Managing Money Can Be Hard, Especially in College. How Do You Do It with Josh Tonge - 122

[00:00:00] Housing Food, Retirement and Your Social Life, How Do You Manage All Of That While You're In College? Join me as I talk to one of my longtime friends, Josh, about how he does just that.

[00:00:11] Welcome to Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, Where We Go Beyond The Dollars and Sets. Let's Get Talking! Today, On Money Talk with Skyler Fleming, We're talking to one of my friends that I've known the longest.

[00:00:21] Josh Tonge is joining me on today's episode, and I'm super excited for this one. Josh and I have known each other since the fourth grade. Which at the time of this recording goes back to just over 17 years ago.

[00:00:31] He and I have known each other for a very long time. So when Josh agreed to come on this podcast, I got really excited for this conversation, and it's a fun one. We have a great conversation, and it's my first ever in-person podcast recording.

[00:00:42] So there's a little bit of audio issues right at the beginning, but they get ironed out and make sure you stick around to enjoy this entire great conversation. Josh and I sit down to talk about and go over his views around in college,

[00:00:53] money, learning about money and other financial challenges that young adults face. I think you're going to find a lot of value in today's episode, so make sure you stick around. We're going to talk specifically about managing a job while you're in college.

[00:01:04] What Josh learned about money, how we learned about money, how college impacts his long-term perspectives, especially when it comes to retirement, and much, much more. You're in for a great money talk today, so stay tuned and subscribe for more.

[00:01:16] Also, if you know someone who you think could be a great guest on this podcast, please let me know or if you want to come on yourself. Please send me an email.

[00:01:23] I'd be happy to have anyone on the show so we can talk about how you handle money. The money talking points for today's episode are, how can you make sure to budget fun into your life and two? What's to doubt to you and who can you share with?

[00:01:35] With the money talking points in mind, let's get right into today's episode. Hello and welcome to today's interview on Money Talk with Skylar Fleming. As you can see, especially if you're watching the video version, this is a little bit of a different format.

[00:01:55] Josh is here with me in person. I've never done an in-person interview, so I'm a little excited for this one. This will be fun and this really kicks off my whole initiative to talk to more regular everyday people

[00:02:05] about their finances, learn how they learn about money, how they handle their money, how they manage their money, and how they do what they want to do with their money. So I'm excited for this conversation with Josh.

[00:02:14] Josh and I have known each other for too many years to count, so this should be a good conversation. I'm excited for this one. Josh, do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody? Yeah, and like Skylar said, we go way back.

[00:02:25] I'm Josh. I'm currently finishing up at BYU, and so I'm doing the counting internship right now. I'm planning on going to get a masters in accounting and become a CPA. And I've... that's kind of a little bit about me right now.

[00:02:43] So we're kind of talking to Josh pre-financial expert. So Josh is the kind of person that I would have had on my podcast in like ten years once he has those experience with a CPA. So we're going to kind of get that intro level,

[00:02:54] the how he manages money through college, how he thinks about money and I'm excited for this conversation. We'll jump right into the questions. The first one here is, how have you learned about money and money management?

[00:03:05] That's a really good question because I feel like growing up like in high school we really don't learn a lot about money. And so as I started college, I kind of wanted... as interested in business, and so I took a lot of business classes.

[00:03:21] And then decided I wanted to do accounting. Along the way I was able to learn about finances, like my accounting classes, my finance classes. I also was able to work at a credit union for five years.

[00:03:35] And I learned a ton about money and how to manage it and what to do and what not to do. Like oftentimes you think credit cards bad. But I really learned on it is good to have to help build credit.

[00:03:50] So in the future if I wanted by house, I have that credit built up. Yeah, I was going to bring that up. You and I both have that shared experience through working at a credit union. We worked at the same one.

[00:04:01] Like you kind of introduced me to it. So I think that was extremely foundational for me, kind of learning what not to do. Would you say so yourself? Oh yeah. I think that's a lot of things that I've been doing.

[00:04:13] I've been doing the good and the bads where people can mess up and really have a hard time getting out of having a tough time getting out of financial situations, or I've seen it where people don't write.

[00:04:23] They have their account set up where they're having their money work for them. So you kind of learned a little bit through your recent education. I'd say how do you think growing up influenced? Do you mentioned we didn't learn about it in high school?

[00:04:35] Is there any other influences you have on money as a kid? I think a big one was my parents. They always would tell me to be smart with my money. They would teach me to, hey, maybe save a little here and there. But nothing too crazy.

[00:04:51] I think they always try to be smart with their money the best they could. So that's kind of where I experience from. So it seems like everything went before high school and after high school. But how do you manage your expenses while you're in college?

[00:05:04] How do you stay on top of that? Because there's a lot of expenses I'm sure. Oh yeah, there's a ton. Honestly when I started college it was really tough. I felt like I was working but the bills were greater.

[00:05:15] As I would really sat down and looked at okay this is what I these are my bills. Here's what I owe. So what I would do is basically sit down and be like every paycheck.

[00:05:26] I would say okay I have to pay this this and this and then I would put a little side to and save and then even matching expenses like food. Food is a big expense.

[00:05:40] It is so I put a budget on my food be like okay I have 100 bucks. You got to figure out how to eat within the hundred dollars. Yeah. Can be hard. So you mentioned it was hard at first as it gets it's a good easier.

[00:05:53] Do you have to really set those criteria? It does get easier as long as you like stick to your what your budget is. I think something does help is like in career wise as you start to get pay raises.

[00:06:06] It gets easier to there's not as much stress to cover the cost but it's you have to be smart and every step of the way. Yeah, I mean that makes sense. You mentioned that you worked a credit in your for the last five years.

[00:06:19] I assume that's why you were in college. How do you balance that? Oh great question. So I would so why I was going to go on a college. So most of my time I worked around 30 hours and had at least 12 credits if not a little bit more.

[00:06:37] So it took up a lot of my time. It is just like managing money you have to manage your time. A lot of times it felt like I was only doing work and school and I didn't have enough time for a little social life.

[00:06:53] But you're not going to have they're not going to be balanced equally. You know yourself and you know what you need. So you have to balance in a way that be like, okay I need this much social time on top of that.

[00:07:06] So let me cut something out but prioritize. I felt like managing my time was it's something that is vital and Yeah, do you think it's important to manage your time as it is to manage your money? Honestly, I think it's equally as important.

[00:07:25] Yeah, because you could find yourself in a big time hole like you said you didn't feel like you had a lot of social life at some points.

[00:07:30] And that may be the same thing as you feel like you don't have enough budget to cover that food that you want. So yeah, like you you have to know what you want.

[00:07:40] For example, like if you're not getting paid super well out of a job, maybe look for a job that you get paid a little bit more and you can work a little bit less.

[00:07:51] Yeah, because then you can increase your social time but keep your pay the same because of that trade off. So I think those are definitely key elements to consider, especially while you're in college is time and money. Oh yeah awesome.

[00:08:04] So I think what I'm here in so far is you just have to be very careful, pay close attention to it and manage it. Would you say, what would you say to people who maybe you're just letting it go by the way side?

[00:08:14] They're not really paying attention to it. How do they get started I guess? Yeah, I think it's just making that goal and sitting down and say, okay, I want to start. I feel like there's times where I didn't manage it as well.

[00:08:28] And so I and I felt like that increased my stress a little bit and saw I was like, okay, I have to refocus on what I want and what I need to do. It's like managing your homework. It's like, okay, what comes next? What's most important.

[00:08:44] What can I put my effort into and what maybe was something I can just slide by a little bit? Yeah, you gotta be willing to make those trade-offs.

[00:08:55] I think a great thing to consider and something that really I guess plays everybody coming to college right now is student loans. And I kind of want to hear your take on how student loans play a role in your college decisions and your finances.

[00:09:07] What do you think about student loans? Yeah, a great question. So if you can avoid student loans, great. If not all of us can, I know some people have graduated with that free and congratulations to you.

[00:09:21] Honestly, I honestly have some student loans kind of my take on it was I only took out loans for tuition. And then of those loans, I only took that took out subsidized. So they only accrue interest until like after you graduate or other circumstances.

[00:09:43] And so that was my thing. That's why I worked a little bit more that way I didn't have to take out as many student loans out. Any money I earned a wall-working, I would pay my books, my housing, any other expenses.

[00:09:58] I had that way I didn't have to take out any loans to live. It was solely based on tuition. And so you really have to consider that consider the cost of tuition if you're going to have to take out a ton of student debt.

[00:10:14] Maybe consider going somewhere else or finding another way to earn money. I really like that guideline of only using student loans to pay for tuition because it kind of sets up a parameter of hey this is kind of all I got.

[00:10:28] I got to make the rest because you can really borrow up to your eyeballs if you really wanted to. They'll give you all the money you want in student loans and it's going to be expensive that as well.

[00:10:38] So I really like the idea and I think one thing I call this how important do you think it is to understand what you're getting yourself into because you mentioned subsidized loans,

[00:10:47] which are something very key and good because you do want to go for those because then you're not accruing interest while you're in school. How important do you think it is to understand what you're getting yourself into with your student loans? Oh, it's like getting into any loan.

[00:11:00] You should really put in the time and effort to know the terms and contract. So yeah, it's very important to know what you're getting into and like the terms and contracts of a loan.

[00:11:10] Any loan lets a mortgage car loan because you want to know the interest how much you've been to pay overall and then you want to have a plan to basically pay that back as quick as possible.

[00:11:23] My plan is to once I'm done fully with school just to pour some money into my student loans. I always get some advice if you're not sure. Pock-sci my answer. Yeah, Pock-sci. Yeah, Pock-sci.

[00:11:37] Your financial aid office may have a person that can answer questions, especially the ones like what subsidized versus unsubsidized. There are people on campus who can answer that for you right there. So look for your resources and take advantage of those.

[00:11:49] How do you think it would make a difference if you didn't know about those loans? Like can you imagine finding yourself in a situation where you didn't set the parameters of only taking out for tuition? What would it how would that stress impact your life?

[00:12:02] Oh, I think you're to stress me out immensely just like taking out all these loans and just not realizing the consequences that it can take years to pay off a certain debt.

[00:12:14] But I'm grateful that I've had teachers to kind of teach me I've had older siblings go to college and then I've kind of learned from them on what to do

[00:12:23] or what to prove on as far as loans go and they've been really smart about their loans and getting those paid back.

[00:12:32] So I think you're speaking a little bit to the power of having people around you to either ask questions to like bounce ideas off of what do you think your value is in having like maybe your circle of friends that you asked these tough questions to.

[00:12:44] Oh, I think it's fantastic. There's power and number and really it's like sometimes you just have to talk it out with a person to really understand the situation.

[00:12:57] And they may not be answering your question, you may be answering it yourself but really to have a support on a people trying to better themselves is fantastic.

[00:13:09] I love the idea of building a stronger community talking about money more that's the whole reason behind this podcast is to get people talking about money more. So find your group of friends and go talk about it.

[00:13:19] I want to move a little bit into how do you think about your bigger financial picture while you're in college.

[00:13:25] So we have someone listening who's maybe just about to start college or they're in the they're in the thick of it, but they're also like I hear people talking about retirement and things like that.

[00:13:33] Do you juggle those so specifically how do you even think about your savings and long term goals while you're in college? Yeah, we're right. Question I think as in terms of savings you should at least save a little of each paycheck.

[00:13:48] Whether you start out with five ten dollars and grow it. It's fantastic to have the savings especially an emergency fund. I've really gotten me to through college where I've had times where I've need I've earned a little bit more so I've put that aside and saved up.

[00:14:05] And then all of a sudden some expenses come that I was in expecting so I was able to use that to kind of smooth out what I needed to pay.

[00:14:15] And as far as retirement goes or like long term it's really hard in college to really focus on that.

[00:14:22] I've become aware in like some of my finance classes, I'm like there's a lot more I could be doing but something one day I was sitting in there and we're talking kind of personal finance.

[00:14:33] I mean a corporate finance class and it was just kind of some self reflection questions and one of them was like talking about retirement and some other things that you. Don't really think of right now and then I was like I don't have retirement.

[00:14:49] I was like oh wait a second I have a 401k with my employer and so they do a match and so at the beginning I was like yeah I'll do it so what up to the percentage that they've matched that's how much I put in.

[00:15:03] I really suggest that for anybody because I mean not even thinking about it I've earned $7,000.

[00:15:10] Yes I've earned some retirement and I was like hey I have my foot in the door and I think most people will find and I've been trumpeting this honestly the past couple weeks on my podcast is because every single time the 401k comes up the company match comes up without a doubt every single person mentions that they're getting their company matching that it's important to do.

[00:15:31] And I think you'll find that as time goes on those dollars even though small and that maybe what you fully wanted to do are going to be the most valuable dollars because of time and compound interest and things like that.

[00:15:41] So if you heard it here again for like the fifth episode in a row get your company match it's very important it's provided you some peace of mind it sounds like. Yeah just like I said it gave me an assurity that I am starting my retirement.

[00:15:56] Yeah and just getting started is really all you need to do because like you said it's hard you're not you're not gonna end every single month's budget with an extra $400 to put in your IRA that's just not realistic and that's okay.

[00:16:09] But that little bit that you're doing that's coming straight out of your paychecks so you're not noticing it so your lifestyle's already adjusted to the lesser amount you're receiving. You're gonna be just fine and then you're gonna be like wow I'm not completely screwed in their retirement area.

[00:16:22] Yeah that can be really helpful so make sure you get your company match to everybody listening if you don't offer a 401k or if you don't have a 401k at work.

[00:16:30] Put a little bit into your IRA it can be really hard I'm sure but any little bit that you get in there's going to be monumental with the power compound interest. Do you feel like there's been anything that's been particularly helpful with managing your money in college?

[00:16:45] Is there something you'd recommend or say do I know you talked about making sure I don't know you're looking at it and being aware of it talking to other people what would you recommend for the person listening that's in the thick of it with college.

[00:16:57] Yeah that's a great question. I would say definitely like have those days where you sit down plan your your expenses for the next couple weeks for the next month but also don't be too hard on yourself.

[00:17:11] Like if one one time you're not as great with your money just be like alright I got it next paycheck.

[00:17:18] You also want to make sure you're having some fun put some fun money aside and be like okay this week I want to treat myself a little bit nicer or maybe plan for a week and outing.

[00:17:34] Make sure you're also having some fun money in there because I mean it's crucial as a college person.

[00:17:40] Yeah yeah what a great takeaway because I know as you were as you were talking about it you mentioned that between college and your job you didn't have as much room for your social life and I was like well that's why we never see you anymore.

[00:17:51] But while that's realistic and okay you also maybe need to budget in some of that social time as well on top of the social money for lack of a better term that can be important on both avenues towards helping you.

[00:18:03] Is there anything you wish you would have learned sooner when that comes to money is there something you're doing now that you're like if I could have learned that 10 years ago if someone would have just taught me 10 years earlier that would have been super nice.

[00:18:14] Yeah I think something maybe that is really important is because I've got to mentioned it the compounding interest idea I feel like I didn't fully understand it and so I feel like I probably would have tried to save a little bit more a little bit sooner and.

[00:18:32] Really get to know the basics I mean we all kind of know it but really like do a deep dive it never hurts to really grab a book listen to a podcast. I'm just anything that will continue to help you in your knowledge of money.

[00:18:50] Yeah so locked down those foundational things early I think that's a big one especially where we aren't learning about it in high school.

[00:18:55] That's why we need to be talking about it so we can learn at least shortly after high school and get the money we need to get growing sooner.

[00:19:01] Thank you Josh for coming on my podcast. This has been a fun conversation we got to go through some interesting topics.

[00:19:07] I learned some more about your money situation and your money thinking and thought process and I'm sure it's going to be educational for people to have a listen to and yeah I'm really excited to continue having more guests on that aren't your normal everyday financial experts so to speak.

[00:19:22] So be sure to subscribe and check out that and if you have anyone that you think would be great on the podcast or if you want to come on even feel free but Josh any last words anything you'd share with anyone else or thank you so much for coming on.

[00:19:34] I know thank you Skyler this is these were some great questions that really made me reflect and I'm glad you have this podcast to help people.

[00:19:43] Thank you so much to Josh for coming on my podcast wasn't that a fun episode I know I had a ton of fun recording it and getting to sit down and chat about money with Josh.

[00:20:00] But what can you take away from today's episode? Well this episode can have a lot of impact on you especially when it comes to your money. If you're in college Josh offered some great tips he offered some advice around how he worked as job.

[00:20:10] He mentioned that he only worked 30 hours a week which was something that made it a little bit more manageable for him.

[00:20:15] He also made sure to mention that it's important that there's still some time for fun both financially and time wise, which I'm going to talk about a little bit more in the money talking points coming up.

[00:20:24] But sometimes there is just a sacrifice whether it's socially or financially. That's just something that comes with college and I think you can hear that through Josh's conversation about how sometimes he had to give up one thing or another whether it was a little bit of

[00:20:36] Extracettings for his retirement or maybe he wasn't able to be as socially active as you wanted to because he was stuck between homework and work and paying for his entire college experience.

[00:20:46] One thing that I really took away is it's okay to not be pouring money into your retirement. If you're in college, it's very, very unlikely that you're going to be hitting a 25 30% savings rate. Just don't expect that from yourself and that's okay.

[00:20:57] I like what Josh mentioned about getting the employer match and like I said in the interview, you've heard it about five episodes in a row. Get your employer match so I won't keep beating a dead horse but make sure you get your employer match.

[00:21:08] Another thing that I like that Josh mentioned is using your loans only for tuition. I think that's really an eye-opening way to look at it. That way you make sure you're only using your loans for paying for school specifically because

[00:21:20] Your school and the financial aid office and the government's going to give you loans for whatever you want. You can say I need $20,000 worth of loans when you only need five and you're going to figure out some way to get it. They're going to give it to you.

[00:21:32] So make sure you're using your loans wisely, taking care of what their interest rate is, make sure you're sticking the subsidized loans so that that interest is covered by the government.

[00:21:40] And there's a lot of great tips in today's interview about managing your loans and what to consider. Another thing that was important is make sure you know who you're taking your advice from

[00:21:48] And make sure you're asking people questions because that's going to be extremely important so that you can learn what to do because there's so many different options out there.

[00:21:55] If you're not in college, well who can you share this with that is in college and then have a money talk about it?

[00:21:59] Maybe the loans for tuition only really stood out to you and you think that'd be a great thing for your cousin, niece or nephew or brother or sister.

[00:22:06] Well, share this episode with them and have a money talk and then you can get on board with talking about money more so that we all do better with money together.

[00:22:13] It's been a few years since I was in college, so hearing this firsthand from Josh was extremely helpful for me to keep my ideas fresh.

[00:22:20] So this can be something for you to pass on to someone else, have a fun money talk about it and I guarantee someone will learn something maybe you'll come out with an idea that you never considered because of someone who's currently in college and their direct experience.

[00:22:31] But let's talk about the money talking points next. The first money talking point is how do you make sure to budget fun into your life? I want to look at this from both of financial and social perspective.

[00:22:50] Socially it's important to make sure you take that time, especially while you're in college. Make sure you plan your time out appropriately like Josh said. It's important to manage your time as it is to manage your finances.

[00:23:00] So make sure you're socially planning out that time so that you can be involved with other people being involved in the local community or some club or something like that because that's very valuable while you're in college.

[00:23:10] That you're not just locked away only working on homework and only working your job. But financially, this is where it's important to have some sort of a savings bucket. I have some sort of a fun bucket or a fun thinking fund.

[00:23:20] I've talked about thinking funds a lot and there's several episodes in the past where I've talked about them in great detail.

[00:23:25] But that can be something that's extremely helpful for you while you're in college to figure out how you're going to actually have some fun and how you're going to find the money in order to have that fund. So make sure you're planning for it both financially and time-wise.

[00:23:37] That's where it's really most important. The second money talking point is what stood out to you and who can you share it with? For me it was that using loans only for tuition is a great thing.

[00:23:46] Sacrifices sometimes necessary and sometimes it's okay to not be putting a ton of money into your retirement. And it's really going to be okay. Make sure you're getting your employer match if that's an option maybe put a little bit in there.

[00:23:57] But if you're not able to poor money into your retirement, that's okay. And I can think of a couple people right off the top of my head that I could share this with because it can be an eye-opening conversation to start more money talks.

[00:24:07] One thing that I also took away is make sure you go work at a credit union. I'm just joking, but Josh and I both worked at a credit union. We loved it. We learned a ton there.

[00:24:15] So if you can maybe as an entry level job, especially when you're going to college, work at some sort of financial institution, you're going to see the good. You're going to see the bad and it's going to teach you a lot about personal finances.

[00:24:25] But let's wrap up today's episode next. Thank you so much to Josh for coming on today's episode. Josh isn't a financial professional or anything yet. Like he mentioned, he's studying to become a CPA and get his master's degree in accounting.

[00:24:46] But this begins the new era for money talk with Skyther Fleming. Where I'm talking to regular, everyday people about their personal finances. I'm going to have episodes in here where we're just sitting down learning how people learn about money.

[00:24:58] There are experiences with money, how they manage their money, how they talk about money. It's going to be great. I'm super excited, especially after this first conversation, for all the guests that I have lined up to come on and talk about their experience with personal finances.

[00:25:10] So if you know someone who has a great experience with personal finances or with money, please send them my way. I'd love to talk to them about how they learned about that, how they manage their money and it's going to make for more and more great money talks.

[00:25:20] The podcast is back and better than ever thanks to great listeners like you. So be sure to share and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and thank you for listening to Money Talk with Skyther Fleming. I'm your host Skyther Fleming. Have a great week.

[00:25:32] Thank you for listening to Money Talk with Skyther Fleming. This show is provided for informational and entertainment purposes and may not be specific to your unique situation. Please be sure to do additional research before making any financial decisions.