Money Management - Yours, Mine and Our Students'
by Jeff Southard, Debt Management Specialist - NELA

Your financial aid office can be a hectic place. Students tend to be an anxious bunch when the topic is money. Concerns about student loans and other financial aid may be the reason students come to your office, but often there are deeper money management issues behind their stress. Studies have repeatedly shown that high school and college students seldom have the basic skills necessary to keep their finances in order. Reality shows that many adults don't have control of their finances either.

Picture this scenario - a student is seeking help at the financial aid office in order to stay in school, and the financial aid office in order to stay person behind the counter is in a similar financial mess! If your money management skills could use some improvement, why not take charge of your finances? Developing your own skills will benefit your pocketbook and help you point your students toward successful money management.

One of the first steps to developing a personal financial plan is to find out what happens to the money you earn. We all know about the big things - what we spend on rent/mortgages, car payments, utilities and other basic expenses. It's when we get to those miscellaneous expenses that things get tricky. How many times do you go out to eat per month? How often do you buy a magazine or take out cash when you are at the grocery store? What about that morning latte or bakery item?

Think back to last Friday when you contemplated the endless possibilities of the weekend. You were tired, definitely too tired to cook, so you stopped off at the store for takeout. While you were there, you got $100 cash from the cashier courtesy of your debit card - mad money!

Monday rolled around (as it inevitably does) and as you prepared for work, you were amazed to find that you only had eighty-nine cents left! You asked yourself, "Where did the other $99.11 go? Let's see - dinner on Friday came directly out of the checking account. Saturday morning there was the usual trip out for lattes, but that was only $8. Then there was the afternoon at the movies and, oh yeah, a stop at McDonalds where they were 'supersizing' orders for an additional seventy-five cents..."

What influences you to spend money? Many people spend because it makes them feel good. Perhaps you go on a spending spree to cheer yourself up after a bad week or buy too much because it's on sale. Solve the mystery of your out-of-pocket spending. For the next month, every time you spend money, write down the amount spent and the emotions you experienced when you made the purchase. Tracking your spending and the feelings involved will help you to find out where you spend your discretionary income.

Armed with that information, venture forth to the World Wide Web. There are many debt management aids to help gain control of those pesky finances. Below are just a few of the many Web sites that may be of assistance (in no particular order).

www.nela.net: Contains budgeting tools geared toward students as well as information about budgeting, credit reports and student loans. The site also offers a budget calculator and a downloadable spending plan worksheet.

www.moneycentralmsn.com: Contains everything from articles about controlling debt to calculators and budgeting worksheets. Also includes information on investing.

www.savvystudent.com: By and for students, this site focuses on money issues from the student perspective.

www.bankrate.com: Offers calculators, budgeting tips, consumer advocacy and is filled with great information about finances.

www.fool.com: One of the best sites for basic investing information as well as tips on eliminating credit card debt.

The main reason that people fail in gaining control of their finances is that they never start. Making a commitment to tracking personal money habits will give you and your students the tools necessary to make a sound financial plan for the future. Tracking your own spending will help you find additional money in your life, and it will allow you, a person in control of their finances, to be a mentor to students.