College students need to get in the habit of saving money

By Shea Hubbs
Staff Writer

Editor’s note – The following is written by Shea Hubbs, a staff memeber who works at Hutchinson Credit Union as a teller.

Budgeting is important for college students.

Living on a fixed income is hard, but taking the time to pay attention to money is important. It’s best to start saving as soon as you can. Retirement will happen faster than you think and it’s always a good idea to have a safe net.

You can start small. Open a savings account and put in $5 every week. Slowly start increasing that and you’ll be surprised by how much you have.

Get into this habit – you receive a check, pay bills, put half of whatever you have left in the bank, then use the rest as spending money. Young adults don’t realize how much they waste on a day to day basis.

Let’s say you run to a fast food place, you tell yourself it’s only six dollars but that adds up. You get fast food once a day for a week and that’s $42 wasted on food that isn’t healthy to begin with.

Maybe your car breaks down and you need to fix it. Or you don’t have insurance and you get sick. Life can throw anything your way and it’s important to be prepared.

There are different forms of saving. You can simply open a savings account and put your money in it or look at something else. Depending on where you work, a 401(k) plan could be offered. A 401(k) plan is a qualified employer-sponsored retirement plan that eligible employees may make salary-deferral contributions to. It’s basically a retirement fund set up by your job that automatically takes money out of your check every pay period. There’s also different types of savings accounts to fit different people.

Investment shares can be great for people with a comfortable amount of money that they want to grow. Investment shares have no minimum balance and like all savings accounts, increase with interest over the years.

There are also things call certificates. Basically, you put your money in a locked account to let it grow until it reaches maturity then you can cash it out. These different options may vary depending on which financial institution you are a member of. But wherever you go, whatever way you decide to save, it’s important to start and soon. You don’t want to wake up one morning when you’re 65 and have nothing to show for all the years you worked.

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