Each week, we are sharing a financial wellness tip to help you make the connection between financial management decisions, your overall wellness, and student success. Money touches every aspect of our lives, and a lack of financial literacy can cause unnecessary stress and negatively impact our mental and physical health.
New Year, New Financial Resolutions
Happy New Year! January is a perfect time to set some New Year’s resolutions for yourself, such as reshaping your finances. Here are some tips for improving your financial fitness this year:
- Create a budget - Committing to saving and investing in your future is one of the best ways to boost your net worth and achieve many of your life goals, and starting early is key. Click here
for more information on creating a budget.
- Manage Your Debt - When you owe money to someone, you are in debt. Owing money is not always bad, but it’s important to know how to effectively manage debt
so it doesn’t impact your ability to achieve your other life goals.
- Prepare for the Unexpected - Your financial life can be upended by all kinds of surprises - an illness, loss of a job, car accident, lost or stolen computer, etc. It’s important to build an emergency fund
to have the means to weather those situations.
- Check Your Credit Score More Often - It’s important to regularly check your credit report so you can spot fraud early and ensure the correct information is reported to the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). You can access one free credit report from each of the main credit bureaus at annualcreditreport.com.
- Invest in Your Own Financial Literacy - There are great opportunities here at RIT! Sign up for a course like Financial Fitness
or Personal Financial Management,
use free tools such as the Money Matter$ page
provided by RIT Financial Aid, and attend events and programs offered by RIT’s Financial Literacy Team! Check out the Financial Literacy website,
and/or follow the team on Facebook,
Twitter,
or Instagram.
