Last Monday, the athletic department hosted a financial literacy workshop in partnership with regional leaders from Wells Fargo to teach student-athletes how to budget and save their money. Around 25 student-athletes from multiple teams attended the 30-minute session.
The session focused on how students can budget and save money throughout college and how to continue saving money as expenses rise after graduation. The representatives emphasized how important it is to “pay yourself first” by putting money into a savings account whenever you receive a paycheck.
Dahne Brown-Boyer, the assistant director of compliance, said that she wanted to give student-athletes the resources to manage their money well early, particularly because Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals are becoming a larger part of student-athlete life.
With such deals, student-athletes can earn compensation for letting business uses their name, image or likeness to sell a product.
“Speaking from my experience, adulting is hard. So trying to realize that there are resources out there that can help you — you’re not in it alone,” Brown-Boyer said. “A lot of people make mistakes when it comes to money, and that’s one issue that we all as adults sometimes suffer with. So if you get an early education on it, then you’ll be better off.”
In the session, the representatives encouraged students to maintain healthy spending habits and avoid impulse buys. They also provided resources and strategies on how to consistently save money, including dividing up fixed expenses, variable expenses and non-necessities and then building a budget based on net income from those expenses.
Senior football player Marco Olivas attended the meeting, even though he feels like he does a pretty good job of managing his money.
“I naturally feel like I’m good at saving money and watching what I’m doing. So I thought I’d go in there and maybe learn something new or maybe pique some interest,” Olivas said.
Olivas said that the presentation will make him think about budgeting more often.
“I actually went home and made a spreadsheet because I know what I’m making for the summer. I started getting all my expenses together. I already feel that I’m good with my money … [but] I think it’s good to know what I’m buying, [to] know what percentage of my paycheck I’m spending on this sort of stuff and things like that,” he said. “It kind of motivated me to take the next steps and really understand how I’m managing my money rather than just going off that feeling.”
Brown-Boyer said that financial literacy is important to learn from a younger age.
“When it comes to being a student-athlete, I think you always have that main goal of reaching the next level,” Brown-Boyer said. “When I’m reading and looking at the news, some athletes don’t know how to spend their money — they are getting bad advice or they never received advice. So I think getting it early on [is important].”
Wells Fargo will host another session on credit for interested student-athletes this Monday, April 17 in the Kirby Sports Center.
