Budgeting

BYU provides excellent resources to promote financial independence. Some of these include the OneStop center, the ASB and multiple budgeting apps created by people who graduated from where you study right now.

These now financial geniuses were once poor college students too. So how did they get to where they are now? How are they so successful? Budgeting.

Now, you may be thinking, “All this hypothetical financial security is great, but I don’t have time to budget.” I thought that too!

There are multiple free budgeting apps for students: YNAB, Mint, LearnVest and more. These budgeting apps take only 30 minutes to set up and five minutes, three times a week to track your money and ensure you’re comfortable with where your money is going.

Here is an idea to show you how you can start moving around your money to work better for you. If you were to omit a vending machine snack once per day, that will save you anywhere from $1 to $2 per day. Multiply that by 76 (the number of days in the fall semester), and you’re saving anywhere from $76 to $152 every semester!

As you apply these financial principles, your stress levels will decrease, your security will increase and you will be on your way to fulfilling your dreams. Let’s take control of our lives by starting with a budget.

—Spencer Vickers

Argyle, Texas

Energy innovation 

When was the last time that you went more than a week without setting an alarm of some sort? When was the last time you went an entire day without using a fridge, a microwave, or — heaven forbid — your phone? Imagine a life without the wonders of electricity. Maybe you can, but you probably don’t want to, because most of us are addicted to it.

For more than 100 years we have sought new ways to harness more and more electricity. However, in recent generations some of these have become rather controversial.

Coal is too damaging to the environment but very abundant. Due to a few catastrophic events, the word reactor now sends people running in fear of another Chernobyl disaster. However, thorium reactors use a material much more abundant than uranium and do not pose the same risk as their brother reactors, though thorium is radioactive.

Thorium is “as abundant as lead” and “could power the country at its current energy level for over 1,000 years” compared to the “80 years” that uranium could provide. Thorium reactors also produce a radioactive waste that decays more than 100 times faster than a uranium reactor and these reactors are incapable of melting down. Furthermore, thorium reactors have allowed us to create far more electricity in a much cheaper and safer way. This is not to say that thorium reactors are perfect; however, more research and funding should be implemented into this revolutionary energy source.

—Cody Yorgason

Gilbert, Arizona

Universe Editorial

Mustaches

Tom Selleck, Nick Offerman and the late Burt Reynolds — all well-known and well-loved actors and the faces of some of Hollywood’s most recognizable mustaches. It should also be noted, however, that each of these actors were in their 30s when they really started growing out a mustache. They were not 20-something college students. 

Recently, members of The Universe staff have noticed a mustache trend among male BYU students. After upwards of 18 to 20 years of not being able to grow facial hair, we understand how exciting and alluring a mustache must seem. While we are well aware of your frustration over having to shave your beard regularly for the Honor Code, we kindly ask you not take this frustration out on your upper lip. The  consensus among some females at The Daily Universe, is that the mustache trend has a questionable place among the young college students at BYU. If you want to have a mustache that badly, we suggest you make sure you can grow a real one rather than just a few wimpy whiskers.

Certainly, your grooming habits — so long as they adhere to the Honor Code — are left to your personal preference and discretion. We simply suggest that you know your limits when it comes to mustache growing abilities. If you can’t actually do it, stop trying.

To the men at BYU who actually can grow a mustache, we have no qualms with a decision to toss out your razor; otherwise please keep your ’stache at bay and know your time will come.

—Universe Staff