Building? Expect unexpected costs

Building a home from the ground up was one of the best experiences of my life, but I learned some tough financial lessons along the way, said Beth DeCarbo in The Wall

Street Journal. Just waiting to break ground involved several major hurdles, such as “getting the floor plans approved by the development’s architectural-review committee, which meets monthly.” All the paperwork pushed our start date back six months. By then, we had sold our old house in New York and had to rent a home and put our furniture in storage. “That set us back about $20,000.” Expenses quickly add up, such as $1,400

“for a required topographical map and tree inventory.” I also should have “asked more questions about cost-savings up front”—for example, whether a different floor plan would have been less expensive to build on our steeply sloped lot.

was founded in 1998, after New York state eliminated college degree programs in its prisons. Believing that education is the key to reducing recidivism rates, the charity partners with eight colleges to offer accredited courses and associate and bachelor’s degrees in five correctional facilities across the state. The organization runs four programs designed to help inmates at every stage of their educational pursuits during and after incarceration, including an intensive one-year college prep course, and job search assistance to help them successfully transition back into society. Hudson Link has since awarded more than

700 degrees, and only 2 percent of the inmates it serves return to prison.