Center for Financial Literacy seeks to help Liberty navigate financial decisions

“I would tell my 20 year-old-self to start thinking about it (financial planning). You don’t have to have the entire plan now or have everything figured out, but just start the conversation and take the next right step,” Dr. Stacie Rhodes said.

Dr. Rhodes is the Executive Director of Financial Planning at Liberty University and an associate professor at the School of Business. As the director of financial planning, Dr. Rhodes runs all of the initiatives for the financial literacy center. 

“We (the Center for Financial Literacy) have the slogan: educate, collaborate, and integrate,” their website says. “We go to different classrooms and across campus to host events and provide workshops to talk through personal finance through a biblical perspective.” 

As a young DBA (doctor of business administration) who graduated not too long ago, Dr. Rhodes understands the struggles of student loans, credit card debt and budgeting post-grad. 

“Financial literacy is more than just financial planning. It is educating our students on all things finance. It’s not just, ‘how do I become a millionaire in 30 years’… that would almost be more financial planning. Biblical financial literacy is knowing what we believe about money and what God says about money and treating it in a way that strategically allocates our resources to set us up for the future.” 

Millennials’ post-grad finances is a hot topic in recent political debates. There are several proposed solutions to handle the near-crisis, whether that be free college or an $1,000 monthly stipend. 

Dr. Rhodes has a firm stance on how we can properly combat this issue.

 “I feel like when you take a step back and look at the culture as a whole, when we have $1.52 trillion in student debt, all while sinking in debt nationally, true change isn’t going to come until you get on the education level,” Rhodes said. “While education at the university level is great … in my mind I feel like we are doing a disservice to the students to not teach them a very practical life skill while they are here learning the many other skills to become a successful adult.”

Dr. Rhodes thinks that Liberty is doing a great job for providing proper resources to educate their students. The Center for Financial Literacy just opened up a new sector providing free financial coaching sessions for all students. 

“We have eight financial coaches who meet one on one with students to develop a financial plan,” Rhodes said. “These are completely free sessions where you meet with a coach and you can ask any questions regarding finances.”

 The new financial coaching sector has been a great success among Liberty students, holding 60 meetings in 7 weeks. 

“Everyone has to handle money… You can’t get away from it,” Rhodes said. “As college students even though you might not be handling a lot of money, you are spending money or at least spending someone else’s money. It is important to start learning about how you can handle (and spend) this money well and how you can honor God in this process.”