Budgets & Financial Wellness

Budgeting & Financial Wellness

Budgeting for Graduate School 

When you build your graduate school budget for Teachers College, you will need the answers to two important questions:

  1. How much money will you have for the term or academic year? Include the money you already have in savings, the income you earn from a job, or funds you receive in the form of financial aid.
  2. How much money will you need to spend during this term or academic year? Include expenses that are direct charges such as tuition, as well as indirect charges, such as transportation costs or personal expenses.

If the money you expect to have for the term or academic year will not cover your expenses, then you will need to figure out a way to pay for the leftover expenses. If you plan to borrow money, think about strategies to minimize your future debt. When you create your budget, your goal should be to borrow only the money you need to pay for the expenses that you cannot afford.   

Budgeting Resources

The Office of Federal Student Aid has created a series of web-based budgeting resources that include educational pages about:

The federal loan simulator can give you a clearer picture of what you can expect your future loan payments to be. In addition, you can explore repayment options.

Do you find the idea of gross versus net pay confusing? Want to calculate how much your paycheck will be after taxes? The take-home paycheck calculator is a web-based tool that you can use to calculate estimates of your net (or "take home") pay.

Mint is a web-based financial platform that analyzes your bank activity and categorizes your spending categories, which can help you get your budget under control. Even if you do not open a Mint account, you can benefit from their library of free budgeting resources.

Financial Wellness Resources

To help you gain financial literacy skills, our Office of Financial Aid has put together a list of resources to help you learn about key terms, financial strategies, and financial services you may consider as a graduate student. Whether you are new to budgeting, wondering about loan options, or prepping for repayment, these tools can expand your understanding so you can take control of your finances. Our goal is for you to become an informed consumer.

You may visit the Federal Student Aid website to explore information about avoiding scams and a financial checklist.

Have questions about how federal financial aid works, after reviewing our website? Studentaid.gov/ hosts quick-reference pages, glossaries, and helpful contact information. 

In addition, you can use the site to access your complete federal loan history and find contact information for your loan servicers. Look for the interactive Financial Awareness Counseling module, that provides tools and information to help you make good choices when managing your finances.

You can review a list of programs that will help to repay your federal student loans in return for your service commitment on the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation website.

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