Financial Literacy Scholarship Award

There are many lessons I have learned over the past few years when it comes to money. That may sound peculiar for a 21-year-old college football player to say, but it is true. In the fall of 2019, my mother passed away in an accident. This left me with 1/3 of her assets (split with my siblings). That is a lot of money for a 17-year-old to get their hands on, and I decided to use it on my schooling. I had a partial scholarship to a school in Billings, Montana, but no college fund, so this was my way of avoiding student loans until graduate school at least. However, looking back, I wish someone had been around to help me know where to put my money until I needed it. Whether that be a high-yield savings account, CDs, or investing some in the stock market during the crash caused by COVID, I missed out on a ton of "free" money because no one throughout my life had ever taught me those things, or maybe they also were not educated on them. It was actually through social media that I started to learn about financial literacy, and now I have some of the tools I so desperately needed when I was a scared 17-year-old. It is easy to look back and have a lot of what-ifs. What if we hadn't sold my mom's house in 2019 and waited? What if I had immediately invested all my money in a high-yield savings account? What if I had found this information sooner? I have to not let these questions creep into my head, because there is nothing I can do now but do better in the future. I can do better for my 12-year-old brother by educating him and my father on where to put that money. I can do better for my future family by knowing how to invest my money into retirement and gain financial freedom. I can educate my friends and teammates on these things and encourage them that it is never too early to take your finances seriously. These are the things in my control. There are money lessons everywhere we look, especially in this day and age with all of the social media platforms and websites we have access to. The biggest lesson I have learned about money is to educate myself on it. There are experts to learn from, videos to watch, and tools to use. There is no longer an excuse to be in the dark, and I never will be again, for my mom, for my brother, and most of all, for my 17-year-old self.