People who create school curricula suppose they do everything right, and the curriculum contains all required courses. However, we see that a large number of college students are unprepared for an independent life. We mean they have little basic knowledge, including financial knowledge. Parents also should work on it, but forget. As a result, students don’t know what financial literacy is in general. This term presupposes the understanding of money management concepts and the ability to use certain skills.
Students who are financially literate have higher chances to succeed in the future. They’ll hardly find themselves in a situation when they have no money to live at all. You may be surprised, but even middle-aged people consider financial literacy useless and don’t obtain these skills. Fortunately, the percentage of such people lowers every day. Here are the reasons why students need financial literacy skills:
- They have to manage the limited sum of money;
- They have to pay the student load;
- They need to pay for college;
- They should buy enough food;
- They should save some money.
No matter who you are: a freshman student or a second-year and graduate student who returns to campus. You need to know these secrets if you want to forget about the difficulties forever.
1. Make a budget
You’re a college student, so you’ll hardly have a steady job. Perhaps you have some side hustles or a regular part-time job that doesn’t give you enough money. We may try to suppose that you live on the money your parents give you or you’ve to save some money before college. No matter what the situation is, you have to know your earnings and expenses. Get a finance book or install a specialized app on your phone and add the information about all incomes and expenses there. You must be sure your expenses don’t exceed the income.
2. Save money for emergency
No one knows what’ll happen tomorrow. If you think you have enough money to cope with any problem, we must ask you to check your bank account once again. You can hardly cope with any big problem, and you have to realize it. Some people open accounts in banks to have the emergency fund, and they do everything well. Here you set the rules, so there is no exact sum you have to save — proceed from the expenses.
3. Get a consultation from professional
If you have difficulties with understanding what financial literacy is, it’s okay. There are a lot of financial literacy experts online, and they are ready to listen to your troubles. Students shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help. A lot of them prefer to pay people to do homework, and they use the Internet to find these people. Quite often, services let users order an essay paper online and get it delivered fast. You just text a message “write this essay for me please” and receive a letter with the final paper a few days before the X day. Financial literacy coaches work principle is the same.
4. What about a finance course?
All colleges offer their students several facultative subjects to choose from. In most cases, you ignore this offer, but if you want to learn financial literacy, this is your chance. It’s not so difficult to devote some more time to studies, especially when you know it will have a good result. It’s always better to learn literacy from your college teacher than try to find a friend who’ll help you after it or even ask your friends to lend some money to you. Ask your counselor about the list of available disciplines, describe your problems, and you’ll be offered a good solution.
5. Grow your credit score
No one knows what’ll happen to you today or tomorrow. Therefore, experts advise people to open bank accounts in their youth, lend small sums of money and pay them off on time to have an excellent credit score. If you lend money, return them fast, or never return them at all, you’ll risk getting blacklisted and get a fine. It’s the best investment you can make in the future since people with good credit scores have access to lower interest rates. Life is impossible without big purchases, so you have to do your best to obtain money if something happens.
6. Learn how to invest money
You may be too young to understand the importance of investing, but we are here to explain it to you. Saving money is good, but it’s better to put the sum somewhere to make it generate revenue. Numerous free financial newsletters and podcasts contain a lot of information on investing; you just have to find it and get an advantage out of it. There are a lot of ways to invest money, but opening a brokerage account and trying your hand at investing is a good way to understand how this industry works.