Planning To Study Abroad? Savings Plan To Scholarships — Expert Strategy To Manage Your Expenses

According to a report by India's Ministry of External Affairs, around 1.33 million students were studying abroad. This is a sharp rise from 2023 and 2022 which reported around 0.93 million and 0.75 million students studying abroad.

This trend indicates that the number of students who want to pursue an education overseas is on the rise.

Stuti Bhatt, a 22-year-old influencer marketing executive, brought forward her aspirations of doing a masters in fine arts in drama in some of the top foreign schools in the world, on NDTV Profit and along with them a lot of questions as well.

Moneyworks FS founder, Nisreen Mamaji helped her navigate through her potential options to materialise her dreams.

Stuti wants to pursue MFA in institutes like Julliard, NYU, or Yale, the cost of which would exceed Rs 1 crore, as per her calculations. In case of her tuition fee getting waived, she estimated her expenses to cut down to Rs 23 lakh approximately.

According to Nasreen, if Stuti is able to save Rs 10,000 per month with an annual step up of 10%, she would be able to accumulate around Rs 10 lakh in five years. But she also highlights that accounting for inflation over the five years would amp up her expenses from Rs 23 lakh to somewhere between 33 lakh and 37 lakh.

In that case, she advised to claim loans from lenders such as HDFC Credila, Avanse, or INR & dollar loans

"HDFC Credila would give you a loan up to Rs 60 Lakh, while Avanse would provide funds up to Rs 50–60 Lakh", Nasreen said. "There are artist specific funds in New York that can cover emergency housing", she added.

Fulbright, Tata Trust, Juilliard Aid, and so on were some of the scholarships that Nasreen considered legible options for the 22-year-old to avail.

In case her family is able to provide support of Rs 5-10 lakh, Nasreen believed Stuti's goals to be quite achievable. Although as a word of caution she encouraged her to keep her options open in top Indian drama and film institutes such as National School of Drama and Film and Television Institute of India as well.

For a short term perspective (within three years), Nasreen advised Stuti to invest 70-80% in multi asset funds such as ICICI Prudential Multi-Asset Fund, HDFC Balanced Advantage Fund, and Franklin India Equity Savings Fund. Whereas if she extends her timeline up to five years, Nasreen was of the opinion that large cap funds could work for Stuti.