Financial Wellness Insights and Advice

As higher education administrators, it’s crucial for us to consider and be aware of issues that may be impacting the students we serve. In the Office of Student Financial Aid specifically, we are especially passionate about helping our students with financial aid and financial wellness. The Trellis Company – a non-profit organization charged with helping students pay back their loans while promoting access to higher education – recently released the results of their Student Financial Wellness survey which collected student data in the fall of 2019. Over 38,000 undergraduate students from 78 colleges in 20 states filled it out and the findings gave us important insights into the everyday struggles that our students could be facing here at UW–Madison. A few key findings across students enrolled in 4-year institutions include:
  • 70% agreed or strongly agreed that they worry about having enough money to pay for school
  • 33% of students reported running out of money five or more times in the prior year with the majority of these students being first generation students
  • 60% reported that they work while attending school
  • 57% indicated that they would have trouble getting $500 in cash or credit in an emergency
  • 73% were not at all confident or only somewhat confident that they would be able to pay off the debt they acquired while pursuing education
With this data in mind, we are continuing to spearhead various financial wellness programming & events in order to better serve our students. Looking ahead to this academic year, we are building upon past successes and continuing programming that received strong, positive feedback from our UW students. These events will cover budgeting with GradReady, credit management, federal student loan repayment and management, and how to begin investing in retirement. Registration links can be found on the OHRD registration website. As a DEM employee, you are more than welcome to attend! Notable accomplishments from 2019-2020 include:
  • The School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) Financial Aid and Financial Wellness Series
  • The School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) Fall Financial Wellness Speaker Series
  • Create a new, 1-credit elective course for 4th year UWSMPH medical students titled “Physician Financial Wellness” in spring 2020. UW is now one of only a handful of medical schools to offer a dedicated course to financial wellness!
  • Delivered workshops on special financial wellness requests for specific student populations
  • Joselyn Diaz-Valdes and Emma Crawford received the state-wide 2019 Governors Financial Literacy Awards, an award given to professionals who have shown dedication to improving financial literacy across the state of Wisconsin.
Exciting new offerings for 2020-2021 include:
  • A financial wellness series for graduate/professional students in SMPH, SVM, School of Pharmacy, and School of Nursing which will cover: budgeting; credit & building a strong credit history; financial road-mapping; and investing for retirement.
  • Collaboration between the Advising Team and Student Success Services on MoneyWise Wednesday, a free financial education series for undergraduate students that’ll happen once a month on a Wednesday from 4pm-6pm via Blackboard Collaborate
  • Financial wellness events planned for every week in April, which is financial wellness month
  • Partnering with Schools and Colleges and career offices on campus to integrate financial wellness curriculum into their seminar classes and career offerings
  • Increased collaboration with UW Credit Union
Financial Wellness Tips for DEM Employees:
  1. Make sure you have an emergency fund! Financial experts typically recommend having 3-6 months’ worth of monthly expenses saved up for a rainy day. Don’t be discouraged if you aren’t able to put this amount into savings right away. Research shows that just $1,000 can cover most emergencies that arise.
  2. Open a High-Yield Savings Account where you can put your emergency fund. These HYSAs offer more interest than your typical everyday bank account. Unfortunately, rates have recently dropped due to the recent economic downturn, but that isn’t a good reason to avoid opening one. Emma uses and loves Ally Bank!
  3. If you put in the time and effort to learn more about personal finance, we believe that you can be your own best financial advisor. However, if you are interested in working with a financial advisor/planner, we recommend looking for one that is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) & fiduciary that is fee-only (meaning they do not make any money from your investments). Here is helpful tool that you can use to find one in your area: https://www.napfa.org/find-an-advisor
Resources
  • Trellis Student Financial Wellness Survey
  • Podcasts
    • The Dave Ramsey Show
    • LEX Talk Money! by AccessLEX
    • Planet Money by NPR
    • So Money with Farnoosh Torabi
    • Women and Money with Suze Orman
  • Books
    • A Comedic Guide to Money by Colin Ryan
    • The Boglehead’s Guide to [investing, retirement planning, three-fund portfolio] Series
    • The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
    • The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins
If you have questions or would like to learn more, feel free to connect with Emma Crawford (emma.crawford@wisc.edu) and Pahoua Xiong (pahoua.xiong@wisc.edu).