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ALSO
IN THIS ISSUE Base Security US Navy Needs Civilian Aircraft Mechanics Getting High Patriotic Images Salute To Veterans An Ear to the Past Chancellor's Column Development News Factoids Newsmakers Accomplishments by faculty and staff… |
Fiscal Fitness From a finance point of view, sailors are not much different from college students. “You look at the statistics, and see that college students owe $7,000 or $8,000 to credit card companies,” said Ron Jaeh, associate dean of personal financial management at City College. “It’s not that much different with sailors. They are coming into the service and getting maxed out pretty quickly.” To help combat runaway spending, increase savings and form personal finance plans, the Navy awarded a multi-million dollar contract to City College last summer, a five-year deal to teach personal finance management to all sailors graduating from boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill. The program is now expanding to other military/college locations, including San Diego.* “Once we started teaching, we discovered that most of these men and women didn’t know the difference between debit and credit cards,” Jaeh said. “They were getting ripped off like you can’t believe. Because sailors get food, medical and dental taken care of, they have a lot of extra cash. It’s up to us to teach them about rip-offs and how to be better consumers.” Classes in the program include payroll systems and military payroll issues, understanding leave and earning statements, banking/financial services, title loans, credit buying, car buying, insurance needs, military retirement planning, ethical financial behavior and legal issues. “To date, more than 20,000 sailors have invested their time in personal financial management classes already,” Jaeh said. “The military is really getting smart about the importance of these issues, and it’s even going to be expanded to senior petty officers and also to the enlisted leadership. Ultimately, it will be extended to officers.” The PowerPoint presentations touch on dollar-cost averaging and mutual funds, but not as much on stocks. They are taught by instructors with at least four years experience in financial fields, many with military backgrounds. “The favorite topic is car buying,” Jaeh said. “We have a two-hour course that utilizes an Excel spreadsheet. We teach them to maybe think about a Honda Civic before they go out and buy a Mustang GT.” *The program operates at Service School Command, Great Lakes, Ill; Naval Submarine School New London, Groton, Conn.; Naval Aviation Technical Training Center, Pensacola, Fla.; Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tex.; Sheppard AFB, Wichita Falls, Tex.; Naval Technical Training Center, Meridian, Miss.; Fleet Combat Training Center, Damneck, Va.; Anti-Submarine Warfare Base, San Diego, Calif.
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