The College Student Stage

The freedom available at the College Student Stage can be euphoric. For the first time in your life your parents aren't calling the shots. Plus, you are contemplating what you want to do with your life and how you plan to do it. This stage is the transition between being a child and being a full-fledged adult. Many in this stage of life know little about financial management, yet the financial challenges during this period of life can be daunting. Many college students will take out student loans to pay for college and credit card debt is often the solution to bridge the gap between expenses and income. Many college students will also have a car with all the added expenses associated with it. This stage is a great time of growth -- both academically and socially, but, during this time, large debts can also accumulate. The College Student Stage is an incredibly important time of life to grow in understanding tried and true concepts for managing money and to develop the capability to put them into practice.

The key features and functions of the Simple Home Finances Toolkits to use in this stage are:

• Use the Budget toolkit to:
  • Develop a realistic budget
  • To see how much money is available after deducting your living costs.
• Use Loan Management from the Loan toolkit to:
  • Track your car loan to see how much you owe. What it costs and how long it will take to pay off.
  • If possible plan to pay down your credit card debt by treating it like an installment debt.
• Use Loan Planning from the Loan toolkit to:
  • Project the future monthly cost of your student loans.

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