Common Money Mistakes College Students Make
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Listen at schwab.com slash washingtonwise.
Here's your Money Briefing for Monday, August 28th. I'm Ariana Espuru from The Wall Street Journal, filling in for J.R. Whelan. For a lot of people, college is about finding yourself, taking interesting classes, and figuring out what you want to do with your life. It's exciting, but all that freedom means there's plenty of room for mistakes, especially financial ones.
The budgeting tools you're learning now are going to help you later in life when the stakes are higher, when you have a job, when you have an apartment, when you have car payments, when you have all these other things. And that will help you get off on a more solid financial future.
So how can you avoid these financial missteps? Wall Street Journal contributor Cheryl Winokur-Monk will guide us around some of the pitfalls. That's after the break.
How should students start planning a college budget before arriving on campus?
Listen at schwab.com slash washingtonwise.
With students now heading off to college for the first time or back for another semester, they're vulnerable to falling for a few money traps. WSJ contributor Cheryl Winokur-Monk joins me to discuss. So Cheryl, first off, before a student even starts college, there's something they can do, maybe even with their parents, and that's creating a budget. We all know them. We love them sometimes. So what do these students have to know when they're planning for these college expenses?
Well, a lot of times people don't think about all the extras that they're going to spend money on. So they need to make sure to do a budget for all the things they could reasonably spend money on. A lot of times monthly budget items or things can spiral out of control. Food purchases, clothing, coffee shop runs, entertainment, all those things, if you don't set out
What specific everyday expenses do students often forget to include in budgets?
what you are planning to spend can really lead to a big money trap. Even going to the campus bookstore and getting a quick sweatshirt, that's 60 bucks. Exactly. I was actually just there the other day and, oh yes.
And so when you're finally at school, how do you track those expenses so the budget you spent all this time making actually gets used?
I always recommend that every time you spend something, write it down in your spreadsheet. And this is just to get to develop good money habits. I actually still do this myself. So when I go to the grocery store, I put it in my spreadsheet and they say how much I spend to get a sense of how much I'm spending each month. And so it's the same thing is true with a student. If the student goes to buy coffee, put it in your budget, put it in a spreadsheet. If you're going to buy a sweater, put that there. This helps you understand what you're spending each month and can see areas where you may be able to cut back.
What if you end up not tracking things so well and go over budget?
So if you have a bank account, as most students do, you should make sure you set up an alert to monitor your account balances. And you want to make sure that you're not getting hit with overdraft fees. The FDIC data shows that overdraft fees can run around $35 per transaction. And if you are just continuing to overdraft your account, that can really add up. There are some banks that no longer charge overdraft fees, so you can choose a different bank. The other option is to go for something called overdraft protection. That's going to allow funds to be automatically transferred from a linked account. So if you don't have money in the one account, it will just automatically transfer from the other account.
How can students practically track spending so their budget actually works?
That can be a lifesaver, but it can also be a risky practice if you don't already have good spending habits because you're It works both ways, right? There's a safety measure to it, but on the other hand, it can just allow you to spend recklessly without feeling any repercussions.
And another way students might try to get some flexibility in spending is with a credit card. What should they know before they sign up for one?
Well, first of all, a lot of students aren't going to be able to sign up for a credit card on their own if they don't have income.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–1:16
2
How should students start planning a college budget before arriving on campus?
1:16–2:39
3
What specific everyday expenses do students often forget to include in budgets?
2:39–4:18
4
How can students practically track spending so their budget actually works?
4:18–5:11
5
What should students know about overdraft alerts, fees, and protection options?
5:11–6:48
6
When is a credit card a good idea for students and how can they avoid debt?
6:48–8:50
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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