Mila Joshua Yona
Student life is not exciting when you’re broke. You get to miss a lot of goodies. The wild parties, the college textbooks your lecturer assigned you to buy. The weekend vibes and so much more.
It even becomes worse when you’re in the age bracket of 24 to 29. The pressure to position yourself in society mounts and makes you feel like a lonely horse.
If you haven’t tasted college, just zip because many will deceive you about how fun it is. Unless you’re the upcoming bill gates, trust me it’s no fun.
College life is harsh! You need to be armed to teeth with financial tools to hustle your way out. You need to jealousy guard that monthly upkeep otherwise it will get done before a week.
There are always gigs everywhere. The specials, the get-together, the re-unions stuff like that. All this comes to you at a time when cash surfaces.
The beauteous ladies are the other serious temptations right out of the Garden of Eden. They can remote control you to do anything they want if you aren’t steady.
Here are some tips to reduce financial stress during your stay in college.
1. Prepare most of your meals.
One of the most admired skills is that of a guy who can cook. I mean which lady doesn’t love a guy who can make her salivate after the source pan. Just kidding!
Well to minimize cost and save – it’s important to prepare most of your meals by yourself. Most of the bought meals are expensive and at the end of it all, you make the seller richer while you become broke.
Even when you have visitors, you may opt to prepare them for their favorite dish- they may call you an economist but it’s the best approach at the campus.
2. Work on a budget
One of the errors people often make is spending and then minimizing when they have little to no cash left. A rule of thumb is to establish a budget first.
Before you think of buying the delicious ice cream, taking your girlfriend out, or even going to the cinema for your favorite movie – a budget will be your emergency kit.
It lets you minimize impulse buying and live a simple lifestyle.
3. Control your spending ego
One of the commonest problems is that of impulse buying. You move around and you want to buy almost everything your eyes land on.
To avoid this problem, you need to have a budget and move with little cash in your pocket. Also, learn to differentiate your needs from your wants.
Ask yourself whether what you’re buying will remain relevant after a week or even a month. Such questions trigger you to be realistic with your decisions.
4. Find a New side hustle
Money that you hardly worked for is the “easy come and easy go type”. However much of your budget remains unreliable and blows away very quickly.
So the best approach to boost your income is to find a side hustle. If you’re able to get a job that doesn’t conflict with your lectures, grab the opportunity.
For those who have access to laptops and smartphones, you can look for gigs on freelance sites such as Fiverr, Freelancer, or Even. Master a particular skill and offer your services or you can establish a blog like this even.
5. Pay Off Bad debts
One of the things that destroy most relationships nowadays is bad debts. Having a cumulative bad debt tarnishes your name. If you’re not able to cover up the debt, inform the person and come to a mutual agreement.
As soon as you get money, the first thing is to protect that relationship by paying off the debt. It relieves stress and the thought of rewinding what could that person be thinking about you.
6. Financial literacy is key
Always keep updated about how the subject of money changes over time. If you get to understand this, you got a much better chance of becoming financially free.
Develop a reading culture. If you don’t have access to the hardcopy books, some platforms offer free download of books in PDF format.
One platform I mostly refer people to is pdfdrive
Starting with books like rich dad, poor dad is a milestone worth taking. It can inspire you to become a bookworm.
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Summary!
If you want to be stress-free in college, a few tips discussed above can help you mingle with finances through your course. Let me know in the comments what you think.
