Blackbullion ‘How to deal with a recession’ Pathway Review

If you google the phrase ‘UK Recession’, these are the headlines you might see:

I think it’s safe to say….it is not looking pretty for any of us. Upon seeing those headlines, as a constant over-thinker, I started to worry. How am I supposed to cope with such economic turbulence? Will the recession affect how currently budget? My student loans? To what extent will this economic situation impact my life? So many questions!

This is where Blackbullion came in. As many of you may) know, Blackbullion.com is a digital platform aiming to help educate students about their finances. It has various interactive ‘Pathways’, which are really similar to quick YouTube videos, on different financial subtopics such as ‘Budgeting’, ‘Debt’, ‘Saving’ etc. For this situation, I went through a pathway titled ‘How to deal with a recession’  and I’m going to tell you my honest thoughts.

Pathway Review

Firstly, the layout of Blackbullion is so organised! The order of videos within this Pathway are clearly outlined in a section titled ‘Lessons’. Within that section, there are various subheadings such as ‘Recessions Explained’. This makes it so easy to follow what the Pathway is trying to teach.

Another thing I really love is how short and quick these videos are. There are 6 videos in this Pathway, each under 75 seconds. The length of these videos helps make rather complex information very digestible and easy to assimilate. Additionally, the videos feature simplistic animations (see the photo below). These animations reminded me of Pixar movies, which gives this such a cosy feeling! Who doesn’t love a nice Pixar movie?

(Credit: Blackbullion)

In each video the narrator explains what a recession is, the causes of a recession, its effects and how to deal with it. The audio is clear and features short sentences with uncomplicated language. I found this particularly useful for a community like King’s where there is a high concentration of international students.

The Pathway ends with a quick quiz. The quiz has five questions. I know when people see the word ‘text’ or ‘quiz’, they go into immediate panic mode. No need though! This quiz is a self-paced, short set of questions to simply make sure you’ve gotten the most important information from the videos. No one is assessing you, no one is watching or timing you. There is zero pressure.

Overall, this short six minute lesson has left a lasting impact on my knowledge (and worries too!) about the recession. It is definitely worth a try!

Aminuoritse Jemide
King’s Student Money Mentor
Part of Money & Housing Advice

The King’s Student Money Mentors blog shares our students’ personal experiences and thoughts on money-related topics. Any reference, opinions or recommendations on a particular company/brand are only the views of the student(s) who wrote the blog post. King’s College London, the Money & Housing Advice service and the Money Mentor project do not share the views in the blogs nor endorse any of the companies mentioned. Readers should conduct their own research before using any companies mentioned in our blog posts.

What is Blackbullion and how can you make the most out of it?

(Credit – Austin Distel at Unsplash)

Hi KCL! Students have many expenses to think about ,and this can be even more daunting if you’re based in London. This is where Blackbullion comes in. Blackbullion.com is an online platform that provides students with financial confidence and knowledge, ultimately leading to better decision making skills. Luckily for us, with our KCL email address, we can register an account with Blackbullion for free!  There’s lots of features you have access to, including articles, videos and other tools. I’m going to share my thoughts on some tools which I found particularly useful and how you can make the most of them.

The first tool which helped me a lot was the spending snapshot. This tool is really easy to use, it involves you taking a couple of minutes to enter information about your income and expenses, and you can see how much money you’d be left with at the end of the academic year. Whenever I’ve tried to calculate my budget, I’ve always forgotten to include a particular expense however this tool takes pretty much any type of expense and source of income into account. You can input any income from student loans, bursaries, part-time work and more. In terms of expenses, you can input rent, bills, food shopping, going out (events, clubs etc), insurance and subscriptions – it’s very thorough!. My tip would be to use this tool before you begin the next academic year so that you can see whether your loans and/or part-time jobs cover your planned expenses. If not, you can try thinking of ways to cut down on some of your expenses (perhaps by taking a look at Blackbullion’s budgeting module). They also have a great budgeting calculator. This is very similar to the spending snapshot tool but includes more subcategories of expenses so may take slightly longer to use.

Another tool which I found really useful was the student loan repayment estimator. This tool provides you with a list of careers to choose from e.g. doctor, teacher, lawyer etc. Once you have selected your most likely career, the calculator will estimate your annual salary (based on the national average), your monthly student loan repayment and your resulting monthly take home pay. You can see how your salary will progress up to 30 years and the corresponding increase in monthly student loan repayments. If your ideal career does not appear on the list, or if you are not sure which career you’d like to follow, you can select the custom feature! This allows you enter any starting salary and you can see how much your student loan repayment would be each month. Although this is an estimate, it can give you a rough idea of how much of your salary goes towards student loan repayments when you graduate and the number isn’t usually as high as people think!

I hope this has helped you learn more about Blackbullion and how you can use this platform to further develop your financial skills!

Aanchal Raina

King’s Student Money Mentor

Part of Money & Housing Advice

The King’s Student Money Mentors blog shares our students’ personal experiences and thoughts on money-related topics. Any reference, opinions or recommendations on a particular company/brand are only the views of the student(s) who wrote the blog post. King’s College London, the Money & Housing Advice service and the Money Mentor project do not share the views in the blogs nor endorse any of the companies mentioned. Readers should conduct their own research before using any companies mentioned in our blog posts. 

National Student Money Week – Becoming financially fit as a Student:

(Credit – ‘Alexander Grey’ at Unsplash)

For many students like me, starting university comes with a feeling of being lost in a  money maze – how much do I need to budget each week? What am I going to be spending money on? Is my student loan going to be enough to live off? These are common questions that most students find themselves asking at one point or another Let’s break it down together! 

Financial fitness isn’t only about keeping a count on what you have and what you spend. It’s about being confident in managing your personal finances and achieving long-term stability and security. I’ve broken down what financial fitness is to me into three key concepts to help keep you on track. 

Budgeting  

Crafting a realistic budget that suits your style and preferences is the first step. It might be difficult if you are just heading off to uni, as you might not have a full grasp of everything you’ll be spending money on just yet. KCL Student support services [insert link here] have some great articles on things you’ll probably be spending money on, such as food and transport (and bills if you’re living somewhere without them being included!). 

There’s no one size fits all way to budget your money, everybody is different and there are a bunch of different tools to show your ingoing and outgoing spending! I like to use an excel sheet (there are loads of set templates out on the internet!) but have been increasingly using smart online banking apps such as Monzo to give me a quick breakdown of where the money I’m spending is going, for example, ‘social’, ‘food’, ‘bills’ and ‘transport’. 

Blackbullion has been a fantastic website for me to learn how to budget, they have courses and articles on a ton of different relevant ways to budget, save and invest your money! 

Saving  

Spending money is great fun, but when it runs out and you start going into your overdraft it can start to become really stressful. Making sure you have enough money for essentials such as food and rent and then knowing how much you have left over to save/ spend is a crucial part of managing your money.  

The way I save a lot of my money is by going to cheaper supermarkets such as Lidl or Aldi instead of fancier (and more expensive!) shops like Marks&Spencer. I also like to buy in bulk where you can make big savings, especially for proteins which are already very expensive. This of course, all depends on what shops are available to you nearby – it might be worth taking the bus or walking down to a larger/cheaper supermarket compared to going to your local cornershop, as these smaller shops actually tend to have higher prices and less choice available in comparison. 

Financial Literacy  

    I try to stay up to date on the important money related news. This doesn’t mean I have 5 screens in front of me always displaying stock markets and the FTSE 100 or anything, I just occasionally browse the news to see if there’s anything key I’ve missed out on. Having a grasp on financial world events might not seem that useful right now, but when you start  earning and want to properly invest your money for long-term growth, having an idea of historic financial trends will be really useful. 

    When I think about financial literacy as a student, I look more towards funding opportunities (bursaries, grants etc.), student discounts (Unidays, Blue Light Card) and other ways to make the most out of my money.  

    Being financially fit is a journey, not an end goal, and it doesn’t necessarily happen straightaway. Being in the mindset of constant learning and growth is one way in which you can help to create the best opportunities in your future. It’s all about discipline and commitment  

    All the links below are things I’ve used when starting my journey for financial literacy, and I really recommend checking them out. If you’re short on time, Blackbullion offers quick courses that are only a few minutes of the really key parts of managing your money! 

    Top tips on managing your money during your studies 

    Top tips on shopping as a student 

    What are the fees and funding options available for undergraduate study? 

    Samuel Landells
    King’s Student Money Mentor
    Part of Money & Housing Advice

    The King’s Student Money Mentors blog shares our students’ personal experiences and thoughts on money-related topics. Any reference, opinions or recommendations on a particular company/brand are only the views of the student(s) who wrote the blog post. King’s College London, the Money & Housing Advice service and the Money Mentor project do not share the views in the blogs nor endorse any of the companies mentioned. Readers should conduct their own research before using any companies mentioned in our blog posts. 

    https://www.blackbullion.com/library/categories/budgeting
    https://www.savethestudent.org/save-money
    https://www.savethestudent.org/student-finance