“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people that they don’t like.” Sharon Turchick, CPA and assistant professor of Management-Accounting at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg quotes Will Rogers when she explains why she is passionate about helping students understand how credit can help—and hurt—them.
For instance, she notes, while a one percent (5% vs. 6%) difference in a 30-year home loan is only a $126 difference in the monthly payment, the six percent loan will cost the borrower over $45,000 more in interest over the life of the loan!
This spring, the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg will offer a free Credit Workshop that will show participants how credit, its use and misuse, can affect their lives. Turchick will lead the workshop on April 3 in Village Hall 118. Registration will open at 5:45 p.m. with the program starting at 6 p.m. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation. While not required, online pre-registration by March 31 is recommended to help with planning for the event.
The workshop is open to both the campus and the community. It is offered as a public service to help individuals improve their financial literacy and is funded by a supplemental award to the Title III Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant that Pitt-Greensburg received from the US Department of Education. The workshop is just one of the multiple initiatives that the supplemental award is making possible.
Turchick will cover information on the cost of credit (calculations made easy with apps and online calculators), establishing and improving credit, credit scores, and credit reports.
“Many people don’t realize that a poor credit score will do more than affect the interest a person will pay on a loan,” explained Turchick. “A poor score can affect your ability to get financing in the first place. It can also increase insurance rates, disqualify you for an apartment rental, and can even eliminate you as a potential candidate for new employment.” Turchick notes that the information provided at the presentation is for educational and informational purposes and should not be considered legal or financial advice.
Turchick teaches a popular personal financial planning class at Pitt-Greensburg that receives rave reviews from students who say that it is some of the most useful information that they receive: “I will use this stuff for the rest of my life. . . . It’s helped me to make appropriate financial decisions for my future.”
“Attention to financial literacy is a natural extension of our work on critical thinking because financial literacy is another area where contemporary student preparation is limited,” said Turchick. She shared the following studies to illustrate her point:
- According to a May 2018 survey by Student Loan Hero, over half of respondents who had borrowed money for educational funding didn’t realize that interest was accruing on their unsubsidized loans while they were in school, and 10% believed that they wouldn’t need to repay loans if they did not find a job after graduation (Safier, 2018).
- An April 2018 study “Still Hungry and Homeless in College” found that 36% of university students reported food and housing insecurities and that 9% were actually homeless (Goldrick-Rab, et al, 2018).
- Data also show that financial illiteracy is a problem for many adults. A 2018 Consumer Financial Literacy survey revealed that only 19% of US adults feel very confident about the amount they are currently saving for retirement and that 61% have credit card debt.