Are you good at controlling emotional spending? Do you go from month to month wondering where the money in your bank account went or are you experiencing financial stress? Are you prone to “clicking your money” away with online shopping? “We can help!”
We have many resources available that can help you set up a budget/personal spending and saving plan.
- Cash Course, Your Real-Life Money Guide, is now available to all `Canes. It has a Budgeting Wizard, as well as many other personal finance resources that you can use to plan for your future, control spending, and stay on track with your goals.
- Budgeting apps, Google Sheets or a weekly tracking sheetcan also be helpful to do it on your own. No matter which method you choose, as you start your career, you should always follow the 30/50/20 rule for setting up your personal spending and saving plan. During college, when you may not have many mandatory “Life” payments, we can help you create strategies that meett your needs.
- One-on-one Peer Coaching will start in January and help individuals enhance their critical skills in areas like budgeting, financial goals setting, credit development, debt management, real-world finance, borrowing and more.
“Parking it in the shopping cart”
We are all sometimes guilty of emotional spending and online shopping makes it that much easier to “click our money away”. The practice of “Parking it in the shopping cart” involves us taking a pause before the purchase, putting it the shopping cart, walking away, and asking ourselves:
- Do I want this item? “YES!”
- Do I truly need this item? “Hmmm… Maybe?”
- Does this purchase positively support my goals? Yes___ No___
- If “NO” and you can live without it, empty the shopping cart!
What’s your Life Plan?
Budgeting without having specific goals to strive toward, is like running on a treadmill. You are moving but you are not really getting anywhere. Regardless of what you are planning for, you will more easily move forward by setting specific and timely goals. The best version of this is called a “Life Plan”, which is based on your dreams and life aspirations. It helps you create a vision for your short and long-term financial future and incorporates the steps you need to take to accomplish your goals. To learn more about Life Plan creation, please attend one of our Budgeting and Life Plan/financial goal setting Money Talks or work one-on-one with a Peer Coach starting this spring.
