What has been your best financial move in life?

Studying hard on my first year university. My GPA started high so I had a bunch of scholarships and grants. It's easy to maintain a high GPA than to bring a low GPA to a high level. I religiously apply to scholarships and grants also. I paid maybe 1/4 of my tuition fees.

Things to note:

• My 4 year bachelor degree in healthcare only cost $25,000-30,000 including books.
• The gov't even gives 60% back of tuition paid as tax refund every year until the gov't party changed a few years after I finished.
• Also gov't gives out cheap educational loans especially for low income families back then.
• Not in US.