POWER MONEY WALK

"No walk begins as a power walk. The power comes from gaining knowledge and sustaining practice over time."

Anyone familiar with this popular form of exercise knows that you just can’t start walking fast and intensely.  It takes conditioning the body to build up to that level, in order to be safe and effective. 

This is true with managing your money and time. The conditioning comes when you make good money choices and that build consistency over time. Sometimes, though, you learn by trial and error - no one is perfect. Yet you can minimize the effects of your errors if you will 1) accept that there will be ups and downs on your money journey, 2) examine your money-habits for making changes, and 3) adopt a good decision-making process.

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Financial Decisions happen all of the time - are you conscious and informed?

There are major life decisions and smaller ones. Both can impact your financial journey in some way. College students have their own unique ones. Many people unconciously make financial decisions and let their emotions kick into gear--"Oh, what a beautiful sofa and I can defer payment for a year" (without considering where I might be with my money in a year); "Wow, I can rent this for just $29.50 a week" (without thinking that's for five years); "Hey, this laptop is on sale for 25% off - what a deal" (without comparing prices elsewhere).

Having a conscious decision-making process to follow helps to save you from making poor financial decisions. You will make a few bad ones in your life but the fewer the better. Click on the linked S.A.F.E. Chart to see examples of two student life events.

Make a S.A.F.E. Chart to guide you through an informed decision-making process:

1. State your college life event in clear specific language - For example, "Should I live in a residential facility on campus or rent an apartment or at home?; Should I take a course in the summers?
 
2. Accentuate - List the Options and write what is good about each (the "pro's").
 
3. Flip - For each listed option, write what is not so good about each (the "con's").
 
4. Explore - Write down questions about what more you need to know, like when considering going to college in the summer session, "What can I take in the summer term and how many hours?"

- Fill in the columns and rows. When you can't think of any more to list, pare down the options to 2 or no more than 3. You can do this by rating how much you like each option or wait and rate by costs.

- Look through a financial lense and estimate costs of each option. Think about the pro's and con's.

The Student Expense Estimator is a very handy tool for this process.

Example of Financial Costs Comparisons

List Options	Estimate Costs	Can I afford this option?
Live on campus	$2000 - $3000 for a fall semester	This will be tough to afford.
Live at home and commute	$1000 toward car expenses or other transportation	Yes, I can afford this.

- Rate the options again based upon a scale of "I hate it" to "I love it". For example above, ask if "living on campus will be tough but do I really feel good about it enough to sacrifice some for the experience?" OR " I can afford to commute to school but will I feel badly about missing out on some of the college life?"

• It is very important to weigh-in your emotions. If you absolutely hate an option and it's the least expensive, you may not be happy following that option. Balancing the heart and the head is a constant struggle but nonetheless necessary for making good financial decisions.

- Discuss with a trusted friend or family member, and sleep on it.

- Decide and put your decision on "GO".

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I see that the power lies in the decision-making process and not in how fast I can make that decision. I'll slow down, get informed and make it a S.A.F.E. one.