 The Managing Your Budget Brochure is the foundation of achieving your financial goals while maintaining your day-to-day living expenses. To attain financial success, mastering the skill of budgeting is the first step your can take. This will allow your money to work for you instead of feeling controlled by it. Budgeting also empowers you to be a better "money manager" and make better decisions on maximizing the power of your money to pay back your student loans either while you are in school or after you have completed school.
There are several steps to creating a successful budget. Those include completing school, getting a job in your field, getting your first apartment, and paying student loans on a timely basis.
Step One - Review the goals that are important to you.
Step Two - Organize your expenses, student loan papers, and other important documents. The categories are "bills to pay monthly" and "variable expenses" that are paid as they are due. For example, if you make payments on your student loans before finishing school, you will decrease the amount of interest you pay over the time period you are in school. It is also smart to put away some money for emergencies or events that you didn't plan for.
Step Three - Establish a realistic budget, by figuring out where your money is going. Click on the " dailyExpensesChart.pdf" for an easy-to-use template that can help you monitor what you spend on a daily basis.
Step Four - Create your budget. Using the information collected from Steps 1-3, you are now ready to put your budget on paper. Click on the "Monthly Budget Worksheet" to help you create that budget by using the calculated totals from your daily expense sheet.
Step Five - Establish file and paper organization of your financial records. There is not one specific way to handle your paper work. Some people go to painstaking methods to keep their records in place and others throw most or all of their paperwork into the garbage. To get started, create a file folder for each type of student loan or for each loan account you have. Keep the following information in hardcopy or electronic paper files.
- Summary of basic information about your student loan
- Copies of your student loan application forms
- Promissory notes and other documents you signed agreeing to repay the money you've borrowed
- Account statements
- Disbursement and disclosure statements
- Any correspondence from your schools financial aid office, lender, loan servicer, OSFA, or the Department of Education
- Click on the "student information log" to keep track of phone conversations, dates, and names for future reference about your loans
- Use electronic budgeting software to keep track of your budget or the "Monthly Budget Worksheet"
- Keep paper files and other student loan records indefinitely! The National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) has identified what records to keep and for what period of time. In addition to keeping your student loan records, you should also keep income tax returns, legal records, stock records, financial statements and license renewals or certificates for an indefinite time period.
Additional Resources:
Books:
Take Control of your Student Loan Debt by Leonard and Loonin, 2001
Free Yourself from Student Loan Debt: Get Out from Under Once and for all; by Brian O'Connell, 2004
Money Still Doesn't Grow On Trees: A Parent's Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Teenagers and Young Adults by Neale Godfrey, 2004
Websites:
http://myvesta.org/ - A nonprofit consumer education organization and website. This site provides ratings on credit cards, debt eliminator calculator, money personality test, student credit card information.
http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com - Free website designed to help educators, parents, and student practice better money management for life.
http://www.nfcc.org/ - National Foundation for Credit Counseling sets the national standard for quality credit counseling, debt reduction and education for financial wellness. There are member agencies in Florida. Check your local phone directory for an agency office near you.
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