Tired of being ignorant in the financial world, some female
college students want to learn about money management to better
hold their own in the stock market and investments.
To meet that need for financial education, a newly formed
student group known as “Assets,” sponsored by the
Center for Women & Men, is helping women face money illiteracy
and become financially savvy.
On Wednesday, the group sponsored its first event, a
presentation by Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, both successful Wall
Street investors, who related how women can become financially
independent.
Students Rebecca Hernandez and Deondra Carter co-founded the
club in fall quarter 2003 when they felt there was a specific need
for women to be educated about the money they were earning or
saving, now or in the future.
“I feel like we spend four years of our lives at school to
eventually have a career so we can make an income and make a
livelihood for ourselves ““ but then, we are not educated
enough to manage the money we earn,” said Hernandez, a
fourth-year geography student and president of Assets.
The two students brought the idea to Tina Oakland, director of
the Center for Women & Men, at the beginning of fall
quarter.
“Before I even finished looking at their flier, I agreed
because the club will help women deal with their fear of discussing
financial matters and credit card management,” Oakland
said.
“The fact that so many credit card companies are trying to
buy students for life with their high rates makes this club even
more necessary,” she added.
In their presentation Wednesday, Bahr and Wall talked about
their experiences with the Women’s Institute for Financial
Education, a group they co-founded themselves.
The WIFE organization is the oldest non-profit organization
dedicated to helping women in their quest for financial
independence.
The two women, authors of the book “It’s not Money,
it’s your Life!” proposed a method they said is
successful in educating women about investing, saving and talking
to marriage partners about finances.
The method was to create a money club in which members would
share stores if success and failure stories in getting out of debt
and investing in stocks and mutual funds.
In essence, the money club idea fits exactly the description of
the newly formed club Assets, according to club founders.
Hearing that many of the students present at the meeting were
concerned about “overdrawing from their accounts,”
“being financially inept,” and “becoming a victim
of credit card debt,” Bahr and Wall gave many useful
money-managing tips.
For example, you could prevent credit card debt by using
automatic deposits and leaving credit cards at home, Bahr said.
On the issue of investment, the authors advised students who
were not so stock-savvy to invest in mutual funds, especially
indexed mutual funds.
Index mutual funds, such as Vanguard, are not managed, so their
costs are lower, said Wall.
“But it is most important that you start investing
regularly and maybe just holding a few shares over a long period of
time,” Bahr said.
Assets meets every Tuesday 6 p.m. at the Center for Women
& Men in the Student Activities Center. It is open to all
students.