Class profile: ‘Personal Finance’

Each term, the School of Business Administration offers two or more sections of “Personal Finance,” a class currently taught by Brenda Eichelberger, instructor of management at Portland State.

The class is open to any PSU student, and is even available to take as pass/no pass. There are no prerequisites for the class and it counts as a business elective for the majors that require it.

Eichelberger believes that every student should take “Personal Finance,” and addressed concerns about the large number of students going into debt to get an education.

“[Is education] a good investment? What kind of rate? How long will it take to pay that back?” Eichelberger asked. “I personally feel that it is an excellent investment, and I feel that if you…complete your degree you’re going to get a better job over time—but you’ll have to extend your horizon over five years.”

To look at the long-term timeline, Eichelberger has her class go to deathclock.com and livingto100.com to determine their life expectancy, and then track every penny that they spend for a month.

“It is surprising how little we know about how much we spend, and even how much we make,” Eichelberger said.

She has students project how much they will make and spend at the beginning of the month and then compare that with what they actually do. This allows students to see the “mystery spending,” as Eichelberger calls it, and ultimately try to turn that into mindful spending.

The class has five main learning objectives: the planning process, managing money, protecting oneself with insurance, managing investments, and retirement and estate planning. The term culminates with each student creating a financial plan, for which they put together a detailed plan that includes various worksheets, resumes, budgets and other key financial pieces created in class.

This past spring term, one student wrote in his final project that his financial plan had always been similar to salmon. He explained that the fish know exactly where to go to spawn and never think about what they’re doing.

“This is the best way to describe what my financial plan had been before this class. It became instinctual. I was battling the currents, swimming upstream. I worked hard to live. I only thought about the next week—never the next year. And it wasn’t until I started the class that I ever thought about any future financial goals,” Eichelberger read from his paper.

Eichelberger said she often hears from past students thanking her for what they learned in the class. Even when students thought they were doing well with their finances, the class taught them basic information that remains useful throughout life.

Eichelberger also pointed out that many people in our society think talking about money is a bad thing, but that college actually provides a great opportunity to open the conversation and get people actively thinking about it. It also enables people to look at the big picture—at financial problems around the
world—and what can be changed.