Teaching Smart Financial Tips to Young Adults

Handling your personal finances is something we all have to do, whether we like it or not.

Knowing how to handle your money is a valuable skill, but as high school students dive into calculus and trigonometry, understanding basic finance skills isn’t really covered.

It’s a fear for many students as they soon enter the working world.
 
 “In high school we weren’t really taught anything, it was kind of a fend for yourself,” says Erin Winters of Belle Plaine, Minnesota.
 
 And as Erin Winters thinks about life after graduation, fending for herself is a scary thought especially when you don’t know how.
 
“Walking out of here with thousands and ten thousands of dollars’ worth of debt and trying to find a way to pay that off and not have to pay that off for the rest of my life,” says Winters.
 
Many high schools don’t offer any sort of personal finance class.

In fact according to a higher one press release, 90% of students feel they don’t have all the necessary information to pay off their student loans.
 
“Make sure that you start to get control of your debt know exactly what your payments are going to be know what other debt you might have and create a budget,” says Bell State Virtual Bank Manager, Brian Haugen.
 
Brian Haugen is a virtual bank manager at Bell State.

He says there are right ways and there are wrongs ways to handle your debt, you just have to know.
 
“Paying off either small ones first just to get them off or finding those ones that have the highest interest rate,” says Haugen.
 
“Many of these students will soon be applying for jobs but what they don’t know is that their credit score could determine whether they get that job or not.”
 
“I’m a little nervous about trying to establish credit because I don’t have anything at this point so I don’t know how getting a credit card works anything like that,” says Arlo Baratono of Bemidgi, Minnesota.
 
“What I recommend is taking out a credit card with a small balance something you know that you can pay off regularly and making sure you make those automatic monthly payments,” says Haugen.
 
Luckily, Ian Bergh is one step ahead.
 
“I don’t ever really reach my limit on purpose and then I like to pay it off every month because I like good credit,” he says.
 
But it looks like Ian might be one of just a select few.
 
“I wish there was a class that would go, that would teach that,” says Baratono.

Bell State Bank does offer CEP programs teaching students from elementary school to college, the importance of financial education.

If you’re interested in getting a class like this at your school, Haugen encourages people to contact your local Bell State Bank for more information.