Yahoo Autos Financial Education Hold Keys to Financial Wellness
A lack of money management skills and habits can stand in the way of college students’ future financial independence
Almost everyday, Phil Schuman, executive director of the Office of Financial Wellness and Education at Indiana University, speaks to students with varying levels of financial literacy and wellness, terms he describes interconnectedly. Financial literacy, he says, deals with understanding financial terminology; financial wellness, on the other hand, is essentially how those terminologies and understanding them apply to behavioral perspectives into your own life. But this knowledge also plays a role in your financial decisions.
“I think it's really important that students have an understanding of the financial world that exists because it is incredibly complicated,” Schuman said. “When they graduate and start to earn full-time incomes, if they aren't already, there's going to be a need to understand the financial world so that they can make decisions that will be in their best interests moving forward.”
Despite the value of understanding your personal finances, how to save, spend and invest your money, financial education is not a mandatory course in many colleges.
Students Struggle with Money Management
Of 2000 college students surveyed, less than 10 percent took a personal finance course, with most picking up on money management skills through personal research and from their parents and guardians, according to College Pulse Insights.
Furthermore, 67 percent of student respondents aren’t even sure if such a course exists at their schools, while 21 percent are aware of an optional class or program. Just 8 percent say their school requires a class or program in personal finance.
With this lack of formal financial education, surveys have found that little more than half the population is financially literate with many struggling to manage their finances.
Learned Financial Literacy
City University of New York student Rani Persaud attributes a portion of her confidence in her level of financial knowledge to an optional financial literacy module her school held in collaboration with JP Morgan Chase & Co. The political science and international studies major attended a Zoom event where she learned the importance of having credit and budgeting wisely.
“When I reflect on the presentation I attended, I was surprised to see so many other students like myself in attendance with similar questions or stories,” Persaud said. “Personally, it highlighted the importance of courses like these, especially since we were allowed to have our questions answered and [...] I didn’t feel like an outsider looking in because terms were explained, scenarios were given and overall no one was condescending.”
Guilty of impulsive buys, Sangeeta Lilman, engineering science freshman at Suffolk Community College, believes in not only the importance of having a mandatory financial literacy course but one that acknowledges the different variables in each person’s life.
Yet, creating a mandatory college course on a subject that is so personal to each individual's life would be no easy undertaking.
Financial Education Is Not One Size Fits All
