Most students when they think of new years resolutions think about getting fit, losing weight, getting better marks at school, but its less likely that the first resolution idea that comes to mind is becoming healthier financially. Unfortunately one of the reasons why students struggle with money and in turn debt after university is the lack of planning and often crazy spending habits throughout the year. So of course because it’s that time of year, I’ve decided to go through my new year’s resolutions and some things you should consider about your own.
One of the objectives I hope to achieve with this blog this year is to further develop content that is more specific to help students really save money, it’s been about a year and I hope to continue to offer unique and helpful content to university students.
Some things students should remember over the next year;
- Despite how irritating budgeting can be develop some sort of one budget or make use of online resources to do so.
- Review your previous spending habits from last year and get a good idea on what you did well and what categories had your highest amounts of spending. These are the places you can work on, or continue to excel in in order to save more money in 2013
- Start thinking about summer jobs, yah I know its a jerk move on my part to even start mentioning that
- Figure out how much money you will have to spend on tuition, books and other school related expenses and figure out employment accordingly. Do you need extra cash? Maybe find a part time job for next semester.
- Do you want to try and reduce spending on credit and paying bills in full?
Long Term
These are some goals that need to be measurable, make sure that they are even possible as well. These goals could be related to a variety of topics
- Amount of money you hope to have in your savings account by a certain date
- When you want to start paying off your student loans and within what amount of time
It’s important to set goals, both long and short, I know personally as a student I tend to think much more day to day, which leads to surprises at the end of the month when you look at both your chequing account, savings account or your mastercard/visa bill. January is the time where everyone reflects on their year and tries to improve for the new year. Make sure your not one of those people that flakes out on their resolutions, it may not seem as important now, but once you graduate you might wish you had of kept your finances on track.
