Dollar$ and $ense. A Guide to Help You Manage Your Personal Finances Through College and Beyond.

Transcription

1 Dollar$ ad $ese A Guide to Help You Maage Your Persoal Fiaces Through College ad Beyod

2 About This Brochure Kowig how to maage your moey will help you prepare to meet your goals ad have eough moey to make them a reality. By learig how to take cotrol of your moey, your moey will ot take cotrol of you. This brochure is desiged to provide basic kowledge ad termiology about persoal fiaces that will help you become fiacially idepedet ad self-reliat through college ad beyod. Start Savig ad Budgetig Developig a budget ad savigs pla will help you weather rough times ad meet your goals. Set Goals Examples of short-term goals: Moey to cover the dow paymet o a ew car Moey to buy bedroom furiture Examples of medium-term goals: Moey to pay for a home dow paymet Moey for home improvemet Moey for future college expeses Examples of log-term goals: Savig moey for retiremet Determie Your Icome Figure your available icome - the amout of your take-home or et pay, ot your salary or gross pay Do ot iclude overtime pay. You should ot rely o overtime pay as regular icome. Determie Your Expeses Kow where you moey is goig. Fixed expeses such as ret, auto or studet loa paymets are easy to determie. Flexible expeses such as food, clothig ad etertaimet vary from moth to moth. Be sure to iclude expeses such as taxes or isurace that are billed quarterly, semi-aually or aually. Create Your Budget Thik of your budget as a spedig pla. Your budget should meet your eeds first ad the the wats that you ca afford secod. Your expeses should be less tha or equal to your total icome. Pay Yourself First Savig is a importat part of protectig yourself fiacially. Save as much as you ca every moth. Eve a small amout will make a big differece if you save cosistetly. A great goal is to establish a emergecy savigs fud large eough to cover three to six moths of your livig expeses.

3 Maagig Credit & Debt To buy a home, get a loa, deal with emergecies, make olie purchases or do almost ay kid of travelig, you must have access to credit. Over the course of your life, maagig credit wisely ca be oe of the most importat factors i achievig your goals. Kow What Your Credit Score Meas Your credit score is the product of a complicated formula made up of several differet elemets that provides a measure of your credit worthiess. The higher your credit score, the less risk you preset to a leder ad the more likely a leder will let you borrow larger amouts at better iterest rates. The most commoly used credit scores are those provided by Fair Isaac Corporatio. They are called FICO scores. A FICO score ca rage from 300 to 850. Uderstad Your Credit Report (History) Kow whether you have a credit report. If you have ever applied for a credit card, studet loa, auto loa or mortgage, you have a credit report. Uderstad who looks at your credit report. Your credit report may be looked at by potetial creditors, ladlords, employers ad isurace uderwriters. Kow what these etities are askig. They wat to kow how promptly you pay your bills; how may credit cards you have; the total amout of credit exteded to you ad how much you owe o your accouts. Be aware of the cosequeces of credit mistakes. Ay egative iformatio o your credit report such as late paymets, bakruptcies ad too much debt ca impact your ability to get credit, a ew job, advace i your curret job or ret/buy a home. Kow what is o your credit report. There is persoal idetifyig iformatio, credit accout iformatio, public record iformatio, iquiries ad your credit score o your credit report. Kow what is ot o your credit report. Checkig or savigs accout iformatio, medical history, race, geder, religio, atioal origi, political preferece or crimial record are ot o your credit report. Be aware of how log iformatio stays o your credit report. Positive iformatio stays idefiitely. Iquiries stay six moths to two years. Most egative iformatio stays seve years. Some bakruptcies stay 10 years. Check your credit report. Review your credit report at least oce a year to make sure the iformatio is accurate.

4 Federal Stafford Studet Loas You must repay your federal studet loa. Before you take out a loa, make sure you fully uderstad your optios ad resposibilities. You should explore ad use scholarships, grats, work-study, parttime jobs ad family cotributios first to fiace your educatio ad use studet loas oly if ecessary. Prevet Default You are resposible for repayig your studet loa eve if you do ot graduate, have trouble fidig a job after graduatio or just did t like the college you atteded. If you do ot make paymets o your federal loas accordig to the terms of your promissory ote ad do ot make special arragemets with your leder, your loa will be i default. Defaultig o your loa has serious cosequeces. To avoid defaultig o your loa: Do t borrow more tha you eed or more tha you expect to be able to repay. Develop a soud ad realistic fiacial pla, icludig a realistic idea of how much moey you will ear after graduatio. Make your loa paymets o time ad otify your leder whe you move or chage your address. Kow who your leder is ad how to cotact them. Cotact your leder immediately if you have problems repayig. The leder ca provide you with optios, icludig defermet ad forbearace. Defermet meas that your leder has allowed you to postpoe your mothly paymet for a limited period of time. For a usubsidized Stafford Loa, the iterest still accrues durig the defermet period. Forbearace meas that your leder has allowed you to postpoe or reduce your mothly paymet for a limited period of time or has exteded your repaymet period. You are charged iterest durig forbearace. Forbearace is usually grated at the discretio of the leder to borrowers ieligible for defermet. Keep a record o your loa. Make copies of all letters, caceled checks ad ay forms you sig. Kow Your Resposibilities You must repay the loa with iterest. Complete exit loa couselig. Stay i touch with the leder about address, telephoe umber, school status, etc. Make mothly paymets o time. Kow the Cosequeces of Late Paymets or Default Deial of further fiacial aid. Defaults are reported to atioal credit bureaus which will impair your ability to get additioal credit. Federal ad state icome tax refuds will be withheld. Wages may be garished. May have to pay collectio fees. Professioal liceses ad certificatios may be revoked. You may be sued.

5 Protectig Your Idetity Keep Your Iformatio Safe Shred fiacial documets ad paperwork with persoal iformatio. Protect your social security umber. Do t carry your card i your wallet or write your umber o a check. Do t give out persoal iformatio o the phoe, through the mail or over the Iteret uless you kow who you are dealig with. Never click o liks set i usolicited messages. Use firewalls, ati-spyware ad ati-virus software to protect your home computer. Do t use obvious passwords like your birth date, your mother s maide ame or the last four digits of your social security umber. Keep your persoal iformatio i a secure place at home especially if you have roommates, employ outside help or are havig work doe i your home. The Sigs of Idetity Theft Not receivig bills or other mail you ormally get. Receivig credit cards you did t apply for. Beig deied credit for o reaso. Gettig calls or letters about thigs you did ot buy. Beig served court papers or arrest warrats for thigs that do ot ivolve you. What To Do If You Are A Victim Report the crime to the police immediately. Immediately cotact your credit card issuers. 1. Get replacemet cards with ew accout umbers. 2. Ask that old accouts be processed as accout closed at cosumer s request. Place a fraud alert o your credit report. 1. Alert all three credit reportig bureaus. 2. Add a victim s statemet so that creditors must cotact you to verify future credit applicatios. Correct ay iaccurate iformatio. File a complait with the Federal Trade Commissio Cosumer Respose Ceter at How to Check Your Credit Status Kowig your credit history is the first critical step i maagig credit wisely. You are legally etitled to oe free report every year from all three credit reportig agecies. Free Report Experia TrasUio Equifax

6 How to Be Successful i College I today s society havig a college educatio is oe of the most importat ivestmets you ca make. The skills you lear i college ca give you the traiig you eed to broade your career choices, ear more moey ad make better life decisios. A good educatio ca make it easier to hadle difficult ecoomic times ad give you the skills you eed to better provide for yourself ad your family. Havig good study skills will help you i all areas of life, ot just college. Study skills iclude time maagemet, research skills, aalytical skills, readig, writig ad verbal commuicatio. Well-developed study skills will help you become more cofidet, effective ad productive both persoally ad professioally. Develop a Pla to Graduate See a admissios couselor ad choose a program of study early the set realistic goals for beig accepted ito the program ad for graduatig from it. Uderstad the curriculum do t rely o other studets for academic advice. Uderstad erollmet status at least 12 credit hours per term is full-time. Do t waste time time is moey. See your academic advisor chart your program, iclude trasitioal (refresher) ad prerequisite classes ad cosider whe the courses you eed will be offered to esure that you graduate o schedule. Keep life simple over-committig socially ad fiacially will take a toll o you, both metally ad physically. Make Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) If you apply for ad/or receive fiacial aid, the college s fiacial aid office will moitor your progress to esure that you make satisfactory progress towards the completio of your program i a reasoable period of time. Kow the fiacial aid policy ad that it is i additio to the policy for academic probatio ad academic suspesio. You must ear at least 67 percet of the cumulative credit hours attempted. Courses with grades F (Failure), W (Withdraw), WF (Withdraw Failig) ad I (Icomplete) are ot cosidered completed courses. You may oly receive aid for 1.5 times the published legth of your program of study. For example, a studet erolled i a 60 credit hour program is eligible for fiacial aid util 90 credit hours are attempted (60 x 1.5 = 90). Lear how to study for ad take tests. Seek help from your istructors. Cope with the Demads of Studet Life Maage your time wisely. Reduce or lear to cope with stress. Seek help from a variety of o-campus resources.

7 Tips for Success Get Orgaized Create a filig system to keep track of fiacial paperwork ad other importat documets. Do t Bouce Checks Your bak will charge you a fee ad your credit history will be hurt. Uderstad Your Fiacial Aid Your fiacial aid package is very importat. Make sure you kow what you have to do to esure you cotiue to receive your fiacial aid award. Apply for Fiacial Aid Every Year Fiacial aid applicatios should be completed each year betwee Jauary ad May for the upcomig academic year. Watch Out For Scholarship Scams You should ever have to pay a fee to fid scholarship moey. Use Loas as a Last Resort Eve though loas are a ivestmet i your future, they also mea that you are puttig yourself ito debt. Make School Your Primary Job College is demadig ad it ca take time to adjust to the challeges of your college workload. Take Time to Prepare For Your Career Atted o-campus iterviews ad career fairs. Use the resources available at the career ceter. Get your resume ready. Research the salary rages of careers you are iterested i pursuig. Use Campus Computers Istead of Buyig Your Ow Save your assigmets ad class work o a flash-drive so that you will always have access to your work. Resist Peer Pressure Do t sped moey that you do ot have. Take Advatage of Studet Discouts Goig to the movies, ridig the bus or eve orderig pizza might cost less if you show your studet ID. Get Ito the Savigs Habit Save a set amout of moey every moth ito a separate savigs accout. Over time, this accout will grow.

8 Additioal Resources Compass of Carolia Jump$tart Coalitio Mappig Your Future U.S. Fiacial Literacy ad Educatio Commissio America Saves Fiacial Aid Office Post Office Box 4386 Spartaburg, South Carolia (864) or toll free Spartaburg Commuity College does ot discrimiate o the basis of race, color, religio, age, sex, atioal/ethic origi or disability i its admissios policies, programs, activities or employmet practices. Iformatio i this brochure is for iformatioal purposes oly ad caot be substituted for professioal advice. 3/09