By Kelly Kasulis, News Staff

A month stamped with ambitious resolutions like eating healthier and losing weight, January offers a milestone opportunity to be conscious about another facet of health – financial health.

January leads up to its expensive successors, the spring and summer, which are often riddled with Dialogues abroad and cross-country trips; this means that saving money is not only an ideal goal, but an imperative promise for many Northeastern students. The problem is keeping it.

“It’s difficult to save money when it seems so hard to come by and yet so easy to lose,” said Gabrielle LeBlanc, a sophomore biology major said. LeBlanc works one job as a caterer and another as an Americorps volunteer through the Jumpstart Northeastern program. “Just when I think I’m getting my savings back up again, something new comes up – like having to pay for textbooks.”

Similarly, Margaret Whittier-Ferg

uson, an undeclared freshman, said that it is difficult to save money and resist temptation in such a bountiful city.

“It’s hard to have self-control when there’s so much delicious food to eat and events to attend in this city,” she said. “There are so many things to do, especially in Boston. But these activities cost money – being social is especially taxing on my budget.”

Working as a financial planner at Peace of Money in Watertown, Vera Kelszy-Watts said that sometimes students are too ambitious with their plans to save paychecks.

“When you’re a student, it’s sort of your job to be a student – and tons of students work one, two, three jobs when in school, so just make it a manageable, reasonable goal,” she said. “This is a period of time in life where people are going to be their brokest, and you don’t want to set goals that you can’t reach and feel like a failure, you know?”

Kelszy-Watts also said that, of her younger client demographic, very few come in seeking insight on how to set and work within personal budgets.

“Overall, I would say that, probably not – college students are not doing such financial planning and it’s hard because we don’t teach financial wellness as part of pre-undergraduate education,” she said. “This isn’t part of the general United States core curriculum and so budgeting or knowing how much is in your check account is a skill that some college students don’t have.”

Kelszy-Watts said the college years are a time that students are “cementing a lot of their habits” and therefore practicing good financial health as a young person could reinforce behaviors that last a lifetime.

A financial planner in Melrose, William Ryan agreed that practicing financial health in college is critical, but students should take advantage of the fewer obligations to pay bills while they can.

“I want people to enjoy themselves, you know what I mean … and have fun, especially during those years – it’s the one time in your life where you may not have the responsibilities of when you become a ‘grown up,’” he said.

Boiled down to simple tips, here’s what else the experts had to say:

Save just a few hundred dollars, but think ahead

According to Kelszy-Watts, many of her young clients make the mistake of trying to save their entire paychecks during the school year.

“Don’t try to save every penny you’re going to make being a resident assistant  or working in admissions or whatever,” she said. “Try to save a couple hundred dollars per semester.”

But on that note, Ryan argued that students should think to their future – like retirement and emergency budgets.

“Probably the first mistake people make is that they aren’t paying themselves first. First, they want to make sure that they start saving – that they start a retirement fund as early as possible,” he said.

Know what you’re buying and spending

During her gap year after high school, Margaret Whittier-Ferguson kept spreadsheets detailing all of her expenses. The meticulous pursuit was hard to manage once she began studying at Northeastern.

“I had a Google spreadsheet where I would document everything I spent my money on. But this fall, I got lazy,” she said.

But online services can now do the same job. Kelszy-Watts and Ryan both recommended Mint.com as an easy tool to see where funds are going, whether it be a sky-rocketing weekly expense on coffee or too many impulse buys at clothing stores. The site also allows users to allot a budget for different categories of expense, like groceries or entertainment.

“So, I’ll ask [a client] how much they spend on clothes or going out to eat during the week, and they’ll guess and when I actually look at the numbers, it’s clear that their guesses tend to be pretty inaccurate compared to what they’re actually doing,” Kelszy-Watts said. “But that’s not just college students – that’s a lifetime issue for a lot of people.”

Build credit, but don’t push it

Many young people attempt to build credit during their college years by making small expenses and paying them off quickly, but a common misconception is that it’s worthwhile to keep monthly balances with accumulating interest and then pay them for a higher score.

“It’s a good idea to have some open lines and have some credit history,” Ryan said. “But definitely know that you are able to pay it off each month. I don’t agree with unnecessary interest and fees in the name of a few points on a credit score.”

In other words, students should pay off their bills immediately rather than make small payments over a period of time.

“I think, either way, you’re not going to have the greatest credit score anyway, until you’ve actually started making more substantial payments each month [out of college],” Ryan said.

But any small effort to keep a budget or build a savings account is a step in the right direction, according to Kelszy-Watts, who said that working up to a financially healthy lifestyle is a skill students must hewn over time.

“It’s very important, I would say, but to any degree that people are doing it is really good, even if it’s just a little bit,” she said. “It’s like learning a second language – even if it’s just a little bit, if you start to practice your finances now, you’ll have a much better foundation later when your first loan payments come in.”