Making that money man?

Question

I am 19 years old, and a freshman in college. I plan on getting a job sometime soon this next semester, possibly at CVS as a Cashier. Money is tight around here, considering my single mother is supporting me through college. I want to put money in my checkings account. But I also want to save a few thousand to help pay for tuition and such. Are there any suggestions? How should I split up my money? Get piggy banks (i might spend it) or put it all in my checking account? Any better jobs that I can work full time, and have flexible hours? I need all the advice I can get!

I want to avoid student loans as much as possible, I don't want to borrow money I want to MAKE MONEY and efficently save it.

Answer 1

I don't know what you have to pay (if anything) out of your checking, but you need to create a budget. Whatever you need to spend money on should go into your checking and leftover cash goes into savings. If you are disciplined, you will save quickly. Good luck.

Answer 2

The most important thing you can do is get a checking and a savings account and have your pay automatically deposited to both. If you get the cashier's job, see if they can do automatic deposit. If so, most companies will let you "split" your pay this way.

If not, you might be able to get an account like my daughter (also 19, also a college freshman) has: the bank automatically transfers a certain amount (she got to pick it) from her checking account into her savings account. That's not quite as good because there's nothing to keep her from spending everything in checking before it gets transferred, but it's better than nothing.

How much you put in each account depends on your goals. Do you want to contribute to your tuition as rapidly as possible? Or do you want to try to be self-sufficient and not rely on support from your mom for living expenses, etc.? If you want to contribute to tuition, put as much as you can -- up to 80% or 90% of your pay -- into savings, and reserve the other 20% for taking your mom out to dinner once a month. If you want to take on responsibility for your own living expenses, then try totaling what they are -- rent, food, utilities, bus pass/gas, whatever -- and see whether your pay will cover that. If it does, and if that's money your mom is currently sending you, she'll bless you forever.

If you're still living at home, put as much as you can into savings to contribute to your tuition, and then with your checking account, occasionally take your mom out or buy her groceries for the week or something.

Now, how to get a good job while you're in school? Check your college's job placement center. When my daughter was starting, the college (Portland State University) had an orientation week, parents invited, and one of the most popular presentations was on paying for school. PSU has a job placement center which has connections to employers on and around campus. Since you'll be working part-time and only when you're not in classes, getting a job close to school could be a real time-saver.

But however much you have and wherever you choose to allocate it, the trick to saving money is to put it in an account you don't have easy access to (no debit card/checkbooks, for example) -- and do this before you even see your deposit. Live on the amount that's in your checking account, and keep the rest in savings. Don't touch what's in savings until it's time to chip in for tuition.

Best of luck in school, and tell your mom she has our sympathy! :-)

Answer 3

Definitely a smart idea. If you're able to, a good option is to save about $1000-$5000 and put it into a CD at the place you bank at, put it in for about 2 years-5yrs. Some banks have great interest rates and they tell you how much to put in the CD each month (it depends on how much you're trying to save up).

Other options are to open a saving account, have yard sales, offer a service such as typing up papers for students (if you're good at it), babysitting, work from home jobs (like through west corporation), telemarketing jobs (if you can stand it).

CVS sounds like a good option, but they tend to pay only $6-$7.50 an hr, especially when they see you're a college kid, as sad as that is. If you can handle call center work, a lot of them love college kids working for them and they pay $9-$11 hr, plus they work around your schedule and the pay helps to save up fast.

Answer 4

well dear let me say you have a lot of smarts for thinking like this, I have paid for years on my student loans and a lot of interest too..
OK put as much money as you possibly can into a savings account and do not touch that bank book until you need it for school only, do not put it in you checking account ( the savings money that is) because it is to liquid and can be spent to easy, and only put what you really need in your checking account and only a little more so it grows from month to month so you do not have to dig into your savings, and before you know it, you'll have money in the savings and money in the checking too,...
and if you do need to take student loans try and pay them back as Fast as you can

good luck
smile

your mother has a fantastic daughter

Answer 5

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Answer 6

I'm not trying to be a smartass, this is a serious answer.
Make sure you major in something where there is ALREADY a demand for workers and salaries are high and graduates are RECRUITED. Do not major in something like psychology or english or philosophy. Major in something like engineering. If you are an engineering major, and especially as a woman, you should be able to get internships by the end of your freshman year that are paying you in a few months as much as your college expenses are for the year. If you are a good, hardworking student (and it sounds like you are), as an engineering student it is quite possible that you can graduate college with no debt at all and several job offers. Then, if you're not really cracked on engineering, you can always get your master's degree in something else. You'd be highly employable with that engineering degree under you belt in addition to something else and you'd have no college debt.

Answer 7

Try internet marketing, blogging,etc. If you are passionate about it you can earn a handsome amount. The learning curve is also not much and nothing beats it in flexibility of timings and part time. Needs a little effort though.. but where does money comes before work..:) Only in dictionary.. :D

Answer 8

student loans

so you'd rather have your single mother go in debt and pay for your college than take out student loans and pay it off on your own after graduating? Ok, but that sounds a little selfish to me.

Even if you get a job at Walgreens for $7/hr and work 30 hours a week you will make less than $10,000.yr. Even if you spend EVERY DIME you earn on that job you still will not pay for college. College is about $20,000 per year. (incl tuition, books, fees, supplies, etc)

Answer 9

Stay out of stores. Stay away from the shopping sites. Do NOT use credit cards except for emergencies.

As for work that pays more money, there are numerous routes. If you have a special skill, it gets easy. If not, well... there is the world's oldest freelance profession. I don't particularly recommend it, but it's there.

Answer 10

Don't make your mom go into debt paying for you college education.

http://www.studentsandcredit.com/StudentLoans/