By Jack Leo
John Grable, a financial planning professor at the University of Georgia, said he has seen plenty of college students live larger than their wallets can handle.
Perhaps Grable’s most personal observation was his own son, who the professor said made many costly financial mistakes as an undergraduate at UGA.
“It turns out that I think he was borrowing money for fun UGA experiences, not to pay tuition,” Grable said. “He has a really good job now, but he’s paying for those good times he had at UGA.”
Grable said he is not suggesting students forgo enjoying college life, but the published author and Financial Therapy Association Hall of Fame inductee said college students need a financial plan.
To be clear, Grable said his financial plan is not a budget. He said budgets can often discourage college students when they fail to follow the strict rules and unrealistic expectations set for themselves.
Grable compared financial planning to dieting. The professor said consistent good decisions make a diet successful.
“If you go on a diet, and all you do is eat really terrible food all day long, the diet lasts about two weeks before a chocolate chip cookie is irresistible,” Grable said. “So rather than just punishing yourself, have a cookie occasionally.”
Grable said he does not believe in a hard set of universal rules for improving spending habits, but rather a flexible plan that understands life is more complex than what any budgeting app can predict.
“One should have a spending plan, but I’m not sure it has to be on your phone, and you’re following it, and you’re feeling guilty if you spend ($5 over),” Grable said. “That seems counterproductive to me in some respects.”
Tim Welicky, a UGA student, agreed. Welicky has been investing since he was 11 years old and has spent the last few years offering free financial advice for his friends as they struggle with money in college.
Dispensing financial advice is Welicky’s career goal, after all. The third-year student is a financial advising intern at Northwestern Mutual.
Having spoken to plenty of college students seeking financial advice, Welicky said a personalized plan without rigid, hardcore boundaries gives students their best chance at improving spending habits.
“If you know you hate cooking and you know you’re going to eat out all the time, then plan to eat out,” Welicky said. “Let’s not cheat ourselves, and then maybe find some other ways to cut back.”
Welicky said most of his friends’ financial struggles are due to not understanding how achievable healthy spending can be with diligent research and the creation of a flexible plan.
“It’s just a lack of willingness to do it,” Welicky said. “The biggest one that I hear every single day that frustrates me is, ‘I’ll start that when I’m 22. I’ll start that when I’m 23. I’m 19, I’m 20, I don’t need to start that now.’”
But Welicky said he wants college students to recognize that creating a realistic financial plan and following it will instill important spending discipline that will influence life after college.
“The reality is that those habits start early,” Welicky said. “Failing to do that early, nothing changes when you start making a little more money.”
Jack Leo is a journalism student at the University of Georgia
