Finance is scary! Let’s talk about it.

We know — discussing finances is not most people’s idea of a good time. It’s confusing, overwhelming and definitely not something that we’re taught to navigate well. So many of us avoid it until we absolutely have to face it. FAFSA deadlines quickly approach, rent is due, student loans pile up, and the stress of it all makes you want to shove your face into the couch and hibernate. The hardest part is not knowing how to move forward or who to talk to about what steps you should take. 

PSU’s Financial Wellness Center is the perfect resource for anyone and everyone in need of financial support. The FWC recently implemented a new model that focuses on giving students the knowledge and confidence to make their own financial decisions. Instead of throwing finance jargon at you like those YouTube tutorials do, the FWC’s staff will sit down with you and explain it in real words. 

To get a better look at the FWC, Inside Portland State talked with Jennifer Bell, Director of Financial Aid, at PSU. Jennifer and her team want to make sure that every single student, current or prospective, knows they have someone on their side when it comes to their finances. You don’t have to do it alone, and it doesn’t have to make you want to rip out your hair. 

Read the full interview below to understand more about how PSU’s Financial Wellness Center can be there for you!

IPS: Can you give a brief overview of what the Financial Wellness Center’s role is on PSU campus and how they step in to help students?

JB: The Financial Wellness Center has implemented a new, educationally focused model this year. We want to be engaged with helping students be more proactive around learning and understanding their finances, with topics that are both relevant to them here at PSU and beyond. We provide support with FAFSA and information around student loans, but also very basic financial literacy topics like budgeting and credit — maybe a student is interested in purchasing their first car, we can offer special topic workshops as well. Our goal is to offer information on topics that are relevant to students both now and in the future.

Right now, we're using a mostly workshop based model. We have workshops that align with the national areas of emphasis for financial literacy; credit, saving, investing, borrowing, and budgeting. We have these workshop topics prepared ahead of time, so we schedule them throughout the term and advertise them with different campus departments, student groups, professors, or any organization on campus that is interested. If they'd like a special topic, we have a program request form that departments or individuals can fill out to request a workshop that's more tailored to their interests, as long as it's related to some financial topic.

IPS: Are these workshops in person or online? 

JB: Both. We try to have an equal number of virtual and in person, and we scatter the timing, because the PSU student population has a lot of different needs. We have some in the evening and we tend to host a lot during the community hour, because we know that students have time during that period.

IPS: What is the most common challenge you see students face when it comes to finances? 

JB: The most common challenge is that when it comes to financial literacy topics, students perceive developing financial literacy as something for their future self to worry about, rather than one that exists right now. The biggest challenge is getting students to become more proactive in managing their finances by moving them toward coming up with a plan or a budget that keeps their spending front of mind. We take opportunities where students have a clear financial need to help them problem-solve in the moment, and also help them map out a plan for future terms. We use the problems that students articulate to tie in some opportunity for us to be of assistance for them.

IPS: What advice would you have given your college-aged self about balancing having fun as a student while still being smart with money?

JB: It's important to leave space for the things that you value. You have your needs, but you got to live a little right?  What we're here to talk about is prioritization — what do you value? What do you need to be thinking more long term about? It is also important to have a strategy. You can pick away at everyday decisions, but having a strategy about one goal that you'd like to reach helps to keep things in perspective.

IPS: What gaps do you see in student financial education and how is the Wellness Center trying to fill those gaps?

JB: The biggest gaps that exist are knowledge around things that maybe students haven't encountered yet again. It's their first time in life experiencing a lot of the things that may have been taught in high school, like filing their taxes. It's one thing to learn something, but it's a whole different thing to actually apply it.

IPS: On the Financial Wellness website it states that you are offering financial education, not advising. Can you explain the difference?

JB: We want to arm students with the tools to make their own decisions, but we're not going to tell you what to do. We want you to be an informed borrower, an informed consumer, and we want you to have the information that you need to be able to make sound financial decisions, whatever the case might be. We present the options, help students understand what they mean, and we're careful about pressuring students or trying to influence students in one way or another, because it really comes down to what you value or what you feel you need in the moment.

IPS: Can you tell us about the process of setting up an appointment or a workshop with the FWC and how much of a time commitment it might be?

JB: The workshops are about 45 minutes to an hour, and we use a presentation/workshop request form that anybody at PSU can use to request whatever workshop they're interested in. We try to tailor every workshop or presentation to whoever we're talking to. If we know we're talking to a group of students that are close to graduation, we might provide them different information than a first year student, for example.

For the first time in a number of years, we've hired a team of student workers to help us with the workshops. We will train anybody who is curious, passionate, committed to learning, and wants to impact other students through the work we do here. 

Some topics tend to be a little bit more exciting to students than others, or timely. So FAFSA workshops tend to get a little bit more full.

The FAFSA priority deadline for PSU is March 1. For the winter term to help students meet that deadline, we're hosting drop-in FAFSA completion workshops three days a week all the way through February 1. Whether they’re prospective students or current students, we’ll help anybody who can drop in. At the end of the day, we're just happy that folks want to interact with us and start their journey to learning about their finances.

IPS: Is there anything else you’d like students to know about approaching the FWC? 

JB: There are no dumb questions as it pertains to financial literacy. We try to cater our educational efforts to students at all levels. If you come in and you've never made a budget and you don't know the first thing about it, it's okay. We don't want students to be intimidated or embarrassed. We tailor our content to be applicable to anyone who would attend.

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