Financial Resource

College is a trying time.  It’s at least four years of education which doesn’t come cheaply.  One problem that many college graduates face is an immense amount of debt, separate from their educational loans.  However, it’s easy to prevent this from happening to you, or at least it’s easy to reduce it as much as possible.

Credit cards are readily available to college students.  There’s no shortage of cards, in fact, that are at college students’ fingertips.  While a credit card is handy in an emergency or in times when cash is short, it’s important to not let it get out of hand.  Sign up for one credit card, and leave it at that.  Just because you can get three or four cards does not mean that you should.  This will help you keep your monthly bills in check, and it will reduce the chances of you overextending yourself and defaulting, resulting in a horrible credit rating before you even graduate college.

Keep in mind that if you decide to run up credit card bills and simply not pay them, evidence of that choice will be on your credit report for up to seven years.  That means that well after you graduate college, lenders can see your irresponsibility.   The best way to prevent that from happening is to not let the temptation be there to begin with.

Another way to keep yourself in good financial condition is to devise a budget, and stick to it.  What income do you have available on a monthly basis, either from a job, parents, or financial aid?  What expenses do you have?  Outline the budget, accounting for phone bills, gas, car insurance, rent, and other such living expenses, and set aside money each month to pay those bills.

Set a budget for spending money, and stick to it.  This may mean that you can’t go out every weekend, or that you can’t go to every party you’re invited to, but it will help you learn financial discipline, which will only help later in life.  One of the pitfalls that face college students is a budget, and the lack of discipline that’s needed to stick to it.

It may be tough at first, but you’ll find that once you get used to it, you can obey your budget, and still have money for fun.  No one’s saying you shouldn’t have fun in college, but don’t let that fun come at the expense of your credit rating, your phone line, or your gas money.

Look at it this way: while that weekend party may be fun, when the fun’s over, you still want to make sure that you have money for your phone and other needs.  If your income allows you to do both and still have money set aside for unexpected events, then by all means, have a blast, but if you find that money is tight, there are plenty of ways to have fun, meet up with your friends, and still meet all your financial obligations.

Tags: Financial