Finance 101 for International Students
New international students often have to face a lot of firsts in life. With our guide, we aim to resolve the financial issues they might have to face.
New international students are often having to face a lot of “firsts” in life. Moving out of home, and living on your own or with a roommate, has some mental challenges.
It’s also really difficult to have to budget for your living expenses and education in a different country. Paying the bills, and even making your own money to get by. There’s also the whole area of student finance and loans to get your head around.
In this guide, we’ll explore options to help you to manage your finances while studying abroad.
Don’t let finances stop you from studying abroad
Financial literacy lessons should start long before students actually go to university. It’s important to consider finances when shortlisting schools.
You’ll also need to think about finding accommodation on or close to the university - this can help cut your costs hugely.
Although you can save thousands of dollars by going to a more affordable university, don’t let money be the reason you don’t attend your first-choice programme at the best school for you. After all, studying abroad is an investment in your future career.
To help you get financially prepared for your masters abroad, take a look at these funding options and how you can access them:
Scholarships
Student loans
A lot of students have to get their heads around borrowing money for the first time. In fact, at college, it’s almost essential that you borrow money through student loans unless you are very lucky and have someone funding your studies.
This means that students need to understand how loans work - including interest rates, repayments, and other loan conditions. Interest rates dictate how much is paid back on top of the loan itself. A student loan will have some form of interest, but depending on the arrangement of the loan this might be a long time in the future, or when you are earning a certain amount.
Credit cards for students are another method of borrowing. While this is a suitable short term option, keeping debt on credit cards can be expensive.
Therefore, students should look for specific student funding, such as student loans, that defer payments to a later date - hopefully when money isn’t so tight. For instance, Prodigy Finance offers a 6-month grace period, meaning full-time students don’t make repayments until 6-months after classes end. This gives students the opportunity to concentrate on their studies without having to worry about finances.
Budgeting
There are a few problems students often have with budgeting. One of these is making money stretch over the time required. If a large sum of money from a loan gets issued into their bank account, some students will spend this quickly and find there is no money left towards the end of the academic year.
To budget, a student needs to work out how much money they have to last them the year and break this down into a weekly budget. Every expense needs to come out of this budget unless they are topping it up with an income (more on this later).
Understand expenses
Making money
To take some of the financial strain off of university, a lot of people opt to earn some extra money with a job. Students find they have some time on evenings and weekends to do a job. Your first job can often be something that stays with you for the rest of your life. It can teach a lot of lessons about financial planning, including how to overcome financial challenges through work.
How to start a business on a budget for students
Getting off to a good start in your adult life is usually best achieved by learning about money from a young age. Students need to understand the ins and outs of money, bills, interest, and more before they go to live on their own and be in charge of their own money.
The lessons aren’t always easy, but failing to deal with finances well can lead to long-term financial issues, so it’s worth taking the time to instil good habits from the start.
Jim Hughes is a content marketer who has significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business topics. He currently works as a content manager at OpenCashAdvance.com
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