5 Solutions Sudden Student Financial Problems
BY DAVID GUTIERREZ
Most people find themselves neck-deep in sudden money problems at least a couple of times in their lives – and students, with their traditionally precarious financial situation, find themselves in a pinch more often than average. So, how to get yourself out of the dire straits once you land there? Here are five possible solutions.
1. Cut Back on Expenses
The first thing you should think about if you want to get out of the pit soon enough is making adjustments when it comes to your expenses. If you already keep track of your expenses and incomes, good – you will have a starting point. If not, start doing so immediately. Try to remember all of the more or less important expenses of the recent past. Think about all the things you usually tend to spend money on. Then go through them point by point and ask yourself if you can eliminate each, or at least severely reduce it.
Make use of your status as a student – most colleges provide a lot of not immediately obvious bonuses to their students: free access to gyms, swimming pools, libraries and suchlike. Many businesses provide discounts and special offers if you can prove you are a student – it can help you save on food, clothing, electronics and much more.
2. Short Term Loans
Usually short term loans tend to have a rather dubious reputation due to lenders often charging exorbitant interests and making use of the debtor’s extreme situation in other ways. However, not all lenders are the same – if you look hard enough, you can find short term loans provided on reasonable terms and giving you an opportunity to deal with the problem that forced you to borrow money in the first place before repaying the debt at your own pace. Show your student ID and you have a high chance of getting a preferential treatment.
3. Negotiate with Your Current Lenders
If you are already in debt, another priority goes to contacting your lenders. You may believe them to be ungodly bloodsuckers out to make you suffer, but in the long run, it is in their best interests to keep you financially afloat so that you can keep on making your payments. Quite often, they will be ready to tweak the conditions a bit, lowering the interest rate or extending the terms. Don’t wait until you get severely behind the payment schedule before contacting them – in this case the lender really won’t be eager to meet you halfway.
4. Sell Clutter
Every person accumulates an enormous amount of what is, when all is said and done, useless trash that doesn’t add anything to one’s life. The problem is in identifying what things belong to this category. Ask yourself: have I used this item at least once over the last year? Do I really need it? If not, go ahead and sell it. Use eBay, Craigslist or a less well-known Decluttr to find buyers – you will be amazed how many people will be willing to buy what you want to get rid of. Or just plain run a sale aimed at other students at your dorm.
5. Use Any Legal Opportunity to Get Money
If your current income isn’t enough to get you out of the woods, consider getting additional part-time jobs or trying your hand at one of many online methods of earning: freelance writing, taking surveys, hedge betting and so on. Most of these methods won’t get you much (at least not over a short period of time), but in your situation every little bit counts.
The most important thing to do when you find yourself in a personal financial crisis is to avoid panic and depression. If you maintain positive mental attitude and clear thinking, you will be able to get back on track – perhaps not immediately, but soon enough!
David Gutierrez has worked in the field of web design since 2005. Right now he started learning Java in order to get second occupation. His professional interests defined major topics of his articles. David writes about new web design software, recently discovered professional tricks and also monitors the latest updates of the web development.
