Instead, both training wheels and budgets teach you the basics and enable you to get started on your path. They can stick around for as long as you need them and you can easily remove them when you feel you’re ready to move forward on your own. Budgets are not law. They are not a Read more…

8 Free Privacy Programs Worth Your Year-End Donations | WIRED

So as the end of 2014 approaches, this might be the time to add a few free software security projects like the ones we’ve listed below to your annual tax-deductible donations. “There’s no way around it. If we want tools that are secure and usable, then these projects need funding,” says Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit that has run fundraising campaigns for encryption software. “They don’t have Read more…