Balancing Academics and Finances as a Student

Being a student should be considered a full-time job because it can be pretty difficult navigating your academics and your finances. It’s worse when you are from an average family or can’t work and study simultaneously. In such situations, you end up relying on family, friends, loved ones, and menial profits from online jobs and all these keep you on your toes financially, no room for error when spending the little you have.

As a student, you begin to understand how to manage finances and the repercussions of improper financial management, which can be a lot if we are being honest.

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Inadequate finances are one of the major causes of academic setbacks as so many students are victims of this. The constant fear and worries about their finances can be a burden that can have adverse effect on their academics. Despite constant planning, it’s never smooth sailing as there are bound to be rough seas ahead and that could test your patience and resilience.

You think you got everything figured out only for it all to crumble with a single announcement about an extra handout, one that is compulsory for all, a department levy, or worse a health issue that needs immediate attention and the list goes on and on.

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A recent chat with an old course mate made me realize it can be pretty hard to find the right balance. She complained about how being rigid with her finances made her miss out on all the fun and how she regretted not taking more risks with money but back then we all envied how disciplined she was and how she was always the first to pay for everything, while we had to struggle to manage our finances until we got it right.

For me, I think it’s okay to make mistakes as a student, because they build up experiences for the labour market in the future.

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Managing finances in school was hard, it was hard because money wasn’t coming in abundance as I had to make do with what I had without complaining or throwing tantrums.

I was able to manage my finances properly because I was content. Contentment is everything, it doesn’t just save you from a lot of troubles; it also guides you. People who are content are wonderful beings.

Since contentment has always been my watchword, it was hard to be swayed or pressured into buying unnecessary things hence spending money carelessly and being broke.

Scale of preference, placing my expenses in the order of my needs and wants helped a great deal. All my primary needs were met before the secondary ones. This method prevented me from getting frustrated or overwhelmed with all the bills.
For unforeseen circumstances? I had that under control as I had enough money to cater for them.

While it doesn’t seem as easy as you can read it now, it took a lot of discipline to put all of these in place and they eventually paid off as I was able to manage my finances properly.

_{All images ears mine except otherwise stated.}

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