Financial Preparedness for College: Budgeting and Managing Expenses – BlackDoctor.org

If you are a college student in today’s society, then you know there are a lot of expenses and temptations that’ll make you want to spend recklessly. College life has many impacts that can affect your life, especially regarding your finances. Attending college unprepared financially can be a big downfall for most in the long run, so here are a few tips for handling things financially. Creating a budget is the most efficient way for you to become more financially free in college without stressing about whether you can afford the things you desire or need. These are the steps to making a very efficient budget for your college life. 

Building A Solid Budget

The first step to making an efficient budget is calculating your income or net worth. This is your take-home pay, total wages, or salary that you receive. Focusing on your total salary instead of your net income can cause you to start overspending because it’ll cause you to think that you have more in your savings than you do. It’s different for those who don’t have a 9-5 job, for instance, if you are a freelancer, gig worker, or if you’re self-employed. This may mean you don’t have a steady income, so you need to be a little more cautious with your funds or find a way to increase your income. When making your budget, you must include your important things over your wants and desires, like food, textbooks, car notes, etc. Make sure these things are what you go into forming your budget around.

Curbing Impulse Spending

Stop recklessly spending and controlling your spending habits on unimportant items is the next step in becoming financially stable in college. Are you someone who impulse shops when scrolling the web and can’t control your urge to buy these cool things that you see? Then listen to this tip. Start by learning to know between the things that you need and the things that you want. As stated in the first statement, know how to budget these things. There may be things such as important software that you may need for a class that you may not be able to pay for because your money has been spent on something unimportant. You could become more financially free once you manage this urge to stop spending. When spending, think about your budget and how it will affect it. Will this purchase affect your budget in a bad way? Ask yourself if it is worth it before spending. 

Student Banking 101

Set up a checking account. Many banks offer students free checking and saving account facilities, which help students save on withdrawal or fund transfer fees. If you are unknowledgeable about this, search and find which bank offers the best facilities. College students, ask questions and make sure you know everything you need to know before creating an account. When setting up a bank account, make sure that you are banking with a company that has ATMS near your campus that’ll save you time and gas from going off campus. This checking account will become your best friend. If you keep making deposits, it’ll grow, and you’ll have a bunch of cash saved up without worries.

Building Credit Responsibly

Get credit cards and know how to use them properly and where to use them. Credit cards can become more essential to those in college. A credit card is so much more convenient than having to carry cash around everywhere. Many companies offer amazing credit cards for students, like Discovery, which offers cards with a balance of $100 or more. They are better than carrying around cash and can help build good credit at a young age. Making your credit in college can be good financially, and it can increase your chances in the future of purchasing a vehicle or leasing an apartment. 

To build good credit, you must learn to be a responsible credit card user. 

• Do not go over your spending limit. 
• Always pay off your credit card balance before the deadline every month (late payments can be very steep and can push you further into debt).  
• Try not to take cash advances on your credit card as much as possible. The interest on cash advances is very high, and you will pay much more for whatever you spend the cash on.

Make a Connection

Finally, buy used books for classes or search online. Yes, books can become a big way to go into debt in college. Most students can barely afford the books that are needed for classes. Most colleges won’t tell you this, but most used books can be bought without you having to spend a bucket load of money on a new one. Another way around this is to go through the internet and look around for websites that may have free book links for those who don’t have the money. In conclusion, college can be a big struggle for students both mentally and financially, but with a lot of research, you can find a way around the struggle.