Money Clubs

Today will be my first meeting with a friend of mine to discuss our finances.

Just like working out your body, you should also work out your mind, right? Well that's what my classes are for (or supposed to be anyways) and that is also, in a way, what this is for.

My wallet has been stretched by paying for my education. This morning I found out that I only am marginally more in student loan debt than my fiance. I thought, and he did too, that my student loans are more than they actually are. On Friday I was discussing some things with a friend of mine and we actually summed everything up. What I found out was shocking.

I'm only in approximately $23 thousands worth of student loan debt when I originally thought it was $40 thousands worth. So I breathed a *sigh* of relief.

This doesn't mean I'm out of hot water, oh no it surely doesn't, but it does mean that I can breath easier about how much it is and, if I get my finances in order otherwise I can make reasonable payments on it, for interest, etc., and worry about it much later.

So going to graduate school is still in the stars for me so I'm super happy.

What my friend and I are doing is implementing a strategy I recommended last semester for us, putting together a Money Club. "What is a Money Club?" you may be asking. Well, it's a strategy recommended by the Women In Finance Education (WIFE) organization. Talk about empowerment.

So we learn best about things when we can talk it over with someone else. I know I feel better about my problems when I open up to my friends. Instead of trying to go through something like Consumer Credit Counseling Services [Note: This may not be the official site, I just picked a random one that looked legitimate from a google.com search], we decided to bring our experiences together and reflect on why we are making bad choices and how we might remedy those choices.

WIFE.org and Money Clubs emphasis that our money attitudes are based on past experiences and, effectively, how we were brought up to think about money. They take a very psychological approach on the whole money scheme. It may not be particularly because we live very affluently or because we don't make enough money (although making enough money to make your payments is part of it, and of course you really should learn to live within your means to be able to make payments on time), but because of how we feel about spending money, our spending habits, and how we project that onto how we invest, etc.

It seems like a very wholistic approach to finding out about your money philosophy. A friend of mine and I are starting to meet together and I have another friend that's interested. I really think that, if universities want alumni to donate back to them, universities should consider supporting a position that would teach students about finances or make more general finance courses available for students who are not finance majors. Not as simple as balancing your checkbook, that's what elementary algebra is for, but more complicated matters like budgeting and figuring out what's the best move for you financially.

Liberal Arts schools, like Small U, should really think about it. If the Liberal Arts education has to hold up, stop teaching students how to spend, but teach them how to save and pay down debt. Then they will be happy alumni that can send checks to the alumni office, instead of bitter, debt-filled, resentful alumni that won't send you a dime because "you already took all my money...", etc.

But anyways, I think it's already starting to change our ways about thinking about money. Discussing these issues will take the stress out of avoiding them. Confrontation is good. It (debt) will continue to exist whether or not we do something about it and it's better to do something about it than to just avoid it completely. I know we'll get somewhere with this.

How would you feel about opening up about your finances to friends? I don't have much in terms of finances so I guess I'm pretty open about it now, but might not be in the future. I guess I should take advantage of that while I still can. ;).