Make the best of student life financially

Students are not left out of personal finance lessons and tips. Being a university student is in fact one of the most magical times of life. You’re figuring out who you are while meeting exciting new people. You’re building the foundation that will launch you into the adult career of your dreams. Chances are you’re also constantly broke. Fun, school supplies, personal growth, and cool life experiences often require some amount of money in your pocket. I want to encourage you not to resign yourself to an ordinary student life as you go back to school. Here are some ideas of how we made money as students that you too can try.

Buy low, sell high: This is the basic principle of trading. If you’ve got an eye for your peers’ value, figure out how to sell it to them. Temitope Olagbegi will tell you her story of selling clothes and yogurt while she was a student at the University of Lagos. Today, she points to that experience as her Launchpad for a successful entrepreneurial career. Whether it’s clothes, toiletries, perfume oils, or groceries, you just might have what your peers are looking for. It is good to look out for certain companies who seek student ambassadors to sell their products on campus.

Put your writing and editing skills to use: I found an internship during the school year with a magazine. By the holidays, I was being paid per word. I made more money in three months than I’d made all year in some of my other jobs. Yes, I worked like a crazy person, but it was all worth it for the life I was able to enjoy when school was back in session.

Digital marketing is power: Did you know that simply being Gen Z makes you more tech savvy than the average human? To you, it’s no big deal creating a website, managing a social media page, or writing a bit of code here and there. To the average human, social media is an enigma, websites are for wizzes, and they will need someone to show them the way. That’s right; you could set up a service in school to help companies connect with the young audience they so desperately seek.

Write code; Get paid: It’s simple. If you can write just a bit of code, you’ve set yourself up to make some serious cash during and after school. The gig economy is a thing, and students, more than anyone, are in a prime spot. Whether in your local business community, or online, there are always people and firms needing to write some kind of software. If you’ve even got a few friends, you could get together to offer these services. Even if you don’t write code, you might be the business and marketing mind that organizes the gigs for your coding friends.

Make hair: This is especially true if you’re a student in Europe or North America. If you know how to give haircuts, braids, weaves, and the whole menu of black hair, you’re in great shape to make bank! In the US, braiding can be as much as $600. The average black haircut costs $20. You do the math. You could be completely self-sufficient before you know it! But even if you live in a black country, where hair costs aren’t as high, you can still rely on the regularity of your customers to create a delicious income stream.

A word of caution concerning your time management: It is such a crucial soft skill that you carry throughout your life and career that it is important to master it from now. As you strive to get better with your profitable skills, ensure that it doesn’t distract you from your education. Have you crushed student brokenness in some other ways? Please share your story with me! Just email [email protected]

Kanu holds an MBA from Stanford University, a master’s in Journalism from NYU and a bachelor’s in Engineering from Calvin College. His career has included time at Konga, Amazon, The United Nations, Esquire, CNN, and Black Enterprise magazine. Armed with a strong conviction that you can live a great life no matter how much money you have, JR founded REACH Technologies, www.reach.africa. His company builds software to help young people and companies to manage and grow their money.