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blog Personal Finance | 7min Read

The Ultimate Guide to Budgeting and Savings for Students

Published on March 31, 2022

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The Ultimate Guide to Budgeting and Savings for Students

Let’s start with a simple activity. Define the picture you see when you hear the word ‘budgeting’. 

Do you see a person sitting on a table with tons of bills like grocery, household, electricity, wifi & mobile plans, etc., taking a note of the money spent and making a list of it on the paper? Probably then, categorizing it further according to the different expenses categories and calculating the funds available in hand? Is this what you imagined? 

Well, it’s not you, it’s everyone! 

This same picture flashes in front of everyone on hearing ‘budget’, and that’s the very reason why people refrain from making one for themselves. But, is budgeting that boring? Does it give a hard time to everyone? Let’s dig in and find out. 

Do I ‘Really’ Need to Budget

Budgeting does sound like the cornerstone of your personal financial literacy, but the real question is “Do I need to budget?” Before jumping on to what is budgeting and how to create one for yourself, you have to understand your personal finances and see if a budget helps you in the process. 

You need to create a budget right away in the following scenarios:

  1. You are overspending every month on things like food, online shopping, electronic accessories, OTT platform subscriptions, etc., and need extra money other than your monthly allowances.
  2. You have set financial goals to achieve, but are having a hard time keeping up with them. You are finding it difficult to achieve them and skip them midway.
  3. You want to save more money every month and keep aside a certain portion for yourself, but are clueless on how to assign money for the expenses. 
  4. You are looking to have true financial freedom and gain complete control over your personal finances to be prepared for the future.   

If you find yourself in any of these scenarios, then it’s high time that you understand budgeting is an excellent tool for your financial future and would make your financial journey much easier.  

How to Create a Budget and Why is it so Important?

A classic financial budget helps you to spot where your money is going, and where you are spending more than you would have realized. So, it’s advisable to brainstorm for some time, understand your finances well before you pen it down. There’s a four-step approach you need to follow :

Step-1: Gather your allowances/income, and expenses in one place 

When you’re starting to create a plan, you first need to get a hold of all your money. This might be the first time you have set out to plan your money. For starters, you can record all the financial activities, expenses for a month or two. Eventually, you can make a note of the major expenditures that are expected in the upcoming months. 

Step-2: Create a budget worksheet/plan

Before Step 1, you had negligible visibility on the inflow and outflow of your money. By now, you know a bit about it.

Now, it’s time to get even more precise. 

Noting down your expenses and mentioning your plan on a budget worksheet is a good practice. You can simply check every month where you’re spending and how much are you left with at the end of the month. You can also make use of budgeting apps to view everything right on your smartphone.  

You can make use of some of the following budget templates when you sit down to create one: 

Microsoft My College Budget Worksheet: A budgeting template that is flexible even for high school students to track their expenses and manage personal finances. 

Microsoft Savings Estimator: A savings template that helps you set financial goals and visualizes savings plan details for effortless goal tracking.   

Microsoft College Expense Estimator: An easy-to-use expense estimator template that calculates the cost of living and other activities while in school. 

P.S. Although these templates are more oriented towards college students, you can get hands-on experience on them while in school, and utilize them in the best possible way while in college.

Step-3: Calculate each set of figures

Next, let’s get a holistic idea of your income, expenditure, and savings to be able to decide the future plan. Add your total income/monthly allowance, subtract your monthly expenses from it, and you get a picture of your financial health. Pat your back, if this amount is a good number, as you can use that money for savings or invest it in the right place. And if your expense tab is larger than your income, then don’t press the panic button just yet, but do make some changes in your spending plan.

Step-4: Analyze your expenses

Drill down on your expenses and categorize them into fixed expenses like school supplies, transport, phone/internet bills and variable expenses like fast food, trips with friends, clothing, etc. Look at the opportunities where you can end up saving money for yourself.

How do I Stick to a Budget?

The plan’s ready, now let’s have a look at the implementation part and how to stick to your budget till the end. Keeping a budget is not easy. You can have a bad month, feel discouraged and just give up on it. This is undoubtedly the hardest part of the process, and if you ask the adults in your house about it – you’ll end up getting the same answer. While you can get some useful advice from them too, we would like to add a few more points to that – 

  1. Don’t set an unrealistic budget or a process that you can’t handle currently and is way out of your scope. Take all financial and external factors into consideration before you begin. Because once you go even a little out of the line, you would eventually feel like giving up the entire plan.  
  2. Think twice before making any purchases, ask yourself if it is the need of the hour, and do I need to buy it right away? This would help you to steer clear of large amounts that negatively affect your budget.
  3. Apprehend the concept of ‘budgeting to zero’, i.e. while creating a budget, your income (allowance) minus expenses should be zero. So, when you budget to zero, all the buffer or extra money altogether contributes to your savings and allows you to take complete control over personal finances. You can make use of investment plans for students to put this extra money to the right use. 

The BRE Exclusive Budgeting and Saving Tips

Tip #1: Avoid Unnecessary Purchases

Think twice before you buy things like electronic gadgets, OTT platform subscriptions, expensive food, etc. Ask yourself if the purchase is necessary and would it benefit you? Most times, such big purchases mess up your budget making it difficult to get back on track again. Make use of student discounts wherever and whenever possible to save up some money. 

Tip #2: Don’t spend more than what you have in hand

Overspending is certainly not a good habit, and you would end up in debt soon if you continue doing so. If you can’t afford something or don’t have enough money, put it off for next time. 

Tip #3: Try a No-Spend Challenge

You can take up this challenge and go on a spending freeze or spend fast for a week, fortnight, or even more. The idea is not to spend money on any unnecessary things and limit yourself to spending very little. To make it more fun you can challenge your friends, and family and see who saved the most in the end. 

Tip #4: Connect your spending with your Income/Allowance

You get your monthly/weekly allowances from parents, and similarly, you can also make use of financial crafts to make some money of your own. An important aspect of budgeting is to reframe the way you look at money. So, before spending on anything, take a moment to reflect upon the efforts that you or your parents have undergone to earn that amount of money. 

Tip #5: Treat yourself to achieving your goals

Remember, budgeting or personal finances isn’t just about discipline, but it’s an approach to set and reach your financial goals. So, carry along with the fun, reward yourself when you stick to your budget every month, and don’t look at it as a chore, but a fun activity.  

Wrapping Up

With this, now you should have a good idea of how to create a budget for yourself, stick to it, and improve your financial literacy. Budgeting is all about making a plan to bring your financial life on track and putting in efforts to stay committed to it. So, no more worrying about where your money went at the end of the month because now you have your plan to gain financial freedom right in school.

That’s all folks! But if you have any more doubts related to budgeting, savings, or want to explore more about finance, Big Red Education is right here to lend you a helping hand. Connect with us now. 

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blog Trending | 3min Read

How To Improve Your Writing Skills In 4 Simple Ways

Published on March 28, 2022

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How To Improve Your Writing Skills In 4 Simple Ways

The internet is exploding with blogs and articles and videos on tips and tricks on how to improve your writing skills. But more often than not, most of these sources talk about incorporating rigid practices like writing in an active voice, polishing your grammar and so on. 

And while this definitely is a useful approach, we believe that just as every person is unique, so is every writer. No two writers perceive their world in the exact same way, no two writers can write in the same hard-and-fast manner and no two writers can improve their writing skills in the same rigid fashion. Each writer has a unique perspective waiting to be penned down; and their goal as a writer is to figure out just what is their best way to do so – the best word choices, syntax, tone, mood and more. 

So in today’s article, we won’t tell you the usual run-down of pointers to polish your grammar, structure and so on. What we will give you, are 4 ways that can help you discover that unique, budding writer within yourself, and improve your writing skills to your maximum potential.

1. Shut your Mind

Set a timer for 4-5 minutes. Bring out your pen & paper or your laptop. And then, without thinking, just start writing non-stop until your alarm goes off. 

This “writing without thinking” is a very common exercise amongst those dealing with a writer’s block. But the other wonderful aspect of this is that it lays your inner writer bare. Devoid of external expectations, formatting and imposed structure, you write based purely on your instinct. Once you are done writing, you are free to explore not only your broad ideas, but also your sense as a writer, and continue to develop it further!

2. Keep a Journal

The first droplet of morning dew settling on the cold winter glass. The muted sounds of traffic through the closed car window. The amalgamating scents of the sweet and the salty at your neighborhood grocery store. Who knows what will inspire whom?

In “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” Walt Whitman describes a boy’s poetic awakening upon seeing a pair of birds nesting on the beach. And it is essential to pay heed when these mini “poetic awakenings” happen to you, because they reveal what uniquely inspires you. And having a pocket journal during these times is a great way to note down these thoughts, words, and phrases. Full-fledged stories and poems will eventually come, but it all starts with that one inspiration – and there is no better writing than inspired writing!

3. Use your Voice

Across history, writing has never been confined to paper. Shakespeare’s writings were performed. Homer’s writings were sung out loud. And even today, there are few better ways to test the feel and flow of your piece than a loud reading. Do you want your writing to be conversational? Do you want it to be claustrophobic? Do you want it to be something else?

Ernst Hemingway’s flow reads as generally casual and conversational. James Joyce’s flow, often lacking any punctuation, reads as a stream of unending thoughts. Does the flow of your writing match with its content? Read it out loud to figure out and make the changes as and when you hear them happening.

4. Reading… with a twist.

Don’t like the works of Leo Tolstoy? Have a different interpretation of Emily Dickinson? Great! Hold on to that thought! All our lives, we are made to read in a dictatorial manner. We are told this author is the best, this poem has this fixed meaning, and so on.

But we envision a kind of reading where, first and foremost, you stay true to your inner writer. Read to understand yourself. Which lines stand out for you? Which paragraphs blow your mind away? Which don’t? Reading in this critical manner is a solid way to understand your own writerly tendencies, interests and passions, and use them as a stepping stone for polishing your own unique work.

P.S. 

Interested in learning to read and write poetry in a free-flowing, interdisciplinary and non-rigid manner? Check out our one of a kind poetry workshop – Poetry in America –  in association with Arizona State University, which also confers you a college credit while in High School! You will learn a plethora of skills in our poetry classes. Apply today.

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blog Internship | 4min Read

7 Ways to Get An Internship in High School: A How-To Guide

Published on March 25, 2022

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7 Ways to Get An Internship in High School: A How-To Guide

While internships are usually seen as something exclusive to college students, taking on internships in high school has tons of benefits. Not only do they make your college applications stand out, they also give you a headstart in your career by providing you with hands-on industry knowledge and networking opportunities at an early age.

So far, high school internships haven’t been too big of a fad in India. However, that is rapidly starting to change, and you should hop on the bandwagon before the rest of the crowd!

Wondering how to get an internship in high school? Here are 7 ways you can find and land on your dream internship:

1. Family and Relatives

Before you start hunting far and beyond, why not take a look at the contacts you already have? Your family is not only the people you love, but also the first level of networking you receive right when you are born! And chances are, someone from your family or relatives may already have connections with organizations looking for young and fresh perspectives. And if so, they may just be willing to have you on!

2. Guidance Counselor

If your school has a guidance counselor, your second course of action should definitely be to reach out to them. Guidance counselors have an abundance of resources available with them, and they are trained in gauging your aptitude and interests, and subsequently recommending the best resources and courses of actions you can pursue.

3. Cold Mailing

The tried and tested method. If you have organizations in your mind that you really want to be a part of, why not drop them a good (c)old email? For maximum success, you must follow proper email etiquette, convince them of your candidature in limited space, and assume a formal tone. Attaching a detailed resume and portfolio can only improve your chances!

While wait times can be uncertain with this method, the advantage of cold mailing is that you get to aim for the organization as well as the position that you desire. Most organizations will already have a contact email provided on their website. But If you wish to be even more thorough, you can create a Linkedin account, and look for the profiles of the CEO or HR management of your preferred organization. Chances are, they would have provided their own email addresses for you to write to! 

4. Summer Programs that offer Guaranteed Internships

Summer Programs for high school students are usually sessions to train students in theoretical aspects of certain subjects. However, some programs take it a step further and offer guaranteed internships for their students to apply their theoretical learnings in a practical and high-stakes environment.

Our Ivy Early Entrepreneur program, offered in collaboration with mentors who are Ivy League alumni and industry leaders, trains high school students for a week in crucial aspects of entrepreneurship – like design thinking, market research and fundraising. This is followed by a guaranteed 2-3 month internship with our mentors and partner firms, where students get invaluable experience as budding entrepreneurs.

5. Online Platforms

There are various websites on the internet that compile or offer internships and programmes for high school students. Websites like Internshala compile internship opportunities from a wide range of employees. Other websites such as Henry Harvin conduct training and internships targeted at high schoolers, and offer certification for the same.

6. Research Institutes

While these are not “internships” in the strictest sense of the word, several leading research institutes hold rigorous programmes where high school students get practical experience in the application of science and mathematics fields. A few such programmes include PROMYS (Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists) to be held in Ashoka University from 2023.

Our Program, Build Robots That Matter (in collaboration with Makers’ Asylum) teaches students to build robots that align with the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals. Provided with a free toolkit, students develop their inner maker while being conscious of the environment.

7. NGO Organizations

Several Non-Governmental Organizations across India offer internship and volunteer opportunities to high school students. While these options may not always be paid, they allow you to give back to the marginalized sections of society, and let you connect with people from many diverse communities. 

A few NGOs where you can try your hand include Smile Foundation and Child Rights & You(CRY), which benefit lakhs of children; HelpAge India, which helps senior citizens; and CARE India, which focuses on ending poverty and social injustice.

Conclusion

So while high school internships are a relatively new idea in India, there are more than a few reasons to try landing one for yourself. The effort you put in now is sure to pay dividends later, in college as well as your career!

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blog Leadership | 5min Read

10 Ways You Can Develop Leadership Skills as a Teen

Published on March 24, 2022

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10 Ways You Can Develop Leadership Skills as a Teen

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders – that is, only if they procrastinate! Young Leaders are not just the leaders of tomorrow – they can be the leaders of today as well. They have the passion, energy and commitment to make a difference. If the youth arise and act, they have the strength and dynamism to lead a huge transformation.

So how does one develop leadership skills and how early does the process start?

Although leadership comes naturally, it is never a bad idea to seek guidance. The right direction at the right time can make all the difference. Ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. The best part about starting young is that you have the advantage of age and the benefit of fresh thoughts to guide your path.

Here are 10 ways by which you can develop leadership skills as a teen –

1. Be a Voice, Not an Echo

If your actions inspire others to dream more, do more and become more, you are a leader. Great leaders do not set out to be a leader, they set out to make a difference. They do not tell you what to do – they show you how it is done. Learn to lead from the front and lead by example. Think different. Be a voice that stands out.

2. Boost Your Confidence

A bird sitting on a branch is never afraid of the branch breaking because its trust is not on the branch, but on its own wings. Trust your abilities and sharpen your skills. Never be afraid of any situation. If you are capable, no challenge can limit your success. 

3. Persist with Persistence

People have great plans for success, but rarely do they have a plan for handling failure. As a leader, it is invariable to face success and failure. By bracing yourself for disappointments, you can be better prepared to handle loss and march towards success. Success is not final, neither is failure fatal. It is the courage to keep pushing on that counts. 

4. Decide and abide!

It is imperative to hone your decision-making abilities. Too many choices tend to leave a person bamboozled. When the pressure of the decision rests on you, it is but natural to feel a bit overwhelmed. It is good to challenge yourself with situations. By doing so, you can weigh the pros and cons and explore the facets of the problem. This allows you to practice making informed decisions right from an early age. 

Role-playing different outcomes of a fictional scenario is an exercise that involves analysis and the decision-making process. It lets you experience how choices affect your decision-making ability.

5. Communicate

Practice confident communication. Clarity of thought results in effective communication. Effective communicators are usually great at rallying around a team. They get more work done with fewer words. Speak clearly and weigh your words. To improve your communication skills, you can proactively engage in confidence-building exercises like maintaining an assertive communications record, a daily log of assertive and effective communications you made on that day. 

6. Enrol in a Leadership Development Program

A Leadership Development Program provides you with opportunities to participate in activities and workshops. It helps you learn from challenges and works at identifying your strengths and weaknesses. A good leadership development program provides you with real-world tasks that teach you evaluation, planning, strategies, work allocations and analysing results. It also gives you exposure and networks that are an invaluable advantage.

7. Find a Mentor

As a teen, you are capable of far more than you, or those around you, give you credit for. A mentor will help you discover your true potential and your capability of becoming a leader. A mentor is someone who has been down the road before and thus knows the way. They are always there to guide you, motivate you, encourage you, correct you, criticise you and cheer for you when you achieve the results. A good mentor is an invaluable asset.    

8. Read Read Read

The benefits of reading are innumerable. Reading broadens the mind, stimulates thoughts and has a direct impact upon actions. As a teen leader, it is a great idea to invest in knowledge and learning. Intellectual progress is connected to success. Books like “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, “Leadership & Self-Deception”, “The Making of a Leader” etc. are worth investing your time on.

9. Explore Your Limits

To push beyond boundaries you must first be aware of where the boundaries are. As a teen, you have the advantage of time and infinite energy. You can test your limits and discover your strengths. At the same time, you can also work at improving upon your shortcomings. Explore your limits, it is the key to expanding them. 

10. Observe. Listen. Process. Implement

If you want to be heard, your first step is to listen. Observing and listening to others will offer you different perspectives. It gives you multiple takes to deal with situations. By gathering inputs, evaluating options, and implementing the most suitable solution you can always come out as a winner. 

The path to leadership and success is long. The sooner you embark on the journey, the quicker you will reach the destination. Start young. Do something different. The dynamism of youth is a great catalyst for change. You have the potential to rock the world.

Unleash The Leader In You with YLC

Youth Lead the Change is a leadership development program created by professors of the Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, and the Harvard School of education, and held by Harvard students. Held for students in grades 8 – 12, the program aims at empowering students and unlocking their leadership capabilities as they develop tangible solutions to global problems. Over the 7 day course, the students work in a group to understand a global issue and develop a social change project to address it. Through this program, students learn about core leadership skills such as collaboration, public speaking, time management, and self-knowledge. 

The Harvard trainers also hold one-on-one sessions with students who continue to serve as mentors after the program. On finishing the program, there is an opportunity to complete mentorship for an entire year, to implement their project. Presented by The Leadership Institute at Harvard College (LIHC), this Harvard student organization aims to provide and promote leadership development opportunities across the world.

 

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blog Leadership | 3min Read

7 Steps To Become A Successful Young Leader

Published on March 3, 2022

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7 Steps To Become A Successful Young Leader

Leadership is a journey and not a destination. A leader is always evolving and is open to new ideas and new ways of doing things by being open to different perspectives. A successful leader challenges stereotypes and grows from the opportunities.

The 7 Steps to Become a Successful Young Leader

The importance of leadership cannot be stressed enough. Leadership starts young. A good leader is focused, curious and always eager to learn. There are many steps to climb in the journey of becoming a good leader, but the 7 important steps to becoming a successful Young Leader are –

1. Pursue your Passion

Work should not seem like work. It is only when you believe in something 100% will you be able to convince others about your dream and lead them successfully. Set sails for the thing you love the most and turn your passion into your work. By starting young, you have the advantage of charting your own course.

2. Observe

Listening and observing others is a great way to learn about people and work. Different people have different ways of getting things done. A successful leader observes, understands and decides upon the best course of action having evaluated all possibilities and by taking everybody into confidence.

3. Lead by Example

A Leader leads by example. Right from being punctual, to respecting others, to taking responsibility for actions, a successful leader should set an example to everyone and lead from the forefront. Be the kind of leader you would follow yourself. When you lead by example, you inspire your team to emulate your good traits. Your habits organically trickle down to your team and it improves the work culture and raises the overall efficiency of the organization.

4. Stay Organized

Clear, concise and precise – a successful leader stays organized in thoughts and actions. From the workspace to the decisions made, everything must reflect clarity. When clarity is lacking, everything quickly descends into chaos. Finding the right space for files and utilities on the desk, organizing resource inventories, assigning the right instructions to the right people, everything requires clear organization and execution.

5. Accept Mistakes and Learn from them

Mistakes are bound to occur owing to age and inexperience, but accepting the mistake and learning from it is the trait of a successful leader. A good leader never makes the same mistake twice. 

6. Identify Strengths & Work on the Weaknesses

Successful leaders are well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of not only themselves but also of their team. They are great at delegating and identifying the best person for the job.

7. Evolve

Mistakes are bound to occur owing to age and inexperience, but accepting the mistake and learning from it is the trait of a successful leader. A good leader never makes the same mistake twice. 

Hone your leadership skills

A leadership development program can go a long way in nurturing and developing leadership skills. A leadership development program offers a great opportunity to indulge with qualified professionals who can help you define a purpose and educate you to reach your full potential. A good education consultant or counselor can tap into your potential and push you in the right direction to be a successful leader.

Unleash The Leader In You with Harvard YLC

Harvard Youth Lead the Change is a leadership development program created by professors of the Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, and the Harvard School of education, and held by Harvard students. Held for students in grades 8 – 12, the program aims at empowering students and unlocking their leadership capabilities as they develop tangible solutions to global problems. Over the 7 day course, the students work in a group to understand a global issue and develop a social change project to address it. Through this program, students learn about core leadership skills such as collaboration, public speaking, time management, and self-knowledge. 

The Harvard trainers also hold one-on-one sessions with students who continue to serve as mentors after the program. On finishing the program, there is an opportunity to complete mentorship for an entire year, to implement their project. Presented by The Leadership Institute at Harvard College (LIHC), this Harvard student organization aims to provide and promote leadership development opportunities across the world.

 

 

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