How to Make Money While Studying Abroad – Moving abroad for studies is exciting at first look of it, but with big opportunities come big responsibilities. You are moving abroad to gain new experiences, facing the challenges and handling the responsibilities is one such experience, down the adventure lane.
When you are planning to move aboard the first thing to be taken into consideration is finance.
- Do you have enough funds to afford the tuition and living expenses abroad?
- Will your family back home, be able to manage the finances in your absence?
- Will you be able to find sources to fund yourself during your stay abroad?
In the course of answering these questions, you have two approaches to it.
- Managing money while studying abroad
- Making money while studying abroad
Irrespective of how much stash cash you have, or how much money you earn, if you are unable to manage your money well and live within budget while you are studying abroad, it is going to be hard to sustain yourself.
Here Are a Few Things to Do, to Manage Your Money While Studying Abroad
Get a local bank account
This should be your first step to manage finance as an international student. It is not viable to keep using your home country’s bank account, so explore different banks and their accounts to find the one that benefits you the most as a student, with lesser costs and charges.
This will come in handy when you start working part-time along side your studies.
Budget it all
Based on the amount of money you have, budget out every expense. Plan at the beginning of every month or week as to how much you want to spend on transportation, food, rent, shopping etc.
Planning gives you a signal if you overspend so you can have your expenses in check.
Always have a little emergency fund kept aside for emergencies.
Take advantage of your student status
Avail your student card as soon as possible because there are exclusive student discounts on many things like shops, restaurants, movie tickets, travel tickets, electronic gadgets etc.
There are a number of mobile applications like ‘Student Beans’ where you can become a part of student loyalty programs get your discount codes to shop from various brands
Get smart in planning
Studying abroad is an expensive option, but by planning your budget well you can save a lot.
Get a shared accommodation instead of getting individual stays so that you can share the rent, household bills, food expenses and even the chores. You never know, you may even find a good friend for life!
Purchase from community stores, use public transportation, use a library instead of buying books, shop during discount sales.
Explore your cooking skills
Step one to becoming a millionaire is to avoid eating out! And when you’re on a tight budget it is also the step one to avoid going broke.
There are less expensive options to eat out, yet try to order in or dine out as rarely as possible and cook along with your roommates, if you don’t have much time, cook in large quantities and refrigerate it so that you can heat it as and when you need it.
Use credit only when necessary
It is very tempting to spend on things that you think you need, but you actually don’t. Adjust you allowances and explore alternative options when you want to exceed the allowance you have set for any particular purpose.
Plan and spend within the means, avoid swiping your credit card as it accumulates interest and you might get stuck in a loop of paying more to your expenses.
Make use of Mobile applications
No matter where you are there are several applications that make your life easy.
While studying abroad, use these apps for different purposes like exploring the city using public transport and mechanical bikes instead of hiring cabs, find the best deals for shopping and eating out, find a shared accommodation and much more, that will help you stay within the budget while still having fun.
While these are a few ways to manage your finances and make ends meet with in your budget, the best way to go beyond that budget, and spend guilt-free is to make some extra money.
Here Are a Few Tips to Make Money While Studying as an International Student
Check you visa permit
Generally, the student visa permits a student to work part-time for a maximum of 20 hours per week, there may be constraints on where you work.
However, if you are in a course that requires you to take up a job as a mandatory part of your academic credit, then you may work full-time. Be sure to check your eligibility to work while applying for visa and your course.
Part-time jobs
This is the most common option for international students studying abroad, to make some extra cash.
Students mostly work in different roles within the campus as administrative or technical support, research assistants, librarian, etc. while a few of them work outside the campus as well in industries like hospitality – hotels and restaurants, Retail – outlets in malls and tutoring where you can get certified and share their knowledge.
Freelancing
This is an unpopular way of earning money while studying abroad. If you are skilled at anything like copywriting, designing, editing that you can do remotely then this can come in handy to make money.
This might take some time to generate revenue but if you have been doing it since a while, it is not hard to continue doing it when you’re studying abroad. There are many platforms like upwork and freelancer where you can get clients.
Virtual assistants
With the raise in remote jobs and office-less businesses, the requirement for virtual assistants are increasing.
Virtual assistants, as the name suggests, assist clients on administrative, creative or technical aspects of their work. This comes as a win-win for both parties in getting a work done and making some money.
Internships and co-ops
These are the jobs that align with your academics. Credits are assigned for your internship project or co-ops job.
Internship is a short term job that could be a paid roles, generally taken up during the summer breaks, while co-ops are long term that may last for 3 months to 12 months where you take up a paid full time job, along side your academics.
Earning money while studying abroad may come with several constraints in today’s job market, but managing the money is in your capacity. Earning money needs a skill but managing one’s personal finance is a skill in itself.
Have your expenses planned in advance, try not to breach the budget, always try to find best alternatives. Managing you finances doesn’t mean being stingy but being smart in getting the max value out of every penny spent.
Keep learning new skills, because they come in handy when you least expect. Develop a high value skill that can make you some money, it will at the least help you sustain until you crack some bigger shells, especially when you try making money while studying abroad.
The job market might be competitive, make the right choices from the beginning, choose that course that need you to take up internships and co-ops to get academic credits because these roles add up to your work experience unlike just any other job.
Stay wise with money. No matter how much you make, you must know to keep it.
