Do Students Have a Need for Financial Seminars?

As you all know, the debt epidemic is rapidly sweeping across America.  Sometimes one wonders if working hard to improve credit scores for the purposes of leveraging is a good thing or a bad thing.  In any case, one of the demographics that is suffering the most is the student population.  With costs of tuition on the rise and good salaries being difficult to find, it is more important than ever to education our youth in an area that a traditional education doesn't touch: finances.

This year we have held a series of various financial seminars, each one hour in length, focusing on various areas of personal finance.  The results have been pretty amazing.  These students are already an outstanding group of young leaders and a financial education is just one more tool we are adding to their tool belt.  The students seemed to have a variety of questions.  On one end, students ask how to start building credit by opening a savings account or credit card account.  On the other end, students already have a desire to start investing, since new graduates will likely have an increase in income yet maintain the same amount of financial responsibility.

Students have given feedback of using resources such as mint.com, creating a monthly budget, cranking through real numbers and taking on additional challenges.  Our discussions about the habits of wealthy individuals have obviously influenced the students as many talk about cutting spending while still maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

The goal is to encourage students to graduate debt free or teach them how to quickly become debt free soon after graduation.  Saving and investing early on in life will not only put them on solid ground to make it in the work place, but will also give them a head start when it comes to raising their families while balancing work, a problem many recent graduates mention.

If you are looking to support a group devoted to our youth, please visit sagescholars.berkeley.edu and donate. We appreciate your support.

If you are a student looking for financial resources, please visit sagescholars.berkeley.edu.  Remember, debt freedom is the key!

This post was reposted from http://finlit.biz/business/do-students-have-a-need-for-financial-seminars/, originally written on March 8th, 2013.