TTT #9: "Budgeting as a Student 101" with Krish Theobald

Once you get to university and start living on your own, there are quite several hurdles you got to tackle. Social life, settling in unfamiliar surroundings, getting acquainted with the academic material, and your degree, to name a few. Added to this is the financial burden of managing your expenses and taking ownership of the same.

In this episode, Krish Theobald discusses some quick strategies for budgeting as a student.

I don't think people realize how much inflation is a killer.

Krish talks about the myth of saving money. Many of us prefer to keep it away because investing it poses risks. But the value of your money goes down over time with inflation. So, due to the fear of losing some money, you, unknowingly, end up losing it anyway. Of course, we do need to have some money kept apart. But Krish believes that to actually have a substantive value attached to what we earn, we should invest at least some part of it.

We need money for our future goals when current income levels don't seem sufficient for it. The entire idea behind investing is coming up with efficient routes to handle your finances. Instead of earning a scanty amount of interest while your money lies in the bank, you are putting it to better use.

Secondly, he talks about the importance of having a monthly budget. We have both necessary and discretionary expenses, and obviously, we cannot avoid the former. And unless we have a clear idea of where we are spending our money, we would not be able to come up with a concrete way to cut down on our expenses.

Krish believes that you don't have to wait to earn a massive sum before you start investing. Start as young as possible, read up more about areas you should invest in, and ways to do it. It's never too early to begin.