With the job market in its current state, it is vital that you are as prepared as possible for your future by the time that you graduate. By following these tips, you can be financially prepared for life when Oswego is no longer your home.

1. Always have a savings account. You may feel like all your money gets spent every weekend (I wonder why…), but the next time that you get that check that’s too big to spend at Alley Cat, put it in your savings account. This will build up over time and pay huge dividends when you need to make a payment.

2. Start an IRA in preparation for retirement. Woof. Retirement. You’ll be thanking yourself in 50 years (we hope) when you realize that your IRA is twice as large as it would have been because you opened it up at 20 and not 40.

3. Extra funds? Open a Certificate of Deposit (better know as a CD). It’s like a savings account, but you collect interest over time and the longer you keep it in there, the better off you are.

4. Extra-Extra funds? Read a couple books about investing and open up a mock-portfolio, play around with some stocks and eventually you’ll be ready to do some real investing.

For more information on how to be ahead of the curve and actually make money in this tough economy consider checking out Money Smart provided by Oswego State’s SIFE. We can help you, help yourself.