financial blog
I have been trying this week to sort of get a handle on my finances since I got my student aid report last sunday. I got my aid report and it was quite generous, but it wasn't the most rosy picture that I could have hoped for. Basically what I got was a good bit of money for the year, but I saw the amount of interest that I have accrued from only a year and it was a little frightening. Now I am a little bit worried about the long run and I want to try and make sure that I am much more vigilant about my daily spending habits. I ave a bit of a coffee habit and a bit of a clothes shopping habit so those I believe will be the first areas that I cut from, but they won't be the only cuts to my life from last year as a freshman.
Of course my first point of attack with this situation is to do my research. I want to make sure that I look at all of my options on the level of my loans and how to deal with them, as well as on the daily level of student living. Right now I have been reading two sites about finances that are directed sort of generally, but are certainly pertinent to anyone in my situation and beyond. The first, www.thoughtsonfinance.com, is a financial blog, and www.thoughtsondebt.com is a blog about debt. Though many of the posts by the writers are not very relative to my own personal situation, I have been able to draw some ideas and some items to research more in depth so they have been a big help.
The next step, right before implementing all of the strategies, is to talk to my financial aid officer on campus. All my friends have told me that they are really helpful and that they can point you in a direction that will be much more fulfilling than just blindly assuming that you will come out on top of your financial burdens. I hope that by the end of the semester I can have a good handle on both my short term as well as my long term finances.