College Orientation

Unit 5 Essay

I would like to say that Unit 5 of this wonderful course was my favorite and most valuable. It really got into what most of us are after in our own very different worlds right now. I am pretty sure that mostly everyone that is in school or is coming back to school is here to achieve financial freedom and stability. This specific unit introduced us to many valuable skills shared by the instructor and the students. Some of my favorite skills introduced in this unit to manage your money and become financially stable were to Determine what you want to accomplish, preparing a budget, tracking expenses, categorizing expenses and making a spending budget.

Determining what you want to accomplish should be the first thing you need to think about when you look at your finances. Doesn't matter if you are in really good financial standings or If you are dirt poor at the moment. You should always goals you want to accomplish, short term goals like buying the car of your dreams, buying more stocks or long term goals such as buying a house and paying off extensive debt are some good examples. One should prioritize these goals and establish a budget to help you achieve these goals.

Once you have determined you short and log term financial goals I would suggest preparing a budget next. A budget will only help you in endless amounts of ways any way you look at it. A budget will help you answer many questions like where your money is really going and where your money really needs to go. This way you will be able to plan for the future and accomplish those short and long term financial goals you have to achieve for your financial freedom. It will give you a chance to check yourself when it comes to your finances and will help you a lot.

Once you have established your budget you need to keep yourself in check so you don't go off track. A good way t do so i tracking your expenses at all times. Most people tend to follow their credit and ATM card expenses but don't really track cash expenses. We spend money on little things everyday constantly that eventually add up to be a lot. You really have to look at your day and question if you really need to overpay for a soda or candy everyday at convenience stores and stuff like that. Because trust me, those cash expenses will add up fast.

The instructor also talks about categorizing your expenses in this unit. This seems like a really good way to also keep yourself in check and really focus on the things that you actually need to spend money one. These expense are fixed, flexible and periodic. Periodic expenses would be things that you spend money on because they are things that you actually need from time to time. Flexible expenses are things you spend money on that you really don't need at the moment. Then fixed expenses are monthly bills that you pay for every month, something that you definitely need to do to live life in this world. Once you figure out where category your expenses fall into you will be able to prioritize them and acquire better

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