Money Matters

Money is a subject that affects everyone, everyday. College is a time when money is especially tight for most of us and budgeting is a needed skill in order to get through daily life.I go to school five days a week and I have to make sure I have money for parking, food, gas and school supplies.I spend about 60 dollars a week alone just going to school. Managing my money is something I need to work on if I ever plan on not living paycheck to paycheck, but even without spending money on things I don't "need", living is expensive. I felt that most of Evans info would be more helpful a few years down the road when I have some extra money and want to be smart about investing it. right now I'm struggling to even make rent and don't have any money to spare if I want to live comfortably. I do like the idea of having a budget and keeping track of every penny I spend in a week just to see what I could cut back on and save on. I think a budget would help me realize how much the little stuff adds up. Another piece of advise that I've heard over and over is to to take a percentage of every pay check and put it in a savings account so by the time I'm thirty Ill have a large chunk of money saved and it will keep growing fast. the only hard part is I've ended up needing the money I put in my savings because I can't keep up with expenses or emergencies that come up so it's not really growing.However, I did learn that it's really easy to invest your money and there's a lot of ways to do it. I thought there was a lot more to investing but it's catered to be user friendly and pretty simple.I wasn't aware you could do it all online. when I graduate I feel I'll have a lot more money and won't be so stressed out about it because I'll be working full time. Right now I work in the summers and make a lot of money but when school starts I loose it all because of the expenses it takes to go to school and I get a fraction of the hours I do during the summer.

Some other points I found interesting during the discussion with Evan was the importance of knowing what you can and can't write off or deduct on your taxes as a self employed free lance musician. I see myself having someone, a tax agent or accountant or whatever the title is to help me get everything right. I still feel a little insecure about how to do my taxes right but I think I just have to do them to learn them.I'm willing to pay someone to do them for me too. I learned that a lot of doing my taxes right is really keeping track of expenses throughout the year. I would rather just be responsible for knowing all of my expenses, spending, and keeping receipts, and have someone else organize and figure out deductions so I don't have to work that hard on taxes. Maybe that's lazy but that's how I feel. let someone who went to school for that stuff take care of it for me.