Five Tips Help Your Adult Students Manage Their Funds
Your graduate and professional students probably understand the value that their advanced degree will bring to their future. They might not realize, however, that how they live while they are in school also affects their financial future. To help your students make the most of their investment in education, the USA Funds® Life Skills® financial-literacy program offers the following five suggestions to help them stretch their resources and live like students:
1. Make a budget and stick to it.
Determine answers to the following questions:
- What are my expenses?
- How am I spending my money?
- How can I cut back to get my expenses in line with my income?
2. Manage your lump-sum disbursements.
Learn strategies to make student-loan-disbursement checks last all semester, considering these issues:
- Should I deposit my disbursement check in a checking or savings account?
- How much money do I need for monthly expenses?
- How do I make sure I spend only what I’ve allocated for each month?
3. Live within your budget.
Evaluate every purchase and brainstorm ways to cut back on spending, asking the following questions:
- What small changes can I make to save money?
- How can I avoid the cost of eating out?
- What substitution strategies can I use to reduce spending?
- How can I live simply and not spend money on things I don’t need?
4. Pay off outstanding debt.
Consider options for reducing debt you already have by evaluating the following:
- Can I set up automatic-payment plans to pay my outstanding debt?
- How can I apply extra money or windfall money to my loans and credit-card debt?
5. Save every day.
Understand of the importance of setting aside a small amount of money each day for savings. Ask yourself:
- How will I pay expenses when I have no income?
- How will I pay job-search and interview expenses?
- What happens if I have an emergency?
USA Funds Life Skills Module 9, “Live Like a Student — Managing Your Funds,” also provides graduate and professional students with information that they can use to keep their student-loan borrowing to a minimum. Module 9 encourages students to consider:
- How much do I already owe in student loans?
- How much more money do I need to borrow to complete my studies?
- How much will my estimated monthly payments be?
- How much am I paying for my student loans?
- How much student-loan debt can I afford based on my career choice?
- What other options do I have to finance my education so I can avoid borrowing more than I need to borrow?
- What tax breaks and loan-forgiveness programs can I take advantage of?
The newest USA Funds Life Skills module includes a professional resource manual and an interactive CD-ROM for students. Also included are a trainer’s manual to assist those delivering the program and a trainer’s CD, which includes a step-by-step training guide and presentation slides.
USA Funds Life Skills materials are available for ordering online through the USA Funds Web site.
For more information, contact your USA Funds debt-management consultant.