Words Of Advice

GettingThingsDone

1. If he has to buy text books, make sure they are the latest edition (double-check!!) and then sell them ASAP!
2. Resist peer pressure to live like a 'normal' person - too many students these days expect to have the latest clothes, phones etc. Sorry students, but that's what student life is supposed to be like...

ali-t

best bit of advice to any young male leaving home - always use condoms and you wont spend the rest of your youth paying maintenance!

Pattie1968

ali-t wrote:

best bit of advice to any young male leaving home - always use condoms and you wont spend the rest of your youth paying maintenance!

OMG, don't even joke about that!!!!!


Thanks everyone for your pearls of wisdom. I'm definitely gonna show him this site.

immoral_angeluk

Enjoy it, because once he leaves he'll be sucked in to a life of 9-5, bills and stress so enjoy being young free and single while he can! lol!

fay144

I know everyone always suggests part time jobs, but it really does depend on his course. If it's going to be quite time intensive, then he really should avoid the temptation to work too many hours.

Personally, I only worked in the holidays while at uni. I went there looking for a job, but I didn't turn 18 until half way through my second year, so I didn't find anything straight away. By the time I would have been able to get a job, I had watched my flatmate's marks drop by about 10% almost overnight when he started working. I had also watched other friends struggle to fit coursework around work hours, and we often had midnight meetings for group projects in the computer labs to fit around them.

So, since it is inevitable that he is going to get into some debt, my advice is for him to make sure that he's getting into debt for the best degree he can possibily get, and not making a half hearted attempt at it for the sake of a few thousand.

sportbeth

Something I found useful when I was skint, set a budget for the week/month and set up an online savings account. Keep track of the budget and anything you have left over (even if it is £6.50) sling into the online savings account. This should help out with any trips or christmas.

Also, now that he's leaving home to go to Uni, encourage him to get on Ebay and sell ASAP - we did this last year when we were combining two houses and we made £500 out of the most unbelievable tat that we would have taken to Charity.

And make sure he signs up to every single discount, online, forum etc going. You can make a hobby out of money saving and it does get addictive after a while!

kathfisch

Make sure you show him this site, there's so much useful info, and make sure he checks out the Student Money Saving board

I would definitely advise him to set a budget and learn to stick to it with the aid of a spending diary. And to learn to feel good about saving money, cooking for himself, being savvy and 'making do' etc.

But I don't really think those are things that you can teach, or tell, someone. He will have to want to do it and choose it himself. Maybe he'll spend a lot in the first term, maybe the first year, but if so reality will eventually hit! Whether he takes to money management like a pro or takes a little longer to find his feet, the lessons he learns will be invaluable for a long time into the future.

One thing I would say to you, though, is if you are going to be supporting him financially at all, to be clear about how much he'll get (and when) at the beginning of the year. And whatever you figure out is enough for him to live on, that's what he gets and no more just cos its run out! Easier said than done, I know, but budgetting only really works when you are sure of what you'll be getting, and you know there won't be any more if you overspend!

I don't mean to sound negative at all, I just know how easily I went from ultra careful to (relatively) big spender when I went to uni and now I've got myself out of it!

Good luck to him!

Kath x