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After my last post, one of our readers correctly noted that it’s not super obvious how to set up a text alert. In addition to replying to his question, I thought I would share it with all of you too.

Here’s how you can set up a Wells Fargo account alert to be sent to a mobile device:

1. Sign on to Wells Fargo online banking.
2. Click on Account Services tab.
3. Under ‘My Profile’ click on Update Contact Information.
4. Enter a number for your mobile device. Your mobile device’s email address is your ten-digit cell phone number @ your provider’s address. Below are a few examples. If your provider is not listed, you should contact them directly.

5. Click on the Messages & Alerts tab.
6. Click Set Up/Modify Alerts.
7. Select the account you want to establish alerts for.
8. Then set up or modify your account alerts.

There are a number of alert options available. You can be notified when your account balance drops below a certain amount, which is helpful in avoiding a sticky overdraft situation. You can also receive your account balance each day or week, find out when a specific check has posted to your account, be notified when a direct deposit is posted to your account, get payment due date reminders for credit accounts and more.

Have any of you already set up text alerts for your accounts? If so, tell us how they work for you.

Rachel

A few years ago when I was a banker, a high school student came in looking for help. He was freaking out because he had overdrawn  his account again and his dad was going to take away his car. "You have to help me!" he pleaded.

Oh, to be in high school again and have the threat of your car being taken away. People, listen: Of all things to have your car taken away for, banking trouble should not be one of them. You got this. Here's what you can do.

1. Make sure you have overdraft protection set up. When you spend more than you have in your account and you have overdraft protection set up, money can be automatically transferred from your savings account or credit card to your checking account to cover whatever you bought. This transfer costs money but it's less than a full overdraft charge. But don't let it come to this. You still have to replenish your savings or pay off that charge to your credit card after the fact. Do what you can to prevent this from happening altogether.


2. Play a little money mind game with yourself. For most of us, if there is money in the account, we're going to spend it, right? And if you only have $5 left in your account until Friday and you really want that Red Bull , you are going to justify the purchase. Here's what I used to do: When I opened my checking account with $100, I considered my account at zero. I pretended that $100 = $0. That way I always had an emergency cushion. When I say pretended, I mean it. That $100 in my checking account was invisible to me. Very rarely did I let myself go below the $100 and when I did, it was usually for something "really important: the day before payday.


3. Set up a text message alert to send when you enter the danger zone. You can get a text you when your account gets down to a certain amount, whatever you designate.


4. When in doubt, send a text to check your balance. This way there is no guessing or assuming and you know exactly where you stand.


5. And of course, be sure you are logging in to online banking as often as you do Facebook.  Knowing what's up will help you stay out of trouble, at least with your bank account.

Rachel

I caught a little heat from my boss after she read my last post on internships because I failed to mention that my job now actually sprung from an internship she granted me five (whoa!) years ago with Wells Fargo. Oops.

So here's my Wells Fargo internship story.

I had just graduated from college with a degree in Journalism and an emphasis in advertising. I needed a job. My neighbor worked for Wells Fargo and said they were hiring. So I applied for a banker job. Banker. A Journalism major? I know.

It was interesting at first. I might as well have superglued  my calculator to my right arm. After learning the ropes at my branch, I heard about the marketing department. Light bulb! I knew what I wanted to do.

Here are the steps I took:

• Requested an informational interview with the Marketing Manager.
• Received word that she was willing to meet with me! Celebrated by buying a new outfit to wear for the meeting.
• Arrived embarrassingly early (I think 45 minutes. This is not advisable. I really should have stopped for coffee to kill time — decaf, of course).
• Attempted to ask insightful, intelligent questions during the interview.
• Sent a thank-you note. 
• Wrote one of my college professors asking him for advice on what to do from there.
• Traveled to Europe with my BFF  and realized I wanted to move to be closer to her and my friends.
• Requested a job transfer.
• Arrived at new branch.
• Checked into new region's marketing set up. Found out they were looking for an INTERN!
• Hiring manager called her college professor asking for student recommendations (the SAME college professor I had asked for advice).
• Applied for the internship.
• Was given 24-hour notice for the interview.
• Was super nervous and choked a little during the interview but mentioned the informational meeting I'd had (bonus!).
• Miraculously an internship offer was extended.
• I accepted!

Five years later, I've graduated from intern to marketing consultant and I'm ever so thankful for every opportunity that's come my way. I really I think it comes down to knowing what you want, learning everything you can about it (and all things related to it) and demonstrating all the great things you have to offer to contribute to it. I'm still earning my stripes in my job, and all the basics continue to help me as I work toward whatever comes next.

Rachel

Internships. A good one can be like the holy grail for college students.

It would be great if we could all be like Lauren Conrad and land one at Teen Vogue straight out of high school. But in reality, a lot of students wind up with internships that feel like they're one step up from a temp. Think Ryan from The Office. And before you wear the humbling title of intern, you first have to go through the painstaking process of seeking one out.

I remember touring Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (my version of Teen Vogue) in college. They're the advertising agency that created the Got Milk? advertising campaign. When asked how one could score an internship working for them, the recruiter replied with something to the effect of, "If you're smart enough to know about us, we'll give you an internship." Oh, and in the same breath she explained that their internships are unpaid. Right.

I still don't know how exactly an unpaid internship is manageable when you are working your way through college. And because I was never able to figure that out, it was goodbye, Goodby.

There's some truth to the old sayings:

"It's not what you know, it's who you know."
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
"Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is."

At my college, an internship was required to graduate. I completely stressed out over finding an internship that was a) in my related field of study (a caveat to the requirement) and b) paid. Then, one night at the grocery store, I bumped into one of my college teachers, who also happened to be a city councilman. By the next week, I was a Public Information Office Intern.

You may be thinking, well la te da, Rachel. The thing is, once you start meeting people, your exposure to opportunities increase. Talk to your professors, your guidance counselor, your friends and their parents. Work the six degrees of separation to your advantage. Go to a local rotary or chamber of commerce meeting. Attend a networking luncheon in your related field, like the American Marketing Association. Research other groups in your area like a young professional's network.

Put yourself out there!

Before you know it, you'll be jumping up and down in the produce section of the grocery store thanking your lucky stars.

Rachel

They say it's best to move every ten years or so in order to manage the clutter that builds over time. When you are in college, it seems like you are moving a lot. I certainly was, especially around the holidays.

At my college, we had to move out of the dorms and the sororities over the winter break. Friends with trucks and apartments with comfy couches were in high demand. I fondly remember a time when everything I owned fit in the back of my Subaru Forester .

I recently had to move out of my cubical to make way for new carpet being installed in our office building. Turns out, the same principles apply at work when you move. I had only been occupying my space in the cube farm  for four years but managed to fill half a shred bin of old files and stuff I kept just in case.

It felt marvelous re-organizing my paper clips and push pins, sorting them back out to their proper divided space in the top drawer tray. And even better, properly filing things I casually jammed into my bottom drawer (AKA "The Black Hole") when there just wasn't time to bother.

I love being organized.

For those of you preparing to move (yet again) in the next couple of weeks, I have one piece of advice for you: Get some Scotch tear by hand tape . It's amazing — so much easier than working the tape gun monster .

How about you? Are you required to move out over winter break?

Rachel

Do you listen to music while you study? I did. I watched movies, too. And even now, when work calls for some late-night overtime, I still do.

Do you think it's a Gen Y  thing? Or just a way some people tune out the noise by choosing their own tunes?

In college, my four roommates and I would put on a movie — one we'd all seen hundreds of times — and work away on papers and flashcards, only pausing every now and then to throw out a line like, "You must chill! You must chill!" , "I carried a watermelon"  or "Aspen! Mmmm California. Beautiful." 

Recently, my dad called me to discuss this very topic. One of his employees was listening to the radio at his desk. My dad asked him to turn it off and told him that music in the workplace is inappropriate.

I told my dad he should stop asking the reverend from Footloose  for business advice.

He ended up reading the copy of When Generations Collide  I had bought for him, and a compromise with his employee was somehow made — but not without a reminder of how dancing to my iPod in my cubicle truly does contribute to my success.

Tonight I put on a recorded episode of Austin City Limits : Aimee Mann  followed by Iron & Wine . What a glorious evening.

Sometimes, it just takes a good groove to get in the groove.

So what's your preferred studying soundtrack?

Rachel

I recently came down with the cold/flu bug that everyone seems to be sharing this month. While glued to my couch with my "supplies" (Odwalla , applesauce , Emergen-C , biscuits  and soup ), I watched an unhealthy amount of television &mdash including every episode of the incredibly lame addictive new Bravo show Millionaire Matchmaker . The main dame, Patti, is really passionate about her business and is pretty straight-up with her approach to matchmaking.

What got me thinking were these love-challenged millionaires. What are they doing to make their millions? What are they doing to be financially successful? But clearly that's not what the show is about.

As for the rest of us "common folk" and millionaire wannabes, I myself have been trying to be a little more disciplined about saving money lately. Wells Fargo tells me the easiest way is to make it automatic. So I did. Check out My Savings Plan. (Not mine, but how to set up yours.)

What you do is create an automatic transfer from your checking to your savings every month. Or, separate from My Savings Plan, if you have direct deposit, you can divvy up your paycheck to have some go into checking and some going into savings, automatically. Money you don't see in your checking account is money you won't spend, right?

On that note, if you are really into tricking yourself with the whole out of sight, out of mind bit, you can alter the look of your online banking accounts. If you click on the "Account Services" tab, then select "Remove Accounts" (under "Account Information"), you can actually hide your savings account from yourself. You are not cancelling your account &mdash simply removing it from your view. (And you can always add it back just as easy.) This way, you know how much you are saving in your head and on your monthly statements, but it's not staring you in the face with every online session taunting you: I'm liquid savings and can easily be yanked out to buy an iPhone  .

Yes — automatic savings gets a bravo in my book!

Rachel

I’m one of those people who make a list for everything. By the end of the week, I have a sizable collection of post-it notes in my purse ranging from new websites to check out to funny words or quotes I heard to stuff to buy. I’m also a doodler, a paper fanatic and obsessive about writing instruments. So it makes sense that I make lists, if not for any other reason but to put ink on paper, well, just because.

While I have a talent for making lists, just because, I also am a bit neurotic about maintaining a serious actionable to-do list at work and at home. I read a study somewhere that proved it is possible to get a rush of adrenaline when you cross something off a to-do list. Of course, the day I read this was the day I began adding things to my to-do list I had already done, just for the satisfaction of running my black Sharpie  through the middle of it.

It’s that time of year when I take my cue from the big guy in red  as I make my lists and check them twice before leaving the house to join the holiday crowds. It’s also time for many students to begin making their lists for the upcoming semester. Here are a few topics that may be on yours:

• Register for spring classes
• Look up scholarship deadlines
• Figure out how to apply for a Federal Loan
• Schedule a call with a loan expert
• Return library books
• Download exclusive music

As for my lists – today I ran into the kitchen waving our master holiday shopping list in the air at my husband as if it were a winning lottery ticket.

Holiday shopping? Check.
Adrenaline pumping? Check.
Celebrating good times? Check!

Sending you warm wishes for fun, safe and splendid holidays.

Editor’s note: Rachel and the rest of the Student LoanDown team will be on holiday hiatus until the new year. See you in 2008!

Rachel

Last weekend I decided to extend my personal Friday cubical dance party into the weekend by volunteering at a local high school dance. It was so great to see students releasing their pent up energy into the rhythm of the night. Hands in the air, shouting the lyrics to every verse, laughing and showing off their moves — they were in their element.

People (rightfully) laugh at my "Ellen-esque"  dance parties at work. For me it takes the edge off the corporate work environment and releases a bit of my anxiety. As a student, I think these casual high school dances offer the same type of thing — a pressure release where you can go out with friends and dance off the stress of being in school.

In high school (and life in general) we spend a lot of time working on (and worrying about) our image and making sure we look good on paper. For high school students, it's SAT scores, grade point averages and the right combination of club memberships, student government experience and being on a varsity sports team. In "the real world," it's your job title, degrees of education, performance reviews, community involvement, hobbies and some type of luxury fluff like season tickets or country club memberships.

But we are so much more than just our MySpace profiles. As they say in Transformers , we are all "more than meets the eye." This is because our personalities can't be bottled and branded. We are individuals. We are human. We are interesting. We all have our own story to tell.

When you are writing your college entrance essays and interviewing for scholarships, remember to show who you really are, on and off paper. I once won a college scholarship over several of my classmates who were way more qualified (on paper) than I was. No joke, there was the valedictorian, the student body president, the volunteer wiz-kid, and me — the girl who scored a lousy 970 on her SATs. I was awarded the scholarship because I aced the interview by being myself. (BTW, if you are looking for scholarships, be sure you check out this online search engine  to help you.)

This is not to say the stuff on paper doesn't count — it definitely does. (I had to work hard to make up for my horrible SAT performance.) But equally important is your character and expressing the goodness that can't be communicated on paper.

Find your "ness"  and let it shine.

Rachel

It's official: I'm a married woman. And big changes are happening, starting with my name. I opted to take my husband's last name. My husband. I'm still getting used to that word and also introducing myself as Rachel Curran.

Speaking of big changes—I have a hot tip for those of you who are preparing to leave home and move to college soon. Contact your friends and family members who are getting married this summer and let them know your plans to move. More than likely, they will welcome you to their endless supply of boxes, packing material, and a slew of used household goods (especially kitchen supplies).

Like many couples, we decided to register for some new household items and upgraded from plastic to stainless, glass to crystal and dull to Wüsthof . Most of our wedding guests shipped gifts directly to our home, which were expertly wrapped with yards and yards of paper and bubble wrap.

As we opened these wonderful gifts, I began a new phase of married life—"nesting." This involves me running around our house for two straight days having a Feng shui  attack. I now have a solid Goodwill  pile going (which my brother has already raided), a garage full of boxes, and a heart full of gratitude.

Now, one can only be entertained by cardboard forts with bubble wrap driveways for so long. (Who says marriage has to equal maturity?) Eventually, the materials will need to be taken to the curb or recycled through a friend. Save some money on your moving supplies and ask the newlyweds if you can help them recycle their packing material. Your friends, the environment, and your budget will thank you for it.

What budget-friendly moving tips do you have?

Editor's note: The former Rachel Statham married Jim Curran on June 24, 2007. Congrats to the newlyweds!