A Primer by Wall Street Psychologist Christopher Bayer, Ph.D.
Early Intervention to Avoid Learning Financial Lessons the Hard Way!
Money-Mind 101: Financial Management Training for Young AdultsTM is an education enrichment course, delivered as a seminar series in seven modules, that provides a fast-paced tour of key topics related to money for high school students and college freshmen preparing to embark on challenging academic career, and autonomy. As educators we are building people, and sound financial health is essential. Our mission is to help prepare students for mature life by developing their powers of reasoning and judgment in money matters.
This training is more than a comprehensive personal finance course for high school students and college freshmen. It covers critical subjects including predatory credit card lending practices, personal budgeting techniques, savings strategies, debt management, and an understanding of complex financial terminology.
What this course also provides is a fundamental understanding of the psychology of money, offering rich contextual, historical details, while dissecting the decision-making dynamics involved in spending, saving, investing, borrowing, and lending. People (of all ages) need to understand the relationship between money and their mind: what money means to them, how they feel about money, what role money played in their family of origin, how money interacts with their self-esteem systems, how money impacts their view of the world, how money influences their perceptions of other people and relationships, and the myriad of roles money plays in their personal and professional lives.
Last year, 84 percent of undergraduates surveyed by Sallie Mae expressed that they needed more education on financial management topics. Recent findings reported by Braun Research (Princeton, New Jersey) for Merrill Lynch’s Affluent Insights Survey reveal the following: 48 percent of parents interviewed indicate that “financial know-how” was a critically important skill set they wanted their children to develop. 57 percent of these parents are talking with their children about what it takes to make sound financial decisions before the age of 12, and 85 percent before the age of 18. Among parents who work with a financial consultant, 64 percent have shared some form of advice with their children that they received from their financial consultant. Areas of advice include: retirement investing, budgeting, checking/savings account management, and debt management. Clearly money, and its myriad of ramifications, is a central construct for families.
Delivered by Christopher Bayer, Ph.D., a New York based professional psychologist and psychoanalyst specializing in the treatment of financial services professionals, Money-Mind 101: Financial Management Training for Young Adults is a no-nonsense, to-the-point primer for young people to avoid the perils of money mismanagement. Dr. Bayer works with adolescents and their families helping them develop sound financial management systems. Financial health is as important as mental and physical health for us all.