Welcome to Peer Financial Counseling
Peer Financial Counseling (PFC) is a program at Emory University in which student volunteers are trained to teach their peers about financial issues.
Today’s college students are bombarded with ads, commercials, and mailings telling us that we need to spend money in order to be happy. At the same time many of us come to college very ill equipped to handle our finances. The Peer Financial Counseling program is designed to address this problem. We strive to equip college students with a basic understanding of personal financial management to help us meet life’s challenges and opportunities, many of which touch upon the topic of money.
The Peer Financial Counseling program is set up on the premise that the best way to reach college students is by having fellow students provide valuable information and experiences that we can relate to and apply in our daily lives. With this aim in mind a series of 7 lessons have been developed that explore the critical issues of budgeting, savings, investing, credit use, credit reports, identity theft, and student loans. We provide student speakers to present dynamic seminars to classes, clubs, residence halls and other student organizations on campus.
Mission
The mission of the Peer Financial Counseling Program is to provide basic financial management principles to college students that will equip them for life’s challenges and opportunities.
Vision
The vision of the Peer Financial Counseling Program is to impact more students every year and to help our peers understand the implications of their actions today on their future tomorrow.
PFC program hosts various presentations on campus such as residence halls, sororities, fraternities, student organization meetings, freshman orientation and Oxford College. For more information, read what we do or you can also contact us.
The program consists of seven main topics:
Budgeting (30 minutes) Presentation
Learn how to live within your means. The purpose of this lesson is to learn how to track your spending and develop a unique and flexible budget that will work for you!Credit Reports and Scores (20-30 minutes) Presentation
The purpose of this lesson is to help students learn how to understand their credit report and score. It focuses on what is in a credit report, what impact your credit history may have and how to request your credit report.Credit and Debt (30-90 minutes) Presentation
Learn how to stay on good terms with your credit! Because credit cards are such a big issue for college students, this seminar explores different types of credit, responsible credit card use and what to do if you can’t pay your credit card bill.Saving and Investing (30-60 minutes) Presentation
Learn how to become a millionaire! The purpose of this lesson is to show how saving regularly at an early age can help make you financially secure. This module teaches how to start a savings plan, different types of investment instruments and criteria for choosing the most appropriate investment for you!h5>Student Loans (30-60 minutes) Presentation Choose to understand your student loan. The purpose of this module is to help you understand how to deal with student loans in a responsible manner. This module presents guidelines on how much student loan debt you can handle, the impact of interest, the consequences of defaulting and reasonable expectations about starting salaries.