As a college student, I feel like I am constantly juggling tuition, rent, insurance, and groceries in a juggling act called my economic health. To be quite frank, however, I have a very poor sense of budgeting, and this is possibly why I feel this constant cloud of worry for my economic wellness - but this is just me sharing about my reckless spending, I hope many of you cannot relate. All of these thoughts became suddenly more apparent though when our cohort participated in a Financial Literacy workshop hosted by CAUSE board member, Gary Arakawa, and his colleagues at Covington Capital Management. Gary graciously shared his time with us and introduced a staff of people who also shared their time in efforts to encourage younger people to be more financially conscious of their decisions.
I was definitely actively checked into the workshop, especially in light of what the beans game would entail. In a game that took place on an Excel sheet, we were supposed to fill out which needs we find necessary in our daily lives, and what impact these needs have on our overall budget. Gary emphasized whilst discussing the bean game that our income must be stretched over multiple different needs, such as transportation, housing, and groceries, but how we choose to divide our income to meet these needs is what is going to determine how much money we have left for investing, saving, or for leisurely spending. I will definitely note that when I played the game, my total landed in the red, which meant that I was living above my means, and might I tell you, this definitely freaked me out. I thought immediately about my spending habits and how they might not be too healthy and honestly found myself stressed out from this game. And it was only the beginning of the workshop! As the workshop continued, however, I found myself calming down knowing that I was equipped with the knowledge necessary to better my economic health.
With tools such as investing and saving, the Covington staff shared that we as young people are able to start building our wealth right now, even though it might not seem that way. When they showed the results of someone who started investing at the age of 19, compared to someone who started investing shortly after, the results were astoundingly different, just by a couple of years of difference. Seeing this truly inspired me to open my own Roth IRA, and I will note that this presentation has encouraged the action steps for me to do so.
In reflecting on my feelings regarding my financial health, I started to ponder on my habits regarding spending - how I can justify purchasing an item of leisure, like a new dress, and not buying organic broccoli instead frozen broccoli because it is cheaper. I definitely struggle with financial insecurity, I think most first-generation college students do, and I think that growing up in a low socioeconomic status has implemented a survivor mode that I am on most of the time. But as I grow older, and have started becoming financially independent from my family, I notice that I try to heal my younger self by allowing myself to buy things that I find enjoyment in. As I begin to analyze the seeds of my past, I recognize that there must be a balance between survival mode and leisurely spending - a happy medium that is composed of saving, investing, and joy. With this happy medium, I hope to start building wealth for generations to come.
