Financial Literacy

While pursing your educational dreams at JMU, it is important to remember that there are many skills you will need to succeed after graduation that you may not acquire in a traditional classroom environment. Many of these skills deal with how you handle your personal finances.

Are you familiar with creating a personal budget? Can you balance your checking account? Do you understand how credit cards work? Do you know your FICO score? If you are taking out loans to help pay for college, do you have a plan for managing your debt after you graduate? All of these questions and many more are addressed in “financial literacy” training offered by The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships at JMU.

Each year our office conducts several workshops across campus dealing with these issues. The majority of these workshops are conducted at the invitation of student organizations, as well as instructors who request our services as a “guest instructor” for their classes. Please contact our office if you are part of a group on campus and feel your membership could benefit from a hands-on workshop dealing with your personal finances.

Click here to listen to a 23 minute podcast discussing issues pertaining to paying for college and financial literacy.

We have also included some web sites and a PowerPoint presentation if you are interested in conducting some research on your own. Please click on the topic of interest below:

Finances & The College Student PowerPoint
Money Management
On-line Budget Calculator
Credit
Credit Card Information
Financial Information
Dollars and Sense Course
Downloadable Budget Form