For this generation, the definition and image of an adult holds deep financial focus.
FIU’s newest addition, the SunTrust FIU Financial Wellness Clinic, is meant to educate students and parents on financial literacy. We urge students to seek this opportunity so that they may become more well-rounded and financially savvy adults.
As a commuter school, many students may live at home with their families and haven’t been faced with the challenge of contributing to mortgages, car payments or insurance. Not only are college students the demographic most targeted by credit card companies, most of us are undertaking thousands of dollars in loans a semester just to even attend school.
A great deal of financial responsibility sits on our shoulders already, even if we may not immediately recognize the long term consequences or understand credit. This is why it’s important for students to utilize the Suntrust FIU Financial Wellness Clinic.
According to their business plan the clinic will serve as a “solutions center, focused on providing financial education and resources to engage the community.” The new facility will arm students with a basic understanding of personal finance so that they may not fall victim to neglect and harm their financial standing.
The College of Business will additionally host workshops and lectures on personal finance topics with particular attention to students at the University and in Miami-Dade County public schools. The topics will encompass retirement, interest rates, budgeting and even one’s first paycheck among some other basics of financial literacy.
We feel that students may not be thinking enough about retirement as there seems to be plenty of time in the future to worry about it. At our age, we also understand that paychecks are precious.
They feed us, clothe us and allow us medical treatment, but too many of us rely on pay-day to come around and scrape us by another week or two. Even if it starts off very small, some sort of saving plan is critical to our financial security as young adults.
Flavio Carrillo, faculty administrator and director of the Capital Markets Lab at FIU’s College of Business, believes financial literacy empowers students to fulfill their own dreams and positively impact their communities.
We agree with Carrillo that an understanding of finances is a major key in developing into a contributing member of society. There is a sense of empowerment that stems from understanding how to maintain a good credit score and to pay for our own cars and houses.
There is a stereotype that college students, regardless of state, race or school, are all struggling financially. As students ourselves, the editorial board of Student Media understands how tight money can get in college. We welcome the available resources to better educate our students and the community on financial literacy.
We applaud the University for undertaking an initiative that shows an understanding of student needs; but students must be active members in their own development as well.
Becoming an adult requires an active pursuit and seizure of opportunities, and to ask and learn when questions arise. When we’re learning, we use the term “adulting” to describe the temporary act of doing something an adult would do.
We are all young adults and must realize that “adulting” will soon be an everyday occurrence for all of us and one day, we will simply call it “living.”
Image retrieved from Flickr.
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