Financial Tips

Handling your money right (3 Part Series)

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By Katie Abbott–Student

Money, we all have it. Some may have more than others, but we still all have some amount of it. What we chose to do with it is a different story though. I have learned the hard way that it is so important to create a plan so that you don’t let your money dwindle away. I’m going to turn this into a three step series on how to be successful in handling your money.

Let’s jump in! I think that the first step should be to take an honest look at your finances. This was definitely the hardest part for me because I wanted to keep spending. I wanted to go out with my friends to dinners and events. Those all required me to spend money. A lot of money. Then I would look in my bank account at the beginning of the week and realize I was in the negatives. I came to the realization that I should never be allowed to own a credit card. I would destroy my credit in a week at the rate I was spending my money.

This was when I decided to get serious and take a real hard look at myself and decided to look at my finances with an honest eye. I knew I couldn’t (and shouldn’t) live paycheck to paycheck. I realized that I needed to begin spending less than I earned. I know that we all want to say yes when we are invited out, but it is okay to say no. Here are some benefits of saying no and spending less than you earn:

You start to save

This is huge! Instead of being in the negatives all the time you can actually build up a savings. I was always taught that it was incredibly important to keep a few hundred dollars in your savings so if anything ever happened, I would be okay. So let’s call your savings account your “stuff happens” account. Ultimately, we don’t want to touch that account at all.

You can actually say yes!

Once you have started saving more, you can say yes more because you do have that money. I’m not saying that you resort to your old ways, but keep in check your actual figure in your account and if it is feasible for you to spend that money, then go for it! I always try to look at my account before I spend anything so that I can set an actual limit on how much I am going to spend, and decide if it’s even a good idea to spend any of it at all.

You don’t have to completely cut yourself off

Spending less doesn’t have to be drastic, and it shouldn’t be. A lot of people who practice more extreme money saving techniques do this because they’ve done easier steps, and have been very successful.

Now that doesn’t seem too hard! But the honest truth is it kind of is. You have to really want to change your spending habits. Then once you’ve committed to that, taking a real good honest look at your bank account is the next thing. We all need to do it every once and a while. We don’t want to, but we need to. You can do it!

scholarships

Financial Foundations Spring 2015 Scholarship Winner!

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$250 Scholarship

Spring 2015 was only our second semester offering a scholarship for students that completed several tasks, including attending a Financial Foundations workshop and writing an essay. We would like to thank our sponsor for the scholarship, CashCourse, for providing a grant to make this possible.

Also, we would like to thank all of our scholarship applicants for participating in the Financial Foundations program this Spring semester. We enjoyed reading your essays and we would like to share the winner’s essay below.

Congratulations Morgan Frey! 

dollar_sign_with_grad_hat

James W. Frick boldly proclaims, “Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.”  Transitioning into college is a time of personal transformation and beginning a life apart from parental guidance and a sphere of organized life. College challenges the very nature of ones identity and enables one to begin to form stronger beliefs and an understanding of the world, in a new and diverse light. Through the financial foundations workshop and taking time to process my beliefs about money, I have come to find and am challenged by my own perceptions. Money is essential for the basic needs of all humans but can become something of great focus. The challenge that Frick presents is one of intentional effort and practice, coinciding with the verse in the Bible, Luke 12:34, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

From a very young age, my parents have instilled into my being the truth that the Lord will provide everything that we need. Growing up, I have been amazed to witness the faithfulness of our God in providing everything. Since coming to college, my parents have given me an apportioned amount of money each month, which has tested my heart and made me critically process where my money is going and how it is being used. Many times, I have had to stop myself, surrender the money, and again give it over to the Lord, because I sometimes begin to worry if I will have enough. Due to the wealth and position that my family and I find ourselves, I am challenged to be a good steward of the resources that I have been given. After the workshop about the importance of credit and the reality of identity theft, I have learned to be cautious and responsible about spending. Through the workshop, I was challenged to purchase items that are a necessity, while being aware and discerning about luxury or non-essential items. While it is crucial to have a stable credit, I was also convicted about how we must continually give the Lord our money and seek Him in areas of giving and trust. He will provide, and we must respond in stewardship.

The activity of creating a budget is of great importance. Budgeting is central to becoming a steward of the resources given to oneself. Using and creating a budget Cap and Gownenables individuals to visually picture and understand where their money is going, and it allows them to spend less time worrying about spending and more time living in the freedom of knowing how much they can spend.

As a college student, I believe that financial education is vital in becoming an informed citizen of our world and a responsible individual. With great change occurring, it has been helpful in my transition process to learn about and to be engaged in financial responsibilities and realities, both positive and negative, that are a result of money. As stated by the quote above, money is a determinate of our priorities. Let us, as college students, be people of selflessness and stewardship.

Financial Tips, Uncategorized

*FREE* Online Financial Resource!

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CashCourse_logo_tagline_RGB[1]Financial Foundations has partnered with CashCourse (www.cashcourse.org) in order to give you all beneficial financial resources. CashCourse is an online financial tool that has many resources and tools to help you understand and manage your personal finances and it’s FREE to all Baylor students!

It’s very easy to sign up and to navigate through. Here are some really good financial tools on CashCourse that I find helpful:

  1. Articles – There are several articles on CashCourse that go over many financial topics including budgeting, student loans, credit cards, identity theft, and more.
  2. Budget Wizard – Is a budgeting tool that you can use to enter in your income and expenses to help manage your personal money.
  3. Financial Experts – Ask questions to financial experts, or look through the Q&As of other students who asked questions.
  4. Featured Videos – A collection of short videos that introduce and discuss key financial topics.
  5. Quizzes – Learn how much you already know or what you can learn by taking one of their quizzes over key financial topics such as student loans.
  6. My Favorites: – You can add articles that you wish to save to your favorites using the button at the very bottom of the page that says “My Favorites”. This will give you easier access to these articles at a later date by going to your favorites (heart icon at the top of the site), where the pages you added will be listed.

There are many other financial tools on CashCourse that you may use. All of these tools are free to all Baylor students and is a great resource that you should take advantage of! I would suggest that you try to explore through their site, try out a few of their helpful tools, and look through a number of their articles.

If you are unsure about how to use CashCourse, we have instructions available to help you register, login, and navigate throughout the site. If you still have questions and concerns about your personal finances, please contact us at (254) 710-3109 or email us at Financial Foundations to schedule an individual meeting with our coordinator.

Keep an eye out on our calendar and website next semester for upcoming workshops and good luck with your finals!

~Annie

Financial Tips

Financial Tips for After College

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As a graduating senior, I’ve been a bit worried about what to do after I graduate because of stories I’ve heard of other people’s experience. I’m concerned about what will happen after I get a job and how to budget for my rent, groceries, taxes, bills, etc.  What if I skip an important step? What if I do something now that drastically affects my future? What about retirement? Investing? What should I do?

Well, recently I’ve learned a few tips on maybe how to get financial settled after I graduate. If you are having the same concerns as I am, these should help!

  1. Create a budget. Start working out the details about your expenses and your income. With that, pay yourself first and create an emergency fund.
  2. Think about your expenses. Consider the expenses that come with a first job: taxes, transportation, food, travel, clothing, etc. Make sure you leave room in your budget for these new expenses! Also plug up any spending leaks of items you can cut back on.
  3. Make on time payments. Make sure you’re making on time payments on your student loans. Debt and late payments can have negative effects on your credit score.
  4. Take advantage of your employer’s retirement plans, such as 401(k) and IRA. The sooner you start investing in your retirement, the less stressful retirement will be for you.
  5. Considering graduate school. If you’re thinking about graduate school for an advanced degree, weigh the cost vs. benefits first. Consider if an advanced degree will increase your annual salary or only increase your student loan debt. However, with a little research you can find scholarship opportunities for graduate students that help cover the cost of tuition.

There are many other tips and financial topics to consider, so read up on the current events and stay knowledgeable about the financial world. Start getting involved with any self-help books or read up on current events with financial websites. If you have any questions or concerns, but not the resources to answer these questions, the internet is a place to find answers, but be wary of sharing any of your personal information especially related to your finances. Phishing, internet and email scams, is the number one way identity thieves target their victims. If you’d rather have a professional to discuss with, you can look up non-profit organizations that conduct financial counseling in your area.

If you’re about to graduate, you still have time to access some very beneficial financial tools before you go! Financial Foundations is partnered with CashCourse, a free online financial education tool with articles, budgeting wizards, worksheets, and more to help you understand and plan your personal finances.

You may even come into Financial Foundations and meet with our coordinator to start a budget and get some financial counseling before you graduate! Don’t wait and contact us today at Financial Foundations or call us at (254) 710-3109!

Identity Theft, Workshops

Identity Theft and How to Avoid it

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In February 2015, FTC released in its Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book that 18% of identity theft complaints come from the consumer age range of 20-29 for the year of 2014. In the years before, the percentage of identity theft complaints for the age group of 20-29 were the highest out of all the other age ranges given.

With that being said, the people who are most susceptible to identity theft are college students. Meaning us! We are the most susceptible to having our credit card stolen, our ID taken, our information handed out to untrustworthy people, and any other identity theft out there. Why are we targeted?

  • We don’t regularly check our bank/credit statements
  • We usually have a clean credit and a good score
  • We usually over share information over social media, cellphones, and internet
  • We potentially carry too many sensitive items in a purse or wallet

 

There are probably even more reasons as to why college students like us are more susceptible to identity theft, but we don’t HAVE to be.

There are many ways to keep us safe from identity theft. Here are some ways on how you can avoid and protect yourself from identity theft:

  • The number one thing you can always do to avoid and prepare for identity theft is to regularly check your bank statements and credit report!
  • Report any and all unusual activity on your credit report. Make sure to keep information that you filled out for any report.
  • Secure your technology by using a firewall and having anti-virus protection on your computer, a password on your phone, never saving your information on a public computer, and shutting down or logging off from computers after use.
  • Beware of scams. Phishing are email scams that ask for personal information. There are even scholarships and student loan scams: if it asks for a fee upfront, it’s not legitimate!

 

This and more will be discussed in our upcoming workshop “Credit Cards and Avoiding Identity Theft” on Thursday April 9th, at 5:30 pm in Jones Library room 105!

You can also check out CashCourse where most of this information is available with specific details and even more ways to avoid and protect yourself from identity theft! Go to CashCourse.org and sign up. It’s a free online financial education tool with many helpful articles and tools to help you understand personal financial topics.

Introduction

Welcome to our new blog!

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Hello all! My name is Annie McElroy. I am a graduating senior here at Baylor, majoring in Professional Writing. I recently began as a writing intern at Financial Foundations. I learned of Financial Foundations last semester from my apartment’s newsletter, which had an advertisement for Financial Foundations upcoming workshop. At the same time I was working on a class project, a grant proposal for financial literacy seminars, with a few classmates who were also seniors. We had chosen this topic because we were all concerned for our future. Financial Foundations ended up being the perfect opportunity, not only for our project but for ourselves.

As a senior about to graduate, I’m quite worried about the future. I don’t have a paying job or any fixed income and I started a small savings account but it isn’t much. I don’t have any idea how to pay my own bills or if I’ll have the money to pay my bills to begin with. Overall, my future seems unsure and possibly unstable because of my many financial concerns. My dad pays for everything for me at the moment, so I have no concerns for my financial situation today; however, my dad isn’t going to continue to pay my bills forever. So then what happens afterwards?

Now that I’ve worked here for a few weeks, I’ve begun to gain the confidence and skills to better my financial future. I honestly think, especially now, that students would benefit just as much as I have if not more by becoming involved in Financial Foundation. Even if you don’t have any financial concerns at the moment like I do, even if your parents or guardian takes care of all your financial expenses, having the skills, understanding, and tools for financial situations will be helpful because those who pay for your expenses now may not do so in the future.

Come to one of our workshops or set up an appointment to meet individually with our coordinator to learn how you can best prepare yourself for the future! Contact us at Financial Foundations.