By Charlene Winters, ‘73
SIXTY-FIVE recent BYU graduates learned strategies for financial success at the Aug. 11 inaugural event of the newly formed Young Alumni program. Scott Marsh, the financial planner who led the seminar, offered three primary strategies: buying a home, creating a savings and investment plan, and getting out of debt.
Additionally, Marsh emphasized that people should plan for their desired “point of choice,” defined as the day in one’s life when he or she has sufficient alternative income to replace earned income.
Marsh, director of the Professional Education Institute in Salt Lake City, said he uses the phrase “point of choice” instead of the word “retirement” because for many recent graduates, retirement is a concept that is difficult to imagine and prepare for. “Many of the choices they make in their 20s or 30s, however, have an overwhelming impact on the financial quality of their lives later.”
“I learned practical ways of saving from someone who follows his own good advice,” says Preston A. Jackson, ’01. “Even better, I learned to rethink retirement as something you plan for rather than something old people do.”
Todd J. Hendricks, ’00, who directs the Young Alumni program, says plans are under way to offer an additional financial seminar. In another activity, scheduled for May 4, young alumni will help emeritus alumni (those who graduated 40 or more years ago) become more computer literate as part of Emeritus Education Day.
The Young Alumni program is open to those who graduated 10 or fewer years ago. While the opening event was at BYU, Hendricks said the program will eventually have a national reach as Young Alumni representatives work with alumni chapters throughout the United States.
info: To learn more about Young Alumni, contact Hendricks at 801-378-7621 or 1-800-437-4663.
