Thinking about finances can be scary for any collegiette™, but did you know that free help is available for all Mizzou students? Fellow students work in the Office for Financial Success (located in Stanley Hall) to aid you in planning a budget or dealing with student loans.
Senior Katherine McKeon, a St. Charles, Mo., native, is the president of the Financial Planning Student Association and the president of the Financial Success Center. She is part of a team of hardworking students that help bring financial advice to anyone in the Mizzou community. We talked with Katherine about the Office for Financial Success, how she got involved and what her future holds.
Her Campus Mizzou: What type of services does the office for financial success provide?
Katherine McKeon: The office for financial success provides one-on-one counseling for students and anyone from the MU community. They can come in, sit down, and we can work on a budget and go over credit card debt. If they have credit card debt, we can help them pay it off. We also do student loan repayment, so we can show them what to expect before their bills start rolling in. We can help people find credit cards and things like that. We also do workshops. We can cater them to whomever is interested. We have a standard one though that we do for freshman interest groups and things like that. It covers the basics of finance that a college student would need to know.
HCM: How many other students work with you as financial advisors?
KM: We have 15 counselors, including myself, that are all students. Then we have our director, who is a university employee.
HCM: How did you get involved with the office?
KM: It is through our Financial Planning major. Part of the program is a required course, Financial Counseling, and it was probably my most interesting class because it is stuff that everyone deals with, like the little things that people don’t know. We learn things about bankruptcy and about credit cards. A lot of it I didn’t know, but it is so basic, I feel like everyone should know it. Through that class, we were told about the office and what we do. That class is the prerequisite to becoming a counselor. It is all-volunteer driven.
HCM: What duties are included in your job as president?
KM: My main thing is to keep people on task. I run our email system, and I assign counselors to anyone who applies for an appointment. I also go through and look for opportunities for workshops and things like that. I contact random organizations to see if we can come work with them, and I lead meetings and make sure that people have things to do during office hours. I feel like the biggest thing I do is work with the newer counselors. I am here every time they have an appointment just to make sure that it goes well and that they have someone to ask for help. I help train them.
HCM: What is the most common question you get during sessions?
KM: Budgeting is a big thing. A lot of people, their expenses are exceeding their income. Things like that, they don’t have any savings. It sounds so simple, but many people don’t budget; they kind of just go off what they have. The easiest way though to take care of problems is to set up a budget, and then you know what is going on. The other thing we deal with a lot is student loan repayment, especially when we get toward the end of the semester, and people are getting close to graduation. They have no idea what to expect with their student loan payments, so we pull that up and let them know. That way, if they can afford it, we can show them how to pay it off.
HCM: How has working in this office prepared you for your graduation in May?
KM: Being here in the office has been the greatest experience probably of my college career. Possible and potential employers love it, and I already have a job lined up for May. I think in part it is due to this. Employers want someone who is involved and going to better their company. People who take jobs like this in college are typically those types of people. I feel like I have had to work on my own without someone hovering over my shoulder enough that I am ready to go into the working world. It has really just taught me self-discipline and making myself get things done. It has been a lot like a small business because it is a newer organization. We are working on marketing, and we are working our training processes and things like that. Being here has been like building our own little business.
HCM: So what are your post-grad plans?
KM: I have a job with MassMutual. It is with Mass Financial group, but it is in Chesterfield, Mo. It’s about 15 minutes from my house, so I am pretty excited.
HCM: Any closing comments?
KM: My biggest piece of advice for college students would be to invest in yourself and in your education. You never know what is going to happen, and if your body gives out, your intelligence probably won’t. Just take advantage of your community both here at Mizzou and at home.