you don’t have to be broke

are you a broke college student? because you don’t have to be. literally. it’s so easy to save money and manage your spending, once you decide to make it a priority.

click “decide”. and jam out while you choose to have “mo’ money” (let’s not dwell on the part about problems). i’m about to share with you a few of the tips and tricks I use to ensure my bank account isn’t in the negatives every other week. buuuuut please don’t be fooled, I definitely have times when my bank account balance looks a lot like $0.64 – this isn’t a post on how to eradicate the college struggle (because that’s kind of impossible). I strongly believe it’s not college if there’s no struggle (but if you’re struggle free then 1. yay you and 2. help me out?)

ok, here are the tips. some of them are books, because BOOKS. READ BOOK GUYS THEY’RE AWESOME

1. richest man in babylon – george samuel clason. my dad forced me to read this book when I was 11 (shoutout to my father being all wise and prescient and fantastic) and I hated it. it was dreadfully boring to me. it was like reading scrolls of ancient scripture, which is fair, because it is a collection of parables. the parables, though, give little nuggets of financial wisdom that can change your life. the main one that stuck with me was the 10% rule: at an absolute minimum, save 10% of every dime of income you come across. by save, I mean actually save it. put it away into what I call a “black hole” account. I call it a black hole because you should see things (money, deposits) going into it and never, ever, ever coming out (in the form of withdrawals), ever, and ever. well not ever, but not anytime soon. this is your rainy day umbrella, your emergency fund, your cushion for when life bitch slaps you off the cliff of financial stability- because it will. not your the-new-iPhone-is-out fund, and not the omg-beyonce-in-concert fund. the actual savings fund that actually has savings in it. every single time a pay check gets dropped into your account, a MINIMUM of 10% needs to be put directly into savings, never to be seen again (until that bitch slap we talked about arrives). this book is cornerstone to countless badass, rich ass people, including one of my lady-goals, Sophia Amoruso, Founder of NastyGal.com. She even mentioned it in her (very great) book. she curates this site too, it’s chock full of easy to read money management tips. another tenet of richest man in babylon that I hold dear is the practice of giving back. once you can, you should. in some type of way, be it your time, your advice, or actual dollars, cuz you know, karma and the laws of attraction and all that good stuff. they’re legit concepts. trust me.
2. acorns. a super easy-to-use, not investor-gibberish at all app that invests your spare change for you. you can attach an account to it and set it to round up all your transactions to the nearest dollar, with the change being strategically invested for you by the acorns team in a diversified portfolio of stocks. you get real dividends and returns, without the tricky investing jargon and knowledge. MO’ MONEY. you’re welcome.
3. automate. don’t depend on yourself to manage the movement of your funds from checking to savings. have your bank set it up so it happens automatically and you’ve already won.
4. mint. this is a beautifully developed site and app that you put all your financial data into (credit cards, bank accounts, expenses) and it amalgamates all of that into a pretty layout of how much you spend on different things. it’s a lovely way to get the macro view of how you deal with your money, so you can better manage it.
5. speaking of mint, do you have a budget? BECAUSE YOU NEED ONE. from how much you’re gonna spend on haircuts or hair products to food to entertainment to savings needs to be outlined in a solidified breakdown THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN DOWN. this isn’t just so you can say you have a budget. this is about accountability and actually knowing what you’re doing with your money. the more aware you are of the ebbs and flows of your money, is the more likely you are to learn how to dance with those ebbs and flows and stay on top of your funds.
6. drop your “treat yoself” philosophy, or account for it. either you realise that impulsively buying trendy shit off boohoo and asos that you can’t afford IS NOT A TREAT, or you budget for an item that you use as your “treat” each month. treats can be small and affordable, guys. ease up off the ballin’ out types of treats if you truly, honestly can’t afford it. you’re scamming yourselves.

try those tips and then listen to this song and bask in the riches you’ve acquired *wink*.

be blessed, ever blessed.