“Your child will be better prepared to tackle the bumps on the road of life if he has been given the gift of guided independence.” – Jacquie McTaggart

One of the biggest influences on my personal finances before, during and after university was being self-reliant. In other words cutting the financial umbilical cord from my parents forced me to look at my income and outgoings to ensure I would never hit hard times. I had a new awareness that I could not, but more importantly did not want to ask my parents for money. They funded me and my two sisters through 12 years of tennis so now it was time for them to focus on themselves and ensure that they had enough for their retirement.

I was very lucky to have two elder sisters who were at university before me. Having elder siblings is the greatest way of learning how to achieve anything. My sisters before me knew they wanted to go to university during their GCSEs but knew that they would need to find extra money on top of their student loans to live away from home. With the knowledge that our parents could not give them extra funding they started to save some of their pay check every month from their part-time job. It was accepting that the financial umbilical cord had been cut that made them realise that they needed to save for their future. For me this meant learning very early on that I would need to be self-sufficient at university which is why I took control of my personal finances from the age of 16. In my mind I knew I would need extra money for university (there was no doubt I wanted to go so that I would have the best opportunity of starting on a high salary in a vocation I wanted to be in) and so started saving money from my part-time job on a monthly basis. Coming from a low-income family I was lucky enough to be entitled to Education Maintenance Allowance which provided people studying after their GCSEs with a weekly allowance of between £10 and £30. I knew I would need this for university and so put this allowance towards my future instead of spending it on clothes and going out (which at the time I was tempted to do).

It was the idea of knowing I had a fund to fall back on at university that kept me motivated. This idea of providing for your future in addition to providing for your basic needs has been central to all of my financial planning. If you have the opportunity to, I would encourage you to take that step before university to cut the financial umbilical cord. It will give you an immense sense of responsibility and freedom. It can also improve your relationship with your parents as you will never have to argue about money again. If my parents had told me they would fund me through university I highly doubt I would have saved as much as I did because to be honest why would I need to?