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December 2006/ January 2007
Ready for the Real World
Pomona College's popular personal finance seminar helps seniors
prepare for everything from salary negotiations to apartment hunting to
retirement planning. |
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This fall, dozens of Pomona College seniors gathered around the tables
in Frank Dining Hall once a week to explore, you know, the usual stuff
that occupies the minds of college students: retirement
planning, disability insurance, tax brackets.
Seriously, though, these students will be heading out into the real
world (or graduate school) in a matter of months. And while their
knowledge of politics, art history or neuroscience should launch them
into dynamic careers and meaningful lives, it probably won’t help them
know what to look for in an apartment lease or car insurance.
 So Pomona’s
Career Development Office and
Economics Department teamed up
to offer a “Life After College: Personal Financial Planning” seminar
covering everything from salary negotiations to investing basics to
learning how to read between the lines in apartment ads (example:
“up-and-coming neighborhood” means not-so-great right now). More than 90
students – a quarter of the senior class – signed up for the series of
four two-hour seminars.
“There was a lot of student demand, students saying ‘we want to learn
this stuff but we don’t know how,’” says Michael Steinberger, the
assistant professor of economics who helped develop the class with Carl
Martellino, director of the Career Development Office.
Students get no academic credit for the seminar, but they expect it will
pay off handsomely down the road. Diana Khuu ’07 appreciates the chance
to learn about finances “before you make major mistakes.” As for the
content of the seminar, “everything has just been kind of shocking
because young people don't think about the logistics of what it's like
to live on your own,” she says.
 “They get into all the nitty-gritty,” adds Doris Lee ’07 of the class.
“Just how detailed it is – it’s impressive.”
Parents will be pleased as well.
Senior Class President Alexandra Romano
brought her class binder home over Thanksgiving and her dad was "really
impressed by it."
Homework assignments for students include creating a monthly/yearly
budget, accessing and reviewing their credit report and looking up
rental rates for the city they plan to move to after graduating.
Hot topics include finding an apartment, sorting through health
insurance plans and the dangers of credit card debt. In one session,
Martellino, lecturer for the classes, rattles off some startling stats
about plastic:
-- How much credit card debt does the average college student have?
$2,500
-- What percentage of college students have a maxed-out credit card? 50
percent
-- Between 1990 and 2002, how much did the average credit card debt of
college students increase? 55 percent.
These facts have the room abuzz with chatter. And the next week brings
another shocker, as students learn they might need somewhere in the
ballpark of $5 million to retire comfortably. (That’s accounting for
inflation and remember, these are young people who won’t likely be
retiring for another 40 or more years.)
Other tips from the seminar deal with more immediate issues, such as
drawing up a personal budget, and the importance of looking at both
salary and benefits when evaluating job offers.
 Martellino, who holds a stockbroker’s license and runs his own part-time
financial planning practice, has long advocated educating students in
money matters as part of colleges’ career development offerings. It was
in his previous career-development position at UCLA that he developed a
two-hour talk on the subject, first addressing others in the career
development field about the importance of financial issues, and also
speaking to students at CalTech and Occidental College.
He brought that talk with him to Pomona, but expanded it into this
four-session class last year, when economics students approached that
department about their need for a personal finance course. “When I got a
chance to expand it, I thought, ‘oh, this is great because I can fit
everything in.’ Now I’ve put about 15 hours worth of material into
eight,’’ says Martellino, who expects students will go back over the
materials later on, as needed.
So, along with a great education and fond memories, many members of the
Class of 2007 will be leaving Pomona with a thick black binder loaded
with tips to make the transition from college to the real world smoother
– and richer.
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