Financial Wellness Blog

Oftentimes I find myself at Target browsing through products and being confronted with the words “ethically sourced” labeled across various expensive products [...] but no clear definition of what it actually means.

Building credit allows you to make larger purchases later in your life. When I was 18, I decided to set out and get a credit card and start building credit for myself.

Moving off campus can be an exciting opportunity but can be challenging if you’re not prepared. As a first-generation, low-income (FGLI) student, the chance to continue building my independence and life experience by moving into an apartment seemed like a no-brainer for my senior year. However, I didn’t feel equipped with the right information to start my search.

Small things, like the cost of a bag of chips (or crisps, as we call them in the UK), are different whereas I’m used to paying no more than $1.20, here it’s more like $4.50.

As a first-year student, I consider myself to be pretty financially savvy despite my young age because my parents taught me the value of managing money since I was very little. They instilled in me important lessons they knew would serve me in building a financially stable life.

I was struck when I found out that only around 10% of high school students in the nation have access to personal finance education. While I was given the opportunity to take a financial literacy class in my freshman year of high school, I realized most states didn’t require financial literacy to be taught in schools. Why couldn’t this be taught to all students, I wondered?

Investing your money can appear extremely complicated and time-consuming but, once you’ve mastered your current financial situation, it can help you take your finances to the next level.

As naive first years frantically searching to secure housing for our sophomore year, my friends and I had a rather stressful experience in our off-campus housing search. We made some impulsive decisions along the way that had unanticipated consequences down the line. Here's what I learned.

"I thought budgeting meant I had to be on alert constantly, without any leeway in my spending habits. I never thought I could take ownership of my personal finances as a student."

Managing finances is definitely challenging at times, but the payoff is always worth the hard work. The first time I had to budget was in January of this year (when the world seemed to be in order, but little did I know that it was the calm before the storm).