Promoting Financial Wellness in College
Financial wellness looks different for everyone, and achieving it in college is more reasonable than you think. If you start with the goals in place, you can have financial wellness.
By Nathaniel Tamminga — March 9, 2023
Finances can be one of the most stressful parts of college. Preparing for those stresses can make or break one's college experience. Financial wellness is paying for one's current needs while saving for long-term goals. In college, if you can have financial wellness while getting your education, you will be set up nicely after graduation. When planning financially, you will want to have short-term and long-term goals. Your short-term goals are how to pay for what you need right now. Your long-term goals focus more on saving money.
Set Short-Term Goals
Short-term goals are goals you set to be able to pay for your daily living expenses. These goals can be anything, so this is not an exhaustive list. I will, however, provide you with three ways to boost financial wellness in college. The biggest key to maintaining your short-term goals is budgeting. Now, I know that there are thousands of articles on budgeting, which is different from the purpose of this article, so I will leave the details of budgeting out of this. Budgeting is the most important part because it tells you how much money you need and how much money you have. If you are extremely disciplined, you can have your predicted expenses accurate to a couple of dollars. Having and keeping your budget will help you not to become financially stressed during college.
Scholarships
Scholarships and grants are a great way to relieve financial burdens during college. Scholarships and grants are not the same thing. Scholarships are free money you can apply for through various organizations connected with your school and outside your school. Grants are free money given out by the government, usually to students from lower-income families. Getting scholarships or grants will help to relieve the stress of finances during college.
Student Loans
Student loans are another option to help promote financial wellness in college. However, this is the least desirable option among students. This is because you will have to pay back your loans with interest after leaving college. Student loans have a bad reputation, but if you use them wisely and the rest of the short-term goals, you can have a manageable amount leaving college. First, try to get federal student loans. These loans are either interest-free during your schooling or have low-interest rates compared with other organizations. If you use student loans as a last resort and get low-interest rates, then student loans are a great option for helping your financial wellness during college.
Long Term Goals
Long-term goals are less focused on the immediate and more focused on goals you would like to accomplish by the end of college. These goals will be accomplished by consistently following your monthly budget and maintaining financial wellness each month. One of the most beneficial long-term goals is to build your credit. Building credit is beneficial because, after college, it will set you up to get better loans, which will help you buy things like houses and cars. There are many ways to build credit. You can do this in college through credit cards and loans. Student loans help to build your credit as long as you do not abuse them. Credit cards are also great for building credit if you pay them off in full each month. This means you should only use your credit card to pay for things you know you can buy, like groceries and gas.
Financial Safety Net
Another long-term goal to set you up well after college is to try and build a financial safety net. A financial safety net is finances you can access easily that can be used in an emergency. It is generally recommended that you have 3-6 months' worth of expenses saved in a savings account that you can quickly liquidate if needed. Building this may be easier said than done during college, but saving as much as possible helps you out during financial emergencies. I recommend saving this money in a separate account from where you pay for your daily expenses. This will allow this money to be seen as a separate financial safety net, and you will be less likely to spend it frivolously. If you are fortunate enough not to have financial emergencies during college, this fund can become the down payment on a house or car.
Seeking Employment
This advice on financial wellness might sound fine and dandy, but it is much harder to implement. So, I will advise on how to help achieve financial wellness. First, getting a job is a great way to help provide for yourself during college. There are many job opportunities. I would specifically look at getting an on-campus job. These are great because they will often work with your class schedule when scheduling shifts and your commute will not be that far.
Another great way to earn extra cash is through food delivery, like Doordash. I specifically recommend Doordash because you do not need a car to deliver. They also pay for bike deliveries and living in a college area, there will be tons of people ordering food for delivery a short bike ride away. The final way I mentioned earlier is to get a credit card. Every major credit card company has student credit cards. You can use one all through college, on small things, and if you make sure to pay it off each month, you'll have a nice four to five year credit history leaving college. Financial wellness looks different for everyone, and achieving it in college is more reasonable than you think. If you start with the goals in place, you can have financial wellness.
Nathaniel Tamminga
Nathaniel Tamminga is a graduate student at The Ohio State University, currently pursuing his PhD in Physics. He got his BS in Physics from Azusa Pacific University, where he also minored in Mathematics.
Maximizing Mentorship
April 30, 2024
The Rise of College eSports
April 29, 2024
