If you have ever found yourself thinking, “What in the world is a credit score?” then this Personal Finance (FIN1100) course at Gulf Coast State College is for you. While taking easy electives can get you an easy “A”, taking an elective to enhance your real-world knowledge is very rewarding.
Professor Matthew Herndon teaches Personal Finance and both Economics courses at GCSC. Before he was a professor, he was a personal financial planner for a large corporation. Needless to say, Professor Herndon is a great professor to have for a personal finance course.
What Can You Learn in This Personal Finance Course?
If you have never read anything about how to budget, taxes, or credit, this course is a great starting place. Even those who have dealt with those things for years can get something out of this course. For us college-aged students, it is so important to learn about these things early on. Time and time again Professor Herndon has students that have no clue how finance works and says, “I can’t tell you how many students I’ve known and taught that aren’t even thinking about their credit score at 19 years old.”
Learning about personal finances can be scary at times. There is a lot of terminologies, logistics, and methods involved. However, Professor Herndon tries to work with the content to allow students to get something out of the content and not be overwhelmed with abstract terminology. He says, “I don’t want them to get intimidated early on by the material.”
Within the textbook, there are 16 chapters. That is about one chapter a week and Professor Herndon says, “The chapters are really fundamental things.” The topics include tax concepts, banking, interest rates, credit, personal loans, insurance, investments, assets, retirement planning, and more. Current student of the course, Jason Warnick, says his two favorite topics so far have been taxes and investing, “I thought I was pretty savvy, but I’m learning things.”
How Will It Help You?
Regardless of your major, personal finance carries on throughout your entire life. It is the one thing we commonly share as adults after all. Between the content of the course and Professor Herndon’s previous work in the finance field, you will be able to take at least one valuable thing from the course. Professor Herndon says, “You can be a Visual & Performing Arts major and I think you’d kinda want to know how to deal with your own finances.”
Within the course plan, there is a continuing case study. The case study follows a hypothetical family where you assist them and learn about their financial plan. Bringing in this real-world example helps students relate it to themselves. Despite Warnick having dealt with personal finances throughout his life, he says, “I made a lot of financial missteps in my early years, and I wish I would’ve had a course like this.”
Daily Finance Radio Spot
Included in the course resources are multiple quick 1 and a half to 2-minute audio files. These audio files air on GCSC’s public radio station WKGC 90.7FM and HD as radio spots. Each audio file is an overview of that specific topic of personal finance. They also match to a corresponding chapter in the textbook.
Personal Finance Minute #1 - Establish Financial Goals
Personal Finance Minute #4 - Continue Learning
Personal Finance Minute #8 - Review & Update Your Insurance Coverages
Course Options
Personal Finance (FIN1100) has classes available in the Fall and Spring terms. Currently, the course is only online. With the course being online, it allows for flexibility for students taking the course as an elective with their other classes. Warnick says he spends roughly 4 hours studying for the course every week to get the most out of it.
Want to read more articles on personal finance while in college? Check out Commodore Waves author Payton Gilley on her ways to handle finances in college: https://www.commodorewaves.com/author/lgilley/
Choosing elective classes as a student can be quite a chore. To see a complete listing guide to all Gulf Coast State College classes, go to https://www.gulfcoast.edu/catalog/current/courses/index.html.
The GCSC’s cheap and low-cost textbook listing here: https://www.gulfcoast.edu/academics/library/aim.html.
Interested in Digital Media? Get involved! https://www.commodorewaves.com/2020/09/28/digital-media-at-gcsc/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sophie Theiss
Student Author - Spring 2021
Sophie is a Digital Media B.A.S. student at Gulf Coast State College. She is the Student Government Internal Affairs Liaison and 21-22 President-Elect. Sophie is an active supporter of getting students involved with campus and student life.
