But now, as one of the developers of the IU Office of Financial Literacy, Schuman intends to help students who find themselves in the same situation he went through, he said.
Schuman and his colleague Morgan McMillan spoke at the Cha Ching presentation on financial literacy at the DeVault Alumni Center on Wednesday night. Schuman and McMillan run IU’s MoneySmarts team with the Office of Financial Literacy.
“Between my MBA and my wife’s law degree, we had thousands and thousands of dollars in debt,” Schuman said. “But it wasn’t debilitating because we knew how to pay it off correctly. A lot of students don’t realize that debt doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.”
The event was part of the IU Alumni Association’s “Life After IU” series. The speaker series aims to help students learn professional skills and transition to supporting themselves after graduation, said Emili Sperling, IUAA’s associate director of career and professional development.
The series also includes programs that focus on professional dress, networking skills and transitioning to different cities. IUAA uses the program to complement programs offered by the career services office, Sperling said.
“Money and debt often seem like taboo things to talk about with parents, and so we wanted to provide a place to lay everything out and be realistic,” Sperling said. “So many people tell us they’re in over their head when they graduate, so we wanted to start providing support while students are still here so that doesn’t happen.”
The financial literacy presentation included information for students on budgeting, saving for retirement, paying off debt and building good credit.
Some of the biggest mistakes people make after they graduate are spending too much with their first paycheck and not having a plan to pay back debt, McMillan said.
Most of the students attending the events were juniors and seniors. The idea of leaving IU and managing finances independently is daunting, Senior Dennis Coffey said.
“I’m definitely nervous about it, especially when you hear people talking about how fast your money can go,” Coffey said. “Before I had a scholarship here, I was really pressed on cash, so I know a little bit about how these problems can feel. I figured even just an hour learning about finances would help a little.”
For some students, managing finances can be hard when your future career path isn’t set in stone, Senior Megan Grimm said.
Grimm said she recently decided she wants to go to law school to become a sustainability lawyer. This means she needs to rethink what she thought her financial situation would be after her graduation, she said.
“I could go to law school now, or I might work for a few years and then go get my law degree, but I don’t know for sure yet, which makes it a little harder to decide how to handle my money,” Grimm said. “But either way, it’ll be easier to make that decision if I’m actually familiar with how budgeting and personal finance is supposed to work.”
Traditional financial advising is often focused on making and saving huge amounts of money, but that’s not the goal of the Life After IU presentations, Schuman said.
“Students really just need realistic financial skills they can use at the beginning of their careers,” Schuman said. “Our job is to help students get degrees and jobs they love without feeling like their debt is telling them to pursue careers they don’t want.”
