Search Results for: personal finance

Our college years are full of lessons, both inside and out of the classroom! A major part of why our college years are so formative is the sheer number of novel experiences to encounter. For many, these will be years of exploration and self-discovery. New friends, hobbies, and academic interests are part of the magic of student life!

For most students, this is the time when they first move out and get a taste of independent living. However, once we move on from high school and enter the world of higher education, there can also be many new and unfamiliar responsibilities for students to get used to. For many students, the most pressing of these new responsibilities will revolve around managing their finances. Thankfully, there are tonnes of effective tips and tricks out there to help students get to grip with personal finance management.

Here are some of the need-to-know insights into the world of personal finance management for students that’ll help you make the most of your education!

Budget!

The first step in any plan for responsible money management is creating a solid and realistic personal budget! The best place to start is by simply noting down the total income and output of your personal finances. Begin by making a list of all your sources of income and tally up their total. Once you’ve done that, you can move on to making a list of all the regular expenses you encounter throughout the month.

These regular expenses typically include things like rent, tuition fees, and subscription payments. Once these have been accounted for, you can estimate how much you need for food, socializing, and extra costs that always crop up. It may sound obvious, but without a clear budget that you can easily visualize, it’s all too easy to spend beyond your means only to realize once it’s already too late!

Open a savings account!

Many students find themselves slipping into the habit of overspending. This is especially easy if all your money is sitting in one account. A top tip to avoid veering into overspending is to create a separate savings account in which you deposit the money you have not allocated as part of your budget. Keeping these funds separate from your disposable income will help train your saving skills and draw a clearer line between where you’re saving money and where you’re spending money.

Check for student perks!

Many banks will offer students special perks when it comes to their personal financial management. Student checking accounts often offer their holders very low levels of interest rates for student loans, meaning that you can have peace of mind throughout your studies without constantly worrying about how you’re going to pay off your debt.

Student bank accounts also often offer their holders perks when it comes to spending. Banks often pair up with companies in order to offer their customers better deals in all areas of life. This can lead to savings in the form of supermarket loyalty programs, online shopping discounts, and air miles, and seasonal offers. Always keep up to date with what perks your bank is currently offering its customers in order to snap up the best deals!

Plan for the future

Making the most of your student years doesn’t have to mean forgetting about the future! While living the student life, it’s a great idea to look over the basics of what will arise in your future financial management. Things that seem unimportant while a student may become very important in the future.

Many people are not involved in life planning. But it helps a lot in making important decisions. This is what Eve Maygar, specialist of the PapersOwl Education Platform, says about it “The future is never just one choice. It’s a thousand. And they never stop. You will choose your future every day of your life. And should you wake up one day to find that you regret the choice you made the day before, and then make a new one. Don’t worry about whether you might be wrong someday. Worry about whether you’re right now. Tomorrow can wait. .”

Take credit, for example. Managing credit may seem like some distant problem that can wait for the future, but it’s best to have an idea of what lies ahead. Reckless spending from your checking account as a student could have a negative impact on your credit score later in life. Getting ahead of the curve when it comes to personal money management will help prevent you doing anything that could come back to bite you!

Look for Student Grants

While paying for tuition fees can prove burdensome, being a student does open the door to many opportunities for financial support. There are many grants and bursaries available to students at all levels of education, with a variety of different criteria. Some grants are made available on a merit basis, and with these, hard-working students can squeeze the most out of their top grades!

Other scholarships are made available on a needs basis, meaning that you’re eligible as long as you can prove the need for financial aid. For these, you don’t need to worry about being an ultra high-achiever, as they are intended to make sure no student has to worry about their personal tuition finances.

There are many other niche scholarships waiting to be found out there, for students of particular backgrounds, hobbies, or educational intentions. Whatever your profile, it’s always worth researching whether or not there are any financial support options for a student like yourself. Being awarded a bursary could make your student life a whole lot easier!

These are just a few of the most important things to bear in mind as you approach managing your personal finances as a student. Everybody’s financial situation is unique, but the basics of responsible personal money management remain the same for everyone. With these tips by your side, it’s up to you to begin creating effective financial goals that will get you on the path to saving money. Maintaining good personal finance as a student can act as the ticket that sets you up for life!

It’s always exciting to see your pay stub unless you have a list of debts and bills that leave you with nothing in your account. The worst is there are some bills and debts you can’t ignore, such as rent, a car loan, or a student loan.

You might not clear such debts immediately, but having a working plan can save you the trouble of too many expenses and little income.

Therefore, we want to look at how you can manage your finances better so that every payday isn’t doomsday.

Financial Wisdom for Your Youthful Days

The most obvious starting point is to immerse yourself in financial literature, podcasts, and videos that show you how to save, budget, and invest. Then,

Learn About Credit Options

For example, can you differentiate between a credit card and a line of credit? They’re both revolving credit accounts. With either, you can borrow within the credit limit, which depends on factors like your salary and credit history.

But how do you know if a credit card or line of credit suits you? Here are some differences.

Personal Line of Credit

You may need a line of credit when your salary or income isn’t meeting all your expenses. Therefore, it’s not the kind of loan you ask for to buy a house or car, as such assets have other, more practical, loan options.

Credit Card

Unlike a line of credit, you can still get a credit card even with a lower credit score. On top of that, there are rewards, such as cash-back and point rewards. Other benefits are that you can use a credit card almost anywhere, plus it comes in handy when you have unexpected expenses before payday.

Practice Frugality

Instead of impulse buying, try frugality. Limit your desires and forgo any materialistic standards society imposes on your finances.

Have a Spending Plan

There are many personal finance apps with spending plans (budgeting features). If you run out of money for one expense before payday, a spending plan shows you where to make cuts to cater to the uncovered expense.

Use Cash, Not Credit, More

Pay in cash if you’re having self-control issues with money. If you must have a card, get a debit card.

Discuss Finances with Your Significant Other

Financial strength will change as your needs or family grows, and you ought to be ready for such outcomes.

Pay Off Debts

Unpaid credit card balances accumulate interest and drain your income. Plus, your credit score goes lower. Consequently, see where you can chop your expenses to get extra money and pay off your debts.

Build an Emergency Fund

Calculate the total expenses for three to six months and see how much you can save monthly. This simple tool shows you how to start saving weekly and things to do to have more money to save.

Building an emergency fund might go so well that you change your goals and start saving for retirement.

Final Thoughts

Part of managing your money is looking at your cash flow. How much do you make, and how do you spend it? To manage your money better, create a plan to clear pending loans. Further, build an emergency fund even as you cater to loans and daily expenses.

Lastly, don’t get a credit card unless you can control your spending and your income can pay off the credit card balance.

The good we do to others is spoilt unless we efface ourselves so completely that those we help have no sense of inferiority.
—Honore de Balzac (French Novelist)

If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions; but it is always in apprenticeship and on trial.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Essayist)

He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)

Frequently, trite ideas or unimaginative translation of those ideas is the result not of poor subject matter but of poor interpretation of a problem.
—Paul Rand (American Graphic Designer)

In God we trust; all others must bring data.
—W. Edwards Deming (American Statistician)

We pick our friends not only because they are kind and enjoyable company, but also, perhaps more importantly, because they understand us for who we think we are.
—Alain de Botton (Swiss-born British Philosopher)

The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.
—Jason Zweig (American Personal Finance Columnist)

Like a tortoise withdrawing five limbs into its shell, those who restrain the five senses in one life will find safe shelter for seven.
—The Thirukkural (Indian Tamil Literary Classic)

Do not desire what is impossible.
—Chilon of Sparta (Spartan Magistrate)

A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man—the one he used to be.
—Cesare Pavese (Italian Novelist, Poet)

Just as a man will use a staff to climb a mountain, so should virtue be used in life.
—Yogaswami of Jaffna (Sri Lankan Hindu Religious Leader)

The mind longs for what it has missed.
—Petronius (Roman Courtier)

When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment.
—Pema Chodron (American Buddhist Nun)

You should know, O man, that the greatest enemy you have in the world is your inclination.
—Bahya ibn Paquda (Jewish Philosopher)

Knowledge born of the finest discrimination takes us to the farthest shore. It is intuitive, omniscient, and beyond all divisions of time and space.
—Patanjali (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

When we grow old, there can only be one regret—not to have given enough of ourselves.
—Eleonora Duse (Italian Actress)

Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (Polish Aphorist, Poet)

You can’t sit on the lid of progress. If you do, you will be blown to pieces.
—Henry J. Kaiser (American Industrialist)

He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle man will never find the way to knowledge.
—The Dhammapada (Buddhist Anthology of Verses)

Don’t look with your eyes, look with your feet. Don’t think with your head, think with your hands.
—Taiichi Ohno (Japanese Manufacturing Engineer)

Above all, the prophets remind us of the moral state of a people: Few are guilty, but all are responsible.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel (American Jewish Rabbi)

The most fundamental problem of politics, which is not the control of wickedness but the limitation of righteousness.
—Henry Kissinger (American Diplomat)

It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.
—Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Buddhist Religious Leader)

Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better, silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time.
—Thomas Carlyle (Scottish Writer)

Always so act that the immediate motive of thy will may become a universal rule for all intelligent beings.
—Immanuel Kant (Prussian German Philosopher)

The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied … but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.
—John Berger (English Art Critic, Essayist, Novelist)

A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.
—Herman Melville (American Novelist)

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.
—Martial (Ancient Roman Latin Poet)

With just enough of learning to misquote.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (English Romantic Poet)

Our only true course is to let the motive for action be in the action itself, never in its reward; not to be incited by the hope of the result, nor yet indulge a propensity for inertness.
—Helena Blavatsky (Ukrainian-born American Theosophist)

There are two different states of human existence: first, to live without thinking of death; second, to live with the thought that you approach death with every hour of your life.
—Leo Tolstoy (Russian Novelist)

But life is a battle: may we all be enabled to fight it well.
—Charlotte Bronte (English Novelist, Poet)

People who study psychology and the pitfalls of the human mind are no less prone to making errors of judgement and cognition than people who don’t know anything about it.
—Jason Zweig (American Personal Finance Columnist)

Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
—Plato (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time.
—Lynwood L. Giacomini (American Publisher, Bibliophile)

We have too many people who live without working, and we have altogether too many who work without living.
—Charles Reynolds Brown (American Congregational Clergyman, Educator)

To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action when there is more reason to fear than to hope. ‘Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket.
—Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish Novelist)

Be open to learning new lessons even if they contradict the lessons you learned yesterday.
—Ellen DeGeneres (American Comedian, Television Host)

You have two choices. You can keep running and hiding and blaming the world for your problems, or you can stand up for yourself and decide to be somebody important.
—Sidney Sheldon (American Novelist, Screenwriter)

The greater your capacity to love, the greater your capacity to feel the pain.
—Jennifer Aniston (American Actress)

The advice that sounds the best in the short run is always the most dangerous in the long run.
—Jason Zweig (American Personal Finance Columnist)

You must pray that the way be long, full of adventures and experiences.
—Constantine P. Cavafy (Egyptian Greek Poet, Journalist, Civil Servant)

Character is built into the spiritual fabric of personality hour by hour, day by day, year by year in much the same deliberate way that physical health is built into the body.
—E. Lamar Kincaid (American Protestant Minister)

It’s essentially impossible to become successful or well off doing a job that is described and measured by someone else. The only chance our country (your country, depends where you live), your economy and most of all, your family has to get ahead is this: make up new rules. People who make up new rules continue to be in very short supply.
—Seth Godin (American Entrepreneur)

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
—Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet)

If a man loves the labor of his trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish Novelist)

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
—Nelson Mandela (South African Political leader)

No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.
—Madonna (American Pop Singer, Actress)

Seek those who find your road agreeable, your personality and mind stimulating, your philosophy acceptable, and your experiences helpful. Let those who do not, seek their own kind.
—Henri Fabre (French Aviator)