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CLT Magazine | SPRING 2022
Financial Keys To Student Success Daniela Ngounou
~International Speaker, Coach & Author www.danielangounou.com
It is without a doubt that money is the number 1 reason for college student dropouts and has been for a long period of time. Unfortunately, most students do not know how to handle their finances to succeed during college and prepare themselves for a bright future. Oftentimes, students’ bad money habits are created during their college years because it is the first time most of them get to be “on their own”. Although money is a huge burden to many students, it doesn’t have to be the case forever. I am on a mission to empower as many students as possible to understand personal finance. As you have probably heard, knowledge is power. Once you apply these financial keys, you will be ahead of most our society, which will catapult you to success during college and beyond.
Assess Your Current State
Before jumping into action, you must first analyze your current situation. Where do your finances stand as of today? Do you have a current job, allowance, loans, expenses, etc.? I suggest creating an excel spreadsheet starting with two simple columns: Income and Expenses. After you have all your income and expenses (I recommend listing them as monthly income and monthly expense), find the difference between the two figures by subtracting the expenses from the income amount. This is called your “cashflow”; the amount of money you have left after your monthly expenses. This number may be positive, zero, or even negative depending on your situation. Whatever it is, just be honest with yourself, this is the first step to financial success! It is also important to list out your money goals at this step so you can have an idea of where you want to be. Some questions that may be helpful to ask yourself are: • “How much money do I want to have saved right after graduation?” • “What are some purchases I would like to make in the next 3 years?” • “Who is someone that I want to be more like when it pertains to personal finance?”
