Written by Louis Nguyen | July 12, 2024
I, too, was one of those angsty kids that thought I was serving and eating and slaying so hard when I said “Why the heck am I solving geometry problems and writing about communism right now? I could be learning something USEFULl!! Like TAXES!!” The bar was fire, the mic was dropped, and Congress moved a little (I think). While the sentiment resonates in the minds of every single generation of students, my, as with most everybody’s, advocacy for the immediate applicability of education stopped at the yapping-level.
To my surprise, USC absorbed this generational yappery and took action. This is the fifth year that the university has hosted its annual Financial Literacy Conference. The week-long series of events contains lectures and panels on incredibly useful topics such as salary negotiation, taxes, investments, budgeting, etc – all the things that angsty high-school me was dreaming of mastering instead of solfege and photosynthesis. Although I could not make it to every single event in the conference, here are some amazing tips I learned from the ones that I attended:
- Budgeting
Budgeting is all about tracking all the money that’s coming into your bank account and comparing it to all the money that’s coming out of your bank account. In other words, how does your income compare to your expenses? And how does this compare to your financial goals? Do you have room to give yourself a little treat at the end of the month? Or are you inching into broke territory and need to reassess? I learned two super useful tips for managing budgets.
Firstly, separate your expenses into: monthly bills (car payment, rent, utilities, etc.), necessities (food, transportation, tuition, etc.), and entertainment (streaming services, meals out, clothes, etc.). Which expenses goes into which category is up to you, but this will be incredibly important to figure out if certain spending habits are justifiable considering your income and your goals. Speaking of, the second useful tip is that you should be writing down your financial goals. You should have a specific amount of money (or a specific thing) that you’re saving for, and you should set a deadline for you to reach that goal. Making this a habit is crucial to set yourself up for long term success.
- Filing Taxes
The singular most important advice that was given for this topic was “Do NOT get your tax advice on TikTok.” The speaker repeated this five times in forty five minutes (I counted). But it’s true! It’s so easy to think that by watching a couple videos and going on FreeTaxUSA would suffice. But you’re literally losing money this way. To maximize your return, either educate yourself through competent sources (like irs.com), or consult with a tax professional because there might be things that you didn’t know you qualified for that you should file. Also, if you’re an international student, definitely look into specific tax treaties between the US and your country. And if you qualify, definitely look into VITA, a student-run organization that provides free tax assistance to families and students with moderate incomes. Their volunteers are IRS-certified and are trained by accounting professionals. They file tax returns for free for eligible clients. You can learn more about them on their website or on Facebook.
- Negotiating Salaries
While making pay transparency the norm in this economy is undoubtedly an uphill battle, through the speech on this topic, I learned that there are ways to advocate for yourself so that you make sure you’re compensated fairly. Most importantly, you need to figure out your market rate, which is the going rate the employment market is willing to offer for your role depending on your location, education, years of experience, industry, and the size of the company. Knowing this will aid you greatly with initiating the salary conversation both when receiving a job offer and when renegotiating down the line.
There are many ways to determine market rate. One of which is any salary database (Indeed, Glassdoor, BLV.gov, Salary.com, etc.), Whether it’s your co-workers or relevant LinkedIn connections, you can also ask your network to see what they make, and what relevant factors they have that determine their pay. If there is a discrepancy, you can bring your findings to management and discuss ways that the whole team could be compensated fairly. Remember, if you work in the private sector, it is your legal right to discuss your pay! You should initiate these conversations with your co-workers tastefully though – off of company time and property (like at a coffee shop on your lunch break)! For more detailed tips, visit this website.
While I’m not covering things like investing or managing credit scores here (because I was busy when they had the talks about these sadly…), you should definitely be paying attention to those too! Especially credit scores!! Get a credit card and play along with the silly games they want you to play to keep your scores up!! That’ll help you greatly when it comes time for big life moments like renting an apartment, buying a house, or getting married. I’ll definitely be back next year at the Financial Literacy Conference taking notes on the aforementioned silly games… Hope to see you there!