Let’s be real: College life is expensive. But if we’re taking a glass-half-full view of it, that makes your college years a perfect time to hone your money management skills. Yes, it’s already difficult balancing classes, work, and a social life, but you’ll benefit a lot from taking a little time to get your finances in order.
Organizing your finances can reduce your stress, save you money, and make you feel more confident about your future. Nobody expects a college student to make perfect financial decisions, but you can get on the right overall financial path.
Whether you’re just looking for enough money to get by or trying to get on a path to early retirement, these financial tips for students can help.
Money Management Advice for College Students
The good news is: It doesn’t take much to make a big difference in your finances. Below are several simple tips that can set you up for financial success—even if you don’t implement every single one of them into your life right away.
1. Create a Budget
The sooner you create a monthly budget, the better. While your college budget is likely tight, you might have some ways to loosen it up.
To create your budget, start by adding up all of your monthly income from jobs, student loans, parents, and any other source. Then add up all of your monthly living expenses, both fixed and variable. Fixed expenses are things like rent or a phone bill with a regular monthly plan. Variable expenses are things like gas, groceries, and dining out.
If you bring in more money than you spend, consider allocating some of that excess to a savings account each month. Then make sure to “pay yourself first” in future months by contributing money to savings before spending any on discretionary purchases like movie tickets or shopping. (It can help to have specific savings goals in place.)
Many people starting a budget for the first time try to organize it in a spreadsheet. But you don’t have to start from scratch—you can use our free budget template. Just sign up in the box below and it’ll land in your inbox shortly.
Related: How to Get Free Money Now [15 Ways to Earn Money]
2. Take Advantage of Student Discounts + Resources
You’re likely paying a substantial amount of money for your college tuition (as well as room and board). But chances are it comes with some cool amenities. Take advantage of them. Your college likely has included resources such as libraries, gyms, and recreational facilities, and it might even have free wellness services, peer mentoring, technology rentals, and more.
Fun doesn’t always have to cost money, either. Colleges often put on free dances and social events, and some sporting events might be free of charge.
As a college student, you likely also qualify for discounts on campus, off campus, and online.
Here are a few known student discounts, regardless of where you go to school.
- FedEx sometimes offers student discounts of between 15%-30% for select shipping and packing services. (These offers often coincide with back-to-school season.)
- Students can get Hulu’s ad-supported plan for $1.99 per month (75% off the regular price).
- Apple offers discounts on Macs and iPads to current and newly accepted college students, as well as their parents, as well as “faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels.”
Students often are eligible for discounts on experiences. Museums, aquariums, and zoos frequently provide discounted rates, for instance.
So always have your student ID with you. You never know when it might save you money!
Related: 7 Best Round-Up Apps for Saving + Investing Money Instantly
3. Buy Used Textbooks (Sell Old Ones)
According to the Education Data Initiative, the average full-time, in-state undergraduate student at a four-year public university spends $1,226 on books and supplies in an academic year. About a quarter of students reported working additional hours to cover books and materials, and 11% skipped meals to afford them.
One way to save a chunk of money every semester? Buy used textbooks. Yes, some professors will require you to buy brand-new textbooks. But some won’t. Importantly: Even in cases where there’s a new edition of the same textbook, the changes between editions are often minimal, so you can get by using the previous year’s edition. (A special thanks to professors who let students know when this is the case. You’re the real heroes.)
And once you’re done: Sell your textbooks. Some university bookstores will buy your textbooks back. But if that’s not an option (or if you want to try to get a better price), post them for sale online.
Related: How to Invest Money: 5 Steps to Start Investing w/Little Money
4. Build an Emergency Fund
Even if you don’t have many expenses as a college student, it’s still wise to create an emergency fund.
Your major expenses—tuition and housing, for instance—might already be covered by scholarships, financial aid, student loans, and/or scholarships. But you might still end up with costly, unexpected expenses. For instance, you might lose or damage expensive technology (like a laptop) or textbooks, and fixing or replacing those items might not be in your college budget.
Emergency savings help you quickly get what you need without drastically altering your budget. Without emergency money, you might need to put the expense on a credit card (and rack up interest charges if you don’t pay it off) or go without what you need and risk harming your grades. With emergency money, you can fix the problem and move on.
And if you never need those emergency savings in college? Great! Now you have a head start on the emergency savings you’ll need as an adult.
You could store your emergency funds in a traditional savings account. But a high-yield savings account or money market account are better places to store your money, as they can help you earn a decent amount of interest while still keeping your funds safe.
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Related: 23 Passive Income Apps that Give & Make You Money
5. Avoid High-Interest Debt
One thing you should avoid at all costs is high-interest debt.
Let’s say you need a laptop that costs $500. If you save up for it and pay for it up front, you’ll spend $500 on that laptop. But if you put it on a credit card with a high interest rate (let’s say 18%), even if you pay off 5% of the balance each month, you’ll end up $645—that’s an additional $145 thanks to interest!
This might involve a big change in your spending habits, to saving up for items rather than putting them on cards and paying them off. But when you minimize your credit card debt, you maximize your purchasing power.
Related: Is It Better to Pay Off Your Credit Card or Keep a Balance?
6. Automate Your Savings
Even if you don’t have much money to spare, even small amounts can add up over time, so save money whenever you can, regardless of how little those sums might be.
One way to make this process easier, especially with smaller dollar amounts, is to automate your savings.
Automating your savings is pretty easy. For instance, you can set up recurring transfers from your checking account into a savings account each month. Or your employer might be able to split your paycheck between both your checking and saving accounts.
Automatic savings apps (commonly also referred to as microsavings apps) are extremely useful. Many of them help you save every time you spend money through features such as round-ups, where purchases are rounded up to the nearest dollar and the “spare change” is saved or invested for you. Features also often include savings matches, cash-back rewards, interest on account balances, and more.
Save automatically with Fidelity Bloom
- Available: Sign up here
- Price: Free (no monthly fees)1
- Platforms: Mobile app (Apple iOS, Android)
Fidelity Bloom® is a unique free mobile app and debit card that comes with two brokerage accounts—one for saving, one for spending—and pays you to save. Fidelity Bloom® aims to simplify your finances by separating your savings from your day-to-day spending money. The app also helps you build better financial habits by educating you about your spending and motivating you to save more.
When you download Fidelity Bloom®, you’re opening two brokerage accounts: Fidelity Bloom® Spend and Fidelity Bloom® Save. Spend is an account for your day-to-day spending, while Save helps you grow your savings. The accounts have no monthly fees, nor are you required to make a minimum deposit to open them.
Fidelity Bloom Spend
The Spend account is linked to a Fidelity Bloom® debit card that can be used wherever Visa cards are accepted. The debit card has a flat 10-cent cash-back reward on every purchase—a small nominal amount, but one that translates into a high amount on small purchases. (For instance, 10 cents on a $10 purchase is effectively a 1% cash-back reward, which is generous for a debit card.)
Fidelity Bloom® also offers cash-back shopping with more than 1,000 popular retailers. You can use this feature through the app, or through your browser. Desktop/laptop users also have access to the Fidelity Bloom® Cash-Back Rewards Browser Extension—a Chrome extension that alerts you to potential rewards when you’re visiting a participating site, and that displays reward rates while you’re searching in Google.
Your Fidelity Bloom® debit card also comes with customizable round-ups that allow you to round up purchases by either adding a set dollar amount ($1 to $10) or a percentage of the purchase price (1% to 10%). Any time you use your Spend card, your round-up amount will be deposited into your Save account.
Fidelity Bloom Save
The Fidelity Bloom® Save account helps you keep your savings separate from your spending money. But it also goes one step further by helping you build your savings. Fidelity Bloom® will automatically match 10% on up to $300 saved annually in Fidelity Bloom® Save accounts, good for a potential maximum yearly reward of $30.
Other Features
- Gift card exchange. Have a gift card sitting around with $10 or more in unused funds? Fidelity, through third-party provider CardCash, allows you to convert that gift card into cash that’s deposited into your Save account.
- Potentially earn yield on your funds. Uninvested cash you deposit into your Fidelity Bloom® accounts is invested in one of three money market mutual funds—a low-risk way to help earn additional yield.2
- Direct deposit. Your employer can send wages directly to one of your Fidelity Bloom® accounts.
- Recurring transfers. Put your savings on autopilot by setting up recurring automatic transfers from your Spend account to your Save account.
- Money lessons and activities. Fidelity Bloom’s® “Challenges” teach you research-based concepts and skills that help you change your saving and spending habits.
One small technical note that users should be aware of: While Fidelity Bloom® Save and Fidelity Bloom® Spend act like checking and savings accounts, they’re actually brokerage accounts. Rather than Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insurance that you’d get with a traditional bank account, you receive Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) coverage. Fidelity Bloom® accounts are covered for up to $500,000 of securities, including up to $250,000 in cash.
Read more in our Fidelity Bloom® review.
- Fidelity Bloom® is a free mobile app and debit card that helps you organize your finances by separating your savings from your day-to-day spending money—and pays you to save.
- The Fidelity Bloom® Spend account is linked to a debit card usable wherever Visa is accepted. Enjoy a flat 10-cent cash-back award on every purchase, additional cash-back offers with more than 1,000 popular retailers, and customizable round-ups.
- Fidelity Bloom® offers a 10% account match on up to $300 deposited annually to your Fidelity Save® Account, good for a maximum yearly award of $30. Also, all uninvested cash in both accounts is placed in a money market mutual fund, giving it the potential to earn additional yield.²
- Other features include direct deposit, recurring transfers to your Save account, and depositing unused gift card balances into your Save account.
- 10% savings match on up to $300 deposited annually
- Helps grow deposits by investing uninvested funds in money market mutual funds
- Flat cash-back reward generous for smaller, frequent purchases
- Direct deposit
- Cash-back shopping
- SIPC coverage
- Flat cash-back reward less generous for larger, more infrequent purchases
- No ATM reimbursement
Related: 7 Best Round-Up Apps for Saving + Investing Money Instantly
7. Invest (It’s Never Too Early!)
Many college students have two common misconceptions about investing:
- “I’m too young too invest.”
- “I need a lot of money to invest.”
If you’re in college, you’re probably 18, which means you’re old enough to open your own brokerage account. Heck, we even review investing apps that are best for college students.
And thanks to the growing popularity of fractional shares, you can often get started with just one dollar.
If you’re a college student and you don’t have much money to invest, we typically suggest beginner investing apps (or novice-focused investment apps) with fractional investing, educational resources, and simple, user-friendly interfaces.
Plynk™ Invest
Plynk ™ is an app designed to simplify investing and help you grow your knowledge. And right now, it’s offering a $10 account signup and $75 net deposit bonus ($85 combined).
The Plynk app helps investors put their money into an investment portfolio. You can invest with as little as $1, and trade stocks, funds, and crypto commission-free**—all in one app. The platform uses straightforward, easy-to-understand language to explain investing concepts. No jargon. No complex charts and tables. Just simple-language tips and how-tos.
One of Plynk’s most interesting features involves, of all things, gift cards. Specifically, you can redeem unused gift cards for money that you can use to buy stocks in your favorite companies.
If this sounds interesting to you, consider opening an account with Plynk. To make it more worth your while, they have a few special offers.
Simply open an account and link your bank account to get a $10 signup bonus. Plynk is also offering a special bonus promotion through Dec. 14, 2023. If you make a deposit, Plynk will double it up to $75. Customers must have a minimum of $25 in net deposits during the promotional period to receive a match. That means you may be eligible for up to $85 in signup bonuses from Plynk by taking qualifying actions.
Read more in our Plynk review.
- Start investing for as little as $1.
- Answer just a few questions, and find suitable investments for your needs.
- Invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds and crypto commission-free**.
- Plynk™ lets you redeem unused gift cards for money that you can use to invest in your favorite companies.
- Signup bonus: Plynk offers two signup bonuses worth up to $85 combined: (1) Plynk will match up to $75 in net deposits made to your account through Dec. 14, 2023, subject to certain terms; (2) Plynk will pay a $10 sign-up bonus for downloading the Plynk app, opening an account and linking a bank account as a new customer (or existing customer who hasn't previously linked a bank account).
- Designed for beginning investors
- Redeem unused gift cards to invest
- Helpful educational resources
- Some features may require a fee in the future
Related: 11 Best Fractional Share Brokerages
8. Get a Part-Time Job
Academics should always be your top priority. But many college students find they can manage a part-time job, working at least a few hours a week to keep their bank accounts happy. If you’re earning money, you won’t have to feel as guilty when you need (or want) to spend money. It’ll allow you to set money aside for the future. And it obviously makes managing your budget easier.
Some college students also enjoy working because they can make friends or even professional connections. And where it’s connected to your major, that employment history might even look good on your resume.
If you’re like many college students, you might not have a car on campus. No worries. You can also consider online jobs and side hustles to make a few extra bucks.
Related: 50 Best Money-Making Apps That Pay You Real Money
9. Build Credit
Building credit takes time; there are no real shortcuts. But it’s worth the effort. Establishing a positive credit history as a college student will make it easier to be approved for things such as car loans, mortgages, and other big-ticket purchases—and it’ll help you get better rates on those loans as well.
Most college students start building credit by opening a credit card. However, you might not be approved for an unsecured credit card right away. A secured credit card is easier to obtain, and it can be a great stepping stone.
Step Visa Card
The free Step Visa Card is a unique “hybrid” secured credit card that offers the safety of a debit card, but it functions like a Visa credit card—including the ability to build your credit history.
Simply add money to this FDIC-insured account and you can use your card anywhere Visa is accepted. You can also use your card to withdraw money from more than 30,000 ATMs for free.
And you needn’t fear that you’ll overdraft—you can’t spend any money you don’t have.
One of the most unique and powerful features of the Step card is its ability to build your credit history. With this optional feature, Step will report the past two years’ worth of information—transactions, payment history, and more—to the credit bureaus. (Children using the card with parental permission can even enjoy this benefit once the child turns 18.) That can greatly improve your chances of building a better credit score, which can help lower the cost of things like student loans and auto insurance.
Other benefits include Visa’s Fraud Protection and Zero Liability guarantee; a competitive APY on Savings Goals; Savings Roundups; the ability to earn, buy, and sell Bitcoin; and much more.
Lastly, Step is absolutely free: No monthly fees, no subscription fees, no account minimum fees, and no ATM fees within Step’s network of 30,000-plus ATMs.
Check out our Step review to learn more, or sign up today.
- The Step Visa Card is a one-of-a-kind "hybrid" spending card that can help you to build your credit history via everyday purchases, even before you turn 18.
- Earn a high 5% annual rate on up to $250,000 in your Savings Goals with qualifying direct deposits.*
- Earn points that you can redeem for cash when you use your Step Visa Card at participating merchants.*
- Buy and sell fractional shares of stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin for as low as $1.
- Send and receive money instantly, spend with Apple and Google Pay.
- Pay allowance weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
- Track your card balance from the Step App.
- Banking services, provided by Evolve Bank & Trust, are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000.
- Helps build credit
- Free secured card for kids, teens, and young adults
- High yield on money held in Savings Goals
- Free investment account for stocks, ETFs, and Bitcoin
- Fractional investing for as low as $1
- FDIC insurance
- High-yield savings only available with qualifying monthly direct deposit*
- Can't directly deposit checks into a Step account
Related: 14 Best Apps That Give You Money for Signing Up [Free Money]
Finances for Students: FAQs
What is the 50/30/20 rule?
The 50/30/20 rule is a budgeting guideline for how to spend your after-tax income. According to the rule …
- 50% of your take-home pay should be spent on your needs.
- 20% should go toward savings.
- The remaining 30% is spending money that you can use on whatever you want.
This rule works for some people, but not for all. You might require less optional spending money and want to save more. For those in high-cost-of-living areas, you might need to spend more than half of your take-home pay on essentials. So consider trying out the 50/30/20 rule, but feel free to ditch it if it doesn’t work with your particular personal finances.
What should a college student know about finances?
College is an excellent time to learn more about managing money and other personal finance skills. Students should know how to create a college budget, start funding an emergency savings account, and learn the risks of taking on high-interest debt. Ideally, a college student should also eventually know how to establish credit and manage a credit card, and they should also start learning the basics of investing if they haven’t already.
What is the hardest part of managing your finances as a student?
The hardest part about money management as a student is that you don’t know what you don’t know. You might not know the importance of good credit and what affects credit scores. You probably know saving is important, but you might not know how to save with a very limited income. You might think you can’t invest without large sums of money. The list goes on.
To improve your finances as a student, you need to improve your financial literacy first. While college students usually don’t have a lot of money to work with, they can always learn the optimal ways to manage the money they do have.
Related:
- 7 Best Alternatives to 529 Plans [Other College Savings Options]
- The 7 Best Index Funds for Beginners
- 9 Best Stocks for Beginners With Little Money
Disclosures
Terms and Conditions for Fidelity Bloom®
The Fidelity Bloom® app is designed to help with your saving and spending behaviors through your Save and Spend accounts, which are brokerage accounts covered by SIPC. They are not bank accounts and therefore are not covered by FDIC insurance.
The Fidelity Bloom® debit card is issued by Leader Bank, N.A., and the debit card program is administered by BNY Mellon Investment Servicing Trust Company. These entities are not affiliated with each other or with Fidelity, although, the parent company of Fidelity has a minority percentage, non-controlling interest in Leader Bank. Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association, and is used by Leader Bank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc.
Images are for illustrative purposes only.
1 The Fidelity Bloom® app is free to download. Fees associated with your account positions or transacting in your account apply. Accounts made available via the app may be subject to fees.
2 You could lose money by investing in a money market fund. An investment in a money market fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Before investing, always read a money market fund’s prospectus for policies specific to that fund.
Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, Member NYSE, SIPC, 900 Salem Street, Smithfield, RI 02917
Plynk Disclosures
