Even though the temperatures are rising, the sun is shining, and the birds are singing, many of us still have the economy on our minds. This is perfectly understandable, because while money certainly isn’t everything, it is definitely a requirement in our society. For this edition of In The Sphere, we explore finances in many of its different forms.

Starving College Girl, who some of you may know simply as Lesley Chang, had the unfortunate luck of recently getting laid off. It’s not like the loss of this job came out of left field, but this still puts a serious dent in her financial plans. This is particularly disconcerting, considering that Lesley will soon have to pay $9500 in tuition! Despite all of this, this college gal is maintaining a positive outlook and is working toward a brighter future.

Consumerism Commentary flips conventional wisdom on its head when it comes to real estate. Contrary to what nearly everyone else will tell you, that blogger feels that your house isn’t a good investment. You’ll keep pouring money into repairs and maintenance. The post also notes that “real estate barely beats inflation” in the long run. Do you agree?

John Chow seems like he is leading quite the dream life, being able to earn lots of money while pursuing what he feels is just a hobby. One of his keys to living the dot com lifestyle is to make passive income. This way, the money you make is not directly related to the time that you work. It’s money that generates itself, in many ways, allowing you to spend that time with your family and friends instead.

Dragon Blogger realizes that the world is definitely getting smaller and it’s easier than ever to receive payments from people all around the world. At the same time, Twitter is very much on the rise. How can we combine these two phenomena? Well, that’s where TwitPay: The PayPal of Twitter comes into play. In effect, you can tweet funds over to anyone who can accept money through the Amazon Payments system.

Foximus has a very interesting article on why everybody needs a credit union rather than a regular bank. The key difference between banks and credit unions is that the former have customers whereas the latter have members. In this way, credit unions appear to have a greater obligation to the people who hold accounts with them, including a profit-sharing arrangement. Do you have a credit union?