Tag Archives: personal finance

My New Adventure Less Than 10 Minutes From Campus

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I’m very excited to study and intern abroad in London this spring, but that adventure won’t come for another couple of months. Until then, I’m keeping myself busy right here in Claremont.

One of the promises I made to myself when I started my sophomore year is that I would be more involved in groups on campus. I want my time at Scripps to be as multifaceted as possible—not just defined by schoolwork, paid work, and play. So in an attempt to broaden the scope of my college experience, I’ve started volunteering through MoneyThink Claremont—the 5C offshoot of a national, youth-driven organization devoted to improving financial literacy amongst high school students. (Want to learn more or get involved? Email [email protected]!) This semester, I’m working with a fellow 5C sophomore, Daniel, to lead weekly personal finance classes at a local school. The structure and curriculum are provided, and we volunteers have the task of learning the material and explaining it to our students.

Now, I consider myself relatively well versed in personal finance matters. My mom taught me how to balance a checkbook in third grade, and I attended Professor Dillon’s Personal Finance Friday classes all throughout last semester. I also have plenty of experience helping students one-on-one at CP&R, and previously as a tutor in high school. But this preparation didn’t stop me from feeling extremely nervous during my first session as a mentor.

The most significant reason is that there’s a huge difference between working closely with a student during drop-in hours at CP&R and keeping a class of twenty-seven high school seniors engaged. With my position at CP&R, it’s very easy to engage a student in conversation and have her share her goals and interests. But when I’m addressing a large group of students with widely varying levels of interest, it’s much more of a challenge to help each of them find the material personally compelling. This opportunity at MoneyThink has renewed my respect for the teachers I have had in the past who worked so hard to lead their students.

Are you evaluating possible options for volunteer or paid work? Have you just started in a new position? MoneyThink has made me realize just how important it is to consider my workplace environment—not only in a physical sense, but also from a mental standpoint. Here’s a breakdown of the questions I asked myself:

Personal Accessibility How close of a relationship do I have with the students? May I correspond with them individually, outside of the class? May I invite them to an educational event at the Claremont Colleges? I’m sharing my email address; should I also provide my phone number?

Resources What physical resources do I have access to on-site? Are there computers and printers? If I’d like to share an online resource (an article on negotiating the terms of a contract lease, for example), how can I do this effectively?

Support Who can I go to if I need help? What sort of experiences have my partner(s) or supervisors had that would be illustrative?

Evaluation How will I receive feedback on my performance and improve it? How are the students I teach being evaluated?

Another challenge has to do with MoneyThink’s dedication to near-peer relationships. The seniors I work with are only two years younger than me; I remember being their age and going through the college application process like it was yesterday. Apparently I still look the part of a high school student, too—as I was biking to the school, a policeman flagged me down and asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be in school, young lady?” I had to explain that yes, I was heading to a high school, but no, I was not a delinquent student, just a volunteer, and yes, I am a college student and here’s my ID to prove it, thankyouverymuch. (I didn’t actually say that last bit, of course) That was not exactly a confidence-boosting moment. So how exactly does one establish the authority necessary to quell disruptions while remaining emotionally accessible to students? I’ll see if I have an answer after the next few weeks. If you have any advice, please post in the comments. I’ll appreciate all the help I can have. After my first day, I anticipate facing a (very!) steep learning curve.

Reasons Why the Internet is Awesome (And Not Just Because of Cat Videos)

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Like many people of my generation, I am someone who spends a lot of time online – on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter – you name it, I probably have an account and probably spend at least a couple hours a week on it (although not Pinterest yet- that’s one I’m holding out on). But a large part of what I love about the internet is that in the course of ten minutes I can go from looking at gifs of meerkats playing with pumpkins to watching an interview with James McAvoy, and then somehow ending up reading about copyright law and realizing that Virginia Woolf’s work can be public domain in the UK while in the US some of it will still be copyrighted until 2037. The gist of this is that, mixed in with all of the cute animals and celebrity worship is a lot of actual, useful information. So in light of this fact I wanted to share some of the awesome things I have found on the internet recently.

  1. This video I just watched actually got me excited about the idea of opening up a retirement savings account…and doing it soon!
  2. Poonam’s post about the personal finance workshop she attended during Life After Scripps introduced me to mint.com, where I have now started tracking how much money I’m spending and what I’m spending it on (and hope will motivate me to spend a little less and save a little more!).
  3. This article by a man who spoke at the CMC Athenaeum on October 30th, which is about the perils of being trained for a life of privilege, and why liberal arts schools might be better than Ivy League schools.
  4. This terrifying website which lets you know how long it has been since a GOP candidate or supporter has made an inappropriate comment about rape. (don’t worry- it includes links to more information about the particular comments made)
  5. This video (same guy as in #1 above) about what the actual difference is between National Debt and “The Deficit” and how they actually do or do not threaten our very existence as much as the media/some politicians make them seem.
  6. This article about so-called “Hipster Sexism” and what makes it slightly better than Classic Sexism (but still not great).

The internet is one of the main ways I stay informed. Videos like these ones I’ve linked to teach me about things I might not otherwise learn in so succinct a manner. Sure the issues might get touched on in a class or a CP&R workshop I attend on campus, but it’s very different to find information for yourself, versus having someone directly “teach” it to you. I find that I learn a lot more form the internet than I expect to, just by, for example, getting bored one day and deciding to look at the kinds of jobs Google and Facebook offer to non-computer-programmers. There’s a lot of useful information out there, but sometimes you just need to go out there and find it for yourself.

What kinds of useful information have you stumbled upon online? Has researching things on the internet influenced what kind of career you want to pursue?

What are you worth?

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Personal finance. Two incredibly intimidating words that, if I am to be quite honest, completely escape me. My knowledge of ‘personal financing’ extends to withdrawing and depositing money into my bank account. Beyond that, I’m at a bit of a loss. Which is why, when I learnt Life After Scripps was offering a workshop on personal financing, I immediately hopped on that train. As I was relieved to find out, so did a good portion of the rest of my class.

Professor Dillon—who is the most adorable and hilarious woman—led the crash course to a room full of “desperate seniors.” One of the reasons leaving Scripps feels so daunting is because for the first time in my life, I will be fully responsible for myself. I’ve never simultaneously paid rent, bought a car, managed bills, bought groceries, and worked—though that is exactly what the majority of the world is balancing. So while being wealthy does not necessarily fall under my perception of success, being financially independent does. Like most of the other students sitting in that room, I have so many visions and hopes for the future, and almost all of them require me to be in a financially secure position. This workshop was my first introduction to the steps in that life-long, ongoing process. Though I am by no means now an expert, I’ve highlighted a few points that may begin to demystify personal finance for you like it did for me:

Budgeting

A successful budget, also known as a spending plan, is contingent on creating a thorough and accurate cash flow statement.

Cash flow statement (or net income) = total income – total expenses

Total Expenses:  As Professor Dillon heavily stressed throughout the hour, the only way to control your financial life and build wealth is to know exactly where your money is going. That means following every, single penny. I’m not careless with my money, but I certainly can’t claim to keep a meticulous record of every late-night Yogurtland trip or spontaneous Target run. All those seemingly small expenditures add up to a significant, and often surprisingly large, amount. There are so many resources and tools available now to simplify the challenge of tracking your money—from online banking, to budget spreadsheets, to personal financing software. Apparently the new rage revolutionizing money management is a free site called mint.com. Valinda at CP&R recently discovered this handy innovation and, in her words, has “never been more excited about personal finance!” 🙂

Total Income: Your total income should be based off your net pay, i.e. your take home income after all taxes and deductions. Retirement savings accounts like a 401(k) or 403(b) are considered pre-tax deductions, meaning that money is deducted from your wages BEFORE taxes and put into your savings account, thereby reducing your taxable wages (that’s a good thing, yay!). You have probably heard this countless times in the past, but saving now means you are multiplying your wealth for later—all because of a magical little trick called compounding interest. Professor Dillon convinced me—‘open a savings account’ was just added to my growing to-do list for the weekend.

On another note, though this wasn’t a focus of the workshop, one line Professor Dillon said that really stuck with me was “Remember, your first job is not your career.” Most of the time, my post-graduation anxiety stems from the fear that I wont find or receive my dream job/internship/fellowship by May and will be forced into an arbitrary position completely unrelated to my passions and plans (shudder). Those are what I like to call my there-is-no-life-after-Scripps attacks. However, when I heard that line, it hit me—in a rare moment of comfort and reassurance—that seldom does a person’s first job define or limit their career path. While I would obviously prefer to be doing something I truly love this time next year, I am slowly coming to terms with the realistic possibility that I may also find myself back home in Texas working locally. Not that I am embracing that option—just understanding that it wouldn’t be permanent or reflective of the future.

P.S. In response to the title of the post, I just did the math (net worth = what you own – what you owe). As it turns out, I have a negative net worth. Awesome.