LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — If you’re just heading off to college, it’s about to get even more expensive for upcoming and current students.
8 News Now spoke with Jennifer Finetti a financial expert with Scholarship Owl about what to do, to shore up your financial plans ahead of the fall semester.
“They are spending more on gas to get to and from college, to get to and from their job, and they are spending more money on food,” she said.
If your college-bound student is going *away to college, then they’re also dealing with more expensive airfare as well.
They may not be able to come home to visit as often, a situation that can affect them emotionally as well as financially because of inflation across the board.
Whatever money anyone has saved for college isn’t worth as much, as it was just a few months ago due to stock market losses.
“Families that thought they had enough to cover, and 401k have gone in value, stocks, and other investments. Families who may have been thinking they were going to pull money out, now that money is not going to go as far, so it’s really affected students and their families, much more than maybe the average person has considered,” Finetti said.
Now is the time for college students to work, and get as many hours as possible at a full-time job.
Even get a side hustle – consider driving for Uber or Lyft, grocery delivery, you can choose your hours.
And here’s something else to put on your radar, even though January through March is the busiest time to apply for scholarships, they are available.
“Scholarship providers offer scholarships year round, go ahead and apply and hopefully make some money through scholarships, you didn’t make miss the boat, secure one or two before your tuition bill is due in August,” she said.
There is currently $800,000 worth of national scholarships on the Scholarship Owl platform.