Financial Literacy
American colleges should require personal finance in the G.E. curriculum for students to develop skills in learning how to manage their money properly by budgeting, avoiding debt, and investments. Students learn the fundamentals of money management in financial literacy classes. This information offers the groundwork for students to establish sound financial practices at a young age and steer clear of many misconceptions that result in ongoing financial difficulties. According to Chase Ogbuta at the American Dailies, many Americans are discovering that their personal student loan debt, high auto payments, and lack of financial preparation prevent them from being able to purchase homes, invest for retirement, or save for their children's education expenses. Nevertheless, if financial literacy classes had been taught in schools, many of the financial issues that Americans currently face could have been prevented.
Students who are rigorous about saving money typically live debt-free. Just consider how drastic your life would change once you stop having to worry about money. Taking pleasure in your wealth and spending time considering ways on how to help others, rather than being distracted by financial fear and stress. Financially literate students do more than merely manage their finances wisely. They develop positive behaviors that eventually spread to their families, towns, and their country. The poisonous money culture will shift as a result of this trend, ushering in a new normal. Ultimately, affecting one student at a time. Imagine the head start your child would have in life if they were budgeting, saving regularly, and making sensible financial decisions before they graduated college. They might have tens of thousands of dollars in the bank, a car that is paid for, and a start-up retirement fund. Students will learn the skills required to establish a lifetime of financial success.
Early financial education gives students the knowledge and abilities to make wise financial decisions as an adult. Judy T. Lin and Christopher Bumcrot both state, 53% of individuals with a higher financial literacy spent less than their income, and 65% had set aside a three-month emergency fund. In comparison, 35% of individuals with lower financial literacy spent less than they earned, and 42% had a three-month emergency fund set aside (finra foundation). Furthermore, a multitude of college students borrow money to pay for their education, but few are fully aware of what they are signing or the acceptable level of debt. Students can learn the differences between federal and private loans, how to use federal grants, complete the free application for student aid (FAFSA), and apply for scholarships in financial literacy classes. Ultimately, students who take financial literacy classes are better prepared to grasp how loans function.
You might ask yourself, why is an early-stage investment so crucial? By paying attention to your budget and making necessary cuts to your expenditure, early investment enables you to cultivate disciplined spending habits. Investments that are more volatile typically produce the highest returns on their capital. Riskier investments are typically made by investors who have the time to recuperate. For instance, college students have the time to recover if any possible losses occur over time. Ultimately understanding the ins and outs of the market can be intimidating, but a college student's willingness to take risks can help them in the long run.
Although some may disagree with me, saying undergraduates taking a personal finance class is not necessarily beneficial, since personal finance tends to go into considerable detail on financial principles, which might make students who are not majoring in finance or business uninterested in the material and potentially harm their grade point average. However, there is already a multitude of general education courses available that are irrelevant to your specific major, so why not enroll in a general education course that will positively benefit your future?
According to Brittney Gibson, in 2014 Pepperdine sparked interest and controversy over the possibility of implementing a required personal finance course into the general education curriculum. Associate professor of business law, Keith Whitney, is also a proponent of giving students the opportunity to take personal finance as a course. “We talk about ethics a lot at this school. I think we have an ethical duty to advise students and maybe even to offer assistance with regard to long-term financial planning when it comes to student loan debt.” I concur with her, simply because I believe it is quite ethical for Pepperdine to incorporate a personal finance course into its general education curriculum.
