By Talia Halstuch, Staff Writer
After taking Principles of Finance at Yeshiva University, many of my peers and I began to think more about our personal finances. How should we invest our money? Should we put it into bonds, the stock market, etc.? After hearing students’ curiosity on this topic, I realized that YU should be teaching us how to manage our personal assets.
As a university, YU is preparing us to enter the real world – whether it be the workforce, graduate school, or continuing our Limudei Kodesh in the next stage of our lives. One aspect of learning to be self-sufficient is understanding how to manage and handle your assets so you not only maintain the money you make, but also actually have that money grow.
Principles of Finance is not a required class for non-Syms students, so students in Stern College or Yeshiva College do not have to learn the basics of finance in school. But even a simple understanding of the concept of time value of money is invaluable for students to understand. If you leave your money in a checking account, it depreciates over time. Taking the introduction to finance course taught me this, as well as the difference between investing in bonds and stocks, and calculating for future cash flows of investments. These simple concepts gave me a whole new understanding of how to handle my personal assets.
I would advise every student to take at least one finance class in their time at YU. However, it is understandable that not every student in YC or Stern College has the time or availability to take a finance class. So, I suggest that a personal finance event should take place where students have the opportunity to hear from finance professors or working professionals about the different options of investing their money. By having an event that all students can come to, we can all learn this valuable lesson of how to invest our assets, so we can be prepared for the future.