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The golden rule to help you manage your money.

The majority of us are students. Let’s face it, we aren’t the richest people in the world. And it can be really difficult to manage your money. We get our loan from the Government, we party (perhaps a little too hard), we spend money on course essentials, field trips, rent, bills, food… the list goes on and on. Often we rely on the trusted Bank of Mum & Dad, drawn to it by the 0% interest rate… And we try and save, hard as it might be. However, for many of us, it just doesn’t cut it.

Let’s paint the picture. It’s summer 2019, Molly Mae and Tommy have found love in the Island, the weather is, well very, very British, and you’re planning a holiday with friends next year. The best holiday you’ll ever go on. You’ll forget about the year ahead filled with stress, exams and results, all will be perfect. But how am I going to afford this, I hear you ask? Fear not. I am going to give you the best tip to manage your money you will ever hear, to help you save for next year and make your money go the extra mile. That’s right, even a student can do it.

NB. I adopted this from my parents, so please thank them after reading….

The rule I follow is the 50, 30, 20 rule. It’s simple. 50% of your money goes on needs. 30% goes on wants. 20% goes on savings.

50%.

So, 50% of your money should go on things you need. These include, rent, bills, food. Should you budget accordingly, things will go to plan. Make an excel spreadsheet, don’t we love them?, and where your money goes will become clear. Your rent could be £250 a month, your bills could be £30 a money and your food could be £80 a month. This makes a total of £370 a month. Depending when your income comes in, try and make this total figure no more than 50% of the income. This way, you aren’t spending too much or too less and can use your money on more important things…

30%

30% of your income should be spent on things you want. This means things like clothes, shoes or nights out. Had your eye on those pair of jeans? Treat yourself. Want that new pair of trainers? Go on, you deserve it.

The 30% is every student’s dream. You have actually allocated money to things you want so you can spend away with no shame. Part of your income is allowed to be spent on things you have your eye on. My best advice: milk it for all it’s worth.

20%

Now this is where it gets tricky, folks. 20% of your income has to be saved. I suggest making a separate savings account and transfer the 20% into it straight away. This means you aren’t tempted to spend it on anything you want halfway through the month. This idea of the 20% is that you have a pot of money saved at the end of the year to splurge or just continue adding to, whatever you want to do. However, how convenient… you have a large sum of money saved up over the year that has no particular purpose. What do you spend it on? A holiday perhaps?

You can read some more of our tips on how to manage your money (or lack of) here: