Saturday, April 19, 2008

A leading personal finance expert for college students and young professionals will speak at Valparaiso University April 28 during a Personal Finance Day sponsored by the University’s Students in Free Enterprise chapter.

Peter Bielagus, author of “Getting Loaded: A Complete Personal Finance Guide For Students and Young Professionals,” will give two public presentations and provide individual counseling to Valparaiso students during his visit.

Bielagus’ public presentations will begin at 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. in the Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources (1410 Chapel Dr.) and are free and open to the public.

Bielagus, who found himself with $5,000 in credit card debt during his freshman year of college, chronicled his journey getting out of debt in “Getting Loaded” and has told college students across the country how to avoid financial mistakes over the past three years.

“Most Americans, let alone most college students, don’t know what their credit score is” Bielagus says. “This number literally determines how expensive your life will be and will affect your ability to get a job. I try to tell students the financial information they need to know before they need to know it.”

Bielagus noted that nearly 80 percent of teenagers rate their knowledge of managing money and credits cards as average or poor and that 6 percent of college students have more than $7,000 in credit card debt.

A licensed financial adviser, Bielagus is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated radio show “Hints From Heloise,” writes a personal finance column for the Boston Globe Web site and has created many financial education products, including the interactive CD-ROM, “Mastering Your Personal Finances.”

Source: http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2008/04/19/news/