I've written about the power of personal networks before. Unfortunately, lots of people find networking intimidating for a variety of reasons. Certainly, I used to! For me, breaking networking down into a system that I can follow helps me overcome nervousness and network effectively. Here are the two main networking strategies that I use.

Networking via "keeping it warm"

What it is: Keeping it warm is a pretty straightforward strategy. It means that you don't wait until you need something before getting in touch with your professional connections.<

It's both fascinating and useful to calculate the value of your time. Financial freedom gives you options and flexibility. But without time, that means nothing. Time is a precious resource that we should spend wisely.

Knowing the value of your time is helpful for a variety of reasons:

• If you're a freelancer, it can help you decide on gigs.

(This is Part III in a series about challenging traditional measures of financial success. Part I was The “Ivory Tower”: Reconsidering the college investment. Part II was Challenging traditional measures of financial success: Homeownership.)

It was the first semester of my first year of college. My friend and I were driving around our small town, looking for something to eat. But we didn't have much money, so our options were limited. Chili's sounded good, but neither of us could really afford it.

"It's weird to think one day we won't have to worry about this," my friend said. "In a few years, we'll graduate, and we'll have jobs that pay us like, $30,000 a year and we can go to Chili's whenever we want."

In an ideal world, you wouldn't need to go negotiate. In an ideal world, the weather would be perfect, there would be no war, and your employer would simply say, "Hey, your value to our company has increased. Here's ten thousand dollars."

If only, right? When it comes to earning more, negotiating is usually a necessary part of the equation. The negotiating masters among us have a serious leg up.

I do not have a leg up. In most circumstances, I dread negotiating. I'd rather watch paint dry than negotiate. I'd rather eat a chard smoothie. I'd rather give someone a ride to the airport at 8am on a Monday.

[Editor's Note: Kristin Wong penned this article on money management tips even through your fears a couple years ago, but it's as relevant today as it was then.]

My first year of high school, I was looking for an easy, goof-off elective -- a class that would allow me to take a break in between Geometry and English, and maybe catch up on some magazines or take a quick nap. "Debate" sounded right up my half-assed alley.

A few years ago, my little brother moved his family to Seattle. His wife had received a promotion and an opportunity to work at her company's flagship location. The offer was too good to refuse. There was just one problem: They moved before Tony could find a job.

Tony's wife enjoyed her new position and increased salary. He pounded the pavement looking for work. He had no luck. When he was in Portland a few months later, he stopped by my place for a beer.

"How are things going?" I asked.

I recently read a short article in The New Yorker titled "The Cult of Overwork." In it, James Surowiecki writes:

"For decades, junior bankers and Wall Street firms had an unspoken pact: in exchange for reasonably high-paying jobs and a shot at obscene wealth, young analysts agreed to work fifteen hours a day, and forgo anything resembling a normal life."

Reading that, I had a thought. If you're working 75 hours a week, is your job really "high-paying"?

When I (or others) want to improve our financial situations, most excuses involve time. I am too busy to take on another job. I don't have time to start that business I've wanted to start for the last three years. I wish I could really get my financial ducks in a row, but I feel like I'm already using every spare minute of my days.

While time budgeting and money budgeting share a lot of similarities, the interesting thing about time budgeting is that, while we all have the same number of hours in each day, we just don't get the same number of days in our lives. As my life gets more full, I experience more challenges balancing the demands on my time. I want to use my time wisely so I have more time to do the things that really matter. And maybe, just maybe I will have time to start that business that I definitely was going to start in 2013. Ha.

Mind over matter

In 2009, Kasey O. graduated college with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Media Arts & Animation. With the support of her family, friends, school guidance counselors, and high school teachers, she had finally earned a college degree in a field that fulfilled her passion. Kasey was proud, hopeful, and ready to begin her dream career. But unfortunately for Kasey, things weren't exactly what they seemed.

What Kasey didn't know was that she had borrowed nearly $80,000 for her degree. She didn't realize that interest accrued while she was in school either, which came as quite as a surprise. Upon graduation, the interest on Kasey's student loans capitalized, leaving her just under $100,000 in debt. And, even after making over $17,000 in payments over the last three years, Kasey still owes around $95,000.

Kasey's student loan debt remains a hardship to this day, mainly due to the fact that she's never been able to find employment in her field. But, even if she had, it's unlikely that she would be much better off.

In 2000, I graduated from my first round of post-secondary education and landed a job. My first annual salary was about 13 times more than my entire education had cost me. It wasn't that my job paid so well, but that my education had been so inexpensive.

Now that my husband and I are parents, we have some decisions to make regarding our children's education. We, of course, want to find the best value possible…you know, an inexpensive but good education. With the average student holding over $26,000 in student loans, though, do "inexpensive" and "education" even belong in the same sentence?

I keep hearing that it's a different environment now than it was when I got my first job (and it is). But is it so different that an expensive education at a four-year institution is the only option? Continue reading...