Top Financial Mistakes Made By College Students

1. Blowing your school loan money!
Instead of using your financial aid for books, tuition, room & board, many students will choose to finance their extravagant lifestyle of partying, clothes, gadgets, and eating out. These school loans you've worked so hard to get should be paying for your education, not you social life...so use the money wisely. You'll be paying them off for many years to come.

2. Credit Card Debt!
Even responsible adults can rack up some hefty credit card debt, but students, who have no viable income besides their school loan money, and what cash mom & dad give them, have no business getting multiple credit cards. This is a recipe for credit disaster, because now students will not only have their school loans to repay when they graduate, but large credit card balances. Nellie May, the largest student loan maker, says that most graduate students have an average of $5800 in credit card debt.

3. Not Paying Your Bills on Time!
Racking up huge credit debt and not paying your bills on time is a good way to ensure that you can't purchase a car, rent an apartment or even get a cell phone after you graduate. Keep the credit cards to a minimum, and pay your bills on time to keep your good credit rating. You'll thank yourself in a few years.

4. Bad Budgeting!
Being a college student generally means living on a fixed income. Weather it be your financial aid money or money from a part-time job, or even money from Mom & Dad, the cash is usually limited and setting up a budget is important. A monthly budget doesn't mean you can't do the things you want to do, but simply a plan so you know the "must-pays" actually get paid. Figure out exactly what bills and expenses you have every month and plan for those first. Any money after that you can budget for social / recreational items like CD's and kegs.

5. Going to a College that's too Pricey!
Instead of going to your local community college for your pre-req classes and spending $25 a unit, many students feel they have to go to the 4 year university straight out of high school. Many end up returning home and going to a C.C. anyway, but attending a local school first is a good way to save money, and get those required classes out of the way cheap. After you've completed these courses, transfer to a 4 year school to complete your undergraduate degree. This will save thousands upon thousands of dollars that you would have racked up on student loans, and been paying off well into your 30's.

So many of the bad financial decisions students make is a result of poor financial education. Students haven't been taught by their parents or high school teachers the importance of maintaining a good credit score, paying bills on time, and budgeting income. Wise spending during the college years will ensure that the money you make after graduating will be spent on things you want, not credit card payments, collection companies and school loans.

Visit www.SchoolLoanInfo.com for free information and resources on student finances and School Loan Consolidation.

Resources For Student Financial Aid

When you are going to college in a year or maybe just a few months you are trying to plan everything you are going to need. You may need travel expenses for holidays, books, tuition, food, and housing. When you are trying to find resources for student financial aid, you will find that there are several sites on the Internet alone that can help you find the right loans. If you have been denied federal tuition advances or still don’t have enough money to cover the costs, you can look for other resources for help with tutorial advances.

Astrive, NextStudent, Free Grant Search and other resources for student financial aid exist to help you find the money you need for schooling. Some of them are going to offer you a higher interest rate for tuition advances and others will offer grants that don’t have to be paid back. These types of advances and grants are going to be determined by your application. In order to apply for this type of help you just have to go online to these places and read about the advances available. You will fill out and submit an application.

Checking out resources for student financial aid

Remember during this process that you are only checking if you would be eligible for an advance and the terms of the advance. Until you actually sign the documents you are free to search for as many advances as possible. You will want to do this in a period of two weeks to avoid any hits on your credit history. These lending companies and grant companies may run a standard credit check that can actually lower your points if you do them outside of two weeks.

The grants are a little different in their application process. You have to show you are attending a full four year program for the type of grant you are submitting for. In some cases you have to show a greater need for this type of student financial aid than for regular loans.

Brenda is the owner of Student Loans website. Brenda writes about where to get a student loan, what affects student loan rates, how to repay student loans and etc.