Personal finance class to debut this fall

While most universities recognize that preparing their students for life in the "real world" is their most important goal, certain aspects of this well-rounded education tend to be ignored. That's where certified financial planner Jared Pickens steps in.

A graduate of Texas Tech and Kansas State with an undergraduate and master's degree in personal financial planning, Pickens will be teaching a personal finance class during the 2010 fall semester at A&M-Commerce. The class, officially Finance 497: Intro to Personal Finance, began as a thesis project at Kansas State.

"Instead of doing a traditional thesis for my master's degree, I was allowed to design and implement a personal finance class," Pickens said. "I also was part of a volunteer program at Texas Tech where I did financial planning and financial counseling for students. That was the inspiration for this class."

Pickens approached A&M-Commerce with the help of current A&M-Commerce CFP Director Dr. Nathan Harness, one of Pickens's professors at Texas Tech, and the school quickly latched on to the idea. The class, which is completely online, is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of personal finance.

"Our biggest goals are to educate students on every aspect of financial planning, encourage people to live within their means and to teach students to save some money," Pickens said. "By the end of the class, you should be able to put your own personal finance plan together before you earn your first paycheck. We teach everything from money management to debt to investment to real estate. Anything you want to know, we cover it."

This class provides A&M-Commerce students with a unique opportunity for a university of A&M-Commerce's size.

"It's relatively new and I think you're going to see classes like this more and more needed as things like what happened in 2008 continue to occur," Pickens said. "We're slowly seeing classes like this come in, but it's rather slow."

As the financial world becomes more and more complicated, students will need to seek educational opportunities to remain up-to-date on everything that's going on. Since personal finance is such a daunting topic, many students simply ignore it.

"I think all students should have a basic understanding of personal finance," Harness said. "The financial world is becoming increasingly complex and the responsibility for understanding that complexity falls square[ly] on the individual. College students today need a basic understanding of retirement funding, student loans, credit card debt, employee benefits, and a plethora of other financial concepts."

Without a sound financial education, many students exit college loaded with debt. For students who aren't making that much money coming out of college, this is a questionable strategy.

"The average student graduates with up to $3,000 to $4,000 in debt," Pickens said, "and that doesn't even count student loans. Because we live in a consumer-driven society, we want everything now. We want what our parents have now."

This "need-it-now" attitude leads to poor financial decisions by students, which can impact their appreciation of their education and their ability to give back to their university.

"I get a number of parents and alumni who tell me they wish they had not learned personal finance the "hard way"- through making the wrong financial decisions," Harness said. "Understanding basic finance has become a necessity to function in the complex financial environment we live in."

News of the class has spread quickly among faculty and staff, and Pickens is confident that the class will continue to be offered at A&M-Commerce. While there are hopes of adding it as a minor or to the university's core curriculum, for now the class is open to all students.

"I encourage students to check with their advisers to see if the class will give them credit towards their degree plans," Pickens said. "[But] the class is open to anyone. I'm hoping that the class goes so well that we can add sections and eventually see a live class in A&M-Commerce."