Patriot Days: Life After Graduation!

     The University of Texas at Tyler Student Money Management held a workshop along with Career services and Financial aid today at the University Center Ballroom at 12:30. The workshop focused on providing students with tips and resources that will get them prepared for life after graduating college. Have you thought about what you will do after you graduate?

UT Tyler Student Money Management hosts Life After Graduation workshop

     May 2014 marks a milestone for seniors here at The University of Texas at Tyler. It is time for GRADUATION! The final step to end their college career is approaching. Some have a plan of what they're doing after graduations while others are still trying to figure it out. There are even those that are lucky enough to have jobs lined up. If you still haven't decided what you're going to do, don't worry! The UT Tyler Student Money Management program is hosting an event called "Life After Graduation."

UT Tyler Student Money Management: Valentine Edition

     Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! This is the time of the year where you and your significant other celebrate your relationship. The harsh reality though, is that as a college student, you may not have the funds to treat your loved ones with the right date or gifts. Don’t fret though! The Student Money Management program here at The University of Texas at Tyler has all the resources you need to get you financially prepared!

     The Student Money Management will host an event on campus called “Date Night on a Dime.”

One Broke Girl

I recently just endured one of the most embarassing moments of my life.

Do you know what it feels like to have your card declined? How about when it's declined in front of your friend? How about when it's declined in front of your friend, your boyfriend, and ALL of McDonalds?

Well, that's what happened to me yesterday.
I go into McDonalds, I ask my boyfriend what he wants, trying to be awesome since he's always paying for me. I order two meals. I swear I have money because just Saturday I had my mom put in like $30. The meal comes out to be $14. I swipe my card and read the words, "TRANSACTION NOT APPROVED".

I start to freak out inside, but I calmly pull out my phone and go into my bank account... where there is only $12. (I forgot I had went to Walmart the day before and bought worthless junk)

I suppose I could have just asked the cashier to make the two meals I ordred into just sandwiches, but I had already tried to ball in front of everyone... so I took the low road.
I let my boyfriend pay.

And I was HUMILIATED. My friend relentlessly mocked me (because those are the types of friends I have), but I learned a lesson every college student needs to know.

EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS!

Thankfully here at UT Tyler, it's only so often that I actually have to spend my own money. On campus we have free anything you can think of:
Free check-ups at the clinic,free gym membership, free events. free food every once in a while, we have these cute little free movies on the lawn... and it's not old movies I would see at home on my VHS, no. They're good, NEWLY RELEASED movies, saving me an embarassing trip to the movie theatre.

My mother always says to me, "You're in college, you're supposed to be broke."
This doesn't make me feel any better, but I'm so happy that my school accomodates people like me so that I'm not withering away in my dorm room.

Remember to WISELY spend your money (going here helps), check your bank account when you go out, and don't be ashamed to rely on the kindness of your friends.

How To Survive and Understand Financial Aid

How To Survive and Understand Financial Aid!

   Look, between you and me and the monitor? College costs money. Buckets and buckets of money for some, or easily managed payments for others. Every school is different and not every school costs the same … but it still costs.

   Are we all still okay? Have we survived the first obstacle in this talk on Financial Aid?  Awesome!
   The biggest thing to understand about financial aid requests is that it takes time, paperwork ( sort-of ), and the patience of a saint to get through the whole process. Sometimes you will need to have access to documents and forms that you, by yourself, do not normally handle depending on your age, mainly IRS forms.

   Here I will detail the steps you’ll need to go through in about as much sense as the process can be translated. It’s not AS hard as deciphering hieroglyphs into swhaili and then into English … but its tricky all the same.

   First – Have all the records of your income that you or your parents have. Be sure to know if you are claimed by your family as a dependent! This is a HUGE deal.  You’ll need to make sure you have the official forms because you will need *very* specific information from these documents when we get to the second step.

   Second – Go to FAFSA.ed.gov  Here you will make an account, get your 4-digit PIN, and then you’ll register your current financial “status” based on your income/dependency, etc… You’ll be asked a seemingly endless series of questions pertaining to how much money you or your family have made, considerations for differing things, etc… You will be able to “register” that you want this information sent to the school of your choice so it’s understood that step is done after you’ve confirmed your offer of admission with your university.

   Third, see what your college is able to provide you. For UT Tyler the website will be https://www.uttyler.edu/financialaid/scholarships/index.php . Here you can find the numerous options you have for finding scholarships.

   Quick! Do you know the difference between a LOAN, and GRANT, and a SCHOLARSHIP? Grants and Scholarships do not have to be paid back so it’s free money ( well, kind of – some Grants/Scholarships have a dependency clause stating that to renew the funds you need to get a certain GPA, for example ) for you to use. Loans a are trickier and they will have to be paid back in time, however you have six months after graduation ( or between your last college class taken ) to start making payments.

   CAUTION: If possible, always be careful with taking out Loans for college needlessly. The temptation to just be given an extra 5-10,000 a year can really help your life out, however if you do not plan for paying this money back ( even in small 150 dollar payments a month )  they can become trouble down the road.

   The last step is to constantly check in with the Financial Aid office(s) for your college, however please be courteous to these hard working people and if they say “It will be a week before we know anything,” give them a week.

Student Money Management at UT Tyler

    Money Management. This is not a foreign subject for any college student. In fact, most college students cringe when you mention this topic for the simple reason that most of us are perpetually broke and really do not wish to be reminded of that fact. If they do not have questions about it now, many students will unfortunately face this harsh truth when they graduate because according to forbes.com “The average American is $ 4,000.00 in debt!” I know I have hit on this     topic before in my Breaking the College Poverty Cycle blog, but I have recently found new resources and I must share them with the world.

        Student Money Management, this is a new organization on campus which aims to equip The University of Texas at Tyler students with the knowledge to control their money instead of letting their money control them. The graduate Assistant in Student Affairs, Christina Gibson, has been participating in the implementation of the program by researching other schools money management programs, finding educational resources, and creating the Student Money Management website. She will be conducting the outreach and facilitating programs to engage students in discussion about good money management.  Basically, she is the brains behind this organization! So I decided to get the answers directly from the source and ask her a few more questions about the organization!

ME: What is the goal of this organization?

Christina Gibson (CG): The Student Money Management (SMM) Program’s main goal is to educate students on how to become financially independent and graduate college with a sense of how to manage their money. We currently offer student's a money management education through presentations and workshops, online resources on our website, and eventually like to offer personal consultations with a financial advisor. We want to give students the opportunity to:

-          Learn how to create a personal budget

-          Make a plan to repay student loans and personal debts after graduation

-          Learn ways to protect their identity

-          Learn how to track and manage expenses during and after college

-          Understand and build strong personal credit

-          Find educational resources that offer advice, tips, and tools to better their financial situation

ME: Who can benefit from this program?

CG: All students! We want all of our students to make good financial decisions. College students are in dire need of financial guidance. Out of a recent survey of more than 1,000 colleges, 98 colleges said their 2010 graduating class owed an average of more than $35,000, and 73 colleges reported that more than 90% of students graduated with some amount of debt. Average student loan debt tops $25,000.

With college students consuming this amount of debt, and spending such vast amounts of money during their college experience, students can benefit from financial advice being provided for them from their universities.

ME:  How do students get involved?

CG: Students are welcome to check out our website. There are many resources, tools, informative articles, and beneficial items to get them started on their money management journey. It is separated by different categories, depending on what type of information they are looking for. We will update it periodically with new resources, along with adding videos and pictures from the different events we have! On our website, there is also a link to our UT Tyler CashCourse. This is a program the University has invested in for our students to use in the Student Money Management program. 

So, as you can see, this organization is a great hands-on organization tailored directly for the students of UT Tyler. For more resources follow Student Money Management on Twitter where they repost TONS of helpful articles from places like USA Today Money, Dave Ramsey, and our own UT Tyler Departments. Be on the lookout for events in the fall. Trust me you DO NOT want to miss out on this!