Who am I? What is one of my Greatest Financial Acheivements?

I was one of those college students who moved to California to attend USC. So, that pretty much left me on my own. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for my school, but thanks to a partial scholarship and loans I was able to join the Trojan Family.
As with most college students, financial issues existed during school and peaked right after graduation.

This may seem “lame”, but my biggest financial success was not landing my job, but taking care of my school related finances. By not getting into that ‘financial hole’, graduating from school was now affordable (no more financial aid or loans to cover my rent and other bills). So how do you keep yourself afloat when rent, bills, and car payment-like school loans are about to fill up your mailbox?

Check out your loan consolidation options. And be sure to ask about deferment options too. This gives you a window of 6 months (or more) before you have to start making payments on your loans. If you still need to lower you monthly payments, some loans allow you to stretch the payment schedule so that you pay less each month (but for more months).

This should be a heads up for anyone heading into graduation to avoid some of those post graduation financial disasters (easily achieved if not prepared).

Planning helped me during my first year on the job because that is the time (in my career as a banker) when I am earning the least and have the most expenses (catch-up bills, initial deposits, etc). By managing my school loans I was able to survive that first year until I landed my first bonus… and I’m still making those affordable payments.

Now getting my current banking job wasn’t easy either. It all depends on how much you are willing to work to get what you want… but that’s a whole other blog itself.