Break from Audiology: Personal Finances as a Graduate Student

By Chelsea Tynes

No matter what stage of life you are in, finances are a very hot topic – between making money, saving money, managing debt and student loans, and investing, financial planning can feel overwhelming. For many students, finances dictate where you go to school and how you manage day-to-day activities and responsibilities.

Discussions surrounding finances can be nerve-wracking, but with financial literacy and healthy personal finance practices, it does not have to be! The hard truth – the financial decisions that you make today can greatly influence your tomorrow, so it’s never too early to start considering your finances. Here are some personal finance tips that can be helpful as a student:

• Use a Budget Tracker: Organize and track your spending, expenses, and savings daily, weekly, or monthly by using a spreadsheet, budget book, or budgeting app. Using a tracker allows you to visualize how much you currently have, how much you need for basic responsibilities for the week or month ahead, and current spending habits.
• Live Within Your Means: As a student, it is important to budget and limit spending to what you can afford based on that budget. Something that I live by is to not ‘count my chickens before they hatch’ or in other words, try not to consider money that I do not have yet in my non-essential budget until I have it in my account. A helpful way to manage finances is to evaluate your hierarchy of needs and responsibilities, prioritize those components first, then address the non-essentials or “wants”.
• Manage Debt: For many students, it is extremely difficult to stay away from debt due to the need to use loans and credit cards to stay afloat as full-time students – that is fine and completely understandable! In terms of managing debt as a student, the most important thing is to stay away from adding unnecessary credit card debt by only using it for purchases that you have the money to pay off right away (plus, this is a great way to accumulate credit card rewards) and for emergencies. It is also helpful to refrain from taking out high car loans as a student unless you absolutely need to.

As with many things, managing personal finances is a process of trial and error and it takes time to evaluate what strategies best suit your needs. There are many ways to manage your finances, so it is important to do some research, keep things simple and organized, and most of all, use the methods that work best for you! Also consider the fact that what may work for you at this stage of life, may not work in another. Be open and flexible to new financial strategies as your life changes.

Additional Resources

• New Professional Toolkit