Greetings,
I don’t usually blog, but I feel morally obligated to promote the half block I am currently in, Personal Financial Planning, and what better way to tackle promotion than through the written word? I want everyone to know how smitten I am with this class. Normally I find myself enrolled in humanities classes—specifically English—but my mother is a financial planner, and I figured I might as well make an attempt at understanding her lingo. Also I figured it probably behooves me to learn a little bit about what it will look like when I become financially dependent (AHH!!!).
I cannot be more satisfied with this class, which, if I didn’t mention already (I checked and I didn’t), cost $0 to enroll in. I have not learned one thing in this lecture hall-style class (indeed, there are nearly 90 students!), read one term in my textbook, that I haven’t found useful—nay, necessary—in benefiting me in the future. On Friday, we had a CC-alum-turned-insurance-agent come talk to us. You’d think being talked at for three hours would become tiresome, but the entire presentation was interactive and I now know that if I hit a deer on the road, I am to tell my insurance agent, quote, that “the deer hit me.”
Of course, I still feel way over my head about this whole Me Eventually Becoming a Real Person Thing, but Friday in particular helped assuage some of that fear. According to my textbook, if George Washington invested just $1 from his presidential salary, his heirs would be multimillionaires today. So, I guess it helps to plan ahead, which is what this class is very, very good at encouraging me to do.
On top of being taught how to plan ahead, I’m learning a lot about things that won’t just affect me now, but later, too. I have a driver license and as suspected, I tend to drive to locations and back, so it helps to know about auto insurance. Do you know what GAP insurance is? No, it’s not when you don’t wear your retainer at night. It stands for Guaranteed Auto Protection and it covers the difference between the actual cash value of a vehicle and the balance still owed on the financing. Don’t worry, I had no idea either.
I believe my professor, Jim Parco, when he casually mentions how many faculty have expressed interest in taking this course. So, if you can, sign up for this class next year. There is no class limit and it can only be taken pass/fail, so no need to fret over a grade. Seriously, do it. After all, in the words of Parco, “Life is about choices.”
