Financial Literacy
Many students struggle with managing their money and developing a budget that allows them to pay bills, tuition, and books. The aim of financial literacy is to help students overcome economic barriers, continue with their education and move towards economic mobility. The mentor may have to refer the student/mentee to other departments or resources for financial literacy goals. The director of Single Stop at our school came and talked with the students prior to each school year about school expenses, budgeting, taxes and other financial services. This helped put a fact to the name/department and students were able to schedule an appointment to meet with one of the staff during these sessions. The financial aid specialist and a faculty mentor then worked with the student to review their guided pathway plan and create an individual financial plan to complete the nursing program and to prepare for transfer to a BSN program. The financial plan will provide transparency about college costs, assistance in navigating the financial-aid system and help students to make choices to avoid heavy debt. Other budgeting resources for students are listed below.
Budgeting Resources for Students
- LearnVest. This app makes budgeting easy by securely linking to your bank account, and filing your purchases into pre-named folders like Entertainment, Groceries, Restaurants and ATM/Cash, or you can create your own. You can set a budget for each folder, as well as for essentials like rent, student loans and car payments.
- Mint. This popular budgeting app also connects directly to your bank account and updates your spending automatically. You can create any number of budgets, and they can get as specific as you like: coffee, movies, alcohol and other college student necessities will all be accounted for. If you’re using a credit card for the first time, it makes sure you’ll never charge what you can’t pay back. The Cash vs. Credit feature lets you see your total credit card balances versus the cash you have to pay them off.
- Check. Check (formerly Pageonce) is more of a payment and bill tracker than a budgeting app, but keeping track of bill payment for the first time can be tough to get used to, especially with everything else on a college student’s plate. You can pay bills directly from the app, so you’ll never pay a late fee, and even track investments, if you’re particularly ambitious!
- PocketBudget. Pared-down and straightforward, PocketBudget displays your main budget in pie chart form and a list of your transactions on another screen. It’s what it says it is, nothing less, nothing more: your budget accessible in your pocket.
- TextbookMe. Sick of buying expensive textbooks from the college bookstore? Compare prices of textbooks at all online retailers by searching the ISBN, author, or title of the book you want, then order the book off the retail website with the lowest price!
- Federal Student Aid. Government website with multiple resources on budgeting, financial aid, and loan repayment.
Time Management
Mentee should complete form, including class schedule, work schedule, travel time, sleep, any other regular commitments, and time for hygiene, self-care, etc. Mentor should use the completed form to help mentee plan best times to study and complete course assignments.
