Money isn’t just about dollars and cents.
The Financial Resilience Money Workshop held Oct. 8 in the Student Life Center as part of Civility Week focused on the emotional side of money and the importance of both saving and spending wisely.
The speaker, Dyalekt, illustrated ways that money can affect a person’s life.
“An intro to getting into our feelings about personal finance is always a bit of a shock to the system and takes some time to process,” said Dyalekt, the 43-year-old director of pedagogy at Pocket Change of St. Croix.
“I didn’t get a lot of verbal responses to myself, but when I was hearing them talk to each other I could see that they were engaging with some of the concepts that would help them, and that’s all that matters.”
Personally, the workshop taught this reporter that I am an “AA” money personality, which means that I like to save for a rainy day. That turns out to be true. I usually do not spend much money on myself and know as Dyalekt said that saving is not spending less money on a sale, but actually putting money away in a bank account. I thought that it was good that I am this personality because it means I don’t usually spend a lot of money on expensive things. I like saving and knowing that if the need arises, I have a little money to spare in my account.
Dyalekt also showed us that by saving money himself, he was able to use it when an opportunity came up to join his musician friend and tour around Europe. I believe that the “AA” money personality is the best out of the four he showed us because it is important to save money for when you need it or if you have an expensive medical bill or need legal work done for example.
“I thought it was actually extraordinarily well done,” said Orrie Schulman, a 51-year-old member of human services advisory committee at Brookdale from Red Bank. “I thought he was phenomenal.”
Schulman learned “that I’m actually a combination of personalities and … how much certain childhood events will still continue to influence our decisions and choices later on.”
“The big thing I wanted them to understand is that money is emotional, and our emotions around money often dictate our actions,” Dyalekt said. “If we can understand our emotions, we can be in better control of our actions.”
“I’m a huge fan of community college. It’s where you, one, can not have to pay into the giant system. And, two, how you find a lot of unexpected really powerful great connections to be able to make more,” Dyalekt said.
Most of the audience seemed to like the workshop and it taught them something new. I walked away with the knowledge that it is important to keep my emotions in check when I am managing money. I learned about credit scores, additional fees on bills, and the emotional side of money as well.
The workshop was presented by The Center for Transformed Learning, and as Dyalekt said, “Thanks for rocking!”