Have you ever wondered how you are going to pay for your next years of school? How about the amount you will need and where that money will come from? If you do not have an answer for these questions, you are not alone, as many people enter college without a solid plan for paying the bills. It is not uncommon for students to have an idea of where their college funding is coming from but not know if it will last, what student loans they will need to take, how much their living expenses will cost, and other miscellaneous expenses. The next few points will discuss how a peer counselor at Powercat Financial can help you answer those questions and create a plan for your college life. The overall purpose of this process is to help you minimize the amount of student loan borrowing you incur.
- Download the College Financial Plan Worksheet
On the Powercat Financial website exists our College Financial Plan worksheet that is linked here. This worksheet will help you answer all the questions asked above so you can determine your total financial aid required to pay for all your expenses, not only tuition and fees. This worksheet may seem intimidating to most people so I encourage you to bring your situation to a peer counselor at Powercat Financial so we can walk through the sheet with you. The following points will explain the process and help guide you on your own, but the best way to fill out this spreadsheet is with the help of a peer counselor. An overview of this process is also described on the “Create Your College Financial Plan” page of our Powercat Financial website at https://www.k-state.edu/powercatfinancial/planning/.
- Estimate Your Current Living Expenses
The first step is to estimate your monthly expenses on the first tab of the worksheet (bottom left corner). This budget is a streamlined version of our current Spending Plan Worksheet and will serve as a rough estimate for your expenses every month to help you estimate your total expenses for each semester. Often, when people are budgeting for college, they do not consider their living expenses or they have a difficult time estimating them. I encourage you to fill out the actual spending plan worksheet I linked above to have a more robust and inclusive budget that you can continue throughout college and even after college. If you only use the tab on the College Financial Plan worksheet, it will usually be a decent estimate but your expenses could be drastically different than your actual spending amounts. Please visit Powercat Financial and see a peer financial counselor to start with your monthly budget to help you determine your living expenses.
- Estimate Credit Hours and Fees
The next step is to scroll below the college financial plan section (2nd tab on the bottom left) and go to the credit hours and fees section. Here, you will enter the number of credit hours to plan to take each semester and the corresponding fees. There is a link to the fees at K-State on the spreadsheet to help find the fees associated with your major. If you have your current tuition and fees statement and want to use that amount for each semester, then feel free to plug that in the top portion of the spreadsheet for each semester instead of estimating hours. Remember this is the current year’s tuition and fee information and future year amounts may differ.
- Estimate Income from Jobs, Scholarships, and Other Sources
To estimate job income during the summer months, enter the number of weekly hours worked, hourly wage, months, and living expenses incurred during the summer. If you have a semester job please enter that information on the sheet as well.
Scholarships should be included in the section below your expenses on the worksheet. If you know you will have a recurring scholarship then feel free to enter that amount in the next few semesters as well until you will no longer receive the scholarship. Input all scholarships you will receive here, but it is okay to leave some off to be conservative, especially if they are not guaranteed.
All other income should be represented on the spreadsheet as well, such as anticipated support from parents, birthday and holiday gifts, and any other income you can think of. Also, include savings you will use each semester to put towards any or all of these expenses.
- Generate Total Amount Due
Once you have entered all the information stated above about your expenses and resources you have available, the bottom cell will indicate if you have sufficient resources to cover all expenses or if you have a shortfall that may need covered by other means such as finding additional scholarship or borrowing student loans. Also, the red cell in the bottom right corner of the spreadsheet represents the total amount of student aid you will need to fund college or the total amount of student loans you may need to take out over your college career to pay for everything. If you look at the bottom of the sheet you can see how much in other sources you will need to come up with, or student loans you should expect to take out for each semester, given each detail you just put into the plan. Use this amount to determine what to take out once student loans are offered to you in KSIS. You do not have to take out the total amount of aid offered to you, but instead, you should use this sheet to determine a closer number that you can take in student aid each semester. As an alternative, you could find other sources such as scholarships, family support or additional income to cover this short-fall.
Why Is This Important?
Many students need help planning their expenses for college and have no way of going about it. An estimated 45% of 2021 college freshmen are expected to take out student debt to fund their education, and more than 62% of 2019 college seniors graduated with student debt. Many of those students did not have a plan for taking out debt and many do not have a plan for repayment of the debt either. Student loan debt can be difficult to navigate and it stresses your monthly income and causes you to spend money on interest payments.
Millions of people will have to utilize student debt to graduate, so having a plan on how much to take out, when, and what it will be spent on can help you get ahead of your debt and work towards paying off only the amount that was needed. Creating a college financial plan will reduce the stress and anxiety that comes with paying for college. Although many go through college without a robust financial plan, you have the opportunity to control your debt and make sure you are making smart decisions with it.
Please schedule an appointment to meet with a peer counselor soon so you can start to create your college financial plan. You are capable of completing the College Financial Plan worksheet on your own, but seeing a peer counselor for free will help you complete the sheet accurately and holistically. We are here to help you work towards financial success in more ways than one!
We have walk-in days on the first Friday of every month where students can simply walk in without an appointment to ask a quick money question and get a free pop. Our next Pop Up to Powercat Financial day will be October 1st.
Thrifty Giving is happening Thursday November 4th at 4:30 pm in Union 227. That Friday (11/5) Pop Up to PF is happening at our office in Union 302 (third floor). Come ask us your quick money questions and get a free pop.
Anytime you want help with student loans, job offers, budgeting, or have additional questions about other financial topics, remember Powercat Financial is available for Zoom or in-person financial counseling sessions. They may be requested via our website link at www.k-state.edu/powercatfinancial.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/student-loan-debt
Cal Shimkus
Peer Financial Counselor II
Powercat Financial
powercatfinancial@ksu.edu
www.ksu.edu/powercatfinancial
