talked about finances from different aspects but today we're going to be specifically talking about students to help students to manage their personal finances we have as you see wide gamut of experts at our table today and  to learn from this so as you know i love statistics and one of the key things that really struck me when i looked at these numbers this morning was that fifty percent off college students have four or more party cards and i thinking of working cannot have find get a credit card but students have more credit cards that's interesting also that eighty percent of students fail to pay off their credit cards that's significant because it's going to impact their credit  students who are in college to be able to better their finances ok and we also found some just some hot tips on managing your money because we're big on education we found that and this may sound you know a little stereotypical but living at home  can be a smart financial choice for those who graduate college and i know a big thing that are you financial focuses on is how can you prepare for that fact to briefcase going from school to going from school to the real world and things like that you know should you stay home a little bit longer and save up tips like how do you negotiate for your first car purchase and you know your first lease on your new impart and how do you prepare for these things and these are not the skills are typically taught in school settings and jeff during the team i don't know they'll definitely acknowledge that i'm creating a financial plan is essential that's also something that are you financial focuses on how to build a budget how to better prepare yourself when these are the things that you need to be prepared for when you get out of school small indulgences indulgences can add a quick of course we're not saying don't have the fun but make sure you're planning carefully or spending wisely and you're aware of what's coming out of your pocket track your income versus your expenses the same thing be aware of what your spending automatic payments can help you pay bills on time things like organization well you know that's a great question you know years back we sort of working with college students and trying to attract them to come into our career and what we found that is most of the students that we spoke to never had any real exposure to any financial education from their freshman sophomore junior or senior year and even though they would be in finance majors they wouldn't have any type of education in the financial world so we decided to create this program with this company to address the issues that most young college students have today yes that's what's brilliant that's a brilliant move is this the only organization in new jersey just some things that you know as far as we know there may be other companies or any other organization maybe what in the in the years ago when i was in high school and in college i took a football coach is that influenced me to be better at what i do and to make an impact in other people's lives and i thought when i got out of college that you know a career in the financial world to make an impact in other people's lives would be something that would be very helpful to the community and and to young young people coming out of college wow and do you have contact with those coaches still today one died so unfortunately now and the other no i haven't spoke to him in a while because he's moved on to other different positions but no so often you he individuals who have come through their ranks in terms of owning them you know being coming into their own talk about people who have had a significant or impact on their lives and sometimes i think why we want things to try to do here is teach share knowledge in terms of at the time i had no idea either until later on in life that i well what impact they made exactly so just to kind of build off of that you know what do you think the impact is of mentorship you know on our youth because it was a big you know milestone for you in your youth that kind of got you where i know you shared a personal story as well there and there's got there's a lot of young men and women out there kids in high school in college who need a little help they need a little guidance they need someone to tap them on the shoulder and say hey this is what should be done this is how to do it this is the mistakes to avoid and many of them don't have maybe the right parental figure they don't follow the right teachers and maybe they're just not being coached properly own team and i believe that one coach can make an impact on a group of people that alone just want and there's a lot of people out there like me who if it wasn't for that one or two people in their lives who knows where they recommend to young students who are still in school as it pertains to the planning for their future or i think it goes right in line of what you have to find a mentor but you need to say you're busy being a student and having fun and where do you get guidance so i think if you have a mentor or maybe a teacher or a family member or friend you know these enough to have somebody that you know or look you know maybe find someone that's successful in your life that you know and say well how did you get to where you are what tips do you have for me starting out but i think the toughest thing is that we're you know the three of us are on the situation that we went from being a student where you're not really worried about your finances as much then you get out and start making money and what do you do with it and i know you mentioned at the top right the statistic with credit cards we see it every day that credit cards are a great thing if used correctly but most people over swipe overspend and aren't saving enough for themselves so if we can stay out of debt  you know that's a key thing to help us get along in the financial future and then i think the other biggest thing is don't be afraid to always teach yourself and continue learning right whether or not it's taking a course in financial planning attending info sessions maybe put on ourselves or other organizations in the school or even just doing some research on your own i think it's the best way you can ever stop learning because as you know technology investments money everything changes from time to time so you know what i find interesting  young people especially young people who are in college especially when it's not your money it's your mom's are your dad it's very parents money for exactly so you're spending it's not yours you don't know where it's coming from how hard someone had to work to get that and so forth until you start working in a cellar so how do you get to those and then just opening it up to everyone how do you get to those young people who are in college who is using free money but done many speeches in front of numerous college groups that leads traditional students what have you and many times all here student who may have three or four or maybe five credit cards well it's almost that why do you have five in the civil case the other four maxed out front and they just don't understand the impact that has on them one when they graduate and the amount of money they have to pay back into how it affects their credit and then put into the answer your question was how do we address that as we've put together a program called financial literacy for the college student where we're hoping to get in front of all the new jersey colleges the freshman especially the freshman that's when you get them young you can start to educate them when they're young so when they get the offers in the mail a free  free for a no fee credit card your credit limit of two thousand three thousand they sign up right away we're trying to educate them in the beginning is this let's not do that let's put that off till later if you need it in educate them so when they're freshman sophomore juniors and seniors when they go into the real world now is how do you manage a checkbook how do you handle a credit card how do you handle your utilities when you rent an apartment or when you buy a house a mortgage a car buying or leasing all these things are involved in  first you know challenge of people faces they finally have money coming in you know on a monthly basis and whether it's a little or a lot it's creating a budget and understanding how much they should be spending and how much they should be saving on a month to month basis credit cards get in the way of that you know we run into people all the time that are spending spending spending and they're not saving anything and i think i think the number one thing that people need to do is create a it doesn't have a budget whether it's in an excel spreadsheet or you know knowing how much comes in versus how much they're spending are much better off financially than those that just you know spend spend spend and don't have an idea of you know what's coming in first what's going out and i think when people sit down you know or you financial ourselves they understand and we're going to talk to you about these you know these things that most people don't want to talk about or you know they don't want to face because they're they don't really want to see what's going on you know behind the scenes of their credit cards their bank statements and that's you know it's a challenge that face and that we have to help our clients do on a day to day basis now how do you feel gold goal setting plays into this we talk about goal setting all the time short term medium term long term goals whether it's short term you know people saving for a wedding saving for a home a car medium term they're seeing for you know buying a house down the road or investing in a business in the long term so even her time in and i think that's a huge topic today is retirement planning  in jeopardy in our society so we talk about short medium long term goals you know throughout all or you know planning process and with our clients and i think that's a really crucial and i even will say myself when i had my first job out of college i was so excited about the actual job i didn't pay attention to the benefits i didn't even set up my four one k i did and i'd left that what i think when i was with a company that had amazing benefits and i had no clue the value until i left so what you're dealing with are your financial it's amazing because it's it's really setting them up for that first while lot and all that transition into the real world and i had a firsthand experience with that this week because i took my daughter to maryland because she's she graduated from college and she's getting her if she got a job in the d c area so s all the other things that come along with it the cable bill the renters insurance the utility bills the their cell phone they have to pay for there's a number of food you know they forget about all the things that come along with it they just see the money for the perennial financial planning firm for all of the new jersey college students for the faculty and staff of the universities as well as the alumni you know we want to be the resource the prime you know primary resource for all these people to come to to find out you know what how what kind of help do they need and on layers of finance well that's great because it takes a village they say and you're right it's not only about the student but all these good person yeah they end up moving on in becoming the faculty and the staff of the universities in the alumni in the real world and they're adding to society and they need to be educated definitely so how do you engage with the s in to talk about you know our career and what do we do what kind of career path do we offer will do career pedophile people the students will be able to sit in the audience and ask us questions on different types of things that we do we help them write resumes within our borders or our firm i think we've had probably twelve and twelve so far to make always because what we want to hire them and we would love to hire as many college students as we can once they graduate if they're in the right field in the right time and that's our ultimate goal is to build a firm of college students have who have been educated by us who are graduate and say wow we want to make the same impact in other people so are you financial just long we're not affiliated with any university ok but we work with all of the universities all that makes any sense that's so but are humans are you are you ok i don't but that it just happens to look that way but are you financially preparation for the real world and you know the amazing things that are you financial provides why do you feel the universities lack these real world classes and that's a good question too i've interviewed so many college students and specially ones that are business majors they're finance majors and the economics majors they talk about through their classes have been structured in big picture you know in big picture world economics it's not broken down into the individual economics in underneath your roof of your house but they'll talk about the big picture what's going on overseas you know what's going on domestically and how that all intertwined together and how the countries making money and how the coach is making money  big corporate america is making money and spending money or losing money but they don't talk about what's going on under the individual's house or roof and they don't talk about how just to balance a checkbook you know how do you how do you look at interest rates on credit cards how do you deal with leases or buying a car mortgages oh my you know that's a big thing you know so and so the school most schools are more focused on the big picture versus the individual right and the kids are suffering from th your experience and are you financial or how does that really impact if what you you and the the work that you're doing right i mean i think it's been a huge obviously personally on me but in terms of the businesses i want to write or write i have my bachelor's and master's from writer now we're going back over the past few years to provide financial literacy not only to students the faculty of the alumni the staff in the past couple months we've spoken four or five times to different student organizations a couple clubs a couple athletic teams and from some of the faculty and a lot of questions and things that you think might be common knowledge or hey i just united know about that and it's been it's been a big way for me to give back and say i took a these these kids understand what's the next steps in their lives that you know i really wasn't aware of i'm sure mike you don't as well and we don't get that education and knowledge and you know i think one of the things that we can talk about is we practice what we preach to me to our  clients as well as the students or faculty that we talk about you know we are creating a budget savings plan and you know working towards our own financial futures as well as our clients so it's been an experience that is rewarding to you know have students come up and say hey thanks i really appreciate what you guys did today you know can you come talk to this organization come talk to that organization i was at riker's yesterday for a networking event helping student athletes meet with different professionals to acquire jobs and  networking you know i had a lot of students come up to me to ask me more about what are the financials about how they want to learn more one of my interns was there that was working with mike and myself this this fall she introduced us to a ton of people as well and said you should really talk to these guys and and learn a little bit more about then having enjoyed it's been that obviously similar to like in sac but i've been doing it for us a little over six months nelson on the newest member lisa junior partner and just basically it's been an amazing ride so far being able to get back to i graduated from rider with not with mike but along with mine it's been great to get back to my alma mater though and the students done some financial literacy seminars and it's just been a fun ride while being able to do that  graduate with a degree in psychology and joking around and i say this on the show is i play football in college and when i talk to a lot of athletes i say i majored in football i got a degree that came in psychology and what but you know it's starting early you know i wish i started earlier or i mean by that earlier as i wish when my freshman year i started thinking about you know what's going to what's the impact going to be financially when i graduate from college and what are my bills going to be how much money should i start saving  i wish i took you know a better look at my benefits like deseret said when she was younger you know when you're young you don't really think that he actually that much you know until somebody taps you on the shoulder and says hey you should look at this  so i think everybody's just start younger you know start thinking as a freshman not a senior right and that's exactly what i was kind of going to do is what is your younger s you know just looking at people today is that there's we're spending first and saving second and i think i was definitely in that boat as well growing up you know you make money and you want to go buy some things but i think it's being able to save you know fifteen or twenty percent of what you're bringing in putting that away and then going enjoying your life you know we tell our clients you know we're not going to tell you to sit in and as as jeff likes to say as you know watch netflix and the popcorn every weekend but you know you spend you know crazy and going out and it's being able to see a certain amount of money month to month that you're putting it away so that's what i would i would have just you know like to change you said something i'm coming to you anymore but i'm going to set something up both you know savings and i think a lot of time students as well as adults say i am not earning enough to save and what do you say to that and you know that's a good place what do you say to say first may your so first get in line for your own money first say just like you mentioned i don't have enough money i don't make enough for them overworked underpaid all these different things and we say well do you know where your money is actually going to pay this umbrella of my car but have you ever actually written it down and looked at it have you gone to your credit card or debit card statement and looked at your bill and i say yes but they haven't so when they actually do that then it becomes pretty evident that oh it's not too hard to see on your two hundred however much money or month so it's just you know educating them on that but just kind of knowing where you dollars go right to health i think that's a key point i think overall it's education i think there's a lack of awareness a lot of there's a lot of fear around finance i don't understand it i don't have the time i don't have the money but it's starting somewhere and i think that's something that i've been blown away with very financially helps give you that starting point is that for the first step is actually just making making an attempt to see to get yourself on track just another piece of most younger professionals are lacking is discipline self i think it would be savored more save earlier and i would say this to my clients and family and friends that from personal level both my parents are entering retirement in the next few years and we've done a lot of work with not only them but pushed if i had to go back to my only son just say budget actually go through and i was more of just you know obviously i want to have fun but i wouldn't budget myself and save for myself i just go out and have fun so i think you just want to be able to save for yourself again and make sure you're doing it at least a little bit like you said ten dollars even exactly well time goes by when you're having fun well most at the end of our show but i'd like to hear from you many years later just to get that insight because i didn't start out in finance i didn't have a clue about like a set of four one k plan or savings but i'd say probably in line with someone go to the workshops i've really liked what mike said about going to educational workshops and are taking it online course you can get started anyway don't have to spend a lot of money you just have to get yourself i started and i just wanted to also share you know my experience you know being an ambassador and i think the one thing that i've taken away being a part of the team is  one in turn in particular guys i won't say the name because that i think you all know who i'm talking about she said she tapped into a part of herself that she didn't realise certain skills and abilities and shrank said she didn't know she had being a part of the army financial team having the that it's not what you earn is what you say someone told me a wise woman told me that many many years ago and i've lived my life by a bad i like to end today's show by saying it's not what you earn this what you say and