MONEY MANAGEMENT FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
Nowadays, a great proportion of college students have little knowledge of managing finance, which is one of the most indispensable personal skills. To be more particular, the group of first-year students illustrated their shortcomings about this social field.
Many students struggling with their financial hardships when they entered the university. They are usually in the money-to-burn situation because of buying unnecessary things, lots of students used entire money that to pay for tuition fees. According to Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, financial stress is one of the top reasons students drop out of school. This is especially true for freshmen, 30 percent of them drop out of school within three years. Good illustrations of this are playing games, blindly gambling, buying junk foods. Therefore, they fall into financial difficulties every month-ending. As an example, their meals have only noodles at the end of the month. They gradually get in debt, even default on loan. Consequently, they find to the loan-shark organizations to have enough money they need. That is very dangerous to their lives, even they will involve in legality. Furthermore, financial stress caused by debts can follow the students into their post-graduation years. According to a survey of 18 - 29 year-old people conducted by Bankrate, 29 percent of them have put off buying a car , 19 percent of them have put off marriage and 30 percent have put off buying a house due to the student's debts.
One of the main reasons of these issues is that the majority of students are completely financially dependent on their parents. In high school, juveniles live in the overindulgence and overprotection of their parents, they do not need to work to earn money since their parents pay for total their needs. Except for students who grow up in the underprivileged families have to earn money early to pay for tuition fees and subsistence, most of high-school students live through a care - free period of adolescence now that their parents save them from financial problems. They take their parents' material support for granted inconsiderately and lavish money upon their pleasures. On the other hand, some parents think that their kids do not have enough ability to earn money and they do not own money so it is not necessary to teach them the ways to control finances. Other parents do not want their children to worry about money problems so that they can focus on studying and have good results at school. These parents believe that students can be able to learn how to manage their money when they go to work or grow older. Thus, they do not apprehend the realities of earning and saving money. This leads them to challenges in facing crisis money management when they start to live independently.
Another reason is caused by the current education system of the government. It places an overemphasis on theoretical subjects namely Maths, Physics, Literatures, which are overloaded on students while soft-skills including personal financial management are being ignored. Indeed, because of the pressure to matriculate from parents and society, they have a tendency of just concentrating on important subjects to pass the entry exam university. Consequently, they do not have the chance or time to focus on the practical subjects containing money management which help them more in the future. In this situation, most of the students leave their high school without learning the ways to control their finances.
However, there is a number of feasible solutions to help students deal with this problem. The first measurements could be taken by parents, they need to do particular actions to set a bright example for our children. In essence, most of the students are having insufficient knowledge of finance management since nobody talks about it. As a result, it is important for parents to teach children how they can make and save up money in effective ways. Firstly, parents should talk about the family's financial hardships, how hard they work, earn money, family's down-at-heel stages to help their children empathize how difficult they try to come over these problems. As a consequence, students would raise their awareness on a vital role of money in daily life. Secondly, because most students completely depend on their family financially, parents can educate them through a weekly or monthly fixed allowance and give them advices and tips to manage their finances wisely. When being limited to the budget, students have to meet the spending and saving problems by themselves. Thirdly, parents can give students opportunities to take part in making financial decisions in certain situations. For instance, when the family plans to go camping or travel together, children can support parents by estimating how much the expense they need to pay for the transportation, hotel, restaurant, entertainment center, buying needed stuff and how much expected budget that is appropriate with the family's financial conditions. Additionally, as a proverb said "no pain, no gain", parents are suggested to let their children experience some kinds of part-time work after school time. It would force students to live on their little income, so it helps them to have responsibility with their money and form a sensible spending habit.
Besides parents, school should also contribute to set the right example for students. Firstly, basic money management could be included as an obligatory subject for students in high school curriculum because these students are mature enough to comprehend the value of money and how hard to earn money. In high school, students should be provided the financial knowledge essentially, and skills to manage their money when they leave school, move out of home or enter employment. They are trained to develop their financial plan in the future. Secondly, the exam should mention practical exercises rather than just financial theories. Thirdly, teachers should organize extracurricular activities as a chance for students to practice their money management skills. For example, students can make a plan for a class-party, a sightseeing tour, how much the expense and budgets. In my view, these suggestions can help students have actual knowledge and skills in money management effectively.
In conclusion, money mismanagement is a big problem with students. Nonetheless, there is a number of viable solutions to counteract this problem. Especially, the family and school need to coordinate together to educate students to be able to manage their money prudently.