Top 10 Financial Tips For Students
The financial moves you make today can have a major impact on the rest of your life. Accumulate a lot of credit card debt, and you’ll spend years paying it off. Save/invest early on, and you’ll enjoy more abundance. As a student, now is the time to be more purposeful about your finances. The habits you establish today can set you up for a lifetime of opportunity. Here are some tips to get you on the right path.
B is for Budget
Basically, a budget is you telling your money what to do. (It’s you taking control of your money rather than your money controlling you.) Imagine you have a classroom with 15 desks. When you create a budget, you give each desk a label. Think car payment, tuition, gas money, clothing, cell phone bill, food, insurance, etc. Your job when creating a budget is to assign a certain amount of money to each desk with the goal being that you have enough funds to cover all your expenses, plus have a little extra left over for savings. You can create a budget using pen and paper or track everything from your phone with an app.
Spending? Write it down.
Write down everything you spend, from your morning coffee to late-night movie streaming. This helps you see how much you spend—and on what—so you can make adjustments as needed to meet your goals. For instance, if your goal is to save more each month, you’ll have a good idea of where you can cut back. Like that daily coffee, for example. It might seem like a small expense but over the course of a week or month, it adds up.
Make saving a habit.
When you make saving a habit, it stays with you for life, enabling you to work toward your future goals. It matters more that you save, not how much you save. So set aside whatever amount you can toward a savings account—and start manifesting a more abundant future. Aim to have three to six months’ worth of expenses saved up in case of an emergency.
Automate your savings.
A good way to make saving easy is through automation. You can have funds automatically deducted from your paycheck and placed in a separate, interest-bearing savings account, so you don’t even see it. (Out of sight, out of mind!) Start small. For instance, you can save $100 or even just $50 per month. Soon you’ll have a special savings fund that can help you through an emergency or toward a big purchase.
Automate your bills, so you’re never late.
When you forget to pay your bills, or you pay them late, it can hurt your credit score and lead to late fees or higher interest rates. By automating your bill payments, you’ll be on time, every time—which shows creditors that you are financially responsible. Hello, higher credit score.
Learn to invest.
Investing is crucial for growing your money. Even as a student, you can invest part of your paycheck in retirement accounts. Or you may want to open a high-yield savings account to earn a more competitive interest rate but also have easy access to your money if you need it quickly. The earlier you start, the more you’ll be able to take advantage of the power of compounding—which helps you generate greater returns over time.
Be smart about credit.
Credit can be a great tool to help you achieve financial security. Without credit, it’s hard to buy a car or a home. While credit can be useful, it can also be detrimental if you aren’t careful with it. Know the terms of the credit cards or loans you take out and be careful about going too far into debt. If you are in serious credit difficulty, seek help from a reputable credit counseling service.
Take inventory on recurring fees.
Be sure to look through all your bills for recurring fees, such as streaming services, subscriptions, gym memberships, etc. These can add up and eat through a big chunk of your money. If you aren’t getting enough bang for your buck, cancel them ASAP.
Pick up a side hustle.
As a student, you have the flexibility in your schedule that allows you to earn side income with jobs such as dog and house sitting, tutoring, dorm cleaning, work study, freelance writing, making deliveries, etc. Look at job boards, ask around. There are plenty of ways to earn money.
Eat at home.
You’re a busy college student and probably don’t want to cook meals at home, but you’ll save lots of money doing it. Eating out gets expensive especially when you add up the cost of the meal, tax, gratuity, and delivery fees. You could set aside one day of the week to buy groceries and prepare and freeze meals to last all week. There are plenty of cooking sites online that cater to the needs and budget of students.
At Centreville Bank, we offer a variety of checking, savings, credit solutions, and retirement accounts as well as tools to help you automate your savings and your bills. Whatever your goal, we have an account to help you achieve it.
B is for Budget
Basically, a budget is you telling your money what to do. (It’s you taking control of your money rather than your money controlling you.) Imagine you have a classroom with 15 desks. When you create a budget, you give each desk a label. Think car payment, tuition, gas money, clothing, cell phone bill, food, insurance, etc. Your job when creating a budget is to assign a certain amount of money to each desk with the goal being that you have enough funds to cover all your expenses, plus have a little extra left over for savings. You can create a budget using pen and paper or track everything from your phone with an app.
Spending? Write it down.
Write down everything you spend, from your morning coffee to late-night movie streaming. This helps you see how much you spend—and on what—so you can make adjustments as needed to meet your goals. For instance, if your goal is to save more each month, you’ll have a good idea of where you can cut back. Like that daily coffee, for example. It might seem like a small expense but over the course of a week or month, it adds up.
Make saving a habit.
When you make saving a habit, it stays with you for life, enabling you to work toward your future goals. It matters more that you save, not how much you save. So set aside whatever amount you can toward a savings account—and start manifesting a more abundant future. Aim to have three to six months’ worth of expenses saved up in case of an emergency.
Automate your savings.
A good way to make saving easy is through automation. You can have funds automatically deducted from your paycheck and placed in a separate, interest-bearing savings account, so you don’t even see it. (Out of sight, out of mind!) Start small. For instance, you can save $100 or even just $50 per month. Soon you’ll have a special savings fund that can help you through an emergency or toward a big purchase.
Automate your bills, so you’re never late.
When you forget to pay your bills, or you pay them late, it can hurt your credit score and lead to late fees or higher interest rates. By automating your bill payments, you’ll be on time, every time—which shows creditors that you are financially responsible. Hello, higher credit score.
Learn to invest.
Investing is crucial for growing your money. Even as a student, you can invest part of your paycheck in retirement accounts. Or you may want to open a high-yield savings account to earn a more competitive interest rate but also have easy access to your money if you need it quickly. The earlier you start, the more you’ll be able to take advantage of the power of compounding—which helps you generate greater returns over time.
Be smart about credit.
Credit can be a great tool to help you achieve financial security. Without credit, it’s hard to buy a car or a home. While credit can be useful, it can also be detrimental if you aren’t careful with it. Know the terms of the credit cards or loans you take out and be careful about going too far into debt. If you are in serious credit difficulty, seek help from a reputable credit counseling service.
Take inventory on recurring fees.
Be sure to look through all your bills for recurring fees, such as streaming services, subscriptions, gym memberships, etc. These can add up and eat through a big chunk of your money. If you aren’t getting enough bang for your buck, cancel them ASAP.
Pick up a side hustle.
As a student, you have the flexibility in your schedule that allows you to earn side income with jobs such as dog and house sitting, tutoring, dorm cleaning, work study, freelance writing, making deliveries, etc. Look at job boards, ask around. There are plenty of ways to earn money.
Eat at home.
You’re a busy college student and probably don’t want to cook meals at home, but you’ll save lots of money doing it. Eating out gets expensive especially when you add up the cost of the meal, tax, gratuity, and delivery fees. You could set aside one day of the week to buy groceries and prepare and freeze meals to last all week. There are plenty of cooking sites online that cater to the needs and budget of students.
At Centreville Bank, we offer a variety of checking, savings, credit solutions, and retirement accounts as well as tools to help you automate your savings and your bills. Whatever your goal, we have an account to help you achieve it.