If you find yourself avoiding checking your bank account balance online, it’s probably time to check your bank account balance online.
But taking a peek at that balance in September isn’t too difficult a task—it’s always later in the semester when you suddenly have something better to do instead.
This is a shame, because getting your ducks in a row now could be tremendously important once you graduate.
It is easy to forget a student budget needs to stretch beyond the period of your program and be able to support you when you’re entering the work world—which, if you haven’t heard, isn’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat to new graduates.
But right now is the start of a new school year and students are flush—or at least as flush as we will be for a while. Summer job money has been stockpiled, student loans are on the way, and maybe Mom and Dad even pitched in on some back-to-school purchases to ease you into the new school year.
We have all seen it: students throwing around money at bars during frosh week or buying up the latest fall fashion—some even go full-on bourgeois and get the added guacamole on their burritos.
Now, how many of those same students are avoiding bars, looking like slobs, and living a guac-less existence at the end of the year?
That’s just how student finance works, at least for students who don’t work while at school. There’s a finite amount of money at the beginning of the school year and then, if and when that runs dry, the difference is covered through loans.
This isn’t to say students aren’t counting their pennies. The stereotype of the thrifty student, eating ramen noodles and living in squalor is hard-earned, but the cliché is more apt at the end of the semester than the beginning.
Fortunately, students have a lot of financial offerings made available to them, such as scholarships, bursaries, loans and grants, as well as lines of credit and credit cards. For many students, these tools are invaluable and studying would be next to impossible without them.
A recent poll by CIBC found that 51 per cent of post-secondary students borrow money for tuition, living expenses, and books –and only a quarter of those students expected to owe less than $10,000 once they finished school.
Being a student isn’t cheap and the allure of credit can be tempting. According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the average student in Ontario and the Maritimes will owe $28,000 after a four-year degree.
But how much of this debt could have been avoided with a simple budget made in September, or better yet, in first year?
A debt load like that can limit your options in a post-grad job hunt. You can become geographically restricted in your job search if you can’t afford a car or can’t afford to move where work is available and, perhaps most importantly, you won’t be able to afford to work very long as an intern.
And let’s face it, for most degrees internships after graduation have not only become the norm, but they are practically an unofficial part of the curriculum.
Putting together a solid student budget is probably the least sexy piece of career advice you can get, but it can have a real effect on your options once you graduate.
So maybe let the cashier know you don’t need that guacamole, because when it comes down to it, which type of green would you rather have?
