Handling College is already a heavy task by itself. But like all good things, even college must come to an end. And when the inevitable happens I want you to be prepared for it the best way you can be.
That is why today I am going to give you the best Money Moves that you should make before leaving college. These tips are going to be simple things, but since you are making them in the start of your career it will be momentous when you reap the benefits of them.
Create a Budget
This simple task will make sure you are handling your money correctly. Just think about it, if you can create a stick to a budget when you are in college only making a few coins. Then when you are out there with your adult job making big kid money, adjusting that budget will be a lot easier than creating one from scrap making all that money.
This will also give you the practice of working with percentages of certain things. Maybe your grocery or gas bill isn’t as high in college. So you are able to splurge on other things. When you graduate you will be able to adjust those percentages to best fit your lifestyle.
Apply for Credit Card
If you don’t have a credit card already, this would be the time to apply for one. In one of my previous blogs I talk about how to best manage your credit cards so that they work for you. So check it out if you are hesitant about this part.
A Credit card at this stage will allow you to start building credit before you graduate. This will help you get an apartment, home, car or whatever you want that needs credit post graduation. This also protects you from any type of scams, or stolen identity, if someone charges a lot of things to your card and it wasn’t authorized by you. Your credit card company will fight tooth and nail to make sure they get their money back. Which wont affect you and your coins at all.
Money Talk
This will take some participation from your parents, and I would hope you would have already had this conversation with them. But if you haven’t, here we go. You need to sit down with your parents and ask them how they manage their money.
Some families don’t like being super transparent. But before you start this new career you should know what to expect out there. And your parents are people who have been navigating life longer than you.
So have the convo with them and pick up on the tips they give. That way you wont make the same mistakes as they did when they were your age.
Emergency Fund
Most emergency funds are started with extra money that people don’t need. And since you are in college I’m going to assume you don’t have a lot of disposable income. If you do have a job I would start putting a certain percentage into a separate account to start a small emergency fund.
In this section you are really laying the foundation so that when you start a higher paying job it will be easy to use those same percentages just with more money. Ideally they say you should have 6 to 12 months of expenses saved up in an account somewhere.
Think Student Loans
Most student loans have a clause that says you only have to start paying them back after you graduate. This allows a lot of students to set and forget their loans until that first bill comes.
We don’t want this to be you. At this point in college you should have an idea of how much money you could be making post graduation. Take this into consideration when you plan out your budget. As the national student debt is well into the trillions.
Rob’s Opinion
This article isn’t going to gain a lot of traction because it’s not about the glitz and glam like some of the other posts. But it is critical that you start thinking about the financial aspect before you graduate as this is the most opportune time. If you have any questions just comment them down below.
If you are looking to make a quick buck there are thousands of ways to do it. But the most important thing is that you build something sustainable that will pay you for the rest of your life. To be put years ahead of everyone else, head over to my Wealth Building Playlist to find out how.
