There is only so much you can save, especially if you're on a slim budget. So it’s important to focus on the other side too.
Whether you're working or studying, you want to find a way to make money that complements what you're doing. Meaning that adds experience, skills and much more. See below 😉
1. For students: Scholarships, bursaries, student grants
You don’t have to be clever to get a scholarship or a bursary. In fact, institutions are having to work hard to get the attention of students, and over £150 million in scholarships in the UK go unclaimed every year. You’re much more likely to get some free money than you think!!
This is free money, and will only take a few hours of your time. Very much worth it.
Check out these articles to get as much money as you can in scholarships, bursaries and grants.
Before going straight to a minimum wage job, I would recommend trying to earn money doing something that will build you skills. This way not only are you building skills that will help you in the future, but you’re also doing something that will look good on your CV. Some examples:
You teach yourself some programming and learn to build websites which you then sell as a service
You teach English/another language/your subject to others and charge for it
You start a blog to practice your writing and marketing skills which you then sell for a service. (#me)
Thanks to the internet, this list can get pretty long!
Here are some cool articles to figure out a cool side hustle for you:
Jobs are a great way to learn a ton of different skills that you might not learn at university, especially if you have a mentor type boss which can teach you along the way.
Avoid minimum wage jobs which do not add any skills or value - not only can they be emotionally draining, but they are unfulfilling and will probably not last you long.
If you're at university, a paid internship is a great way to try a certain career and get a taste of working with others. Apprenticeships and summer jobs are also a good option.
When getting a job, you want to be looking to build 'career capital'. Here are a few things you want to be looking at:
Skills: what will you be learning, and how fast?
Connections: who will you meet and work with?
Portfolio: will this job allow you to build a portfolio for future employers/collaborators?
Income: will you be making enough to be able to save 15% of your money?
Building career capital early on not only means having skills/connections/portfolio, but also allows you to test different career paths and help you figure out what it is you enjoy doing. This gives you a better idea what is the next step you want to take - and have fun along the way! 😛
Here are some articles to help you along with that:
Awesome! Your budget is in place, you’ve lowered your mandatory expenses to the maximum and are living on something you’re comfortable with. Now you have a ton of options to optimise the income side of things.
