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Health & Wellness : Financial
Financial Wellness
Financial wellness and developing financially-smart habits during college are valuable investments that will help you achieve your future goals. This module includes activities and resources to help you develop these habits and improve your financial wellness.
What is Financial Wellness?
College students often experience significant financial stress. Student debt can be a looming challenge, especially with the rising costs of expenses such as these:
- higher education
- housing
- bills
- food
- taking care of other dependents
- other basic expenses
Keeping up with these financial responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming, but ignoring them will only increase feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear. With so many things to juggle within a busy academic schedule, adding in some time every day to seek ways to improve financial wellness will help you feel less stress.
Activities
Here are some activities that you can try to improve your financial wellness:
- Download the FLIPP app - open in a new tab and find deals. This app lets you browse flyers for local stores, see what items are on sale, and make a grocery list. You can even search for specific items to find the sales.
- Meal plan.Plan your meals for the week based on what is on sale.
- Price-match one item.If you have a flyer saying that an item is on sale at another store, some retailers will match that price at their store.
- Examine your spending.Write down every single thing you buy in a week and evaluate where you can cut back. You can download a budgeting app for help tracking everything for example the Mint app - open in a new tab.
- Make a weekly and monthly budget.Figure out how much money has to go to fixed expenses, like transportation and rent, and then plan how much of what’s left over you can spend on other things.
- Take advantage of a student discount. Some retailers and services offer discounts for students. Do some research before you make purchases to find out if you could get a discount.
- Make a present or card instead of buying one. If you have skills such as painting, baking, jewelry making, crafting, or knitting, you can use those skills to create personal gifts instead of spending money.
- Use loyalty point systems to your advantage.Many stores have loyalty programs that allow you to earn points towards future purchases.
For more tips, check out 7 Financial Tips Every College Student Should Know - open in a new tab.