Saving

Generally speaking, the way most people get ahead is day to day saving and investing. This may be challenging at this time in your life as a college student, but even putting away a small amount each month will bring you peace of mind and provide for those emergencies that always come up in life.

Pay Yourself First – As mentioned under budgeting tips earlier, it is important to take a small amount from each paycheck you receive and try to put it in a separate savings account before any other spending that you do. This will allow you to better be able to meet unexpected bills when they arise. Having the money hit the savings account automatically either from your employer or your bank ensures that this happens every time you get paid.

Mint.com – This site lets you keep track of all of your money in one place. It allows you to create a budget, track your bills and check your credit score. This works great if you are comfortable linking your bank accounts with this budgeting software.

Budgettracker.com – For this site you enter your bills manually and assign your own categories. It requires a bit more work, but you do not have to give them any bank account information.

Budgetpulse.com – This is very similar to Budget Tracker above. With this one you also manually enter your bills and set up your budget.