Significantly decrease my student debt by at least 50%

Although a significant amount of my undergraduate tuition was from my college’s financial aid, I still graduated with debt because a fraction of the fees was from institutional loans. One of my financial goals for the next year is to pay some if not all of my student debt. While I could get away with making minimum payment for a comfortably long period of time, I choose to clear my debt as soon as I am able to because I would like to eliminate the mental and financial burden of owing money.

Create a sustainable budget

Budgeting, some might say, is an art. I think it is important to carefully curate a financial pathway that will simultaneously guide your spending and redirect your surplus in ways that grow your assets. I am working on a sustainable budgeting plan that covers everything from grocery shopping to rent to leisure. This will ensure that I spend enough to live comfortably but also (and equally) save significantly. I want to have a regular budget and an emergency budget in case anything happens to avoid any potential debt scenarios. 

Building a Decent Savings Cushion

Saving money is a great way to ensure you are prepared for a rainy day. After creating a sustainable budget, I want to build a financial cushion that allows for personal spending as well as emergency situations.  Saving is great because your savings won’t be taxed and you have immediate access to the money if you need it. I hope to build a decent financial cushion for myself for both emergency and non-emergency situations.

Improve my relationship with spending

A lot of low-income people tend to have an unhealthy relationship with money from how they spend it to how they earn it. Sometimes even how they don’t spend it affects their psychological well being. 

Guilt. Regret. Shame. Impulse buying. Extreme frugality. 

While these situations may vary, it all goes down to the fact that it is a complicated relationship and needs to be addressed. I intend to speak with friends about their experiences with money, learn more about how I can spend better, invest better and still enjoy my life without any financial trauma.

Learn more- markets and society, people and spending, politics and the economy

It is almost impossible to grow financially without understanding the economic landscape of the place that you are at and, frankly, of societies beyond that. Getting general knowledge about things such as the national student loan debt, average family income & spending, consumer spending, interest calculation, how political decisions might affect your income/business gives you a better view of why things might be the way they are. 

I believe there is always something to learn about something and no one will ever be perfect on their first try. So do whatever you wish to do, with as many iterations as possible to create a financial situation that WORKS BEST FOR YOU.