For those who have just recently graduated, managing money can be one of the biggest challenges of living independently. Moneyville.ca recently offered some tips for new graduates to keep bank accounts healthy while they begin planning for the future.
The top recommendation is to simply live within your means. Many youngsters get their first credit card and hit the malls, but this is a good way to rack up debt and ruin your credit score. Others may live paycheck to paycheck, ignoring the conventional wisdom to save 10 percent of each check in order to build up savings.
Many students may have loans that they'll need to start paying off. It's important to come up with a strong debt repayment strategy. Due to interest rates, making the minimum payments on loans may lead to paying much more over time than trying to get the loans paid off ASAP. It might mean sacrificing quality of life for a few years, but getting out of debt quickly is a much safer financial strategy than letting loans drag on for years.
Self storage is a great way for recent graduates to reduce their living expenses. Often, paying for larger space in an apartment adds up quickly in terms of monthly rent. It may be wiser for students to instead put some items into secure storage and rent a smaller place for awhile.
Self storage can be a smart way to hang on to valuable items without taking up room in a house or apartment. For Toronto storage solutions, there's no better than Jiffy Self Storage. Those interested in self storage should check out the affordable rates on Jiffy's website, where they can also enter to win a free iPad 3.
