If you are eager to emerge from college without too much debt and with a prosperous financial future ahead of you, it’s time to become more prudent with your pennies. You might have enjoyed some expensive nights out at college, you may have taken out a credit card and you might be worried about paying back any student loans. Don’t bury your head in the sand and hope for the best as you graduate. You need to formulate a financial plan now to get all of your monetary ducks in a row.
Shift The Debt
If you have debt, whether it be a loan or credit cards, you need to start paying it back now. Don’t wait until you graduate. Think about getting a part time job that fits around your studies. A maximum of twelve hours a week shouldn’t hinder your essay writing or impact on your revision. However, the money that you earn can be used to clear credit card debt. This is the debt that accrues the most interest and stays lingering around your neck for the longest. Ensure that you pay off more than the minimum amount each month to start clearing the capital. If your interest rate is double figures, it pays to check out those cards that have zero per cent on balance transfers. This means any amount you put onto this card will not gain interest for six or twelve months, meaning anything you pay back is purely capital, helping you to shift your debt faster.
Portfolio
If you have some savings in your account, don’t just let them languish in there accruing the minimum amount of interest. Yes, it’s low risk but it’s also unrewarding. Instead, seek the advice of RMR Wealth Builders, Inc to help generate a personal financial plan and advise on the best investments for you to make returns on your cash. Alternatively, you could seek out your own investments. Think about investing in property, experimenting with Forex trading, purchasing some wine to invest in over a decade or more, or picking up some antiques of the future at auction. By thinking ahead, you can save for a rainy day and have a nest egg.
Job
Before you graduate, you should be hunting for your first job. Attend the graduate careers fairs to check out the sort of professional life you could lead. While money isn’t everything and shouldn’t be your sole motivation, think about maximizing your chances of securing the highest wage for your first job out of college. Get a part time job, do some volunteer work, and gain some experience by traveling or taking part in extra-curricular activities. When you do secure your first graduate role, you need to think about saving at least a third of this to generate a bank of cash for if times get hard. You also need to live within your means and try to utilize this wage without having to take on more debt.
Being financially prudent isn’t a skill that you are born with. However, you can learn how to be responsible with your cash so that money worries don’t encroach on your post-college life.
Living within your means isn’t always easy, but it is undoubtedly necessary to being financially sound after college. For this, you should aim to save more money through as many means as possible. Cut back on several expenses that are not entirely important so that you can have extra cash for other things. You can open a savings account to build a decent amount of money consistently over time steadily. It will also help if you take advantage of several opportunities to save money while shopping. For example, these days, there are several discounts and coupons you can enjoy with Checkout Saver to help you save some cash on your everyday purchases from leading retailers.