By Ben Steutermann
We all know the tired old stereotype: broke college kid, eating dollar store ramen and instant coffee to get by on not enough money while paying outlandish student debts. Driving an old beater with a ruined heater, if you have a car at all, working a dead-end job to make ends meet. Maybe even a parental “what are you going to use that degree for?” thrown in for added flavor.
There are whole trends online, be it on Reddit, TikTok, Instagram or any other networking site about “survival tips” for broke college students, low cost recipes, easy side gigs, and other methods of making ends meet.
But what if you were told it didn’t have to be this way? What if stockpiling money for the future wasn’t just a tool for the boomers and the one percent? What if you had the same tools everyone else did to make your millions? That’s not simple alliteration, I do mean millions.
At my high school, there was a course on money management. Half of this class was simply watching Dave Ramsay, which gave an easy A, but the other half came with useful notes that have come in handy six years later. With these simple notes and a few conversations with bank attendants I have built up a little nest egg for myself that will continue to grow as time goes on, and all that I have to do is let it silently grow in my bank account.
What baffles me, however, is that U of L offers no obvious class to teach students about how to be prosperous outside of university. Having a piece of paper that certifies that you are smart is great, but if you can’t balance a budget, don’t know how to save money, and aren’t aware of the tools at your disposal, how are we expected to prosper?
If a private high school can host a class that successfully teaches students to save their money, a federally and state funded university should be able to do this as well. It should be a part of the required classes for either freshmen or seniors. Maybe if we educate ourselves on the real world, important things like money-saving, we can get rid of that tired old stereotype, and more importantly, help the next classes of students.
