4.3 The Financial Cost of Poor Time Management
The High Cost of Poor Time Management
We often hear about the benefits of managing your time, but it’s important to think about the cost of poor use of your time.
There is a significant cost associated with delaying graduation from college by only one year (by dropping and retaking courses, taking less than a full credit load, etc.). Not only will you pay for additional tuition, living expenses and other fees associated with going to school, but if you are using student loans, you will also accumulate interest on those loans.
Delayed graduation also means the cost of the lost opportunity of working. How much money could you have made working in your new job that you didn’t make because you had to stay in school?
| Tuition, textbooks, and fees | $ |
| Rent, food, gas | $ |
| Lost wages | $ |
| $ | |
| Average total loss: | $ |
It is worth noting that any situation that brings about a delay in graduation has the potential to increase the cost of college. This also includes attending school on a part-time basis. While in some instances responsibilities may make it impossible to go to school full-time, from a financial perspective you should do all you can to graduate as soon as you can.
While it may not be possible to prevent life challenges while you are in college, you can do a great deal to prevent the chaos and the chain reaction of unfortunate events that they can cause. This can be accomplished through thoughtful prioritization and time management efforts.
What follows in the rest of this chapter is a close look at the nature of time management and prioritization in ways that can help keep you on track to graduate college on time.
“3.1 The Benefits of Time Management” from College Success by Amy Baldwin & Open Stax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
