60 percent of the students receive spending money

The Dutch National Institute for Budget (in Dutch “Het Nederlandse Nationaal Instituut voor Budgetvoorlichting”) has some notable figures released to the public. Two-thirds of the students wouldn’t survive without the financial help of their parents. Six out of ten receives effectively pocket money because of that fact: students with a dorm room get an average of 233 euro, monthly. Students living at home get on average 100 euro monthly to spent.

The biggest source of income for students is the scholarships they receive from the government. But a big part of the students also have a student job, which brings in some money as well. On average, a student earns 354 euros a month by working.

I currently do not have any data from the Belgian government (note that the above information was only relevant to Dutch students), but these numbers should be very close – I guess.

But here is something surprising I need to tell you. Some students are having fun while making money. Some students are playing online games, having fun with that – and on top of that they making money. How, you ask? Well, some companies of computer hardware (let’s say HP or Logitech) are sponsoring game events where people (students most of the time) can win physical prices or money prices for being the best gamer.

The most lucrative way students can ‘make’ their own spending money is to take part in online poker games. Students play poker and are having a chance to win big amounts of money when they win. It’s easy to get started: creating an online account is a few mouse clicks away. Anyone can do it and students can play with their mates. Since it is online, students are able to even play during their lessons. It is known some students already made a good amount of spending money by playing poker or any other online game.