Bold Financial Freedom Scholarship

I spent one afternoon typing my essays, mathematics homework, and review notes for the day as my parents were eating dinner. Aloud, I wished in front of them for a house of my own when I was older, to check out of the hotel we long-resided and become financially self-sufficient. Then my dad, with his business major and his decades of wisdom plus the pain of our family's tormenting difficulties, offered me some of the best words I'd ever heard about money management. "Cut your coat according to your size." Known to many as not biting off more than one can chew, this advice will guide my economic planning, saving, spending, investment, and income sources as long as I remind myself of it. Considering I am no stranger to unwise misusage of my allowance/poor spending impulse control/saving habits, I wince, remembering my carelessness. Once, I squandered the $100 my parents generously gave me on vending machine comfort snacks. Like many aspects of my lifestyle, COVID-19's repercussions forced me to pivot (here, monetarily/fiscally), which I'm grateful for. Today, I try to store every dollar I receive for needs such as college tuition. Because my first introduction to the professional world has proven that earning income demands a steadfast work ethic, I recognize that my earnings must outpace my expenditures since a paycheck tends to arrive slower. I cannot afford, literally, to live above my means. Costly entertainment and goods won't enter my budget until I establish a sturdier financial profile. To meet my thrift goals, I'll learn skills like certain home repairs that prevent avoidable price obligations or payments for someone else's services. "Cut your coat according to your size" was liberating. I mustn't gratuitously burden myself. Freedom is not spending without restraint but less baggage down the already-unpredictable road.