Do Cambridge Students Save Their Money or Blow it All?

You got $50 from your grandma for Christmas. You were paid over $100 last week from your after-school job. What do you do with the money? 

Choosing whether to save or spend your dough can be an internal battle as you weigh the long-term effects and satisfaction of each decision. 

With this in mind, how do students manage their personal finance? 

Presley Gibbs, a sophomore, loves to spend money. 

“I think that everyone deserves to buy something for themselves every once in a while,” said Gibbs. 

She said most of her money comes from her summer job as a helper at art camps for kids, along with money from birthdays. 

She said she typically spends money she receives within five days, mostly on hats and shirts for her toy poodle, Pumpkin. Currently, Pumpkin’s hat wardrobe consists of two bucket hats and one fedora, but Gibbs said Pumpkin’s mood decides whether she wears them. 

Other students like freshman Sarah Uchoa like to save, with caveats being trips to the nail salon and a pair of AirPods. Uchoa purchased the Apple earbuds for herself, and now she is more careful than with her previous pairs, which were gifted to her.  

“I feel like if I lost them again, it’d be a waste of money,” she said, adding that the purchase brought her increased independence, as it was made with her monthly allowance. 

Sophomore Emma Dewey identifies as a saver, saying her parents “stressed the importance of saving,” but she admits to a history of splurging. When she was little, Dewey would save all her money and buy clothes for her American Girl dolls.  

Nowadays, she spends on clothes and jewelry, mainly at Francesca’s and Altar’d State. 

Sophomore Emily Tebeau said saving is a quality her “parents definitely taught,” and she believes it is a “long-term mindset.”  

However, her money did not always remain tucked away: for one of her birthdays – her sixth, she believes — Tebeau asked her relatives for money so she could buy a dollhouse, one she recalls cost a hefty $500. 

Presently, Tebeau said, “Chick-fil-A is my main deposit of money,” along with Starbucks. 

Reese Uribe, a senior, said spending makes him “live in the moment.”  

An example of this is when he used most of the income from his summer job at Kona Grill for concert tickets and eating out. Simply put, he said, “I like to buy stuff.”  

Though he enjoys these habits, he invests in stocks through Wells Fargo, an account that was opened when he was a kid.  

Students like Alan Drucker, a junior who wants to be an investment banker, is taking his saving hobby to the next level. His saving ideology was imprinted at a young age. 

In an Instagram direct message, Drucker said, “When I was younger, any money I would come across my dad would make me save half and the other half I could choose what to do with it.”  

More recently, he has started the investment club at the school. 

He said the club’s purpose is to have members learn “more of the ins and outs of the stock market.” Drucker wants to emphasize that “money is better spent in the stock market than just sitting in your bank account,” he said.