Money-Management and the Liberal Arts

By Colleen Coleman

Career Services hosted a series of short workshops on career-related topics for students working or studying on campus last summer. At the first event in the Summer Series, Mr. Rich Moeggenberg, Director of Financial Aid, spoke to students about money-management. His goal was not so much to offer a how-to-budget tutorial as it was to encourage students to think about the importance of money-management in the context of a liberal arts education. With books to read, papers to write, and exams to study for, it too often becomes a topic of low-priority importance for students. Even if you have the time as a student to develop a budget, you might be putting off the task for the same reason you put off writing a paper or studying for an exam: it can be stressful.

Why, then, is it important to think about and practice money-management as a student of the liberal arts at Hillsdale College? Mr. Moeggenberg read aloud a passage from the College Mission Statement: Hillsdale seeks “to furnish all persons who wish….a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” and “to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.”  “You are at Hillsdale to become good citizens, to become virtuous,” Mr. Moeggenberg explained, “and we are going to talk about how handling money fits into this.” He defined “virtue” as “a habitual and firm disposition to do the good.” The four cardinal virtues—prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude—are those virtues which can be learned and can become habits by practice. He then encouraged the students to consider how practicing money-management and following a budget can be an exercise of the cardinal virtues. “Budgeting” often has a negative connotation; it makes us think of restraint or self-control and, maybe by extension, temperance. We know that we are being temperate when we live within our means. We know that we are being intemperate when we overspend. But there’s much more to wise, virtuous money-management than restraining yourself from overspending. What about the other cardinal virtues? Take justice, for example. When budgeting, when financial-planning, you should keep in mind that to be just you must “give to others their due.” Think about whom you owe, and what you owe to them. When budgeting or financial-planning with this in mind, you will be setting yourself up not only for success, but you will also be setting yourself up to be just. Next time you find yourself about to overspend, remember that what you are about to do might not only be intemperate, but unjust.

According to Mr. Moeggenberg, one of the worst things you can do as a student when it comes to money is to avoid making a budget. It is much simpler to create a budget now as a college student than it will be to financially plan as a graduate and independent adult. With greater independence comes greater responsibility. Financial-planning and money-management also bring opportunities to practice the cardinal virtues. If you are avoiding creating a budget, you are foregoing some of these opportunities. Why make a budget? “Develop a budget,” Mr. Moeggenberg closed, “to be a virtuous student and citizen.”