HUNTSVILLE, Ala — For a college student extra money can come in handy, but a shopping spree may not be the best way to spend it. " First of all, they got to look at their own situation," Chris Markowski, founder of Markowski Investments and radio personality behind the weekly nationally syndicated Watchdog on Wall Street program shares. " The key for students, again, is you got to be responsible stewards of your money when you're younger."
A refund check is a remaining sum of money released to a college student after their tuition and fees have been covered at an institution. This money can be the remaining funding left over from a scholarship, financial aid, or personal payment. Hence, only those with funding that exceeds the total price will receive a refund check when the time comes around. Students can receive a refund check for each semester they are enrolled at a university or college.
Three ways to spend your refund:
1. Pay off debt
If you take out student loans, you must repay them once you have graduated or been out of school for at least six months. Once this happens, interest is accrued to the loans. Taking the money, you receive from the refund check and paying your loans back will give you a head start on lowering your debt and decreasing the time you would have to pay on them. "You may want to use some of that money to pay down maybe if you have got student loans, hopefully you don't," Markowski shares. "You know, credit card debit. I see that unfortunately; kids have got way too much high interest credit card debt that they just need to pay down."
2. It's never a bad idea to save.
"You may want to also keep some money in cash and cash equivalents just in case," Markowski shares. "it's kind of like a rainy-day fund in case something bad happens or you know, your car breaks down or whatever it may be. You need to have that aside as well, because, again, you don't want to have to dip into credit cards."
3. it also maybe a good time to start investing
"If you're looking to invest and, you know, like start investing in the stock market, you've got to understand your timeframes and you got to say, okay, listen, I'm not planning on touching this money for, you know, 3 to 5 years at least," Markowski shares. "If you're going to need to have access and utilize this cash, then you obviously have to look at something very, very different, something that is not as risk intensive because, again, things can happen.
No matter what the amount, starting young can have big benefits. " You do the right things when you're younger it's going to just open up more doors for you throughout life and your ability to take on and take advantage of various different opportunities as they present themselves to you," Markowski shares.