Preparation for college: financials

Now it’s time to talk about possibly the most dreaded subject known to man: paying for college.

The first and easiest way to start preparing for possibly the best investment you will ever make is to start saving early. My parents never made me get a job in high school, so I didn’t. I started working the summer after my junior year, stopped during the school year and started again the summer after graduation. I was working, but I hadn’t learned how valuable money really would be to me.

I was making a little money, but, since I hadn’t learned to save, I didn’t work very much and spent what I had on fun. Seriously, I worked somewhere between 10 and 20 hours a week (and thought that that was too much).

What I’m trying to say is that it is smart to get a job in high school, even if you don’t think you need the money. If your parents are still paying all your expenses, you’ll be able to save more than you think. Getting started on the right foot will make everything easier in the future.

You could also put some of that money in a mutual fund and make money off of your money! I’ll explain that more later this week.

Want an even easier way to pay for school? GET SCHOLARSHIPS! All you have to do is do your best in school and be involved. There a thousands upon thousands of scholarships out there, you just have to get one (or a few). The easiest to get are sponsored by the school you will attend, and are usually either merit-based or need-based. (I’m talking about merit-based, which are usually based on grades and test scores.) If that falls through, visit www.fastweb.com for a huge list of available scholarships. Plenty of these aren’t based on G.P.A., but you will probably have to write some essays.

It’s usually pretty easy for incoming freshman to find a little scholarship money, but if that isn’t enough, there are also ways for continuing students to get more scholarships. More to come on this topic.

This has basically covered how you can prepare to pay for college – I will get into scraping money together while already in college at a later date.

SUMMARY: start saving early and try to get scholarships!