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the new lenox patriot | April 25, 2019 | 5
LWW students enjoying personal finance class
SEAN HASTINGS, Editor
Seniors and some underclassmen
have utilized
Lincoln-Way West’s personal
finance class to give
them a head start when
they leave high school.
Taught by Brian Glynn
at West, with accompanying
videos from financial
guru, Dave Ramsey, students
have been learning
about saving and spending
money, managing loans, insurance
plans, investment
and more.
Ramsey is a personal
money-management expert
and a national radio host.
He has seven best selling
books that have sold more
than 11 million copies.
Though Ramsey is a
trusted voice, what he says
is not always a hard and
fast rule and Glynn makes
sure his students understand
both points of views
of personal finance.
Ramsey is a proponent
of no credit cards, no loans,
no debts or anything. But
sometimes that is not realistic.
Ramsey’s reasoning
is that if someone does
not have a credit card, they
will not have the pressure
to buy now, pay for it later
mentality and end up in
snowballing debt.
“I will teach them, because
I know some people
are going to go away and
they’ll need a credit card to
survive and it’s just a convenient
factor,” Glynn said.
“I teach them how to properly
use it and how to make
sure you pay it off every
month, how to make sure
you don’t get any of the late
fees, how to make sure you
don’t get a credit card with
25-30 percent interest rate
if you do get a credit card.”
And the class has been
popular among the kids
who take the course, Glynn
said. It is a class they can
take knowledge from
through the rest of their life
and he tells them that at the
beginning of the year.
The class is offered with
no cost for the school as
the Jackson Charitable
Foundation sponsors it and
provides the workbooks,
“Foundations in Personal
Finance,” by Dave Ramsey
and videos for free to the
high schools.
Senior Drew Summers
did not initially expect a lot
out of the class, but what
he has learned about saving
and spending for college,
has helped him and
his parents develop a plan
that will get him through
debt free.
“At first I didn’t think
that I could go to school
without taking out a loan,
but after this class I talked
to my parents and we actually
have a plan so that I’m
not taking out any loans
and paying cash for college,”
Summers said. “It’s
going to be a challenge,
but we have a plan and it
should be pretty good.”
He added that he did
pick the class because he
thought it was valuable and
has learned a lot of financial
planning that he was
not prepared for.
“I didn’t have a lot of
knowledge about personal
finance or investing and I
really thought it was going
to be valuable because I’m
going to be accountable for
my own wealth very soon,”
Summers said. “I thought
learning about insurance,
learning to save money and
how to spend it, and how to
prepare for retirement is all
really valuable.”
And for sophomore Jimmy
Cler, who still has two
years before he exits high
school, is happy he took
the class when he did at a
younger age.
His dad mentioned
something about stocks and
Cler wanted to see what he
could do with money beyond
just making it working
for it.
“I like the compound interest
on how your money
can make money and then
you can eventually hopefully
live off of it,” Cler
said. “I put some money
into stocks and just look
at it grow and hopefully it
grows a lot.”
It is a class that Cler
would recommend to his
friends and other students
at West.
“Some of my friends
don’t care about money or
Students in one of Brian Glynn’s personal finance
classes pose for a photo with Dave Ramsey’s headshot
in the background. The students enjoy the class overall,
Glynn said. Photo Submitted
how it works and I think
that it could be something
you should know how
it works and how it can
change your life,” he said.
Another student who has
taken the tips from Glynn
and Ramsey is senior Isabelle
Money.
Money plans to attend
JJC next year and eventually
the University of Illinois.
Money has always thought
about pursuing a career in
actuarial sciences, which
heavily deals with insurance
policies. Insurance
was the topic for Wednesday,
April 17 class at West.
“I feel like this class has
sort of pushed me to go to
junior college to save on
general education and I
could cut the cost by a lot
just by doing that,” she
said. “I knew it (actuarial
sciences) was something
that I’ve wanted for a
while, but being in the class
it really helps to know what
I’m getting into in the future.”
And she is glad that West
offers a class that teaches
them what happens outside
of high school.
Band
From Page 3
will not be there to play.
But the praise for the juniors
and seniors was high
from the directors, to the
students and even Whatley,
who said it is all about setting
the legacy for what that
band is going to be about.
For East sophomore
Jenna Wiltjer, she said she
is where she is because of
those upperclassmen.
“They built the whole
band and they inspired me
so much,” she said. “I don’t
think I’d be where I am today,
I don’t think I’d be a
drum major if I didn’t see
them and wasn’t inspired.
I don’t think I would have
even been in band to this
day. They just built so
much inspiration for me.”
Lincoln-Way West Directory
Cary Ruklic said
the seniors have been a
huge part of getting the
band to where they are at
and hopes that they are excited
as well.
The overall feeling
for the students who just
played in the Rose Parade
and now get a chance to
play in the Thanksgiving
Day Parade was “lucky.”
“There was not a chance
that I thought this would
actually happen,” West
sophomore Nathan Fields
said. “I thought that maybe
in the future our band
would end up there, but I
didn’t think I’d get both
of them in my high school
years. To end off my senior
year at the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade, I never
thought could happen.”
Central sophomore Karina
Rydecki also thought it
would be “one and done.”
“We’ve been blessed
with another opportunity
on a national stage,” she
said. “I think [what makes
us special is] we’re a family
and we definitely know
how to put on a show. We
have a lot of emotion behind
everything that we
do.”
By the time the 2020
parade rolls around, it will
be this year’s sophomores
leading the charge and continuing
to pave the path for
the future generations to
come.
“We hope we get that
message across in the next
year that this is not normal,
and the life you’re living
is above average and appreciate
it; be thankful for
everyone who has laid it
out for you to do and, of
course, lay it out for the
next person,” Johnson
said.
The costs for sending the
band to the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day Parade are unknown
at this time, but
each individual school as
well as the band as a whole,
have fundraisers in the future
to help pay for everything,
Barnish said.
“We always have a great
group of parents that are
apart of our booster organizations
that do a large
amount of leg work to have
use participate,” Barnish
said. “We’ll lean on them
a lot as we move forward.”
Macy’s does not provide
any financial help for the
bands, but Whatley said
local Macy’s stores tend
to allow the bands to fundraise
inside their stores.
No specific fundrasiers
tailored toward raising the
money have been set, but
the band will be playing the
National Anthem again this
year at the Chicago White
Sox game June 29.
The band members are
currently selling tickets to
the game and this year, the
White Sox are giving a portion
of the ticket sales back
to the students. For the
band to receive the return
on the tickets, people must
buy the tickets directly
through the band member.
The tickets are being sold
at face value.
The White Sox have also
created hats with the Lincoln-Way
Marching Band
logo on the side which will
be given to the first 700
people to buy tickets.
Although the final costs
have not been determined
for Macy’s, Barnish hopes
that the costs will be less
than what it was for the
Rose Parade.