Activities & Organizations

Women beef up monetary muscles

Participants and presenters listen for their numbers as gift items were raffled off during the event.  |  Rebekah Stearns /The Daily Cougar

Participants and presenters listen for their numbers as gift items were raffled off during the event. | Rebekah Stearns /The Daily Cougar

To improve financial literacy among women in the Houston area, the C.T. Bauer College of Business hosted the second annual “Financial Boot Camp for Women” on Saturday.

Sponsored by investment management company Invesco, the event was held in Cemo Hall and featured various professionals, intended to educate attendees on topics such as investing, budgeting and insurance.

“We all need to make smarter financial decisions. Women live longer than men do, and what typically happens is that many women end up earning less than men do, so you have less money, but you got to stretch it further into retirement,” said coordinator Janice Cellier, Invesco divisional sales director.

Bauer Dean Latha Ramchand addressed the women briefly during commencement speech and urged them to be more financially responsible and highlighted education as the most valuable asset one can have.

“This whole issue of financial education for women — I think this is so important, and I think so much needs to be done,” Ramchand said. “The only thing that is going to last is knowledge, and knowledge in this sense is the only source of power in this world.”

The boot camp was organized into a series of breakout sessions where women decided which financial areas they would most like to concentrate on and included a working lunch.

“I really enjoyed the format of the camp — being able to pick where I wanted to be. They had knowledgeable speakers, and I feel I can really walk away from here knowing I learned a lot,” said kinesiology senior Quyen Ho.

The camp was open to all women who wished to financially educate themselves and featured a number of women who were not students of the University.

“I’m not a student, but I received an e-mail through a nonprofit, and I registered online. I think this is important — especially for women — because some might not be too involved in their finances because they might be preoccupied with marriage and family life,” said attendee Ebony Stowers.

Members from the Financial Planning Association were also on hand to offer free 15 minute Q-and-A sessions.

“The more we know about how to invest our money, the better off we’re going to be. Women tend to make 85 percent of consumer decisions so they’re doing the buying all the time, and I think they need to be a part of the process. To rely on and abdicate the responsibility to someone else doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Cellier said.

“You need to understand what’s going on, and you need to know where your money is and how it’s working for you, and if it’s not working for you, you need to know why it’s not.”

All proceeds from the camp will be given to the University for scholarships.

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