How should I prepare financially for the future?
I’m a freshman in college without any sort of a credit history, and the first loan of any sort I’ll ever take out is a student loan from the government (which is taking forever to go through).
I have $50 to my name right now, although I have two jobs and will have an income shortly.
I was wondering what would be positive steps to take to prepare for my financial future. If you don’t want to type an essay or anything like that, I’d appreciate it if you’d direct me to a website of some sort with this information on it.
I’m not interested in buying anything, including books or credit report services, so please don’t even think about posting your advertisements here.
Thank you in advance.
The easiest way to start building credit is to apply for a student credit card. I think the ones at Citi offer the best deal (I personally have a Citi Forward card and I really like it for the low rates and rewards). Here’s the site: https://online.citibank.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=CreditCardsOverview
A credit card works like a micro loan – say you want to buy a $1000 laptop but you can’t afford it all at once. You can put it on your credit card and pay it off incrementally. The longer you take to pay it off, the more the interest you will accumulate, but if you make reasonable payments each month, it’s the easiest way to build your credit score.
My absolute favorite financial website is http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com, written by bestselling author Ramit Sethi. His advice is perfectly tailored to college students, and it’s really easy to read and understand.
It’s great that you’re already thinking about this! The sooner you get started, the better.
