After Purdue canceled the B-Involved Fair, many clubs on campus have had trouble finding new members. This is especially true for the Odin Finance Club, or OFC. While the club has been around for almost 6 years, it has dwindled down to less than 2 students who are inactively involved. This is mostly due to the cancelation of the fair and poor leadership.
Now, with a newly elected president, Emma Smith, and a team of skilled leaders, the club is back on its feet! After much restructuring, the club is aiming to relaunch for the Spring 2017 semester and is looking for new members. Emma says, “The club is literally for anyone, if you have no experience with finance, or on the other end, if you’re an econ-finatic! Its open for anyone who is wanting to know more about the world of finance.” So, why should you join?
Many high schools around the US don’t require their students to take an econ/finance course
Subsequently, an astounding amount of students don’t have much knowledge of money management. According to LendEdu, 60% of students are minimally knowledgeable or less about their own personal finance. This statistic is troubling because it can lead to struggles in paying back student loans. When you join the Odin Finance Club, you have the opportunity to learn about personal finances as well as investments, which can act as another salary! It’s interesting to see how little college students actually know about money, considering how much and how often we spend it. The OFC is an easy fix to a huge problem!
It’s super easy to join
You could take a class on personal finance at Purdue, but joining the OFC will teach you everything you need and want to know about money. Not to mention, its immensely less expensive than taking an extra course, as the dues are only $5 per semester! If you are interested in joining, all you need to do is email OdinFC@gmail.com, and they will add you to the Boiler Link page. If you are skeptical about joining, you can always come to one of their meetings on Thursday evenings and check it out before you become a member.
As Emma mentioned, anyone can join!
If you’re on the fence about joining, it’s okay! Even for those who don’t know much about finance, you can join. The concepts that covered in the meetings are diverse and give you the opportunity to learn as little or as much as you want. To understand new topics, the members split up into small groups and are encouraged to ask questions and to learn together. Also, if you feel like you’re relatively knowledgeable on one topic, the executive members welcome guest speakers to enrich the meetings.
It’s not just like taking another class
By joining the Odin Finance Club, you are given the great opportunity to learn about finance and money, while also having fun. They host many guest speakers, movie nights, as well as field trips (and it’s free!). If you really feel like you don’t have anything to learn from a particular meeting, there’s no repercussions if you don’t come that night.
To some students, finance may not be very interesting, but you can always count on the Odin Finance Club to make finance fun!