Santis O’Garro is a hands-on money mentor who specialises in helping people manage and budget their finances. She also likes to call herself a “light worker” – someone who has learnt something important in their life, and shares what they learnt with other people who may need help. Growing up in an era in which credit unions readily gave out loans for holidays and credit cards were the solution to an impulse buy, she developed poor money habits which resulted in a huge amount of debt. She calls this time in her life the “breaking point” – a time when she wasn’t making enough money to pay off her debt. Now, financially free, and also an author, podcaster, and the founder of the Budget Mindset Club, Santis wants to help build strategies into peoples’ daily lives so that they can prevent the same thing from happening to them.
“Whatever way you may identify financially, learning how to budget and manage your finances while in college is incredibly important, and Santis is here to help”
Money is an uncomfortable thing to talk about, especially in a college like Trinity. While there are students from all walks of life here, it’s no secret that many come from affluent backgrounds. Some students’ eyes water at the price of a cup of coffee in the Perch, while others are putting hundreds of euros down on DU Snowsports’ annual ski trip. Whatever way you may identify financially, learning how to budget and manage your finances while in college is incredibly important, and Santis is here to help.
Budgeting should be “priority based,” Santis tells me. “You’re going into real life now. Once you start doing this where you are right now, you can adapt this method to anywhere”. She says to begin with your basic needs. “If you have any money coming in, you need to have your rent covered, your food covered, your basic needs, your bus pass”. She says she has seen too often students “going on sessions all day every day but their budget isn’t balanced, and then they can’t eat for the rest of the month”. When we lose control of our spending, Santis notes that we can “develop a lack mindset”, struggling to get out of the cycle of overspending.
Of course, as students, we’re going to want to go out with friends and treat ourselves every once in a while. Santis recommends allocating no more than 30% of your weekly budget – but no less than that, either – for fun things. She says that even if you have made mistakes with overspending on fun things in the past, “it’s all about forgiving your old self and your old patterns, and going forward. But the first thing you do is prioritise your needs”.
She adds that budgeting should be done no matter what your income. “If I told you I’ll give you 20 euro right now, you do a budget for that. You don’t just say ‘Oh I have 20 euro’, what could that 20 euro be used for? All those 20 euros add up.” She says that if your first thought is that 20 euro could go on a “casual coffee”, then you’re not considering your future spending enough.
The fast-paced nature of student life makes it easy to want to live in the moment, but Santis advises students to think about the long term when budgeting. She gives the example of your mother’s birthday. If you know her birthday is in 10 weeks, put 20 euro of your income away every week. She calls this a “saving file”. “This is a great habit to do for everything, whether it be Christmas, birthdays, holidays, it means that you are suiting your lifestyle”.
Another way students can plan for the future is by having an “emergency fund”. Santis tells me that “last week my red engine light came on. Because I had money saved up, I was able to not go into the garage with that panic mindset, and they actually gave me a discount, just because I was the nicest person dealing with him”. She adds that “what you have, you attract. That’s a bit of the law of attraction going in there, but it does work”.
When it comes to actually sitting down and considering how to fill out a budget, it’s very simple, according to Santis. “Pen and paper. Simple, old school”. Santis also offers a planner through the Budget Mindset Club, which includes budget templates, goal setting and daily affirmations. She also notes that “a lot of banks will help you with tracking now because they understand the importance of financial literacy”.
If Santis could tell her 22 year old self anything, it would be to start putting money into her pension. “It was almost underheard of when I was 22. I wish someone told me about that”. She also would ask herself what she wanted to do in the next five years, regardless of what others are doing or what others think is the best path for her to pursue. Her advice to Trinity students is to “always look inwards, don’t look outwards. You can do everything according to plan, you get the house, you get the marriage, but then you have people age 40 that are waking up to a life they never subscribed to because they’re just following the plan they thought was laid out for them’”. When budgeting, you have to consider if you’re budgeting for the life that you actually want.
Santis recognises that “going to a college like Trinity, it’s almost harder”. She is aware of the pressure on many to keep up with the lifestyle that is often associated with the stereotypical Trinity student. “No offence, you went to Trinity, well done, you did great and that’s a beautiful thing, but that does not have to be the making of you. There’s a lot of other lessons in life you will learn. Definitely do not keep up with the Jones. Be your own Jones”. She says that students need to “live within their means”, because “once you start keeping up, you have to stay keeping up, and that’s a miserable life”.
“When setting financial goals, they have to be based on your own unique path, not the path of others”
According to Santis, financial comparison really is the thief of joy. “Wealth comes in many shapes and sizes, not just financially. Assuming that everybody is perfect based on the wealth they have means that you are lowering your self worth”. She advises students to not let “where you come from, who your parents are, the money you have define you, and also don’t put anyone on a pedestal because of that”. When setting financial goals, they have to be based on your own unique path, not the path of others.
Budgeting is about much more than allocating portions of your paycheck to rent, food and bills. It’s about considering if the life you’re currently living is genuinely serving your best interests, and if your spending habits align with the future that you want. Budgeting can be a journey; financially, emotionally and spiritually. If you haven’t tried budgeting before, why not pick up a pen and paper today and try your hand at it. You might learn more about yourself than you think.
You can find out more about Santis’ approach to budgeting at @thebudgetmindsetclub on Instagram, or pick up her book The Money Mentor in all bookstores.
