Money Management Matters Site to Aid Students, Topic: Credit

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 19, 2014) — What might your degree be worth?

The University of Kentucky Graduate School is prepared to aid students in developing the personal financial knowledge to answer this question and others related to financial literacy.

The UK Graduate School has created a personal financial education webpage titled "Money Management Matters," (MMM) built upon six salient personal financial topics that pertain directly to students and graduates:

1.         Student loans

2.         Employment

3.         Health care

4.         Credit

5.         Saving and investing

6.         Money management

Click here to view a video about "Money Management Matters."

This week, UKNow will highlight the fourth topic: credit

Building a strong credit history is a vital component in the quest to obtain good personal financial standing. The MMM web page provides a comprehensive collection of resources that are specifically designed to ensure that students have the information they require to make informed and responsible decisions when it comes to credit management.  Topics include: obtaining a FICO score; developing a credit card repayment strategy; and researching strategies to protect against identity theft.

Students are encouraged to visit the Credit tab on the Money Management Matters website to learn exactly how a FICO score is calculated. This information can help in developing a solid credit profile, which could lead to lowering costs of borrowing for large purchases in the future.

The UK Graduate School is one of 15 universities, in partnership with the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and the investment firm TIAA-CREF, introducing a personal financial literacy initiative aimed at educating students and graduates.

Last fall the 15 university partners distributed surveys to their graduate student populations concerning a variety of personal financial questions, to understand their “baseline” of personal financial knowledge. Using this information, the CGS developed GradSense.org as a personal financial education platform designed to help students and graduates enhance their personal financial knowledge.

The UK Graduate School has created the "Money Management Matters" website to strengthen this initiative at UK. 

 “We hope the information provided within GradSense.org and MMM will aid students and graduates in establishing a strong foundation of personal financial knowledge that they can build upon in order to make sound decisions across all stages of their personal financial life cycle,” said Chris Riley, project manager of the Enhancing Student Financial Education Grant and graduate student at the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Geegan, (859) 257-5365; sarah.geegan@uky.edu