College, in many ways, serves as a trial run. Students can learn through internships, student jobs and mentor positions before getting into “the real world.” For some students, this also means learning about personal finance management now – instead of after piles of credit card debt later.
According to a USA TODAY article, 14 states now require high school courses in personal finance. Research showed that students inthose states were more likely to save and less likely to max out or make late payment on their credit cards.
Matt Lambert, a sophomore majoring in finance and accounting, said the classes he takes at The University of Alabama provide lessons that can be used for personal finances.
“In the business classes, the focus is much more on managing a business’s money rather than personal money, but I think the lessons are largely the same,” Lambert said. “Good companies obviously have more money in revenue than they do in expenditures. Bad companies do the opposite.”
Lambert serves as the president of the Culverhouse Investment Management Group, which provides investing knowledge to expand on what is taught in classrooms and enhances career opportunities.
Lambert said it is a way for students to learn more about how to handle money.
“We manage a portfolio of stocks,” he said. “It’s real money.”
Lambert said he believes it would be beneficial for all students to take a finance course while in college. Although students at the University are not required to take finance courses, many are taking the initiative to learn about managing their personal finance on their own.
“I think that everybody should take an entry-level accounting class because accounting applies to everybody’s lives,” he said.
The University offers several finance classes, including an Honors College course called “Finding Financial Freedom.” The Honors College website course description says the course is “designed to provide the tools and techniques necessary for the development of a successful personal financial plan over one’s life span” and deals with “money management and credit use…investments, insurance, and retirement planning.”
Doug Fair, a sophomore majoring in biology, said he plans to take this class in the future.
“There are English majors raving about this class who said they had never even thought about money before,” Fair said. “They liked it because it helped them find out how to manage their money.”
“My major and everything I do on campus have nothing to do with finance at all,” Fair said, “but personal finance is really important for anybody who is ever going to get a job or start a family. You need to make sure you’re financially secure.”
For more information about the Finding Financial Freedom course, go to honors.ua.edu. For information about how to become involved with the Culverhouse Investment Management Group, go to http://mycba.ua.edu/cimg.
