Invested in the Future

A student financial coach brings peer-to-peer guidance and a passion for long-term investing to the campus

By Joe Tougas ’86

Not so long ago, financial literacy for college students amounted to the fine print they didn’t read when the credit cards arrived. 

Warning of the hazards that await young consumers has become increasingly important and popular in schools, and accordingly, Minnesota State Mankato recently partnered with the Charles Schwab Foundation to launch a program to help students develop better financial literacy. 

Senior Aiden Hall is one of the peer-to-peer counselors working in the Center. 

“It’s such a tough time—opening up credit cards, loans, stuff like that,” said Hall, a student “coach” with the Center. He started in the spring working with a few students and expects fall to generate larger caseloads as word of the service spreads. 

“There’s such a lack of financial education with college students,” he said. “It’s pretty bad. Some of my friends definitely need help.” 

When the program began, Hall visited several 100-level business courses to talk about the Center. 

“I visited four to five classrooms in April—they were career-building classes for [first-year students]. But Brooke Nelson, another coach, and I went to these classes and talked about beginner topics—credit cards, loans. … We’re not professionals, but we do believe it’s easier to talk to us than it is to talk to professionals sometimes when it comes to money.” 

Hall isn’t coming at his role from scratch—he’s been an investor since age 15. He cashed in $2,000 in savings bonds he had been gifted and invested the money. 

“Over the years, I’ve been very good at keeping the habit of continuing to invest and letting my money compound. The more money I made, the more motivated I was to invest, all while keeping a long-term mindset.” 

His role as a student coach doesn’t allow him to give investing advice, but his career plans are solidly along those lines, with an emphasis on working with individuals and families. “I’m just not the kind of guy to sit behind a desk and trade stocks all day. It just sounds boring to me,” he said. “Although I love investments, I would much rather give one-on-one advice to people.” 

He looked at other schools, but Minnesota State Mankato was the right choice from the beginning and even more so as he aims at a career in financial planning. 

“The cool thing about Mankato is we’re one of the only schools where we complete all the coursework during our classes, so we can sit for the CFP exam right away. Most colleges, you have to take it outside of college, but Mankato is special,” he said. “I wouldn’t have chosen any other school.”