They may not have all the answers, but they have a good idea about where they would like to be - financially - after graduation. Finally, financially healthy students think about the future.By being informed, financially healthy students can create a plan for minimizing the most expensive debt while in school - possibly saving thousands of dollars over the life of their loans.

They also know the interest rates on all of their debt, and understand what could possibly cause those rates to change. They check their credit report at least once per year to spot errors and to check for the warning signs of identity theft. They understand any fees associated with their bank or credit union accounts, and they know how much these fees add up to each month. Next, financially healthy students are informed.Being organized doesn't take much time, and it will help to ensure that you are spending money on what matters the most to you. In a few minutes we will learn about creating monthly budgets, using the internet to keep your finances organized, and making sure you don't miss payments by accident. To avoid wasteful spending, financially healthy students track their income, monthly bills, and daily expenses. If you've ever been surprised by your checking account balance or credit card bill, you know what we mean. Most of us think we are pretty good at keeping track of our money, even without creating a spending plan. How does one become a financially healthy student? Financially healthy students share most of the following traits: They get the best deals on their loans, make informed decisions about whether or not to work while in school, and understand the tradeoffs between spending now and repaying later.

And part of this trade-off often involves taking on debt in order to pay for school.Ī financially healthy student works to minimize educational debt while successfully pursuing their career goals in college. After all, the whole idea of being a student is to spend time studying and not working (or at least working less) in order to prepare for better opportunities in the future. But for students, being financially healthy is a bit different. Luckily, you can often start to see benefits of effective financial management right away - in the form of extra cash.įor working adults, the first step to financial health is earning more money than they spend. Becoming a financially healthy student is not so different - there are just a few things to know, but finding the motivation to make informed decisions every day can be the greatest challenge. You need the discipline to put your knowledge to work in the real world - even when it would be so easy to grab a super-sized burger and skip that trip to the gym. If you've ever tried to get in shape, you know that there's no magic formula for exercising and eating right.

Finances 101