Boost your life-long financial success by doing this now

May 3, 2022

The secret to financial success isn’t having more money. Instead, the secret is in how you manage what money you do have.

Good money management is accomplished by developing a budget and sticking to it.

While the secret to financial success is simple, it’s not necessarily easy. The best way to improve your financial skills is through practice.

If you’re a student and your income and expenses are limited, you may feel it’s not worth the time or the effort to set up a budget. However, by setting up a budget and sticking to it, you’ll get some good practice with budgeting. That practice will come in handy when your finances get a little more complicated. Also, you may find out, even though your funds are limited, you end of saving more when you have a budget to follow.

The steps to establishing a budget are:

1. Evaluate what’s important to you and what goals you have for your money. Maybe you want to save for a car or for your education.
2. Determine your income. Do you have a part-time job or earn money from chores? If you are in college, do you receive any financial aid to help with your living expenses?
3. Determine your expenses. Do you pay rent or do you have any transportation expenses? How much do you spend on entertainment or food each month? Include savings as one of your expenses. That savings account will help you accomplish your financial goals.
4. Track your budget. It’s important to not only develop your budget, but to also track how closely you are following it each month. If you find out your budgeted income and expenses don’t match your actual income and expenses, you may need to make some adjustments if you are going to accomplish your financial goals.

Mapping Your Future offers resources to help students budget their money and learn about good money management now so they find financial success a lot easier in the future.