Tag Archives: budget

My Future Self Will Thank Me

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Two weeks ago Friday, I attended a CP&R module on Basic Budgeting. During the session, we heard from two Scripps alums about their experiences budgeting post-college and in the professional world. I have to confess that I had a mixed response to what I learned: the side of me that likes to be organized was intrigued with budgeting, yet the side of me that likes to do new and exciting things found it pretty tedious.

The timing of the session was perfect for me, since I will need to budget carefully on my upcoming spring break trip and during my summer internship. While I am excited for both of these occasions, I worry that it is easy to spend more money than I would like to while on vacation and living in a big city. The budgeting session really helped me to develop a plan for and feel in control of the money I will be spending. At the session, the two Scripps alums shared online resources that they use to monitor their personal budget. I have decided to implement two of the resources into my budgeting routine:

Mint is an app created by the software company Intuit that allows you to create a budget, track and pay bills, receive a breakdown of your spending categories, and many more helpful features. It is almost overwhelming how much the app can do for you. I have been playing around on the app for the past few days and have gained a new awareness of my spending patterns. Through the app, I learned that I spend the majority of my money throughout each month on food. Now that I know that I spend most of my money on food, I can learn to budget effectively and responsibly and make more informed decisions about going out for meals versus eating on campus.

I find that between Venmo payments and spur-of-the-moment Amazon purchases, it is very easy to lose track of where I spend my money. To help remember where I’m spending my money and on what, I’ve created a Google Sheet of my monthly spending. I feel much more at ease knowing exactly how much I’m spending each month and understand that I can truly be in control of what I’m spending.

While budgeting may not seem necessary for most Claremont College students, since most of us don’t have to pay monthly fees for rent or purchase groceries, it is an amazing habit to start early on. I will have more practice budgeting over spring break and this summer, and I am getting proactive about preparing myself for the costs of these occasions. Although I still have a lot to learn about budgeting, I hope to master the art of it before I graduate. I know that my future self will thank me.

 

 

Fullbridge Program Day 3: Personal Finance

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Day three of Fullbridge focused much less on group activities and required more attention to individual tasks. The workload was quite dense, and none of us wasted time chatting. On-task and quiet, we immersed ourselves in a world of tutorials, videos, PDF files, and Excel. Most of us listened to music while we worked. I frequently stood up to stretch and give my back a break from sitting too long.

Personal finance stood at the forefront of the day’s work, complete with facts and figures full of jargon. We explored a range of financial settings. These included learning the difference between variable, fixed, and discretionary expenses, as well as the value in renting v. buying a house. While I did not find this information immediately applicable for myself, I knew it would help to know the information later down the road— perhaps after I graduated from Scripps. Even now, some students choose to live in a house with others instead of opting for on-campus housing.

Another topic fell under the category of how to choose a bank based on a three-pronged guide: fees, convenience, and interest paid. Although many of us may already own savings or checking accounts, CDs or mutual funds, we can always benefit from securing additional knowledge. After all, the economy literally changes overnight and new policies appear more often than we might think. Personally, I would have appreciated information about traditional banking v. online banking, given the recent shift to the latter.

By the end of the day, my mind had accumulated a wealth (puns!) of information about personal finance– enough to make me rethink my spending and saving habits. I reflected on the way I had spent my paychecks last fall, and resolved to act more thoughtfully this semester. I set a new budget for myself, and have followed through with it this spring. As of now, I’m happy to say my piggy bank’s been nothing but smiles.

On a tangential note…

My personal accomplishment of the day was working out at the gym for the first time since my arrival at Oxy! Given how difficult it is to find any extra time outside of work, I felt extremely accomplished. I imagined what it would be like to find similar pockets of time for fun or recreation in the future, and am thinking about it still.

When one works an 8 A.M.-5 P.M. work week, one either has to work out early in the morning, or late at night. Eat. Get dressed. Drive to the gym. Work out. Shower. Get dressed again. Sit in traffic. Work. Eat again. Sleep? Throw in a family and kids (which I’d like in my future), and no wonder people in the “real world” can seem so stressed out! The eight-hour workdays at Fullbridge have led me to think more concretely about the kind of lifestyle I hope to adopt in the future.

What priorities do you currently stress in your life? How often do you take the time to sit down and re-evaluate these priorities? Does a budget make its way into the picture? I hope your piggy bank finds a reason to smile. 🙂

What are you worth?

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Personal finance. Two incredibly intimidating words that, if I am to be quite honest, completely escape me. My knowledge of ‘personal financing’ extends to withdrawing and depositing money into my bank account. Beyond that, I’m at a bit of a loss. Which is why, when I learnt Life After Scripps was offering a workshop on personal financing, I immediately hopped on that train. As I was relieved to find out, so did a good portion of the rest of my class.

Professor Dillon—who is the most adorable and hilarious woman—led the crash course to a room full of “desperate seniors.” One of the reasons leaving Scripps feels so daunting is because for the first time in my life, I will be fully responsible for myself. I’ve never simultaneously paid rent, bought a car, managed bills, bought groceries, and worked—though that is exactly what the majority of the world is balancing. So while being wealthy does not necessarily fall under my perception of success, being financially independent does. Like most of the other students sitting in that room, I have so many visions and hopes for the future, and almost all of them require me to be in a financially secure position. This workshop was my first introduction to the steps in that life-long, ongoing process. Though I am by no means now an expert, I’ve highlighted a few points that may begin to demystify personal finance for you like it did for me:

Budgeting

A successful budget, also known as a spending plan, is contingent on creating a thorough and accurate cash flow statement.

Cash flow statement (or net income) = total income – total expenses

Total Expenses:  As Professor Dillon heavily stressed throughout the hour, the only way to control your financial life and build wealth is to know exactly where your money is going. That means following every, single penny. I’m not careless with my money, but I certainly can’t claim to keep a meticulous record of every late-night Yogurtland trip or spontaneous Target run. All those seemingly small expenditures add up to a significant, and often surprisingly large, amount. There are so many resources and tools available now to simplify the challenge of tracking your money—from online banking, to budget spreadsheets, to personal financing software. Apparently the new rage revolutionizing money management is a free site called mint.com. Valinda at CP&R recently discovered this handy innovation and, in her words, has “never been more excited about personal finance!” 🙂

Total Income: Your total income should be based off your net pay, i.e. your take home income after all taxes and deductions. Retirement savings accounts like a 401(k) or 403(b) are considered pre-tax deductions, meaning that money is deducted from your wages BEFORE taxes and put into your savings account, thereby reducing your taxable wages (that’s a good thing, yay!). You have probably heard this countless times in the past, but saving now means you are multiplying your wealth for later—all because of a magical little trick called compounding interest. Professor Dillon convinced me—‘open a savings account’ was just added to my growing to-do list for the weekend.

On another note, though this wasn’t a focus of the workshop, one line Professor Dillon said that really stuck with me was “Remember, your first job is not your career.” Most of the time, my post-graduation anxiety stems from the fear that I wont find or receive my dream job/internship/fellowship by May and will be forced into an arbitrary position completely unrelated to my passions and plans (shudder). Those are what I like to call my there-is-no-life-after-Scripps attacks. However, when I heard that line, it hit me—in a rare moment of comfort and reassurance—that seldom does a person’s first job define or limit their career path. While I would obviously prefer to be doing something I truly love this time next year, I am slowly coming to terms with the realistic possibility that I may also find myself back home in Texas working locally. Not that I am embracing that option—just understanding that it wouldn’t be permanent or reflective of the future.

P.S. In response to the title of the post, I just did the math (net worth = what you own – what you owe). As it turns out, I have a negative net worth. Awesome.