According to a CEO of National Financial Educators who spoke to about 300 students April 1 at Winona State University, all people are playing a game with money. He said at every point, a person is either winning or losing that game.
Adam Carroll shared how he got out of debt within three years of graduating from college, along with tips for students to win the money game.
“When I graduated, I had my financial head so far up my financial ass I couldn’t see straight,” Carroll said.
Carroll described three types of people in regards to money: The spender, the even steven and the saver. He added he was a spender in college, and also talked about where debt begins.
“Where does this all start? Where does this downward spiral begin?” Carrol asked. The answer, college.
According to Carroll, this generation of college students has poor money management skills, spending 135 percent of what they have.
“We are all programmed to want more than we have,” Carroll said.
One tip Carroll gave was for students to put aside a percentage of their earnings each month and to keep three accounts; one with a small amount for emergencies only, a checking account for monthly life and a third account for the future or really big emergencies.
He also said it is important to spend a lot of time managing finances.
“You need to knock out debt, start increasing your assets and start leveraging down the road,” Carroll said. “You should spend more time on your finances than you do anything else.”
Other tips were presented for making money out of college as well as statistics about average student debt, credit card debt and average number of credit cards.

Contact Courtney at CLZinter8738@winona.edu