Money workshop advises students to start early, play it safe

"Play it safe" was the advice given to University of Nebraska-Lincoln students at a workshop titled "Building Wealth" in the Nebraska Union on Monday at 7 p.m.

The event, hosted by UNL's Student Money Management Center — an advisory program focused on peer financial education — featured presentations on saving, investment and entrepreneurship.

Guest speakers Jay Wilkinson, chief executive officer of the online marketing and development company Firespring, and Jim Budde, a local financial advisor, said it is best to calculate and minimize the risk of each financial venture. Wilkinson, a UNL graduate, specifically said the go-with-what-works approach has proven a successful move time and time again.

"My recommendation is to find out a way to plug into something that already works," Wilkinson said of starting up a business.

Wilkinson, as well as other presenters, outlined responsible financial practices and the importance of personality and passion coupled with reasonability. That combination, he said, can help students on their path to being a multi-millionaire.

The presentation, titled "How to Be Millionaire," laid out four tips that can help students accrue wealth through savings: start early, have a plan for your money, understand how finances work and start to build your wealth.

First, the presentation advised students to save early and establish good habits, adding that bad habits are hard to erase. Of 2008 undergraduates, 76 percent had a credit card debt after they graduate, which averaged $3,173, according to Sallie Mae, a student loan company.

From there, students are encouraged to create documented and measurable financial goals as well as a spending plan. According to the presentation, a student-spending plan would include spending logs that allow the individual to discern between wants and needs, cut back in unnecessary areas and determine whether they are a shopper or a saver.

Shoppers and savers should both have knowledge of how money operates. For students, that means familiarity with interest rates and student loans.

Lastly, the wealth building lecture emphasized saving. To be ready for surprises, students should take money directly from their paycheck and put into savings.

Through his experience, Wilkinson said he learned he can avoid debt and the massive risk by taking the path well-traveled. Franchises, he said, are a sure way to get off on the right foot.

Although they don't give the entrepreneur total creativity, franchises with an infusion of passion and personality are likely to lead the young entrepreneur down the path to serious money-making, Wilkinson said.

During the last two segments, Budde and Wilkinson outlined two approaches to money-making.

The zip-line approach represented a line of high risk taking with the possibility of plummeting into debt. Both instead advised an incremental approach to reaching the millionaire's side of the canyon.

Budde said a couple from 48th St. and Van Dorn typified this approach as they amassed more than $700,000 in retirement savings in the late 1970s on only a combined annual salary of around $50,000. The lesson to be learned here, Budde said, lies in the consistency of their approach.

"You have more than enough time to create a nest egg that lasts you the rest of your life if you start now and never give up," Budde said.

Jesse Bergstrom, a freshmen business administration major, said the investing portion was most interesting to him because of his interest in the stock market.

He added that he thought Budde's point about investing for the long-term, rather than microwave investing, is important for UNL students to hear. This advice, he said, is an example of real-world knowledge that cannot always be obtained in class.

rileyjohnson@dailynebraskan.com