GRACE AIGNER: Hi everyone! I’m Grace Aigner.
MADINA ELMI: And I’m Madina Elmi from the Minnesota Daily.
AIGNER: Welcome back to another episode of In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota. As we head toward the final stretch of the semester, my bank account is still recovering from a spring break trip and I’m anxious to start my summer job.
When I entered college, like many students I started a process of becoming more financially independent. During school, I’m more aware of the money I’m spending, where I’m spending it and how I can make more. But while college can be a crash course in how to manage your money, there isn’t a guidebook on how students can deal with mental and emotional stress financial responsibilities can cause.
ELMI: I agree, as a freshman, going into college with little to no guidance on financial literacy felt daunting. In some ways it feels like we have to accept that we’re going to struggle with our money since for many students like myself this is the first time they’ve had to worry about large expenses like tuition, rent and groceries.
I think one of the biggest factors as to why money seems so unmanageable is the fear of not having enough in the future because of how we spend now.
AIGNER: On today’s episode, we’ll hear from students working hard to manage their schedules, money and personal lives, and from experts with advice on how to get better at juggling financial management.
Kara Carlson is a first-year student studying graphic design in the College of Design. She has loan payments for her tuition and pays for additional expenses for school and life on her own. Carlson said she picked up a job for the spring semester in order to afford monthly costs.
KARA CARLSON: In my fall semester, I didn’t have a job and then I realized, “OK, I definitely need one.” So then this semester I have a job, and then I started to, like, before I was just kind of like, if I had any money, I just kind of kept like on my card account.
And then I was like, “Oh, I should,” so then like this semester I started putting like a hundred dollars or like half of my paycheck into my savings just to make sure like then if I, you know, run out of money in my checkings, at least I’ll have something in my savings, especially for those subscriptions and emergency money, anything like that.
AIGNER: For her major, Carlson has to pay for a monthly subscription for Adobe software, and each semester needs to purchase materials for her classes. The subscription is $30 every month, which doesn’t sound like much, but Carlson said it can add up.
After getting a part-time job, Carlson has been battling the balancing act of taking time away from school work to make money in order to stay in school.
CARLSON: It’s kind of hard ’cause then it’s just like working for a couple hours is hard ‘cause then I like that time I could be using to do work I’m doing working instead. But I feel like it’s also kind of nice ’cause I work the closing shift. So then my supervisor lets me do some homework while I’m waiting if I don’t have any customers to like, take care of or anything like that.
So that’s nice, at least I do have some time to work on assignments during work, but still usually I end up kind of just coming back and having to do work really late instead of doing it during the day.
ELMI: Olivia Van Meekeren, a theater design and technology major, works as a restaurant host over the weekends to cover major payments like tuition. Though Van Meekeren is in some ways supported financially by their mother, they still have to carry a lot on their plate to maintain the life they live. This constant worrying impacts their mental health.
OLIVIA VAN MEEKEREN: My mom has been contributing to a college fund for me for about 20 years now. She really wanted her kid to be able to go to school and it looks like that’s gonna cover roughly half of my tuition. And it’s an incredibly fortunate situation.
And what we’re kind of doing is she will pay for spring semester and I get a full year to work and save up for fall semester tuition. I have so many safety nets if things were to go wrong, but because I need to keep working to make the money, I feel trapped in whatever job that I’m in.
And so previously when I had a really abusive boss and a bad workplace, I felt that until I could get another job, which in this market is really difficult, I felt just completely trapped and like I had to keep going in. And that was a really, really detrimental to my mental health.
AIGNER: Carlson and Van Meekeren have learned a lot about how to manage their money and afford school—like the life changes and sacrifices that are sometimes necessary.
ELMI: Expenses add up during school and they only continue to pile up after you graduate, especially for students who took out loans and now have to pay them back. Sharon Powell, a professor in the University of Minnesota Extension Service who educates on family financial resiliency, said being stressed about money can cause people to make riskier decisions with their money.
SHARON POWELL: If you are trying to make a decision, it turns out that emotions sort of get their message to your brain more quickly than rational thoughts. So if you’re feeling stressed and you get offered some choice that you think, “I gotta figure this out, is this gonna really be good for me?”
Your emotions of whatever that might be, hope or excitement, those are gonna send their message to your brain more quickly than the rational thoughts like, “Well, this may not work out the way I’d like for it to, or this seems like it would be risking quite a bit.”
And so in those situations, you’re gonna feel those positive emotions first, and then later on you might feel the rational thought. So in that case, it’s a good idea before making a decision and kind of signing on the dotted line or something to slow things down a little bit. Give yourself a little more time to make the decision, especially if you know you’re in a stressed out state.
AIGNER: Every student enters college with a different level of financial literacy. Virginia Solis Zuiker, a College of Family Social Science professor who teaches about personal and family finance, said students’ perspective and knowledge of money starts during childhood.
VIRGINIA SOLIS ZUIKER: We have all kinds of students that come to our campus. So we have the ones where the parents have been talking about it, but then we also have the students where things were done for them. They didn’t have to think about money.
And oftentimes we think of those, the more wealthy students, and I still think that those students need some type of financial education because mom and dad have been doing a lot for them, or even grandparents or, you know, extended family have been doing a lot for, and so they haven’t had the hands-on experience of doing it.
Then we have first generation, we have immigrant families, we have families of color, people of color, who may or may not have had exposure to the financial system. And if they are a child of this where the parents maybe came from another country and they don’t know the American financial system, sometimes the kids have to be the ones who teach the parents about that, or sometimes the parents have learned that and again, have protected their kids from that.
AIGNER: Solis Zuiker stressed the importance of financial communication between parents and their kids. Financial communication is when parents talk openly about credit cards or bank accounts with their kids.
She said childhood experiences with money influence them as they enter adulthood.
SOLIS ZUIKER: I think especially with first generation and students of color, they have seen their parents struggle so much that when they have the opportunity to take courses or to take a workshop or to read something about finances, they’ll take that opportunity because they don’t want the same struggles and also because they may want to help their parents, their family members, help them and their future because their parents have sacrificed a lot for them to be able to go to school.
So I think there’s a lot of role modeling that we as parents, we don’t often remember that our kids are watching what we’re saying and doing, and so young adults will take what they have seen, good practices from others, what they believe to be good practices.
AIGNER: Carlson said she doesn’t like asking her parents for money, even when they’ve told her they can help whenever she needs. She’s made a habit of putting part of her paycheck into a savings account, and Van Meekeren said they stick to a budget every week. But Carlson said she has become more worried about money since entering college.
CARLSON: I’m definitely one of those people who’s gotten more stressed, having to think about all that, but more so to the fact that I have to pay for it all by myself. ‘Cause I’m kind of one of those people, I don’t like to ask my parents for money.
I’m kind of just like, “No, like, I’m fine.” But then sometimes I’m like, “Ooh, I really need this money. Like should I ask?” And that in itself stresses me out ’cause it’s just like, oh, I don’t wanna bother you for like you giving me money.
But at the same time it’s like I really need that money otherwise, like I can’t pay for something or whatever. I definitely notice myself being more stressed in the fact that like trying to find money when I don’t have it.
AIGNER: Financial stress can have a significant impact on a students’ mental and emotional wellbeing. Solis Zuiker said financial anxiety, which can be a response to managing money with or without financial stressors, can prevent students from flourishing in school.
SOLIS ZUIKER: Financial anxiety is a new concept probably within the last 10 years or so. What we have learned with it is that those who have financial anxiety, it often can affect their performance in their classes and all because they’re worrying about being able to meet their expenses.
Financial anxiety and financial stress are very similar and so the financial stress that they might have, it can affect their ability to purchase their academic materials, focus on their studies, because they’re having to work several jobs instead of using that time to study. They’ve gotta make money to be able to afford the tuition.
And so that then can affect their grades, exploring different career paths they’re having to work and they don’t have the luxury to be able to explore.
ELMI: Van Meekeren often spends their breaks planning out how much more they can work so they can save more money. They write down their paychecks and how much they are willing to spend on expenses like groceries, the gym and more.
However, they, like many other students, feel that the university adds unnecessary additional expenses that don’t reflect what the majority of the student body actually needs.
VAN MEEKEREN: I think that the tuition increases are rising much faster than rate of inflation as they maybe should be level with. But the ones that are really irritating and are really causing me the most harm are the things like they added a $100 athletics fee. It’s it’s own line item and it goes straight to football player salaries.
And when you call the number, like the just helpline to ask about it, they tell you that and they tell you it’s part of your tuition. You can’t like opt out of paying it. And there’s things like the student groups fee, I don’t remember what it’s called, but it goes towards all the student unions and organizations, which is great.
I want them to have money, but I’m a commuter student and I have been the whole time. And so having that be a not optional fee gets really frustrating when it’s never something that I’m gonna benefit from.
ELMI: When a student is juggling both school and work, it can make it hard to balance homework outside of the classroom because of lack of time or exhaustion. Though Van Meekeren themself isn’t experiencing this as much now, they recognize that it’s common for students who are working to fall behind in their studies.
VAN MEEKEREN: There’s a big difference in the performance in your classes. Because if I don’t have time to finish homework because I have to go to my job and someone else who doesn’t have to work does have time to do that, then our grades are gonna look different.
And I think that definitely going to school and having a job, like when I started those were primarily the two things that I did was just school and work. And it really, really helped me develop that sense of time management, um, that like coming out of high school, everything’s planned out for you.
ELMI: The cost of college tuition has dramatically increased
nationwide in recent years, while minimum wage increased incrementally. The average cost of a college tuition has increased by about 36% since 2010, and is 40 times more expensive than in 1963.
Minimum wage on the other hand has not increased at the same rate. In the last 10 years, Minnesota’s minimum wage has increased by about 16%.
AIGNER: In July the University of Minnesota Board of Regents increased tuition for the 2026 budget. Tuition increased by 4 to 6.5% for Minnesota residents and by 7.5% for non-residents. It doesn’t sound like much, but a 4% increase for undergraduate tuition means paying about $600 more each semester.
SOLIS ZUIKER: And then in addition to not just do you have to pay for tuition, but you’ve gotta pay for your living expenses, your books, supplies. We are seeing that students are struggling to meet their needs, and so that is a concern.
We see it more anecdotally, you’ll hear students talk about how they can’t afford things. So I would go back to the basics and asking them to track their spending. See where their money is going, get a handle on where their money is going. Do it for about a month or so, and then from that, figure out a budget.
And as I tell students, a budget is not something set in stone. It can be changed weekly, monthly, whenever. And then again, get in control if they have debt, get in control of debt, have a plan for what their future is gonna be.
AIGNER: Carlson said that as she continues her college career, she wants to work harder to earn more, and to incorporate her values into how she makes money.
CARLSON: Money-wise, it definitely opened my eyes more than how I viewed it when I was a senior in high school, I was just kinda like, it should be fine. I feel like maybe I was less considerate than I am now.
And now like I’m very much like this summer, I’m like, OK, I for sure need to get a job or two. ‘Cause then like I’m moving into an apartment in the next year, so I have all these finances, but I still want to be able to have enough money to do fun things and not just have to pay for rent and college and then do nothing else.
I also feel like working the job I do now made me like kind of want to definitely like get a job for my major. I feel like as this year has progressed, I definitely know like more what I want money-wise. Just kind of like specifically something that will actually relate to me and not just like some random job.
ELMI: With how stressful it is to manage finances, many students cut out fun personal expenses to focus on affording their education, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Van Meekeren balances their financial challenges by taking on cheap hobbies that bring them joy and costs little to nothing.
VAN MEEKEREN: Finding hobbies that are low cost is really important. I’m a big crocheter and you can get all types of yarn and stuff from thrift stores. And so that’s a fairly low cost hobby for me, and it’s something that I can be doing as a stress relief and outside of my classwork as a way to just be engaging in something that’s not just staring at a wall because I can’t afford to do anything else.
ELMI: Powell encourages students to be honest with themselves about how much money they’re making and spending, and to seek out support if they are struggling to juggle their finances.
POWELL: If you’re feeling really discouraged maybe, or anything like that, just remember there’s a whole bunch of us out here who are rooting for you and wishing you all the best. My whole job is to work with people to help them achieve their goals and there’s a lot of us out there like that.
ELMI: If you’re managing your finances for the first time, feeling stressed about paying tuition or looking to be smarter about your money, Powell and Solis Zuiker recommend resources like One Stop financial wellness counselors, the University of Minnesota extension services or Lutheran Social Service. These resources are linked in the transcription for this episode on the Minnesota Daily website.
AIGNER: If you’re looking to start small, they suggest tracking your spending for a month to see where you spend most of your money and find places you can save instead.
Hearing how difficult it can be to manage your own money was a helpful reminder that financial literacy is a marathon, not a sprint—and one I don’t need to have all figured out yet.
ELMI: It was somewhat relieving to hear about the stress these students felt when managing their money, it made me feel less alone. Coming fresh out of high school where my parents supported my financial choices, recognizing all the negative consequences of not understanding financial literacy is new to me, and I’m sure to many other freshmen.
Students already face mental health issues now, and without attempting to learn more about how to handle your finances these issues could get worse. It’s important to have these conversations so students like myself aren’t digging themselves into a deeper hole in the future.
AIGNER: That’s all we’ve got for you today, folks! This episode was written by Grace Aigner and Madina Elmi, and produced by Ceci Heinen. Thanks for listening and if you have any questions, comments or concerns, don’t be afraid to send us an email at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
My name is Grace Aigner.
ELMI: And my name is Madina Elmi, be safe, be well and we’ll talk to you next time on In The Know.
