Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Spring 2009 Education Guide - Index

Page 4
Who knows better about
managing money and living on
a tight budget than college students?
In a recent nationwide campaign,
Bank of America asked
college students to share practical
money management tips,
and more than 5,000 students
offered advice for saving more,
spending less and managing
college debt.
“Now more than ever, it
takes planning and saving to
stay ahead. Students may not
think they are in a position to
take control of their money,
but they are,” says Farnoosh
Torabi, author of “You’re So
Money: Live Rich, Even When
You’re Not” who worked with
the bank on the campaign.
“Opening a financial dialogue
with your peers is a great first
step.”
As part of the campaign,
Torabi appears in Webisodes,
posted on www.bankofamerica.com/morris,
in which she
Philadelphia Tribune Tuesday, March 24, 2009
College students
school each other
discusses her top tips on how
college students can save
money. While visiting the site,
students can also download
the Student Financial Handbook,
a handy guide full of additional
tips on managing
money.
One of the first steps that
students recommended in
managing their finances is a
common refrain among professional
financial planners —
pay yourself first.
“Set up a direct deduction
from your paycheck,” one Virginia
Tech student says.
“Even as little as 5 percent
from everything will add up
quickly. If it is automatically
deducted, you will never see
the money and never have a
chance to miss it.”
Using a personalized financial
spreadsheet to create a
budget, embedding reminders
on electronic calendars to pay
bills on time, and keeping
track of account balances online
also were strong recommendations.
“If you check your balance
online nightly, you can automatically
update the spreadsheet
each day and maintain
a current balance by subtracting
any outstanding and
pending items that have not
yet cleared your account,” one
George Washington University
student says. “This way you
always know what you have,
what you have to pay, and
what you have left to splurge.”
Textbooks are a significant
recurring expense which also
represents an opportunity to
save — by buying used books
or getting access to free books
from the library that have
been put on reserve, or Web
sites that offer free “sponsored”
text downloads, if you
don’t mind the ads, students
say.
Heading into financial aid
season, several students offer
practical tips for tapping into
a key source of income for
covering tuition bills. Fill out
the financial aid forms by
Feb. 1 to meet school deadlines
and stake your claim to
financial aid, and complete as
many scholarship applications
as you can, a University
of Nevada Reno student says.
Although most students in
the Bank of America campaign
focused on budgeting
and spending wisely, others
considered the other side of
the financial management
equation — managing debt,
especially from college loans.
“If you can, you should
start pre-paying your loan
$50 a month, and by the time
you graduate you have less to
pay off,” an Ohio State University
student says.
Torabi, a senior correspondent
for TheStreet.com, offers
her own tips to simplify
money management for students
in this complex economic
time, including:
• Planning is key:
Knowing what you want in
your life — short-term and
long-term — can help you
better assess your financial
needs.
• Set goals to save:
If you have no money, create
a practical revenue
stream by tutoring fellow students
or babysitting, jobs
that create opportunities to
save.
• Think free first:
Seek out and use free resources
— check out DVDs
from the library; use your
student ID to get discounts
and access to museums. —
Courtesy of ARAcontent