By MICHELLE BERAN
Cottonwood Extension District
I often hear adults complain about the lack of financial skills with young people.
While there are times that I certainly understand the frustration as I learned to make change at my first job at age 13. There are other times that I remind myself, and others, that if someone doesn’t teach them, they can’t know what they don’t know.
In my new role as a Family and Community Wellness agent, I get to lean into twenty years of banking experience and utilize great financial resources from K-State Extension.
I have had an opportunity to begin work with a small group of college students. In our initial session, we worked through wants versus needs and that can sure be a tough conversation!
This is followed up by setting SMART financial goals with the students looking at goals between now and the end of the school year, intermediate goals of 3-5 years, and long-term goals of 8-10 years. As a reminder, SMART refers to Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
I was very impressed by several whose intermediate and long-term goals included where they wanted to be in their career and the tools they would need to saving for a house.
The next step was identifying sources of income and categorizing expenses. We pulled all of those pieces together into a basic budget! One of my favorite questions – from more than one student – was “if I have money left, how much should I be putting into savings?”
I am looking forward to working with this group over the next few months as we take a hard look at how to be an efficient grocery store shopper, work on basic cooking skills, and other skills that can help them be more effective adults and employees.
We have several great publications and tools if you need to take a look at your financial goals and move your household toward financial stability and security.
Keep learning. Keep showing grace and kindness!
Michelle Beran is a Family and Community Wellness Agent in the Cottonwood Extension District. For more information on this article or other K-State Extension resources, email Michelle at [email protected] or call Cottonwood Extension District – Barton Office at 620-793-1910.