#collegefinance

Are you a student looking for your first credit card? You’ve come to the right place! You will learn everything you need to know before you swipe. In this video, you will learn how to select the right student card for you, strategically use your card, and remain out of debt traps. If you are looking to build credit for a future loan or rental application or to simply increase your chances of landing your dream job, it all starts right now with a student credit card. Starting in the right financial direction will make the difference between long-term financial hardship or success.

Are you a student looking for your first credit card? You’ve come to the right place! You will learn everything you need to know before you swipe. In this video, you will learn how to select the right student card for you, strategically use your card, and remain out of debt traps. If you are looking to build credit for a future loan or rental application or to simply increase your chances of landing your dream job, it all starts right now with a student credit card. Starting in the right financial direction will make the difference between long-term financial hardship or success. We will discuss the different types of student cards available, as well as strategies on how to pay for your card and common mistakes made, as well as some real success stories.

Are you a college student who wants to improve your financial literacy and avoid common money mistakes? If so, this blog post is for you. In this post, we will discuss some of the most frequent financial blunders that college students make, such as: Not budgeting Not saving for retirement Taking on too much debt Misusing credit cards Choosing an overly expensive college We will also provide…

IT’S TIME TO SET A FINANCIAL PLAN

Freshman year is a year for mistakes. But sophomore year is about learning from the ones you made the year before. Money is one of the dominant subjects discussed on a college campus. Being careful about your spending and keeping track of expenses is absolutely necessary if you’re going to make it last the duration of the year.

There are countless resources like this article, Financial Planning For College Students from The Balance that can talk you through getting started on a real plan. This article includes things like how to create a budget, suggesting resources like downloading a budgeting app. It also advises against avoiding accumulating debt.

Debt is very common in college students. Everyone has heard of the famous student loans, which depending on your situation, might be inevitable for you. But the only way to minimize the damage of that situation is to not spend too much outside money, besides tuition costs.

Everything costs money, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is always a cheaper way. Coupons, sales, free things, these are things that will benefit you a ton if you’re on the lookout for them.

Blowing money might be the easiest past time in the world. Everything from splurging on a snack when you’re hungry or buying a new dress for an event is fun easy to do carelessly. This is where the costs start to add up right before your eyes. All the conscious decisions of eating leftovers or borrowing a dress from a friend is the only way to prevent a financial crisis by the end of the year.

Read more like this over at Financially Mint’

You’ve decided you want your higher education to be completely free – no student loans, no accommodation cost.

Whether that’s a wise or not, it’s up to you. But yes, you can go to university for free. Two things you’ll need: a lot of hustle (researching and applying) and flexibility (free education means you might miss out on something else).

Here are some tools and programs you can use to lower those big costs:

Grants

Grants are basically a sum of money the government gives you to help you out with university. Notice the give: you’re not expected to return it, unlike student loans. If you qualify for these grants and supplement it with something else, they can help you get to college for free. Pretty sweet.

You get different types of grants:

Maintenance grant

For living costs. You can get up to £3,475 if your household income is £19,203 or less. If it’s more than that, you may be eligible for a partial grant, depending on your income. These may not always be easy to get, but they’re worth a try.

Special support grant

This grant is to help with additional costs such as books, equipment and travel expenses. You could get up to £3,475 depending on your household income, but you also need to be eligible: be a single parent, have a certain disability, come from abroad, etc. You can’t get both the maintenance and special support grant, but you could try for one of them if you believe you’re eligible.

Travel grant

This one’s pretty cool. It’s basically a grant the government gives you to travel abroad, whether it’s on an Erasmus or to do with your university. The amount you’ll get also depends on your household income and some other factors. Here’s how much you can get (it’s a little confusing IMO):

There are a few other grants such as the Disabled Student’s Allowance and Dependents’ and Childcare Grants. As you can see you need to be in pretty specific situations to qualify, so grants are not the answer for everyone. But still worth a mention and a try.

For more info on grants and how to apply visit Gov.uk

Bursaries and scholarships

Bursaries and scholarships are pretty similar to grants except they offer larger amounts of money and aren’t always from the government. Although they may sound like the easy path to free education, they can be quite a hassle. The hardest part: research. There’s tons of bursaries and scholarships out there but you really have to find the right ones and apply as soon as possible. This includes asking your university, asking other students what they’ve done and spending a lot of time on our lil’ friend Google.

You also need specific criteria to pass: your household income, gender, nationality, grades, talents, etc.

The research isn’t easy because there’s not a huge directory with all the scholarships and bursaries available – you gotta do the work. Here are two of the largest directories I found to help you get started:

The Scholarship Hub

Scholarships for international students

List on TopUniversities

NHS

The beloved NHS! If you’re studying anything health related (dentistry, medicine), the NHS might come and help you out with the costs. The thing is, this one’s pretty complicated. You get different amounts depending on where you live, your household income and what you’ll be studying exactly. It varies so much that it’s kinda hard to be specific here, but here are some extra resources to find out more:

England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland

The great thing is that this can then help you do practices and internships with the NHS, which will then lead on to a job, a better opportunity, etc. All I’m saying is it could be worth a try…

Armed Forces

Not for everyone but could be a good option. No matter which degree you’re thinking of pursuing, you could get the Armed Forces to help you out with your education so you can then move on to working in the army. There’s a pretty large range of different bursaries available for army students depending on what subject you want to study.

In some places not only do you get a bursary but you also earn a little income of about £2,000 a year. You get different bursaries depending on what you qualify for: if you have amazing grades and potential to become an officer, you could be getting a total of £24,000!

There’s a ton of different options: training to become an Army medical profession, joining the Royal Navy or the Royal Air Force. I’m telling you, you’d be surprised by the amount of options out there – do a bit of research and planning and the free education will come rolling.

Find out more about your options and check out the guide to getting into the Armed Forces:

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are basically schemes where a company pays for your education in partly or in full. You could already be working for the company, going to work for them in the future or not working for them at all. There’s tons of different sponsorships available for different degrees and different cases. An example is Google: offering sponsorship to female students studying Computer Science and who demonstrate strong leadership skills.

You have a few odd ones here and there: sponsorships for vegetarians, for Welsh speakers only and even for golfers! Think you don’t have any skills? Look around… maybe some company has thought of you and has a pretty sweet deal you could take advantage of.

The Scholarship Hub has a section on finding sponsorships, or ‘company scholarships’ as they call them.

Apprenticeships

These are pure gold. And they’re becoming more and more popular nowadays as people realise getting a degree doesn’t always mean getting a job.

With an apprenticeship the company basically trains you for the job and combines it with some classroom style education. Then, the training is over and if you’ve done well – bam, a job.

You can also get a degree apprenticeship: basically the company sponsors you to go to university so you can then go work for them once you graduate. Not only do you get a degree for free but you are guaranteed a job once you graduate. Pretty sweet.

This page on Gov.uk has tons of resources on finding apprenticeships for your particular degree/field.

Crowdfunding

This plan may be a little on edge but could work if done well. It basically consists of asking strangers to donate to you to pay for your education. You go on a site like Crowdfunder, Hubbubor GoFundMe and ask for money to support your studies. You write a good essay on what you’re going to do with the money, what you’re going to study and why (something that stands out is better).

Here’s Brian who wants to go to Oxford to study a Masters in Development Studies. His motive? Research on LGBT communities in areas like China and South Africa. He also goes on to explain his achievements, where he’s from and even his sexual orientation (bisexual). He’s raised £18,117 so far. Congrats to Brian!

Crowdfunding is something that takes a lot of time and effort – you really need to convince people to give their money to you. They need to believe in you and trust that you will use the money well. But again, worth a try – and would look great on a CV if successful.

Go abroad

If you’re non-Scot, you won’t get free education offered next door in Scotland (and yes, we’re all sniggering over here). However, there are still some countries which offer a free education: Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Why not learn another language? Study something a little different? Get to know an interesting culture? Many degrees are done in English and offer a great range of opportunities for foreigners. Why not make an adventure out of your education?

This is also great for your CV: studying abroad shows an employer that you are flexible, adaptable and you look for opportunities. Great way to stand out from other candidates and gain a different and more interesting set of skills.

I did this for China: one trimester studying Chinese overseas wasn’t too expensive and I made amazing money as an English tutor – effectively making my education free.

It’s a little trickier to apply and organise – no European version of UCAS. You’ll have to go to our trusted friend Google and search for something along the lines of  ‘apply for German/French/Norwegian university’ and see where it gets you from there. Some additional resources to check out are The Complete University Guide, list of countries and Top Universities

As I said before, if you want free/very cheap education, you’ll need some hustle. You can combine some of the options above and try to find what suits you best. Do your research, ask your university, do some networking. Keep going until you find something that works for you, and if you can’t find anything: do a gap year. Much better to go into university one year later doing something you want than going with everyone else and wasting your time (I say from experience).

ou step out of the front doors of your university. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, you can feel the wind slightly caressing your cheeks. You’ve just graduated from college with honours and feel like you’ve completed a big step in your life. You feel satisfied.

Then, out of nowhere, a sharp ringing sound disturbs the surrounding peace. It’s your phone. ‘Must be Mum, coming round to help me pick my stuff up’ you think. You pick up the phone. ‘Hi, this is Max Insurance on the phone. We’ve currently got an amazing discount on our most recent Trade Credit Insurance for under thirties and think you are a great fit to get started on it now! At Max Insurance we promise to…’

You hang up the phone. ‘What the F@%K is Trade Credit Insurance??????’ Welcome to adult life.

That’s how I imagine my dramatic entry into adulthood, anyway.

When in college we all imagine adulthood as something scary, full of huge responsibilities, strange words and a lot of numbers. Our universities will teach us to be amazing at maths, English literature and Physics, but they won’t prepare us for what’s out there when college is over, that’s why we’re scared. Honestly, I think it’s disgraceful, but society has come to accept it.

The biggest thing that college students are unprepared for is managing money. Unless your parents involved you in their finances, you pretty much have no clue what are credit cards, savings accounts, and why the government takes a chunk of your money. It’s also disgraceful, which is why I started this blog to make sure you, the college student, do not graduate completely financially ignorant.

In fact, being financially literate has huge benefits, especially in college where you have more time, less responsibilities and are willing to experiment. Here are my favourite few:

Power

Being knowledgeable about money and finances gives you UGE (you know who that is) power. You know exactly when you can spend, save and splurge. You know exactly how much. You are confident you won’t go broke, and you are confident you can get more money if you need to. You have the power to DECIDE where your money goes and who to give it to. No Max Insurance, bank or company can take your money if you don’t let them, remember that (unless you go bankrupt, but that’s a story for another time).

Once you realise the power you gain by understanding and knowing about money, that’s it: you’ve cracked the ‘being financially stable’ part of life. The rest is applying those concepts and always being open to learning as much as you can. It’s amazing. And the sooner you start the better!!! i.e. in college.

Always have money

Think about it, once you know and learn about money, you will always have some. If you understand index funds, you’ll know it’s good idea to invest in them. If you understand 401ksand pension plans you know you’ll retire rich. If you understand how people work with money, you will always have a job. If you understand the necessity of having an emergency fund, you will never finish on the streets.

You won’t ever have to worry about going broke (although you will lose money, of course), because you trust your knowledge to make the right decisions. You’ll know what skills can earn you quick money if ever in an emergency, and from there your money management skills will get you out of any sticky situation.

Although I’m still in the process of learning about finance, I know that I will always be able to earn some income as a language translator or freelance writer. It’s definitely not my ideal job, but in an emergency anything helps.

Out the Rat Race

The rat race is the endless cycle between earning money to pay off debt but then acquiring more debt to satisfy awful spending habits. People have the misconception that earning more money will solve the problem, so they get a second job and start spending even more, digging the hole a little deeper each time.

The solution to getting out of the rat race is a change of mentality and financial education. Getting out of the rat race at the age of 30+ can be a long and tiring process of paying off all debt while living extremely frugally.

Although living financially free is a thousand times better than being in the rat race, what if you could skip the long process and not enter the rat race in the first place? What if you could reach financial freedom before even leaving college? Just think of the endless possibilities…

Tax

Tax is an interesting subject, and one that I am still trying to get my head round. As a democracy, we give a share of our money to the government. That’s understandable.

However, as explained in Rich Dad Poor Dad, when the government decides to increase tax it’s the middle-income people who are affected the most, not the rich. Why? Because the ‘middle-class’ don’t know about money and so will simply pay and not argue. They are ‘scared’ of money and so won’t discuss it with anyone and won’t try to understand it.  The rich will always find ways to pay less tax (hopefully legally) because they want to understand their wealth.

As a college student, it’s important to understand tax. It’s a fundamental part of our society and it’s a great tool when used by our governments correctly. However, know what you are paying. Don’t overpay, don’t underpay. Know when you can use tax advantages, know when you are allowed tax cuts and know what your money is being used for.

As you can see, being financially literate will completely change your entire life (and we’re just getting started). Imagine not having to worry about money? Not having to work a job you hate just for a steady income? It’s far from impossible, which is why I encourage college students to do what education hasn’t: financially educate themselves. Do some Money Experiments, take an online course, read some books. Once you go financially literate, you never go back (it doesn’t rhyme I know).