Not sure if this is acceptable in an open thread but oh well.
I am currently a university student and get all of my expenses paid for by government aid and my parents. This fall I will start tutoring students and earn some money with it. Now, what should I do with it? Should I save it for later in life? Should I spend it for toys or whatnot? Part of both? I would like your opinions on that.
You should probably spend it on things that give you good experiences that will improve you and that you will remember throughout your life. Going to see shows, joining activities such as martial arts (I favor Capoeira) or juggling or something can give you fun skills you can use indefinitely as well as introducing you to large amounts of potentially awesome people. Not only are friendships and relationships super important for long-term happiness, spending money on experiential things as opposed to possessions is also linked to fonder memories etc.
If you want to buy toys, I recommend spending money on things you will use a lot, such as a new phone, a better computer, or something like a kindle.
In general I approve of saving behavior but to be honest the money you make tutoring kids is not gonna be a super relevant amount for your long-term financial security.
Thank you, you answered exactly how I expected the answer to be: Saving this tiny amount of money is not sensible, at least compared to the money I should be expecting to earn with a STEM major. So get the most bang for my bucks I should spend it for experiences, as I planned it, or toys that I will use a lot.
So now I can look forward to feeling less guilty when spending my more or less hard earned money. ;)
On the other hand, although your current income is insignificant compared to what you’ll eventually make, it’s still significant now. In other words, it’s still useful to save money now, because something-that-you-need-a-lot-of-money-for might come up before you start making big bucks. This certainly happened to me several times while studying, and when it did, I was glad that I had savings.
There is still a certain amount of saving that might be useful. e.g. I am currently on a 6 month university exchange which will probably cost me upward of $10K (USD), but will (hopefully) be one of the best experiences I have had.
I recall that when I started making some money as a student, I gave about half back to my parents and spent the rest. There wasn’t nearly enough to be worth considering “saving for later”. The paying back part made me feel better about myself, probably out of proportion, given that it was really a token amount. Which is probably one of the best uses of money: making oneself feel better.
I call this the EverQuest Savings Algorithm when I do it. The basis is that in EverQuest and most games in general, the amount of money you can make at a given level is insignificant to the income you will be making in a few more levels, so it never really seems to make sense to save unless you’ve maxed out your level. The same thing happens in real life, as all your pre-first-job savings are rendered insignificant by your first-job savings, and subsequently your pre-first-post-college-job savings are obsoleted by your first post-college job.
Not sure if this is acceptable in an open thread but oh well.
I am currently a university student and get all of my expenses paid for by government aid and my parents. This fall I will start tutoring students and earn some money with it. Now, what should I do with it? Should I save it for later in life? Should I spend it for toys or whatnot? Part of both? I would like your opinions on that.
You should probably spend it on things that give you good experiences that will improve you and that you will remember throughout your life. Going to see shows, joining activities such as martial arts (I favor Capoeira) or juggling or something can give you fun skills you can use indefinitely as well as introducing you to large amounts of potentially awesome people. Not only are friendships and relationships super important for long-term happiness, spending money on experiential things as opposed to possessions is also linked to fonder memories etc.
If you want to buy toys, I recommend spending money on things you will use a lot, such as a new phone, a better computer, or something like a kindle.
In general I approve of saving behavior but to be honest the money you make tutoring kids is not gonna be a super relevant amount for your long-term financial security.
Thank you, you answered exactly how I expected the answer to be: Saving this tiny amount of money is not sensible, at least compared to the money I should be expecting to earn with a STEM major. So get the most bang for my bucks I should spend it for experiences, as I planned it, or toys that I will use a lot.
So now I can look forward to feeling less guilty when spending my more or less hard earned money. ;)
On the other hand, although your current income is insignificant compared to what you’ll eventually make, it’s still significant now. In other words, it’s still useful to save money now, because something-that-you-need-a-lot-of-money-for might come up before you start making big bucks. This certainly happened to me several times while studying, and when it did, I was glad that I had savings.
There is still a certain amount of saving that might be useful. e.g. I am currently on a 6 month university exchange which will probably cost me upward of $10K (USD), but will (hopefully) be one of the best experiences I have had.
I recall that when I started making some money as a student, I gave about half back to my parents and spent the rest. There wasn’t nearly enough to be worth considering “saving for later”. The paying back part made me feel better about myself, probably out of proportion, given that it was really a token amount. Which is probably one of the best uses of money: making oneself feel better.
I call this the EverQuest Savings Algorithm when I do it. The basis is that in EverQuest and most games in general, the amount of money you can make at a given level is insignificant to the income you will be making in a few more levels, so it never really seems to make sense to save unless you’ve maxed out your level. The same thing happens in real life, as all your pre-first-job savings are rendered insignificant by your first-job savings, and subsequently your pre-first-post-college-job savings are obsoleted by your first post-college job.