For College Students Living Paycheck To Paycheck, Financial Literacy Is An Investment In The Future

On a recent spring afternoon, about a dozen students gathered in Los Angeles City College’s multipurpose room for a free financial literacy workshop.

Some of those students are majoring in business administration or finance. A few are working on a second degree. One attended with her child.

The students have unique personal goals, but all of them want greater control over their financial futures.

The lunchtime event was the second of two 90-minute sessions, which covered everything from personal spending to saving up for retirement.

“My hope is that, at the end of two sessions, [students] can say, ‘I can do this,’” said Bruce Miller, who taught the workshop. He is now retired after a career in marketing and advertising. Miller has hosted similar courses at community colleges and universities across the country, including Stanford and Dartmouth, his alma maters.

“[Students] can learn to save, they can learn to get out of debt, they can learn to invest — and [they won’t] have to pay some enormous fee to somebody to do it for them,” he added.

More than a third of California community college students are the first in their families to attend college. As a result, Miller said, many will also be the first in the position to save for retirement. He wants them to be prepared to make sound financial choices.

Demystifying finances

Miller began the day’s session by asking students what they’d done to scale back on expenses since their last meeting. One student shared that she’d examined her entertainment subscriptions, determined which ones offered the best deals, and made some cuts. Another student said she’s making fewer coffee runs.

Miller explained his goal is to get students to distinguish between an essential expense and things they can go without. “Don't live like a hermit, obviously. Enjoy life! Have some of the wants,” he said.

But, he told LAist, “I want them to be able to think: ‘Even on a very modest budget, I can get some breathing room by cutting back a little on things.”

During the remainder of the session, Miller talked to students about how much they ought to save for emergencies. He explained the difference between stocks and bonds and how they can make you money. Miller taught students about investments, how to diversify them, and what to avoid. And they discussed saving up for retirement.

“How many of you have a job?” he asked the students. Nearly everyone raised their hands.

“And how many of your employers offer 401(k)s?” Miller followed. Only one student’s hand went up.

Inspired to invest

Lantron Knox, who’s majoring in business administration at LACC, grew up in Charlotte, N.C. and moved to Los Angeles about five years ago.

When he moved here, he told LAist, he felt inspired by the Latino street vendors who sell fresh fruit on street corners. He created a wellness smoothie business called “Mental Mango,” and started off by selling the drinks out of a wagon in downtown Los Angeles.

Part of his motivation for attending the workshop was to learn more about how to invest his profits. He also appreciated learning about different options for retirement, along with Miller’s emphasis on “giving back when you can.” To that end, Knox is planning to team up with a nonprofit to distribute smoothies to unhoused Angelenos in mid-April. “To be able to give is always a blessing,” he said.

Lantron Knox, a business administration major, came to the workshop because he's interested in growing his smoothie business profits.

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Cassandra Nava

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LAist

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Bruce Miller speaks to students around the nation. His hope is to end the stigma around conversations about money.

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Cassandra Nava

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LAist

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Patricia De Peralta is a finance student at Los Angeles City College. She said she attended Miller’s course because she wants “to have a healthier relationship with money.”

De Peralta is the daughter of a single mother. Growing up in the South Bay, money was “really scarce,” she said, and that precarity still follows her. “I'm always afraid that I won't have enough.”

De Peralta longs to buy a home, but when she looks to the future, that goal often feels unattainable.

The financial literacy workshop has given her more confidence. “I feel, like, OK, I have a better grasp of tools that I can potentially explore,” she said. Moving forward, she plans to focus on tackling her car debt.

Miller knows that, for a lot of students, investing isn’t possible right now.

“They have huge expenses [and] not a lot of money coming in, because most of them are working in jobs that don’t pay as well as the jobs they will have when they graduate,” he said.

“And so, the money stuff can wait,” Miller added. “I tell them: ‘Learn the tools now. Enjoy your time as a student, because it is a precious time in your life. And then, armed with the knowledge down the road, when you have the job and the time is right, you can apply the things that you learned here.”