Students’ Financial Presents and Futures
A study aims to follow a group of students, who entered college as freshmen in 2007 through their lives until the participants reach age 40, to see how their financial personalities are formed and mature. The researchers have collected their second set of data. The study, “Arizona Pathways to Life Success for University Students,” is following a group of 2,098 University of Arizona students. The initial data collection took place during the students’ freshman-year spring semester in 2008. The researchers initially planned to conduct the next data collection during the students’ senior year, but when the recession hit, they realized this event should be integrated into the fabric of the study, so they surveyed the participants again in the spring of 2009. That data will be compiled by this fall. But information from the initial data collection is already available at the link above.
The students’ average credit card debt was $169. Nearly 60 percent had credit cards.
Since they were still early in their college careers, the students had relatively little education debt. Three-quarters reported no outstanding educational loans. The remainder had a balance average of $2,046.
Most students didn’t use risky strategies in order to make ends meet, but a few did; about 18% did things such as paying off one credit card with another.
Most of the students worked. About 33 percent worked 15 hours a week, a schedule which previous researchers have speculated is compatible with academic demands while reinforcing the importance of money management. About 20 percent of the students, more likely female, Hispanic or in-state students, worked more than 20 hours a week, which has been associated with lower GPAs.
Most of the students failed a financial literacy quiz. The study has recruited 100 of the students to take a financial literacy class this fall, to see if this affects their long-term financial intelligence.
Parents are, by far, the students’ greatest financial influence, more than financial literacy courses and work experiences combined.
