Financial Wellness

Whether we like it or not, money plays an important role in our overall well-being. With the rising costs of college tuition, financial distress is a common experience for college students. Developing money management skills enables us to reduce stress and increase our capacity to focus on and enjoy other aspects of our lives. Financial literacy empowers us to feel confident in everyday and long-term financial decisions. The earlier we develop financial literacy and learn to effectively budget, save, manage debt, and invest, the better. Follow below for tips and resources to improve your financial wellness. 

Self Check-In

1. Do you set and stick to a monthly budget?
2. Do you pay your bills on time?
3. Are you aware of the different sources of financial aid that you are eligible for?
4. Do you feel good about your current and future financial situation?

For any of the above questions that you answered no to, try to make that an area of focus to improve your Financial Wellness. If you have answered no to multiple, you may want to have this dimension be a top priority in order to benefit your overall wellbeing.

Where to start?

• Take our self check-in to assess your financial wellness! A great place to begin is first to understand where you are in terms of your financial wellness. 
• Give yourself grace. Everyone’s financial wellness journey has a starting point. Financial literacy is a skill we are expected to have but are often not taught. 
• Track your spending for a month and categorize your expenditures into needs, wants, and goals. Needs are necessities, such as food, transportation, rent, bills, etc. Wants are not necessary but can still benefit our overall well-being. It’s important to budget our wants, not cut them out entirely. Goals are planning for your future. This can be putting money into savings, towards debt, or putting money aside for future goals. 
• Don’t put it off! Debt typically accrues interest, so it’s important to identify financial barriers before they become an issue. 
• Budget and set savings goals. 
• Invest in your future. When possible, put part of each paycheck into your savings. It does not have to be much, even $5 adds up over time. 
• Take advantage of student discounts and utilize campus resources. If you are already paying for resources through student fees, then you might as well get your money’s worth!