The 4 personal finance lessons I wish I had learned in college

When I was in college, I lived a relatively frugal lifestyle.

I commuted to campus from home (where I prepped most of my meals for the week) and only occasionally spent money on fun like going out to dinner with my friends. My main expenses were transportation and sometimes food, which I could afford with the money I earned from my work-study job and internships, along with the help of my parents.  

While this no-frills lifestyle helped save me money, I now realize a couple of financially savvy moves could have helped me achieve the same result without quite so much sacrifice. If I had the chance, there are a couple of changes I would make to how I managed my money back in college.

Living at home with my parents meant being able to save money I otherwise would have had to spend on student housing and meals. Aside from paying the tuition, my parents also made sure that I had some money in my checking account if, for example, I needed to buy food. At the time, I had a Chase College Checking℠ account with my mom, so she could conveniently transfer money into my account whenever I needed it.  

I got my first credit card when my mom added me as an authorized user to her American Express® Gold Card before I left to study abroad during the fall semester of 2018. While I would use the card every once and a while to book trips while abroad, I mostly stayed clear of it because I was afraid of credit card debt.

But while my fear of credit cards kept me free of debt, it cost me in other ways. For example, had I known about the American Express Travel portal, I could’ve earned 3X membership rewards per dollar on flights booked.  

Even after I graduated from college and got a credit card of my own — the Chase Freedom Unlimited® — I still wasn’t using the cash-back rewards in a way that would maximize my money. Instead of redeeming my points to pay for new purchases with Amazon, where the value of each point was only 1 cent, I could have redeemed them for travel-related expenses where I would get 1.5 cents for each point.

Although I earned grants, scholarships and work-study funds for my undergraduate college program, I still had to take out student loans to pay off the rest of the tuition that we couldn’t afford out-of-pocket. I planned to wait until graduation, land a job and then start paying off my student loans after the six-month grace period expired.  

But I would have been far better off if I hadn’t waited until graduation to start chipping away at those loan payments. This is because once I started paying off my student loans, I realized that I owed about $400 in interest on my unsubsidized loans. I wasn’t aware that unsubsidized loans accrue interest from the moment they’re disbursed. This means that interest accumulates not only while I’m in school but also during certain deferment periods. Having to pay a few hundred dollars in interest didn’t ruin my financial future, but it’s something I would have tried to avoid if I had known better.

I used to frequently worry about not having enough money but I didn’t realize it stemmed from my limited knowledge of money management. Managing and understanding money can be tough and the complicated jargon and countless acronyms don’t make it any easier.

Still, I wish I had made a little more effort during college to level up my knowledge of the basics. It would have given me a leg up on building good habits like budgeting and saving and spared me a lot of sleepless nights.

Looking back, I could have saved myself a lot of money and stress if I had taken the time to better understand my personal finances. But I’ve come to realize that the best thing you can do for yourself is to be patient with yourself.

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