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Money Management
CashCourse Resource for CARE Students
Having trouble budgeting your financial aid refund? CARE and FSU have access to an online tool to help you!
CashCourse will give you the tools you need to budget properly for bills, prepare for emergencies, save for your future, and the discipline to form new spending habits. CashCourse features videos, quizzes, and financial experts to answer all of your questions. Registration AND participation is required for all students in CARE15 and beyond, but is an effective tool for all students to use to better handle your financial aid resources!
Register for a FREE account at http://www.cashcourse.org/.
Taking Control of Your Spending
It is important to do an analysis and find out what was causing your bad habit. Ask yourself what were/are you buying that keeps you from saving money? It may be difficult to replay history to find the problem, but you can certainly keep a record of your spending habit going forward. Fortunately, there is an excellent link on CashCourse (http://budget.cashcourse.org/) that is ideal for this purpose. The Budget Wizard will take you through the steps to create your own personal budget, including:
- Your income
- Your expenses
- Your savings goal(s)
Notice that the program suggests you review your bank account and credit card statements to help you make a list of your monthly expenses and income. Once that is done you can enter your actual expenses and income to thoroughly analyze your problem.
A good question to ask yourself before you buy something is, do I really “need” this or is it just something I “want”?
Once you have analyzed your spending habits you should find it easy to develop a budget that will help guide your future activities, thus replacing your old habits with new more manageable ones. Once you have completed your budget analysis, keep for your records so that you can refer to it and remain accountable for your spending.
Debt Management & Financial Assistance
In an effort to provide assistance, training, and counseling to those who are suffering from high debt and low credit scores, Florida State University has partnered with Debt Management Credit Counseling Corp. (DMCC). As a non-profit organization the DMCC is able to work with your creditors to consolidate your debt, and structure a repayment plan that allows you to build credit while you work down your debt.
A few of the free services provided:
- Budget Counseling
- Student Loan Counseling
- Payday Loan Deferments
- Online Financial Literacy Programs
FSU Students are also entitled to a 20% to 50% discount on the following
- Identity Protection and Credit Monitoring
- Student Loan Repayment Assistance
- Bankruptcy Education Certificates
Visit DMCC for FSU Students to view the complete list of services available. These services are available to all FSU faculty, staff, students, and their families.