Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and I'm Att,
Speaker 1: and today we're discussing cunning college costs with money pro
Speaker 1: Cody Burman. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about getting the
Speaker 1: cost of college down. Joel. We recently had on Megan
Speaker 1: as a money pro. We talked about the student loans
Speaker 1: and the effect that that's having on our country and
Speaker 1: on individuals, and so yeah, going through some of these
Speaker 1: tips that Cody is bringing to the table, I think
Speaker 1: are gonna help a lot of folks. I completely agree,
Speaker 1: my friend. But before we get to that, I wanted
Speaker 1: to mention a quick listener email that we got recently
Speaker 1: from James. And James said, hey, guys, recently after listening
Speaker 1: to your podcast where you talked about how Wells Fargo sucks,
Speaker 1: which we've done a couple of times, I think I
Speaker 1: switched banks for my savings. At Wells Fargo, my money
Speaker 1: wasn't doing anything for me except an interest rate of
Speaker 1: point oh one percent. Now I'm at Ally Bank, where
Speaker 1: I get two point two percent interest in one month.
Speaker 1: At Ally, I received more an interest than I could
Speaker 1: at Wells Fargo in almost ten years. I just love
Speaker 1: the comparison. I love I love the James let us
Speaker 1: know that he took action, and also just love that.
Speaker 1: I mean ten years think about that. That that's like
Speaker 1: such a distinct market difference. And if you will just
Speaker 1: change your banks to a little bit of a better bank,
Speaker 1: you're with Ally. I'm with a few different banks, as
Speaker 1: I mentioned in our Facebook group and just mentioned on
Speaker 1: the show. I'm with Capital One, I'm with Discover, and
Speaker 1: I'm with c I T. There's so many better banks,
Speaker 1: not only customer service wise, but rate wise as well. Nice. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I love that James is with Ally like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is one of my favorites. I've been with him
Speaker 1: for quite a while now. And you mentioned C I T.
Speaker 1: You know, you wrote an article about how you switched
Speaker 1: over to c I T. They've got awesome rates right now.
Speaker 1: If ils want to find that article, just go to
Speaker 1: how the money dot com slash c I T and
Speaker 1: there you highlighted scymically the difference in the rate, Like
Speaker 1: right now we're at two point four five, and that's
Speaker 1: just massive. That's just a ton of money plus all
Speaker 1: the other awesome reasons that you want to switch away
Speaker 1: from one of the big banks to an awesome competitive
Speaker 1: service oriented online bank, no doubt, my friend are let's
Speaker 1: talking about the beer that we're drinking on the show today,
Speaker 1: Brain Dead Brewing Company presents Power Shark. Is what our
Speaker 1: label says on the Crowler. From a listener Jared out
Speaker 1: in Texas, this is a triple dry hawked beer and dude,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to dig in and just get a
Speaker 1: face full of hops. Yeah. Huge, thanks to Jared for
Speaker 1: sending this beer in. And he specifically reached out on Instagram.
Speaker 1: He yeah, slid into those d m s and send
Speaker 1: me a message. So yeah, if you aren't following how
Speaker 1: to Money pod on Instagram, be sure to check that
Speaker 1: out as well. You can see some of those behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. And we always do that time laps. I
Speaker 1: think people like that the time laps on the stories.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like an inside window into your dining
Speaker 1: room where we do the show. Right. So onto the
Speaker 1: subject at hand. Matthew, my friend cutting college costs with
Speaker 1: our money pro Cody Burman. And let's talk about Cody
Speaker 1: real quick. So he is only twenty two years old.
Speaker 1: Cody is such an interesting dude. He has already started
Speaker 1: a company that makes disc golf disc I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: not just any company, but a company that's close to
Speaker 1: your heart. Man, Oh my gosh. We recently celebrated your birthday.
Speaker 1: We went out and through some some disc golfs at
Speaker 1: a local course, and yeah, that's what Cody does. He
Speaker 1: makes disks for people that play disc golf. So I'm
Speaker 1: still honestly waiting for him to send me a couple
Speaker 1: of second trimemout, like really want to see how his
Speaker 1: discs fly. But he started, he started his own company.
Speaker 1: He feels like there's a place in the market for
Speaker 1: a new, upstart disc company, and so I think that's
Speaker 1: really cool. He's been doing that for over a year now.
Speaker 1: He just quit his corporate banking job at the age
Speaker 1: of twenty two to pursue entrepreneurship full time. He's got
Speaker 1: a website where he writes about finance, he's got a
Speaker 1: podcast where he talks about finance, and he's so involved
Speaker 1: in the financial independence community. I mean, he's he's become
Speaker 1: a staple there quickly, already at his young age. So
Speaker 1: he felt like we had to have him on the show,
Speaker 1: and specifically since he is so young and recently out
Speaker 1: of college, to kind of talk about how he was
Speaker 1: able to go to college and pay less money doing
Speaker 1: it edule And that's one of the things I love
Speaker 1: about Cody is that he has actual experience. He's been
Speaker 1: there in college not that long ago. He has found
Speaker 1: ways to reduce the expenses associated with college. And you know,
Speaker 1: that's a huge problem that people are paying so much
Speaker 1: for college. High school grads these days are choosing a
Speaker 1: school based on, you know, lots of different factors, but money, honestly,
Speaker 1: is just usually a low end consideration. And that's just
Speaker 1: because you can just borrow to go wherever you want
Speaker 1: to go, but be aware of borrowing from your future self.
Speaker 1: These payments associated with student loans can be as large
Speaker 1: as a mortgage payment on a house. So if you
Speaker 1: are in school, or maybe you're considering going back to school,
Speaker 1: or you have kids that might be going to college soon,
Speaker 1: we are gonna discuss some things to consider when it
Speaker 1: comes to cutting your college costs. Yeah, so our money
Speaker 1: Pro episodes. Here's how they work. The last two weeks
Speaker 1: we've had someone actually on in an interview style format
Speaker 1: that's not typically how Matt and I do these do
Speaker 1: these episodes. We like to invite our friends to give
Speaker 1: us five minutes of distilled wisdom on a particular topic.
Speaker 1: And so that's what we've done here. Cody has given
Speaker 1: us five minutes of awesome wisdom when it comes to
Speaker 1: cutting college costs. Matt and I have a lot of
Speaker 1: fun kind of unpacking after we bring on our money
Speaker 1: pro but let's hear Cody's five minutes first, right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's up guys, and thanks for having me on. So
Speaker 1: today I'm drinking some of massachusetts finest called Mr. Boston's vodka.
Speaker 1: It is a handle and it is absolutely spectacular. So
Speaker 1: my word to describe it is polish. But what I
Speaker 1: really want to talk to you about today is how
Speaker 1: to hack college? So how can you go to college
Speaker 1: for the cheapest price possible? Now, just for some context,
Speaker 1: I'm twenty two years old, so I am fresh out
Speaker 1: of this arena. I know all the latest tips, tricks,
Speaker 1: just ways to cut money on college. And although I
Speaker 1: did pretty good at cutting my costs, I could have
Speaker 1: done a lot better if I knew all the things
Speaker 1: I knew now. So I want to start with back
Speaker 1: in high school. If you have a son, a daughter,
Speaker 1: or maybe you're someone really young listening into this podcast,
Speaker 1: good for you. If you're that person, you need to
Speaker 1: be taking advantage of AP and CLIP exams. And basically
Speaker 1: what these exams are, they're subjects specific exams. So for example,
Speaker 1: you could take AP calculus, or you could take a
Speaker 1: CLUP exam in biology, and it's all these subjects specific
Speaker 1: courses that if you pass the test with a high
Speaker 1: enough score, you can just completely opt out of that
Speaker 1: course for college. So let's just assume you go to
Speaker 1: the average college. I mean, even if you're going to
Speaker 1: a community college, you're still saving a couple grand a
Speaker 1: class by passing out of these AP and CLUP exams.
Speaker 1: So that's my number one tip. Search and find out
Speaker 1: does the school offer these AP and CLIP exams, and
Speaker 1: go take as many as you possibly can. Some of
Speaker 1: them are self study and other ones you'll be taught
Speaker 1: in class with a teacher. So the next thing I
Speaker 1: want to touch on is dual enrollment. And this is
Speaker 1: while you're either a junior or a senior in high school,
Speaker 1: you can actually enroll in college courses just with the
Speaker 1: rest of the other college students and get credit for that.
Speaker 1: So instead of taking these high school credits, instead of
Speaker 1: taking JIM for the fourth time, you can go take
Speaker 1: a college level of course and get credit for it.
Speaker 1: And this can seriously reduce your costs and just eliminate
Speaker 1: the need for all these general education courses that you
Speaker 1: might not even be that interested in. And so those
Speaker 1: are some awesome ways to get credit. But now I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit more about how to
Speaker 1: save money. So what was huge for me was applying
Speaker 1: to tons and tons of scholarships and grants. Now I
Speaker 1: literally applied to probably between a hundred and a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenties scholarships. You think I wrote d twenty essays,
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. Ain't nobody got time for that. So what
Speaker 1: I did was I built out a few templates, like
Speaker 1: six to eight templates. Most of these scholarship essays are
Speaker 1: going to have the same prompts or at least like
Speaker 1: along the same lines like what are your career goals?
Speaker 1: Or why are you studying this? Or you get the point.
Speaker 1: So if you can build out these templates and then
Speaker 1: make tweaks every time you have a new scholarship application,
Speaker 1: you can drastically reduce the time it takes you to
Speaker 1: apply to the scholarship, and you can apply to so
Speaker 1: many more and just by the law of large numbers,
Speaker 1: you're bound to get a scholarship or two, which could
Speaker 1: add up to thousands of dollars. And some of these
Speaker 1: scholarship so are recurring, and these scholarships don't just have
Speaker 1: to be obtained in high school. You can actually keep
Speaker 1: applying to scholarships every year while you're in college. And
Speaker 1: on that same thread, while you're in college. Some other
Speaker 1: great ways to save on costs is to work for
Speaker 1: the university, get an on campus job, become a resident assistant.
Speaker 1: If you're able to drastically reduce your cost of living,
Speaker 1: this can pay huge dividends down the road. At my school,
Speaker 1: it was nearly ten grand a year just for on
Speaker 1: campus housing costs. As an r A, you pay nothing
Speaker 1: and you actually get paid on top of that. And additionally,
Speaker 1: there's all these other sorts of on campus work study jobs,
Speaker 1: Like I was a t A for six semesters that
Speaker 1: earned me a huge amount of money that I could
Speaker 1: put towards living expenses, that I could put towards tuition,
Speaker 1: that I could put towards other school related things. And
Speaker 1: another crazy thing that you could consider is to do
Speaker 1: a co op. So basically a company will pay you
Speaker 1: to work there for say six months or a year
Speaker 1: instead of doing a semester or two. You get paid,
Speaker 1: and you also get awesome on the job experience. So
Speaker 1: definitely go check with your rear office and see if
Speaker 1: there are any of these on campus or co op
Speaker 1: type positions available. And although I didn't take this throughout myself,
Speaker 1: I think I'd be doing you guys a disservice if
Speaker 1: I didn't mention the military, because I had friends who
Speaker 1: went to school for absolutely free by signing a contract
Speaker 1: and joining the Armed forces. So although it's no joke,
Speaker 1: it's not to be taken lightly, and you are signing
Speaker 1: a way a few years your life. You can go
Speaker 1: to college for completely free, zero dollars. And what I
Speaker 1: really want to end on here is that college doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be for everyone. There are so many other
Speaker 1: ways to make money and so many other options in
Speaker 1: You don't need to get this traditional four year bachelor degree.
Speaker 1: You can get a certification in coding, you can become
Speaker 1: an apprentice in the trade. College is not the only
Speaker 1: path to a six figure income, And if you're listening
Speaker 1: to a podcast like this, you probably have some financial
Speaker 1: wherewithal So all I'm trying to say is just weigh
Speaker 1: out your choices, see the options that are in front
Speaker 1: of you, and make sure it's worth it before you
Speaker 1: go to college. But if it is worth it, make
Speaker 1: sure to use all these money saving tips. Alright, So
Speaker 1: the word I used at the beginning of the episode
Speaker 1: was polish and polish because this literally tastes like shoe polish.
Speaker 1: I'll definitely have to send you guys out a bottle
Speaker 1: of good old Mr Boston's. Thanks again, all right, Joel,
Speaker 1: Mr Boston's frugal or cheap? What do you think? Man, Cody?
Speaker 1: I love you, but that's a terrible life choice right there. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think you've made good choices when it comes to
Speaker 1: saving money on college, but bad choices when it comes
Speaker 1: to what you put in your body, and especially when
Speaker 1: he lives in Massachusetts, which has just some phenomenal beer choices.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna get to all the rest that Cody
Speaker 1: had to say right after this break. All right, Matt,
Speaker 1: we're back, and socimically, for high schoolers in parents of
Speaker 1: high schoolers, it's important to consider taking a p classes
Speaker 1: and then taking clip exams. That's not necessarily a tip,
Speaker 1: that's under a rock, right, that's hiding that's not in
Speaker 1: plain type to a certain extent for for parents, but
Speaker 1: just to prioritize that because at the end of taking
Speaker 1: an AP class in high school, you can take an
Speaker 1: a P exam, which is incredibly inexpensive, and for each
Speaker 1: exam that you get a passing grade on most colleges
Speaker 1: except that passing grade as having passed that class in
Speaker 1: in college, and so you don't have to waste your time,
Speaker 1: much less your money in paying to take that class
Speaker 1: when you move on to your school of choice. And
Speaker 1: I think that's really cool. I think it's a great point,
Speaker 1: and I think that students and parents alike should think
Speaker 1: about taking more AP classes, not just because it reflects
Speaker 1: better on your g p A or you feel like
Speaker 1: maybe you even learn more, which which I think is
Speaker 1: true typically in AP classes, but also because of the
Speaker 1: way it helps you in cutting college costs. Yeah, Cody,
Speaker 1: he mentioned that with AP exams, like you're looking at
Speaker 1: close to like two thousand dollars per course if you
Speaker 1: were to pass that exam. Joel, did you take any
Speaker 1: AP exams leading up to college? Yeah, I sure did.
Speaker 1: I took a I took a couple and I did.
Speaker 1: I only did well on one and I'm pretty sure
Speaker 1: that was AP Spanish if I remember correctly, but I forget,
Speaker 1: but see Yolo Espanol Lloyd Bueno. Wait not not really,
Speaker 1: I'm not very good anymore. But yeah, that was that
Speaker 1: was helpful, and and those were actually really fun courses.
Speaker 1: I felt like, well, they're they're fun, but they're really hard,
Speaker 1: right completely. The other thing worth mentioning here is Cody's
Speaker 1: a really smart guy. I feel like we're fairly smart.
Speaker 1: But however, like you can't just show up and take
Speaker 1: these like you need to make sure that you're fairly proficient.
Speaker 1: The same thing with the clip exams. He mentioned those,
Speaker 1: and you know, and if you can clip fifteen hours
Speaker 1: on average, you can save about five thousand dollars per
Speaker 1: public college that you attend, and you're looking at about
Speaker 1: seventeen tho dollars and savings if you go to a
Speaker 1: private school. Pretty much what those numbers equate to is
Speaker 1: a full semester right at a college, because fifteen hours
Speaker 1: is essentially one full time semester. And so yeah, you
Speaker 1: can save a lot of money. A clip exam is
Speaker 1: something that you don't need to take a class for
Speaker 1: but like Matt just said, you need to be super prepared.
Speaker 1: But if you feel like you know biology really really well, well,
Speaker 1: it's worth looking into taking a clip exam for that.
Speaker 1: If you study really hard take that test, you can
Speaker 1: avoid having to take that class in college and not
Speaker 1: just having to spend the time to do it, like
Speaker 1: we said, And each class that you can avoid taking
Speaker 1: in college equates to real dollars that you're saving schedule,
Speaker 1: and these are all tips. Right if you're still in
Speaker 1: high school, or if you have a student, a child
Speaker 1: who is still in high school, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: worth mentioning that you need to have conversations about money
Speaker 1: and how much you know, if your parents, how much
Speaker 1: you're willing to spend towards your child's education in the future,
Speaker 1: or you know, if you're a student, if your future
Speaker 1: college attendee, how much you're going to be responsible for
Speaker 1: because a lot of that is going to be your motivation,
Speaker 1: That is your why behind why you take these exams
Speaker 1: and why you take these ap courses. If you know that, man,
Speaker 1: a lot of this is going to fall on you
Speaker 1: as a student when it comes to fund your college career,
Speaker 1: then I think that might light a fire under someone
Speaker 1: if they know that they're gonna be responsible for it, right,
Speaker 1: versus if they know that, Okay, I've got a certain
Speaker 1: amount of money set aside, and who knows, maybe that's
Speaker 1: even more motivation for them because perhaps if they get
Speaker 1: these college credits out of the way, that's money that
Speaker 1: that will end up in their pocket. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: good point, Matt. I feel like too, as parents, you
Speaker 1: can really incentivize your good student to to take some
Speaker 1: of these tests that they might otherwise not be interested in.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have a smart kid that just doesn't want
Speaker 1: to do the extra work to take an AP class,
Speaker 1: doesn't want to study and take a clip exam on
Speaker 1: a Saturday, you know, whatever it is, but apparent knowing
Speaker 1: how much money they can, say paying for their kids
Speaker 1: college or how much less in student loans their kid
Speaker 1: is gonna have to take out, I feel like they're
Speaker 1: little incentives you can put in place to encourage your
Speaker 1: kid to take the AP class, to consider taking a
Speaker 1: clip exam. And that's just a good thing to think about, Like,
Speaker 1: how can I get my kid interested in doing this
Speaker 1: for my sake and for for their sake? Right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of it does fall under
Speaker 1: the parent. Like I mentioned that maybe it's up to
Speaker 1: the student to kind of figure some of this out,
Speaker 1: but fact isn't. I think there's very few students who
Speaker 1: are going to be self motivated enough and to make
Speaker 1: that connection with Okay, sure, like I can take the
Speaker 1: AP class now and that equals credit down the road,
Speaker 1: but like, what does that actually mean to that student? Like,
Speaker 1: not very much. With meant for me when I was
Speaker 1: taking a P classes in high school was that that
Speaker 1: was just less time I could hang out, and so
Speaker 1: it kind of sucked. There wasn't a ton of connection
Speaker 1: between taking this class now means more money in your
Speaker 1: pocket down the road. I think making that connection truly
Speaker 1: does fall on the parent. Yeah, we're talking about sixteen
Speaker 1: seventeen year old kids who don't have fully developed frontal cortexics, right,
Speaker 1: and so it really is so much of it is
Speaker 1: going to be on the parents. You might have a
Speaker 1: kid that is just incredible, a genius, and not just
Speaker 1: a genius, but a self starter, and and that's really cool,
Speaker 1: that's rare. Yeah, even a smart kid oftentimes needs a
Speaker 1: little bit of push and they have a hard time
Speaker 1: understanding the concept of a little bit of work now
Speaker 1: saving a lot of heartache down the road, And so
Speaker 1: I think apparent the little incentives they can provide along
Speaker 1: the way can make a big difference in kind of
Speaker 1: crushing some of these college costs, you know, before they
Speaker 1: even get accrued and once you get to college. Another
Speaker 1: note is taking more hours each semester. Cody didn't get
Speaker 1: to this, but I wanted to mention that that the
Speaker 1: more hours you're take in a semester, you can cut
Speaker 1: a lot of costs that way. To most colleges consider
Speaker 1: a full time student as having a twelve hour course load,
Speaker 1: but you can take like twenty one hours if you
Speaker 1: want in many colleges where they charged by the term
Speaker 1: and not the credit hour. Matt, I don't know that you.
Speaker 1: I remember being in college and I thought, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: super busy taking a sixteen hour courseload. Now that I
Speaker 1: live real life, I know that that wasn't really that
Speaker 1: busy at all. And at one point I took nineteen
Speaker 1: hours in a semester and I was able to handle
Speaker 1: it with other obligations on the side. And so as
Speaker 1: a parent, as someone who's getting their undergrad or even
Speaker 1: attempting to get a graduate degree. Taking a larger course
Speaker 1: load over a semester. Sure it can make things harder
Speaker 1: when it comes to studying and and getting great grades,
Speaker 1: but I feel like it is manageable for a lot
Speaker 1: of kids to take more hours and still pay the
Speaker 1: same rate because you're paying by the term and not
Speaker 1: the credit hours. That's definitely something to look into. How
Speaker 1: does your college bill and if they build by the
Speaker 1: term and not the hour. Consider taking a heavier course load.
Speaker 1: Maybe not every semester, maybe every other semester, but whatever
Speaker 1: your specific approaches, taking a fuller course load and a
Speaker 1: given semester can mean big savings. Man, Joel, that actually
Speaker 1: reminds me of a semester where I did take a
Speaker 1: twenty one hour course load. Yeah, made it happen. I did,
Speaker 1: But I had to because I had a scholarship and
Speaker 1: I had dropped a couple of courses at that point
Speaker 1: in order to maintain my g p A, which was
Speaker 1: the requirement. But then I had to make those courses
Speaker 1: up before the end of the year. Kind of painted
Speaker 1: myself into a corner. But yeah, I just buckled down
Speaker 1: and made it happen. It's possible. It was not easy,
Speaker 1: but that kind of leads to our next point. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a public school and I got a great
Speaker 1: scholarship that allowed me to go to school for free,
Speaker 1: which was amazing. And there's a lot of options like
Speaker 1: that out there for public and state schools. Keep that
Speaker 1: in mind when you're considering colleges to attend. Private schools
Speaker 1: are going to be much much more expensive. And Juelie,
Speaker 1: you've got personal experience with this as well. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I went to a private school. I racked up some
Speaker 1: student loans the first two years, and I think we
Speaker 1: talked about this in the recent student loan episode. I
Speaker 1: transferred back to a public cool in my home state
Speaker 1: where I was able to qualify for free college because
Speaker 1: of a state funded scholarship program, and I was glad
Speaker 1: to do it. Man. That was that was that was
Speaker 1: totally worth it. A lot of people, to Matt, would
Speaker 1: be well served by going to a community college for
Speaker 1: the first two years. If you have your heart set
Speaker 1: ongoing and getting a degree from a specific educational institution,
Speaker 1: whether it's public or private, going to a community college
Speaker 1: first can help you get all those undergraduate credit hours
Speaker 1: fulfilled and then you move on, right and you pay
Speaker 1: the bigger bucks only the last two years of your
Speaker 1: college experience as opposed to all four. And that's something
Speaker 1: a lot of people just don't consider. They want the
Speaker 1: full college experience all four years. But when it comes
Speaker 1: to potentially saving ten, fifteen, twenty, or thirty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: it might be worth it to go to community college
Speaker 1: for the first two and then moving on. And you
Speaker 1: know what, the degree looks the same in the end
Speaker 1: for for both kids, no matter which way. Use likes it. Yeah, Joe,
Speaker 1: I love that. And also Cody mentioned to apply to,
Speaker 1: you know, for tons of different scholarships and grants. This
Speaker 1: comes as no surprise, like this is obviously a way
Speaker 1: that you're gonna be able to save money. But what's
Speaker 1: key and what's different about what Cody mentioned is how
Speaker 1: he created different templates. And I think a lot of
Speaker 1: folks might frown on that and think that seems kind
Speaker 1: of cheap. But the way he's approaching applying for these
Speaker 1: scholarships is like the way you would run a business.
Speaker 1: You're trying to maximize the output by minimizing like the
Speaker 1: amount of input, the amount of time that you're putting
Speaker 1: into these different essays and just all the different things
Speaker 1: these different scholarships require. And and what I'm saying though,
Speaker 1: is is not that you send out the exact same
Speaker 1: letter to to just all the different programs, but that
Speaker 1: you try to find ways to be as efficient as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, businesses do this, And from a financial standpoint,
Speaker 1: I think it's really wise to consider your college career
Speaker 1: just like you would a business. Yeah, Matt, And that's
Speaker 1: because high school students their time is worth a little
Speaker 1: bit less because of their lack of education and credentials,
Speaker 1: and so it might be worth it to take one
Speaker 1: less shift a week at your part time job and
Speaker 1: focus a little bit more on kind of crushing the
Speaker 1: scholarship game, because a little bit of time spent upfront
Speaker 1: applying for these scholarships can have just a massive impact
Speaker 1: on what you end up paying to go to school,
Speaker 1: massively reducing the amount of student loans that you need
Speaker 1: to take out. And one of the coolest things about
Speaker 1: this too, like Cody said, is that some of these
Speaker 1: scholarships that you can find are actually recurring as well,
Speaker 1: So you can find a scholarship that not only pays
Speaker 1: you a thousand or two thousand dollars a year to
Speaker 1: go to school, but it might be a recurring one
Speaker 1: that last freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year only magnifying
Speaker 1: the effect of that initial application. Man. And not only
Speaker 1: are some of those scholarships recurring, right, but you can
Speaker 1: apply for new scholarships even while you're in school, Like
Speaker 1: when you're a senior in high school, that is not
Speaker 1: the only time for you to apply for scholarships. Apply
Speaker 1: also when you're a freshman, a sophomore, junior. What else
Speaker 1: are you doing in the summer? Yeah, continual working, but
Speaker 1: hopefully but continue to find ways, like like we said,
Speaker 1: to optimize your time. If you know that you can
Speaker 1: put in a few hours and find some awesome scholarships,
Speaker 1: apply and potentially make thousands, I mean, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: well with your time. And you can find these different
Speaker 1: scholarships on different websites maybe that you've heard of like
Speaker 1: fast Uh they're one of the biggest ones with you know,
Speaker 1: over a million and a half different scholarships available and
Speaker 1: college board dot org but also other ones as well
Speaker 1: at Capex scholar cheg and you can check out the
Speaker 1: Department of Labor. They've got a scholarship search tool as
Speaker 1: well for you to find some of the great scholarships
Speaker 1: for you. And I know we just kind of ran
Speaker 1: through those super quick. Well, we'll have links in our
Speaker 1: show notes on how to money dot Com with with
Speaker 1: all of those there. Yeah, fast web has over three
Speaker 1: point four billion dollars in funding available to students inside
Speaker 1: of those one point five million scholarships, so that's cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: definitely don't forsake searching for scholarships. Another thing, as Cody mentioned,
Speaker 1: don't forget to look for local scholarships. To make sure,
Speaker 1: in particular that you ask your school counselor. They're going
Speaker 1: to have access and knowledge about local scholarships that you
Speaker 1: can't find on some of these national scholarship websites. It's
Speaker 1: worth asking the question. Most kids aren't going to ask,
Speaker 1: so ask the question and you might be surprised what
Speaker 1: you find. Also, if you do have a part time
Speaker 1: job Matt in high school, ask your employer if they
Speaker 1: offer some of college scholarship. Where I worked in high school,
Speaker 1: actually ended up getting a thousand dollars scholarship because I've
Speaker 1: worked there for a few years and that was just
Speaker 1: a nice little added bonus. As I was saying goodbye
Speaker 1: and headed on my way to like learn a lot
Speaker 1: of important stuff. That's what you do in college, and
Speaker 1: also consider some needs based grants. There's more money out
Speaker 1: there available for those of lesser financial means. You'll need
Speaker 1: to fill out the FAFTSA form to know which ones
Speaker 1: you actually qualify for. There's a great write up over
Speaker 1: at nerd Wallet, and so in our show notes will
Speaker 1: also put a link to that article as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the FAFTSA essentially, no matter what you make, you need
Speaker 1: to fill out the FAFTA. You have no idea what
Speaker 1: you qualify for until you fill out that form. So
Speaker 1: filling out the FACTSA, which stands for Free Application for
Speaker 1: Federal Student Aid, is essentially one of the most important
Speaker 1: steps that a student or family can take in order
Speaker 1: to find ways to pay for college, and in particular
Speaker 1: those grants. Right those grants. You have no idea which
Speaker 1: grants are available to you until you fill out that form.
Speaker 1: So if you want access to the tens of billions
Speaker 1: of dollars in student grants and loans, the FATSA is
Speaker 1: your first step. And I just can't overstate how important
Speaker 1: that is in the process. And again that's billions. Still
Speaker 1: didn't misspeak there, And I'm not like Dr Evil right,
Speaker 1: like millions. There's I mean literally a hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: billion dollars out there for grants and loans for for
Speaker 1: student aid. There's money out there for higher education, and
Speaker 1: so just please make sure that you're taking the steps
Speaker 1: to see what you can qualify for Matt, I feel
Speaker 1: like to use a sports reference, it's like taking the
Speaker 1: slam dunk or the layoup when most people are are
Speaker 1: shooting a half court shot or a three pointer, right,
Speaker 1: and those are just much more difficult. You're gonna make
Speaker 1: a far fewer percentage of shots from half court or
Speaker 1: three point land than you are when you take a
Speaker 1: layup or or attempt to slam dunk. Well, maybe the
Speaker 1: slam dunk doesn't hard though for most people, slam dunks
Speaker 1: are really hard. Okay I'm talking about NBA players. Okay,
Speaker 1: most NBA players can make a slam dunk no problem,
Speaker 1: take a layoup, no problem, right, But when it comes
Speaker 1: to those other shots that are further away from the hoop,
Speaker 1: it's just harder. And if you're not taking these layups,
Speaker 1: if you're not taking the easy access by filling out
Speaker 1: the FAFTSA and then applying to as many scholarships as
Speaker 1: you can on these websites. You're not taking the layups.
Speaker 1: There are easy options open to you when it comes
Speaker 1: to getting money to help pay for college costs. And
Speaker 1: and I just don't want people to miss the lay up. Yeah, Joe,
Speaker 1: you don't want to miss that low hanging fruit. And
Speaker 1: so right after the break, we're going to cover some
Speaker 1: different ways and some simple ways to reduce the cost
Speaker 1: of college. All right, Matt, let's get to one of
Speaker 1: my favorite points that Cody made, and that is that
Speaker 1: you should be working while you're in school, and let's
Speaker 1: talk about how to do this most effectively. It might
Speaker 1: not be best for you to get an off campus
Speaker 1: job waiting tables. There are ways to get paid while
Speaker 1: working on campus and getting paid better than you would
Speaker 1: at an off campus job, and so are as Cody
Speaker 1: mentioned often get free housing as well as they get
Speaker 1: paid on the side a stipend. Right. I personally was
Speaker 1: an r A in college as well. Cody said he
Speaker 1: saved ten thousand dollars by being in r A, and
Speaker 1: I'm not sure whether he saved that per year or total,
Speaker 1: but I remember saving a bundle being in r A
Speaker 1: because I was getting free on campus housing and at
Speaker 1: the same time getting paid a stipend in order to
Speaker 1: be in r A. Yeah, you're a double dipend man,
Speaker 1: no doubt. And it was it was well worth my time.
Speaker 1: Definitely kind of had some awkward and fun r A experiences,
Speaker 1: but I feel like, not only did it save me money,
Speaker 1: it was a really good thing to put on my
Speaker 1: resume as I was applying for jobs. Employers want to
Speaker 1: see that you took a little bit of responsibility, that
Speaker 1: you had something on your plate besides just college courses.
Speaker 1: Being in r A kind of hit that trifecta for me.
Speaker 1: And so another option of working while you're in school
Speaker 1: is to consider either co opting or an internship. Why
Speaker 1: not get a company to pay you while you work
Speaker 1: there while you're getting course credits. That's pretty amazing. So like,
Speaker 1: this is a great experience for your resume while at
Speaker 1: the same time saving money on your actual college costs.
Speaker 1: I had friends who were in you know, technical schools
Speaker 1: like Georgia Tech or a Clemson, and they're working and
Speaker 1: actually getting paid, like getting paid real money versus like
Speaker 1: the kind of crappy summer jobs that I was working
Speaker 1: that we're paying very little, and at the same time,
Speaker 1: man like you get a huge jump start on your career.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking how towards like my later years in
Speaker 1: college at the time, I sort of regretted not having
Speaker 1: that that opportunity. I didn't pursue something that was more
Speaker 1: sort of career focused. But with a co op, you
Speaker 1: have that opportunity. You've gotten your foot in the door
Speaker 1: at a company, and a lot of times after you've graduated,
Speaker 1: assuming you've done a great job in previous summers or semesters,
Speaker 1: you've got a full time job waiting on you right
Speaker 1: after graduation. Yeah. I feel like that's just an awesome
Speaker 1: tip and something that students should consider if you're in school.
Speaker 1: Either a co op or an internship is a great idea,
Speaker 1: and often you're able to get course credit for doing it.
Speaker 1: At the same time, you might get up to six
Speaker 1: hours of course credit, depending on how much your school allows.
Speaker 1: And that is not only cutting the cost of college,
Speaker 1: but building the resume experience. I did an internship while
Speaker 1: I was in my senior year of college, and guess what,
Speaker 1: the place where I did my internship, that's where I'm
Speaker 1: working right now, And I did an unpaid internship that's
Speaker 1: actually a rarity nowadays. Most internships are paid, so I
Speaker 1: didn't get paid anything while doing it. But I've had
Speaker 1: a job for twelve years because of it, and so
Speaker 1: I can't understate the importance of of an internship. It
Speaker 1: can be life changing for your resume, for the connections
Speaker 1: you make, for for your networking in general, and on
Speaker 1: top of that, it can reduce the overall costs that
Speaker 1: you pay for college. So yeah, that these are definitely
Speaker 1: things to take advantage of and real quick. Cody mentioned
Speaker 1: working on campus. I did that as well. My work
Speaker 1: was pretty chill, it was easy to get to, no
Speaker 1: car required, And so finding an on campus job oftentimes
Speaker 1: can pay better than an off campus job and it's
Speaker 1: a lot easier for students to make happen. Man, that
Speaker 1: reminds me of like one of the best on campus
Speaker 1: jobs that you g a was you and I guess
Speaker 1: food services now it was the bus drivers. EJ has
Speaker 1: these massive, huge buses that drive all around campus, and
Speaker 1: I specifically remember thinking, Man, I want to apply for
Speaker 1: that job because I think they got paid like nineteen
Speaker 1: dollars an hour, which at the time yeah, which at
Speaker 1: the time was a huge amount of money. That's still
Speaker 1: big money. Yeah, my goodness. But you had to have
Speaker 1: a pretty clean driving record and yeah, I had recently
Speaker 1: gotten a speeding ticket driving home one night over like
Speaker 1: Christmas break, So it didn't work out. Cody also quickly
Speaker 1: mentioned Matt the military option, and it's a worthwhile thing
Speaker 1: for people to consider. Don't take it lightly because signing
Speaker 1: up for military service is a long term consideration. And
Speaker 1: you're giving part of your life to serve our country,
Speaker 1: right and you and I, man, we are so thankful
Speaker 1: to the people that listen that serve our country. It
Speaker 1: is a huge commitment. It is a sacrifice not only
Speaker 1: for the individual but for their family as well. And
Speaker 1: there is an awesome benefit associated for for folks that
Speaker 1: do serve, and that is the g I Bill, And
Speaker 1: it is very helpful for folks that are in the
Speaker 1: service to get their education paid for. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it is worth mentioning. Then it's an option
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, And you know, don't forget two different
Speaker 1: employers have different programs that will pay for your higher education.
Speaker 1: Think of like Starbucks, like they have that program with
Speaker 1: Arizona State University, go sound devils that that pays for
Speaker 1: your undergrad and they see it through all the way
Speaker 1: into graduations. So so check with your employer. There might
Speaker 1: be programs already in place. Just like with these grants
Speaker 1: and scholarships, there's free money, there's opportunity. They're waiting for
Speaker 1: you to cover the cost of school. Yeah, my employer
Speaker 1: offers some really cool benefits. My employer will chip in
Speaker 1: just a small amount if I get solar panels on
Speaker 1: my home, they will help cover the costs of adoption.
Speaker 1: They offer a small extra discount on myself phone bill
Speaker 1: every month. I'm not sure if we have any sort
Speaker 1: of benefits for going back to school because I'm just
Speaker 1: not interested in it right now. I haven't taken a look,
Speaker 1: but considering the benefits that are currently available, but I
Speaker 1: know about I bet there is something. And so if
Speaker 1: you're at an employer right now, you should take a look,
Speaker 1: ask some questions and see what's available. And if you're
Speaker 1: thinking about changing jobs or getting a new job and
Speaker 1: you want to go back to schoo cool at the
Speaker 1: same time, consider seeking employment with a company that offers
Speaker 1: tuition reimbursement or has a program like Starbucks offers that's
Speaker 1: just kind of an easy way to help cut the
Speaker 1: cost of college that a lot of people don't think
Speaker 1: about very often. And keep in mind to that college
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be for everyone. You know, you can
Speaker 1: consider apprenticing or if you're a parent, at least allowing
Speaker 1: your kid to work summers at a skilled trade even
Speaker 1: if they still decided to go to school, if they
Speaker 1: wanted to go to college, in the end, it's still
Speaker 1: a great sort of hard skill that they learned. And
Speaker 1: even then there's soft skills that they learned, having already
Speaker 1: been in the workplace, that they can take back with
Speaker 1: them to college that you can't actually learn while you're
Speaker 1: in school. Yeah, Matt, And there's something that exists in
Speaker 1: our country right now that people have called the skills gap.
Speaker 1: And even with our incredibly low unemployment rate, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of unfilled jobs in the skilled workforce where
Speaker 1: people don't need a college degree. They just need to
Speaker 1: apprentice in a specific skill. And if you do that,
Speaker 1: you don't accrue debt in the same way that a
Speaker 1: college student taking on loans us. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: some of those jobs that use skilled labor actually pay
Speaker 1: a lot more than a lot of college educated positions do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I've heard the plumbers rule the world. They
Speaker 1: make some good money, right. I think we talked about
Speaker 1: on on an episode a while back that our friend Rob,
Speaker 1: who's a lawyer, doesn't get paid quite as much as
Speaker 1: his plumber And that's just that's kind of funny but
Speaker 1: also kind of becoming eerily true. And to consider how
Speaker 1: much time and cost for Rob to become a lawyer,
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier of a track to become a plumber.
Speaker 1: Not that it's not hard work, right, grueling work, but
Speaker 1: it's at least an easier track to get there. Yeah, Joe,
Speaker 1: you know, like talking about trades versus like college makes
Speaker 1: me think about how like, shortly after starting the photography business,
Speaker 1: I remember thinking and saying out loud and having discussions
Speaker 1: with friends that my kids are never going to go
Speaker 1: to college. What I do now are not skills that
Speaker 1: I learned while in undergrad And I think I felt
Speaker 1: pretty arrogant and in my approach and how I viewed
Speaker 1: business and maybe how i'd sort of pulled myself up
Speaker 1: by my own bootstraps. However, what I think I've realized
Speaker 1: though in the past several years is that there are
Speaker 1: just tons of different, like softer skills that you learn
Speaker 1: while in college. This is funny to say, but like
Speaker 1: you learn how to learn, you learn how to ask questions,
Speaker 1: you learn how to figure things out. There's all these
Speaker 1: different things that you learn by going to classes and
Speaker 1: by having those sort of requirements and those tests set
Speaker 1: before you that you may not have learned otherwise, And
Speaker 1: not to mention to just the different connections that you
Speaker 1: make right when you go to college, Like you get
Speaker 1: to meet a lot of different people, and I know
Speaker 1: that I'm certainly a product of a lot of the
Speaker 1: relationships and the people I've met and the connections I've
Speaker 1: made because of going to college. Yeah, I completely agree.
Speaker 1: I feel like when I initially graduated, I felt a
Speaker 1: sore lack of like hard skills that I wanted to
Speaker 1: bring into the workforce, and I felt like a lot
Speaker 1: of those things I had to learn on the fly,
Speaker 1: like on the job training almost right completely, and I
Speaker 1: was like, what was college for? But really it was for,
Speaker 1: like you said, a lot of those soft skills, and
Speaker 1: they they served me to this day, I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm building on top of them as opposed to having
Speaker 1: to learn them from scratch. And also the yeah, those
Speaker 1: connections too that you make in college, the friendships and
Speaker 1: the connections, just the networking, right, Like we talked about
Speaker 1: that in the Jordan Harvaer episode. There's just so much
Speaker 1: opportunity that comes with maintaining relationships and being in touch
Speaker 1: with folks and finding ways to help other people. There's
Speaker 1: a lot there that's hard to quantify, and a lot
Speaker 1: of relationships that wouldn't have been made had had we
Speaker 1: knock on to college. And plus, how would you know
Speaker 1: how to manage a house if you weren't an r
Speaker 1: a taking care of a whole floor of undergrad students, right,
Speaker 1: a bunch of unruly dudes just making a mess of
Speaker 1: my whole life and the dorm at the same time.
Speaker 1: I learned a lot doing that. That's all right, Matt.
Speaker 1: Let's get back to the beer though. Today on the
Speaker 1: show we drank Brain Diad brewing Power Shark and this
Speaker 1: was sent to us by listener Jared. This is a
Speaker 1: triple dry hopped beer. Just a massive amount of hoppy
Speaker 1: goodness in this one. Anybody who's listening to the show
Speaker 1: for a while knows we love a good I p A.
Speaker 1: You know, what This one didn't disappoint. It was really good. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of this beer as well. Uh
Speaker 1: you know, it's triple dry hot opps and that means
Speaker 1: it's just got so much of that hop flavor in it.
Speaker 1: It's hard to describe sometimes, like what does hops like?
Speaker 1: What does hops taste like? It's almost this green herbally
Speaker 1: flavor and traditionally, like the hops are what gives I
Speaker 1: p A is like that bitterness. But man, these newer
Speaker 1: I p A is like, in particular, the ones that
Speaker 1: are dry hot like this, just they convey this herbal
Speaker 1: flavor that it's almost like you're eating delicious vegetables while
Speaker 1: you're drinking beer, but specifically green vegetables right while you're
Speaker 1: drinking a really delicious beer. And this one, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just so well balanced that I just want to drink
Speaker 1: my vegetables just all day long. So, dude, if we
Speaker 1: were getting our vegetable servings while drinking beer, when when
Speaker 1: we would be like the most healthy people on the planet.
Speaker 1: Sadly that's not the case. And this beer in particular
Speaker 1: had like a hop wallop. It almost like punched you
Speaker 1: in the mouth with how prominent the happiness was and I, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like you phrased it. Well, it's a difficult
Speaker 1: thing to put into words, but this beer in particular
Speaker 1: gave you just a ton of that hop essence. Whereas
Speaker 1: some beers you can smell it a little bit, some
Speaker 1: beers you can taste it, this beer was kind of
Speaker 1: all encompassing Hops, and I'm totally cool with that because
Speaker 1: I freaking love Hops. So huge things to Jared for
Speaker 1: for sending this beer along to us. Again, this is
Speaker 1: brain dead brewing power shark. All right, Matt, let's get
Speaker 1: to our final thoughts on cutting college costs, and Cody
Speaker 1: did a great job kind of helping us think through
Speaker 1: the difficulties of borrowing from our future selves and how
Speaker 1: we can think through cutting the cost of college to
Speaker 1: avoid doing that. Yeah, the first way that you can
Speaker 1: do that is by taking a p and clip exams
Speaker 1: before you get to undergrad. There's no sense in taking
Speaker 1: an actual semester of a course if you're able to
Speaker 1: test out of it, So make sure you consider that.
Speaker 1: And also you want to make sure that you're applying
Speaker 1: to lots and lots of scholarships and grants. Basically, you
Speaker 1: want to make this your part time job, because chances
Speaker 1: are the time that you can dedicate to applying for
Speaker 1: these different scholarships and these different grants, you can make
Speaker 1: more by doing that than you could waiting tables. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just remember that filling out the factive form is crucial
Speaker 1: in order to finding out what scholarships and grants are
Speaker 1: available to you. Also consider working while you're in school.
Speaker 1: Are as often get free housing as well as getting
Speaker 1: paid on the side. Working on campus as an option.
Speaker 1: Co ops and internships are great as well, and those
Speaker 1: things not only helped cut the cost of college, but
Speaker 1: they also boost your resume to help your potential earnings
Speaker 1: post college chedule. What I specifically love about RAS and
Speaker 1: t a s as well, as Cody had mentioned that
Speaker 1: he did that is that they're the most optimized jobs
Speaker 1: for students living on campus because you're doing things that
Speaker 1: you pretty much would already do anyway, and I love that.
Speaker 1: I love how these different jobs sort of align with
Speaker 1: the sort of natural life that you would live anyway,
Speaker 1: whether that's living on a dorm floor and providing some
Speaker 1: you know, leadership, Joel like you did, or maybe being
Speaker 1: a t A in a lab where you're learning at
Speaker 1: the same time you're you're making money. I love that.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much leadership I've provided, Mat, but
Speaker 1: I appreciate your vote of confidence. I'm sure it was
Speaker 1: awesome and tons of fun. Unlikely, but uh, thanks to
Speaker 1: Cody for coming on the show. We really appreciate your
Speaker 1: wisdom and your inside Cody. And if you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about what Cody's up to, you can go
Speaker 1: to fly to five dot com. That's his blog where
Speaker 1: he writes about everything financial independence. You can check out
Speaker 1: his podcast five show and you can find that wherever
Speaker 1: you're listening to to this podcast. Considering Cody's only twenty
Speaker 1: two years old, I guarantee that you're going to hear
Speaker 1: more from him in the future. Chedjuel will have those
Speaker 1: links up on our website. On our show notes for
Speaker 1: this episode, just go to House and Money dot com.
Speaker 1: And if you like the show, if you found it helpful,
Speaker 1: we would love your feedback. Feel free to leave a
Speaker 1: review on Apple Podcasts. We greatly appreciate it. And if
Speaker 1: you think that Matt and I could improve, we would
Speaker 1: love to hear your feedback as well. Go to how
Speaker 1: to money dot com slash do Better. You can send
Speaker 1: an email there, Matt and I will read it. We
Speaker 1: appreciate any constructive criticism you can offer. That's right, Joel,
Speaker 1: So until next time, best friends out, Best friends out,
Speaker 1: m