Financial literacy for college student financial aid

Colleges and universities use Money Habitudes to promote financial literacy for college students. It may be a student financial aid office running a financial aid workshop or using the tool in financial counseling sessions. It’s also used in several colleges’ peer financial counseling programs. And it’s used in residence life programs on financial literacy. In addition to financial planning and family & consumer science classes, financial classes actively utilize these materials.

Typical ways campuses use the cards for student financial aid include:

1. To hook people and get them into financial education classes. Using the Money Habitudes cards for a standalone class is an easy, fun, low-stress way to engage with college students for the first time. It may be something you can do at another event, as part of a student financial aid program, or in residence halls. Although this is an example from military dorms, it’s a similar idea.
2. As the first class in a series. Often student financial aid offices teach a series like Budgeting, Getting Banked, Credit Reports, and Scores. Now, many organizations just bolt on Money Habitudes as the first class (so the budget class becomes Class #2). Using the money games, they focus on habits, attitudes, values, and behaviors in Class #1. It also builds camaraderie in financial aid classes and sets a tone of fun and open sharing. It helps people understand why they do what they do with money and allows people to set better goals.
3. As an icebreaker and get-to-know-you tool to be used by financial peer counselors. In short, Money Habitudes helps people talk about money. Several colleges have financial peer counseling programs like this; a great example is the work being done by Red to Black at Texas Tech. This is a similar financial peer coaching case study.
4. Finally, Money Habitudes cards are used a lot in financial aid training and financial literacy training sessions. This may be either for financial coaches, financial counselors, volunteers, or peer coaches. It’s partly as a training to help people talk about money — always a difficult topic — relate better to clients and be more sensitive to different people who see/use money differently than they do. This relies on the money personality aspect of the cards which helps people better understand themselves and others when it comes to money.