❼ Back to School: 5 Guaranteed Ways to Have More Money in College/University

These 5 tips will have you laughing out loud and full of great ideas to get your money game on point well before everybody else. Enjoy! xo

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I’m doing this blog post because it’s back-to-school season and it seems that everywhere I turn, there’s a blog post or video about buying something.

“Buy this notebook…”
“Buy this pen….”
“You better buy this pot…”

While I can’t tell you not to but the stuff in all these blog posts and videos (don’t buy it).

And I can’t tell you not to make your parents spend money on this stuff (don’t do it).

There are five things that I do want to to tell you about money that will really help you because they helped me when I was in school.

5 Ways to Have More Money in College/University

1. Avoid the Bookstore

If you can, avoid buying textbooks from the bookstore.

After my second semester of college, you would not have caught me dead buying any books from the bookstore unless it was five dollars or less.

So what did I actually do?

I found out that our library had this amazing service called ‘Inter-Library Loan’, and through this service, I had access to almost every library around the world.

I would figure out my classes waaaaay in advance and order books through the library so I didn’t have to buy.

2. Re-think the School Meal Plan

If you know how to cook some basic meals, get off the school meal plan.

When I was in college, I did the math and I quickly realized how expensive the cafeteria food actually was.

In my mind, there were better things I could do with $4,000 other than spending it on pizza and mac and cheese at the school cafeteria.

So I went to the Director of Residential Life and convinced him to let me off the meal plan. Easy peasy – extra $4,000 in my pocket every semester.

3. Look for a Job – Even if You’re an International Student

Do not listen to those people whose part time job is to tell you about all the jobs you cannot get.

For me, it was especially interesting to get a job because I was an international student.

There seemed to be people that made it their mission to tell me:

“Oh, that’s a Fortune 500 company, don’t apply, you will never get in, it’s so competitive…”
“Oh, that company doesn’t hire international students, don’t apply there, they’ll never hire you”…
“Oh, that place is already full, they get 25,000 applications. They’ll never hire you…”

Look; if you listen to those people you’re never going to get anywhere.

Go for the job you want.

When I was in college, I always had a great campus job, and when I wasn’t working on campus, I had a good internship with a company that everybody said would never hire an international student.

After graduation I got a job with a Fortune 100 company that everybody said didn’t sponsor international students.

Yes, that job eventually went into flames, and you can learn more about that in my book.

But the point is, if you really want something, and you are serious about your money game, get a good job.

And don’t listen to those people that just want to tell you all the things you cannot do.

4. Start Managing your Money Early

If you are in college, you are not a kid anymore so it’s time to start doing old people stuff like getting a budget.

Before you tell me about how you don’t have any money to budget in the first place, I have to make it clear to you that you don’t have to wait until you have a lot of money before you start learning how to manage your money.

I recently did a video about how I reached my 5-figure savings goal and another video about how I got out of debt.

The habits that helped me to achieve those milestones weren’t habits I developed yesterday.

They are habits that I have been building over the course of years.

In fact, I started managing my own money when I was nine years old (so what’s your excuse? EH?).

5. Remember the Child of Whom You Are…

This statement always made me laugh when my parents would say it to me but alas. Here I am using those exact words.

Remember the child of whom you are.

Don’t spend money you don’t have, because you want to have the coolest backpack, or the coolest books, or the coolest pens.

It’s not bad to have those things if you can afford them, but don’t spend money that you could be saving, just so you could look cool and fit in.

It’s not even that serious.

I mean, take my advice with a grain of salt, because I was not the coolest kid in school. I was the kid that was in the library every Friday night.

But I can tell you that when it’s all said and done it doesn’t matter which backpack you carried in your junior year of college.

Go to school; do well; and be happy. It’s all you have to do. Be happy.

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Until next time,
stay motivated!

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