Money Knowledge You Wish You Knew In College

1. Make Your Own Food Think about how much that coffee mocha latte from Starbucks costs you. Now think about how much brewing your own cup coffee with cost you. Want to know the numbers? 4.50 vs 37 cents!!! If you buy your own groceries and make your own food, you WILL save money than going out.

2. Buy grocery basics at the cheapest place where you can also use those coupons or rebates
This way you can save on what you buy all the time

3. Buy expensive periodically than cheap oftenIf you make a plan and save for a more expensive item, then you know that you have thought through the purchase and am not splurging all the time

4. Apply for a credit Card for one reason and one reason only, to build creditWhen you apply for a credit card make sure to research which card you would like. I would recommend getting the Discover it card because it works really well with students and you earn cash back with every purchase!

5. Pay off any outstanding bills before they start dragging your credit down. I have heard horror stories about a decades-old $36 hospital bill dragging a credit score down 100 points.

6. Observe the 50/30/20 budget (after taxes). This handy ratio was dreamed up by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard bankruptcy professor and the author of All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan. Immediate living expenses (rent, utilities, automobills) take up 50 percent of your earnings. Wants (vacations, clothes) take up 30 percent. The Future (savings) takes up 20 percent. Helpful guideline, even if your individual budget is slightly tweaked to meet your specific needs.

7. Having very little savings during your first post-college years is normal. In fact, you will look back on the days of trying to make a decent dinner of frozen vegetables and one egg rather fondly, if you can believe it.

8. But having savings in your later 20s will make you feel so much safer and give you an opportunity for a nicer lifestyle. Even if it seems implausible right now, having a small fraction of each paycheck automatically transferred into a savings account is really effective over time. We're talking like $50 bucks, if that's all you can manage.

9. Don't be resentful of friends with wealthy parents who can rely on their financial support. It may be frustrating to see them be so cavalier about money that haven't even earned while you're obsessing over ways to save and barely getting by, but they undoubtedly have their own insecurities about being supported by their parents. And it feels so much better to be independent, even if you have to skip a few restaurant dinners to do it.

10. Don't rely on a significant other financially. It makes sense to adjust rent to scale if you live together (e.g., if you're making $30,000 a year and he's making $60,000, it's reasonable to want him to pay slightly more), but winding up totally fiscally dependent, like day-to-day, on the person you have sex with is a bad idea.

11. Don't be afraid to upgrade your lifestyle according to your financial capabilities. Say you get a new job where you're making twice as much money as you were. It's OK to want to move to a nicer place, or eat out more, or treat yourself. It feels weird at first if you're not used to it, but TREAT YO'SELF.

12. Taxes! TAXES! They're so horrible. In some cities you take home like half of your paycheck. I'm serious. Don't forget to factor taxes into every decision you make. Just pretend your official salary doesn't matter, and add up your actual real world paychecks monthly to get your post-tax salary.

13. If you're salaried, enrolling in a 401(k) will help with your taxes a little bit. Because the taxes are done after the deduction, which will make them slightly less.

14. It's not tacky or annoying of you to ask a new boss about the company's expense policy. That's what they're there for. Just remember how much money the company has!

15. Never carry over debt from month to month. If you're not going to be able to afford it that month, don't buy it. Exceptions for things like cars and houses, obviously.

16. Set up automatic payments on your student loans. If you miss a payment on those things they charge you like crazy.

17. Never ever get store credit cards. I had a Nordstrom card once. It almost ruined my life. The interest is really high, and they rope you in with a slight discount the first time, but then you are HOOKED.

18. If you have a bank or a credit card with an app, download it. It will help when you forget until the last minute to pay that credit card bill.