How to Make, Save, and Invest Money in College

1. If You Don’t Spend Money, You Don’t Need To Make Money

So you think you need to make money, but if you don’t spend money, it turns out you also don’t need to make money.

That is one of the most important things I will tell you.

2. Opt-Out of the School’s Health Insurance

UIUC automatically charges a student health insurance fee, but if you already have equivalent insurance, you can waive the university’s plan and drop the fee. By submitting proof of other coverage before the deadline each semester, you avoid paying for UIUC insurance.

This simple bureaucratic step can save you hundreds of dollars a semester. Many domestic students use family insurance to opt out, and even some international students find alternate, cheaper plans. Just remember to file the waiver each academic year during the enrollment/waiver period

Learn more about the process here and opt-out here.

3. Optimize Your Meal Plan

If you need to save money, don’t get the most expensive meal plans.

Instead, get the cheapest option.

You need to remember there’s way too much food all over campus. Plus, every time you enter the dining hall, you can get as much food as you want.

By the way, did you forget takeout boxes exist?

Lastly, get to know the dining hall staff because if you ever run out of meals, a friend will never let you be hungry.

4. Become a Part-Time Student In Your Final Semester

In your final semester or in special cases, consider taking an underload (below 12 credit hours). UIUC tuition and some fees scale down for part-time students.

For 6–11 credit hours, tuition is reduced from the full-time rate, and for fewer than 6 hours, it’s even less.

Students save thousands of dollars by taking a part-time semester. If you only need a couple of classes to graduate, dropping to part-time can be a huge money-saver

Do note that part-time status can affect financial aid, visa status (for international students), and access to certain facilities, so clear it with Financial Aid and ISSS if applicable.

Many seniors take advantage of this every year.

If you’re not a senior right now and this is something you might want to explore, set up a calendar reminder to remind you.

5. How to Make Money During College?

It depends on you and your skills. But here are some ideas:

• Learn useful skills. People pay you in proportion to how much money you’ll make them. Make people a lot of money, and you will make a lot of money.
• Scholarships. Get as many as you can. A small $10,000 scholarship will “make you” more money than what you’ll make with most part-time college jobs. Even a $1,000 scholarship for an essay contest is worth it.
• Become a Resident Advisor. It’s the best job if you want housing and food covered. The only other thing to pay would be tuition, but no other need.
• Get an internship. It’ll depend on the industry, but for example, certain internships in three months pay you more than what most people in the country earn in a year.
• Make money online.
• If you have a parking spot in your house or apartment, sell it.
• Sell all the things you don’t need.
• Create a business during college. Learn from Carmen Rossi.

For more thoughts and ideas, see _Jobs_chapter.

6. Don’t Spend Money on Dumb Shit

I never spent money in a bar.

If you do the math, you will probably spend over $10,000 going out over four years. I’d rather have the freedom to do what I want, travel, invest, and not fund a four-year PhD in hangovers and overpriced drinks.

Your seemingly small habits will drain your wallet.For example, buying a $4 coffee every weekday adds up to about $4,160 over four years, whereas brewing your own might cost only around $520 in total. Similarly, grabbing takeout meals (say $15 each, 3 times a week) could total $9,360 in four years, while cooking at home could cost perhaps $2,500 for the same meals. Even a modest weekly bar night ($20 cover/drinks) can run about $4,160 in 4 years, compared to chilling with BYOB beers from the store (~$1,040). If you like eating out, drinking coffee, or drinking alcohol, you don’t need to ban yourself. Do it if you want, but know there are alternatives, and if you’re not careful, these little splurges will snowball into thousands of dollars.

Can we focus on eating out? A big expenditure is eating out. I never ate out. I know people brag about going to every single restaurant on campus. But if you don’t eat out, suddenly, you’ll find yourself with a lot more money.

When you don’t spend money, not only do you not need to make money, but you also buy back the time you would have spent in a job to pay back for your expenses.

7. The Pull-Out Method

As long as you’re a student and have a student I.D. card, you must use the pull-out method.

Wherever you go before you purchase anything, remember to pull-out your student I.D. card. This alone will give you 10-20% almost anywhere.

My favorite place to get student discounts is the movie theater. Many companies have student programs that offer reduced prices if you ask.

The best reason to become a student is to get student discounts. Yes, it’s true.

Note: No need to stress about other “pull-out” strategies. Some essentials are free and unlimited for students.

8. The Don’t Buy On-Campus Method

On-campus stores inflate prices by 15–40%.

If you need to get groceries, go to supermarkets away from campus. They’ll be cheaper.

A student did a study where he compared the prices for 30 days between the on-campus Walgreens store on Green Street and the Walgreens on Neil Street. The off-campus Walgreens was significantly cheaper.

9. Don’t Lose Your I.D.

If you lose it, kindly ask the I.D. office staff if you can please get it for free.

I did it, and it worked.

10. Get a Credit Card

You may not get approved at first.

If that happens, start with a secured credit card, then upgrade to a regular credit card once you’re approved.

11. Buy Everything with a Credit Card

By using a credit card as your debit card, you accomplish a few things:

• Get cash rewards
• Build a credit score
• Get stronger fraud protection if your card is lost or stolen

To avoid paying interest, make sure to pay off the full balance by the due date.

12. How The American Money System Works

Getting a credit card is often the first step in a longer process in the U.S., where you build your credit score.

A credit score is how the American money system works, and you need to understand it, if you want to get ahead in this country, or at the very least, avoid being punished by it.

A credit score is a number lenders use to estimate how likely you are to pay back money you borrow. They want to know if you’ll be a good sport with money that is not yours. Your credit score is like your financial GPA, except this one really will matter after graduation.

A higher score means lenders see you as lower risk and are more willing to approve you for loans, credit cards, or other stuff at better interest rates.

If you have a bad credit score or no credit history, it can be harder to get loans or credit at good rates.

If you have a good credit score, lenders are more willing to give you money with better interest terms, which is good because you’ll get and save more money. So if you ever want to buy a car or a house, it makes the process easier and cheaper.

Credit scores are how the money system works.

You can have millions of dollars in the bank, but if you have bad credit (or no credit history, which is the same thing as bad credit), lenders will still look at your credit score and history to decide whether to lend you more money and how much interest you’ll pay.

So a good credit score helps you access more money at better terms for whatever it is you want to do, and that’s always a good thing. Of course, having available credit doesn’t mean you need to use it all. And that’s what we’ll talk about in the next point.

13. How Does the Credit System Work?

Your credit score is a number (usually between 300 and 850) that lenders use to decide how likely you are to pay them back if they lend you money.

But how is that number computed? And who decides that number?

Your credit score is made up of a combination of factors:

Those five factors add up to 100%, and that’s how your credit score is calculated.

But who actually tracks all of this?

Three credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion collect and store your credit history. Each one keeps its own version of your credit report, which is basically a record of how you use credit.

By the way, stop for a second, and check your credit report for free online right now:

• Go to AnnualCreditReport.com (official government‑authorized site).
• Enter your name, address, Social Security number, and birthdate to verify who you are.
• Request your free report.

Read your credit report, understand it, and look for ways to improve it.

14. But Why Should You Care About Your Credit? Why Is It Important?

Because this will affect your everyday life and the opportunities you will get.

You may think you’re young, and you’ll tell yourself you’ll learn this later, but you must learn this now, especially if you’re young.

Let’s start simple. You graduate from college, and you’re looking for a place to live. You fill out a few applications, and you wait to hear back.

What do you think landlords check? Your credit score. If you have a bad credit score, that means you’re less likely to get approved. Put yourself in the landlord’s shoes. Imagine you have two options. Mark, who has an excellent credit score, pays his credit cards on time, and seems reliable. Or Peter, who has no credit score and you have no idea if he will reliably pay rent.

You will be more likely to choose Mark. It’s as simple as that.

Before you get a place to live, you probably get a job. Some employers, especially for roles involving money or sensitive responsibility, may run background checks that include credit-report information where legally allowed.

Those are two of the more common reasons, and while they’re important, they’re not why I necessarily care.

Why do I personally care about credit?

It gives me more options!

If I have a good credit score, I can have more access to money, which can enable me to start businesses, buy real estate, and do other clever things with money.

15. Compound Interest

Let’s keep this simple.

Many students don’t realize how much money disappears into nothing. Bars, drinks, random nights out. You tell yourself it’s “not that much.”

So let’s be conservative.

Say you spend $50 a week. Not $200. Not $300. Just $50.

That’s one night out. Or a few drinks.

Now multiply:

What if instead of spending that $50 every week, you invested it?

Let’s assume:

• You invest $50 every week
• For 4 years
• At an average 10% annual return (roughly the long-term stock market average, not a guarantee)

You would invest a total of $10,400.

But because of compounding, after four years, you’d have about $13,500.

That’s already an extra $3,000+ for doing literally nothing except not spending money you didn’t need to spend.

But you don’t stop being alive at graduation. If you leave that money alone and don’t touch it:

Just time.

If you like going out, go out. This isn’t about becoming a monk or guilt-tripping yourself every time you spend $20. You can go out and invest. They’re not opposites.

Because money you don’t spend, or money you invest early, turns into something more valuable than cash.

It turns into time.

Time you don’t have to sell later.

Time you don’t have to trade away in a job you don’t care about just to keep up with habits you never questioned.

Time you get back to think, to travel, to follow your interests, to rest, to say no.

Most people think money buys freedom. It doesn’t. Time does.

And every unnecessary expense is future-you signing up for extra hours of work without realizing it.

Compound interest works on money. It also compounds habits, knowledge, skills, and relationships. Choose wisely.

16. Where to Invest?

Do your own research. None of this is financial advice. Nothing in this book is.

If you want a simple option, learn why broad, low-cost index funds are popular. They spread your risk across many companies instead of making your future depend on one stock you happen to like.

Keep it simple, leave it alone, and go live your life.

That’s it.

17. Roth IRA

A Roth IRA is a retirement account that is great for young people because you contribute money you’ve already paid tax on (like your campus job paycheck). Whatever that money earns grows tax‑free, and you don’t pay taxes on it when you withdraw it after age 59½.

A Roth IRA also has flexibility. You can withdraw your original contributions (not earnings) anytime, penalty-free, if you ever need cash.

18. Don’t Gamble

Ignore day-trading, gambling, and other "get-rich-quick" schemes.

It’s all a distraction. Use your mind for better things.

19. The Best Investment You’ll Make

The best investment is still you.

Saving, earning, building credit, and investing are all important, but they're secondary to investing your time and energy into becoming the best version of yourself, gaining skills, creating meaningful relationships, and seeking knowledge.

Invest in projects you care about (like a company you start), relationships that matter to you, and skills that compound over a lifetime. The returns on those investments will always outperform everything else.

20. FAQ

Q: Should I pay my student loans early?

Start by understanding your loan’s interest rate and how inflation affects its real cost.

If the interest is high, paying it can be a good decision. If the interest is low, making minimum payments can make sense, since inflation reduces the real cost over time and your cash can be used for saving or investing.

Run the numbers by loan type and interest rate before paying early.

Q: Should I buy a house while I’m a student?

A: At UIUC and other large universities, the majority of students move off-campus after the first year.

You’ll likely rent an apartment or house with roommates, which is usually cheaper than the dorms. But some students consider buying a condo or house near campus instead of renting.

Why pay rent to someone else when you could pay a mortgage and build equity?

In some cases, this can work out.

Buying a small place and renting out rooms to your friends can potentially cover the mortgage. In fact, sometimes owning a place can end up more affordable over 4 years than paying rent.

However, it’s a commitment. The price can go down. Stuff breaks. Selling costs money. And being “the landlord” can be annoying even if your tenants are your friends (sometimes especially if they’re your friends).

Here’s how I’d think about it in a place like Champaign-Urbana:

• Say a place costs around $200,000.
• Closing costs + down payment might be ~5% (call it $10,000). Sometimes less if you qualify for low-down-payment programs, but don’t assume you will.
• Mortgage could be around $1,200/month (depends on the rate, taxes, insurance, etc.)
• Meanwhile, students are already paying $600–$900/month to rent a room anyway.

So if you buy a 3-bedroom and charge roommates rent, your mortgage could be mostly covered.

A good rule: assume at least two months with an empty house and at least one big repair while you’re there.

Pros

• You might live more cheaply (sometimes basically free).
• You learn how real estate actually works (you’ll learn fast).
• You sell and walk away with money, or keep it and have others cover the house payment (and maybe a little extra each month).

Cons

• You have to find roommates and manage them
• Repairs, surprises, property taxes, and other random adult responsibilities.
• The house could drop in value and you could lose money.
• Selling is a process and costs money

“Will this tie me down to Champaign?”

Maybe.

If the market is bad, if you can’t find a buyer, or if you’re forced to sell fast, you may not be able to sell right away or at the price you want.

You don’t have to sell just because you graduate. If the numbers work, the place could be covering its own costs, or even making money, while you’re no longer living there. In that case, selling is a choice, not a requirement.

After graduation, you have options:

• Keep it and hire a property manager while it runs in the background.
• Sell it and move on
• Or keep it for grad school / a few more years if life takes you that way.

The bigger constraint isn’t “being a student.” The constraint is whether you have:

• a decent credit profile and steady income,
• two years of income/tax history
• cash for upfront costs,
• and the temperament to handle it.

Note: a common version of this is parents buying or co-buying the place. If they’re already planning to pay your rent anyway, that money can instead go toward a mortgage. You live there, rent rooms to other students, and the rent helps offset the cost. Done right, this can save (and potentially make) your family money over four years.

Most students rent, and that’s completely fine. Renting buys flexibility. But don’t assume buying is “for later” just because you’re young.

You’re not obligated to live the default student life, and you can make different decisions if they make sense for you.

Use the appendixThe back of the book is part of the book.

The appendix keeps the examples, guides, profiles, and source trails close. The book gives them sequence, context, and a way to turn curiosity into action.

Buy the book All appendices