What experience taught me about students and money

Hello my friends,

We all know this situation. Most of us never learned anything about it. However, it´s crucial for living in our human society. We all love it and hate it at the same time. I am talking about money. Yes, the subject we mostly try to avoid when we talk and often when we think. But we have to. We worry a lot about it. I certainly do. However, nobody teaches us important things about it. Therefore, I will talk today about a lot of my experiences, what I learned and how I think about money today.

Short disclaimer, I am by far no professional and those are just my thoughts today. I hope to learn way more in the future, but we all must start somewhere. So, take it all with a grain of salt. I hope that it will help you all.

To make it clear, I don´t have the magic pill or the perfect solution. However, what I have are my experiences and what I learned from them. And I hope that those can teach you or remind you of something about money. Furthermore, I have some tips about how to worry less about money and some starting points for everybody to start thinking about money.

Here we go:

For me, it started after school. I didn´t realize it directly. Probably cautiously I realized it many years later. However, I was totally clueless about money. I knew nothing about how to earn it, spend it well or anything else I should know.
So, before studying I earned a bit of money in retail and spend it all on my studies. I only thought short term. How can I pay tuition next year? How can I get money to survive one year more of studying? How can I spend less? I thought that after studying I will earn more and make up for the debt I am accumulating. I now believe that this was stupid. I should´ve worked always a bit while studying. Just some hours per week would´ve accumulated a lot of money over the years.

This is my first insight, try to always look for extra money/experience.
Sadly, I didn´t learn that fast. During most of my years at university, I mostly lived from my debt and the excuse that combining studying, working out and having time with friends and family is already close to impossible.

This led me to my second insight, push your own limitations.
Tackle your excuses. We all can spend some hours a week on earning some money on the side or learning something new to later make some money or to learn how we can save more money.
I always try to remind myself that if I would earn or safe 10 € every week that I would have 520 € more at the end of the year.

Finally, I learned a bit. I extended my studies. I worked in different jobs and made some money. I also increased my debt. But this time I spent it mostly on traveling to Australia for close to three months, having my internships in Spain and Germany (I study in the Netherlands). I even had a side job in a gym where I spent the nightshifts for some weekends, and I worked in a fabric. However, I stopped to hope and dream, and I began to do more. Sadly, until now I only found ways to make some money over a short period of time with immense work. Instead, I should find a way to make money continuously on the side. It seems to be that we all have a lot of things that we can improve. For sure one of my goals for my future.
Yes, it´s harder. I even progress a bit slower in my study. However, I am worrying way less about money.

Looking back, I also realize that I know quite some people that did it and managed to do it. Sadly, I didn´t realize that earlier. Not everybody I know made as much debt as I made. However, many of them also didn´t make as many experiences as I did.

Side note: There are very likely countless ways to go and everybody should find his or her own way. But I believe that we can make it ourselves easier if we plan more of our finances.

After those examples here are my two cents on where to start.  I don´t think they are the solution, but I hope that they give somebody a helpful thought to find a way of earning money while enjoying life and living it. Because I believe that there is a sustainable way to have it all. The tips are simple, but I think powerful. Thus, here we go:

First, search, read and listen. Learn about possibilities and options on how to make and save money. Then, compare it with your skills and thinks you enjoy. Aim to use them for making some money in the future.
However, if you need money fast (especially as a student) then I suggest looking for a side job. It´s not fulfilling work most of the times but sadly it´s the easiest way to make money relatively fast and most important it´s safe how much money you get per hour. At best look for something where you can learn something or listen to audiobooks or read or learn for university.

On to my second tip. Start to move in a direction that you enjoy and like or that you think is good for our future.
This maybe sounds too simplistic. However, I am a good example of that overthinking is not bringing you forward. Therefore, I suggest you all to rather move forward in any direction that you enjoy and like or you believe is good or important for our future. This will get you moving. You will try a lot and find out what you enjoy and whatnot. Then you can adjust and try something new.

I know those tips sound too simple to be good but trust me they are a great starting point.

And here, as promised, my favorite two tips on how to worry less about money:

#1 Think about what you can do today and focus on that, nothing else.
Remember:
“Every day is a new life to a wise man.”
and
“In the end, everything will be all right and if it´s not okay, then it´s not the end.”

#2 Write out your whole money situation, everything you own, earn and owe. Also, write down all the ideas you have about making money. From extra money short term and fast up to jobs for the future. It can be shocking and scary but afterwards, it´s easier to think about solutions and go back to my tip #1.

One of the main problems is that nobody talks about money and nobody teaches you anything about finance. I hope that this post will hopefully work as a primer. Let´s start to make talking about money normal. So that we can all strive for a future in which we don´t worry about money but earn it and enjoy our lives.

Greetings and a lot of success,

Alexander

P.s.: Text me what you would like to hear about me. And of course, all the questions and recommendations you have.