Welcome back to one of the last episodes of the life of a college student. Yep, I'm almost there👩🏻🎓 I did my four years in prison, and now I'm about to get my freedom, so it's time I start planning out things that I am going to do once I am out. I didn't have a traditional college student path, so I already know what's out there. Although it will be my first time working a job that I care about, so I am a little excited. Let me ask you this; have you ever been at a very long job training and wish to get out in the field and already start the actual work? That's how school felt to me. All the prep just to be somewhat ready for the real world. Of course, they didn't teach us essential skills to survive in the world like tax prep, credit, buying a house or car, or dealing with complicated matters in life. But you know what? I do know how to calculate the third side of the triangle using the Pythagorean theorem, so when I cut the slices of my frozen pizza, it creates a 90-degree angle 🥲
Let me stop being sarcastic and start breaking down a couple of essential matters for you about life after college.
Essential Things To Keep In Mind
Before we dive into this, I want to mention my credibility notice for those who wonder what gives me the right to mark these matters as essential 🤨
"I have been living without my parents since I was fifteen years old, and I have managed to have a somewhat decent life without getting into any toxic habit."
Okay, let's resume.
As I mentioned earlier, I didn't quite live like a typical student throughout my college life, so I took care of multiple things while being a student.
I started by
building my credit by having my phone plan
car under my name
insurance under my name
apartment lease under my name
credit cards
I also worked full-time, so I did my taxes. I always liked a good healthy lifestyle, so I started cooking and marking recipes in my cookbook. Those are just a couple of things that you should think about after college. For some people, this may not be applicable because of different reasons. Let's say you are moving to New York or someplace where they have a good public transportation system, and you may not need a car at the moment. These are the starters of life after college, but I want to discuss one of the dreadful topics next, BUDGETING😓
Finances After College
Finances can be a tricky subject. College doesn't teach us much about finances or budgets, so many people end up in debt. In my case, I have already accepted a job offer, but I need to plan out the budget. This salary will be the highest I have ever been paid in my life, so I have to be careful. I am obsessed with saving and investing📈 Anything to cut the cost of something and still live a good lifestyle is my thing. Naturally, I have been doing a lot of research on this. But also, I love fancy and luxury items, sooooo.......yeah, I need some help. Luckily, I am good at advising and measuring pros and cons to talk myself out of new obsessions. I think I will be okay.
I was reading a lot of articles and noticed one typical pattern among them. When the earning goes up📈 the spending goes up📈 Which makes sense, right? You don't want to be living in those terrible conditions you live in during your student life. And that's ok. It will help if you upgrade your lifestyle to a livable condition. I recently visited a friend's dorm, and OMG, It felt like a jail cell with no windows or sunlight or any ventilation. Please invest in a semi-nice place that matches your personality because your environment matters a lot. But be careful. You don't want to go overboard. As I said earlier, when your spending goes up with your earning, this is the phase where many people get stuck in that paycheck to paycheck kind of lifestyle. Many people complain about this condition, and in some cases, it makes sense because they are barely making a livable wage, but CS students, I know y'all make good money. This reminds me of my next topic of goal setting, but we will dive into it in a bit.
For finances, here are some tips:
Make a budget and track your spending. I think Mint does a great job at this
Save and Invest (at your own risk and after some research)
Learn to say no to eating out all the time
Make sure you have some budget set aside for self-care or anything you love to do
Try to increase the number of your income streams
Pay your credit card bills on time to avoid any interest
Try to pay off your student loans as soon as possible (if applicable)
Goals After College
Remember how I was talking about that college is all prep for the real world, and when you are out of college, it's action time. Well, I wasn't kidding. To be honest, it's hitting me hard right now. When you are in college, you can use that as an excuse to procrastinate your goals in life, but now you won't have that handy anymore. So right after college, you will have to make a couple of decisions based on your goals. For example, some of my friends want to travel the world after college, so they choose to live with a roommate or two after college and not invest in any luxury items. At the same time, some of my other friends love cars, so they buy their dream cars while living at a cheap place. Some friends want to start a family soon, and they are saving the rent money by living with their parents. You see, all of these decisions are based on your goals. They can be long-term or short-term goals. I want to save some money and build my emergency fund, so I'm going to live at my current place till next summer because it's the cheapest rent I can get in my area.
If you are like me, graduating soon, I think now will be an excellent time to think about the lifestyle you want to live. It would help if you also looked into a potential hobby. Let me tell you something, some of my new grad friends are working right now. Work will consume your life at some point, but you have to be careful about the other areas in life. They need attention too.
I love the following quote. I think these are the words I have gotten from people who have been working for decades in their field, and I think it makes sense.
This might not be a big problem in the early years of a career, but big problems come into existence when small problems are ignored for long. Work will keep you busy, but time goes by fast. Think about what is the purpose of your life. Who's life do you want to impact, and how do you want to contribute to the world. Those purposeful things will bring colors to your life during dark days. It is something to think about...
Anyhoo...
That was a bit serious, so here is a joke:
"The best way to make somebody remember you is to borrow money from them." 😅
But for real, life goes by fast. Don't forget to have fun. Please don't wait for something to happen, instead make it happen. If today is terrible, don't expect tomorrow to be any better. Try to find some sort of happiness today. This is where grounding rules (the act of bringing your ego from the sky) and gratitude journals kick in. Someone in the world probably wishes for the things you have today, so don't forget to be grateful. Make your dreams come true but also realize that you are living in your past dreams right now. And if this is not the case, well, there is always tomorrow. See ya next time
This week I am obsessed with the Tik Tok song : WFM
Comentários