Lesson Manual # 22: Manage Your Finances

At BYU-Idaho, that distinctive role starts with the mission of the university to “develop disciples of Jesus Christ who are leaders in their homes, the Church, and their communities.”

Part of this is evident in the real-world preparation we provide to our students, which includes applied learning in the classroom, internships, leadership activities, and the BYU-Idaho Learning Model itself. All of these efforts happen in ways that provide a high-quality education at an affordable cost.

You are at a special and distinctive place where significant investment is being made on your behalf.

Do you start to sense just how committed the Lord and His Church are to you and your education?

To understand the implied responsibility each of you have as recipients of this investment, I want to share with you a story of someone who didn’t start with as much opportunity or life resources as many of today’s BYU-Idaho students.

Heber J. Grant was raised by a single mother. He grew up in poverty, in a home where his mother was forced to take in boarders to help provide for the family. And yet, despite these challenges, Heber J. Grant would go on to do remarkable things and later be called as an Apostle and eventually as the President of the Church. But despite his initial liability of growing up in poverty and without a father, Heber J. Grant did have one distinct advantage in his life.

After his father was buried, his bishop, Edwin D. Woolley, gave him a name and a blessing. In that

Assignments • Read excerpts from Children of Promise by President Clark G. Gilbert• Read You Can’t Take It With You by Kent W. Davis, biology faculty member at BYU-Idaho• Review Paying For College: Aid And Other Resources information • Complete Part 4 (key reflective insights) of the “ePrep” portion of your Journal document and submit this prior to the start of class.

Excerpts From: Children Of Promise President Clark G. Gilbert

Devotional Address - September 2016

Children of Promise

blessing, Bishop Woolley saw by revelation that the infant boy would one day become an Apostle of the Church (Craig K. Manscill, Robert Freeman, and Dennis Wright, “Presidents of the Church: The lives and teachings of the modern prophets,” Cedar Fort, Inc., 2008.) As President Henry B. Eyring later described, “People then and since have called Heber J. Grant a ‘child of promise.’ He was. But his departed father didn’t make the promises to the child, [nor did Bishop Woolley]. His Heavenly Father did” (Henry B. Eyring, “Child of Promise,” BYU Speeches, May 1986).

Like Heber J. Grant, the students of BYU-Idaho are children of promise; and while every one of us faces different challenges and constraints, we also have the same gifts Heber J. Grant had—supportive resources in the Church and the promise of a loving Heavenly Father who knows who we are and who we can become.

To realize our potential as children of promise, we have to work hard to put to work the resources the Lord has prepared for us. In this regard, we can learn from three characteristics in the life of Heber J. Grant: self-reliance, stewardship, and replenishment.

Self-ReliancePresident Grant was long known for establishing a Church welfare program on the principle of self-reliance. This principle goes far beyond the important idea of spending less than you make. Self-reliance also implies an ethic of personal responsibility that rather than sit back and wait for people to do things for you, you actively seek those resources yourself and use them responsibly and deliberately. As students at BYU-Idaho, this principle of self-reliance may apply in your search for financial resources. But rather than approaching the Student Financial Aid Office with the question of “How much can I get?” you might ask, “How much do I need?” which would require you to have built a budget and possibly find a part-time job.

Note that self-reliance is much more than a financial aid principle. If you are struggling in a class, being self-reliant means that you should consider going to the Tutoring Center for help.

StewardshipEach of you has talents that the Lord has given you. Some of those are individual spiritual gifts and personal strengths. For all of you, those talents include the remarkable resources the Lord, and His Church, has invested in you through the creation of this university.

Academic StewardshipThe first is an academic stewardship. President Uchtdorf has said that “for members of the Church, education is not merely a good idea-it’s a commandment” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Two Principles for Any Economy,” Ensign, November 2009). At BYU-Idaho, that education begins with the introduction of the Learning Model, where we invite you to take responsibility for your learning and become the natural leaders that President Eyring has described. That stewardship extends to planning your academic future and developing your grad plan at BYU-Idaho. Use the resources in the Academic Discovery Center to help you make wise choices about what to study. That stewardship also includes your time to graduation. Did you know that your probability of being an engaged future employee nearly doubles when you graduate on time and with modest college debt? (Gallup Purdue). Work hard in your classes. Take your education seriously.

Spiritual StewardshipAttend weekly devotional. Participate fully in your ward. Know and live the Honor Code. Live your best, and let this place change who you are spiritually.

Career StewardshipDo you realize that students who have meaningful internships become better students and have more-fulfilling careers?

Life-Skills StewardshipFrom family skills you will learn in the Eternal Family course and our Student Living program, to personal finance principles we teach in foundations and in the Financial Aid Office, to well-being principles taught in Student Wellness and the Counseling Center, we want you to learn to be a balanced, healthy, well-rounded individual who can

Children of Promise

manage your time and your life in ways that make you an effective future parent, citizen, and member of the Church.

Leadership StewardshipWe expect that students of BYU-Idaho will go forth from this university to be leaders in their homes, the Church, and their careers.

President Henry B. Eyring called this “natural leadership” when he saw the future graduates of BYU-Idaho having lasting impact because of “their capacity to build the people around them and to add value wherever they serve” (Henry B. Eyring, “A Steady, Upward Course,” BYU-Idaho Devotional, September 2001).

ReplenishmentThere is yet another way you can honor the investment and sacrifice that others at this university make in your behalf: give back and replenish the investment that is being made in you.

How can you give back? At some point, we hope you will contribute financially to the university and particularly to those in financial need. But since most of you live on a low-cost budget already, we don’t expect that now. What we do expect is that you give back, even during your time as a student, by finding another student in need and reaching out; by lifting someone up academically, emotionally, or spiritually. If you have had a great experience with the resources given to you on this campus, find someone else and share with them.

I hope all of you know you are children of promise. You have a remarkable future ahead of you. The Lord has given you talents and other resources you can draw on for that future. One of those gifts is this remarkable university. To realize that promise, you will need to become more self-reliant, strengthen your stewardship over the gifts you have received, and be willing to replenish what you have been given both now and in the future.

As you seek to realize these responsibilities, I know the Lord will bless you with added strength and capacity to become who He wants you to become.

Excerpts From: You Can’t Take It With YouKent W. Davis - BYU-Idaho Biology Faculty Member

Devotional - August 2013

We should also remember that while we can’t take our money with us into the next life, we will carry the consequences of our decisions about money with us into the eternities.

First, let’s be clear that the Lord does care about money, and is willing to help us care for it.

My family and I learned that the Lord is willing to help us in money matters years ago, while I was in my medical training in Salt Lake City. Sister Davis and I would have our small children say their prayers out loud with us. Our oldest boy, Taylor, gave a rather brief prayer one evening that consisted only of asking the Lord for $10 so he could buy a toy workbench. We both wondered whether a prayer like that was really okay or not, but decided to leave it alone. The next day, our 90-year-old neighbor from across the street, named Jim Downward, knocked on our front door. When Sonja opened the door, he handed her $10 and told her that it was for our little boy. She, of course, was surprised and amazed, and asked Jim why he had done this. He just answered that he didn’t know, and then turned around and returned home. Through that experience, we were reminded that the Lord hears and answers his children’s prayers, usually through the actions of others.

We have a good friend who lives with his family in a modest suburb of Idaho Falls. He and his wife had decided to put their house up for sale and purchase a larger and nicer home up in the foothills. However, he attended the October 1998 general priesthood meeting, and listened carefully to President Hinckley’s address when he said: There is a portent of stormy weather ahead to which we had better give heed… I urge you, brethren, to look to the condition of your finances. I urge you to be modest in your expenditures; discipline yourselves in your purchases to avoid debt to the extent possible. Pay off debt as quickly as you can, and free yourselves from bondage.

This is a part of the temporal gospel in which we believe. May the Lord bless you, my beloved brethren, to set your houses in order. If you have paid your debts, if you have a reserve, even though it be small, then should storms howl about your head, you will have shelter for your wives and children and peace in your hearts. That’s all I have to say about it, but I wish to say it with all the emphasis of which I am capable (Gordon B. Hinckley, priesthood session of LDS General Conference, 1998). At that point in time in 1998, the US economy was booming, prosperity appeared to abound, and there seemed to be no end in sight. Despite that, however, my friend returned home after that priesthood meeting, and before entering his house he removed the “For Sale” sign from their front yard. He conferred with his wife, and together they decided that they weren’t moving, but instead were going to stay put and work hard to get out of debt. It was almost exactly ten years later, in October 2008, when the US housing market “bubble” burst and the US and world economy entered a severe recession. While he and his family were able to weather that storm, many of their friends in the foothills ended up losing their homes. It was obviously a huge blessing for our friends to be able to keep their home, but I suspect the greater blessings will come from their decision to heed the guidance of the prophet.

Brigham Young said: “The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty and all manner of persecution, and be true. My greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches, for they will become the richest people on this earth.”

An economist named Arthur C. Brooks wrote an article entitled “The Privilege of Giving.” He tells the story of a poor man in Kansas City who was shopping for clothing in a Salvation Army thrift shop on December 23, 1999. He had seventy-five cents in his pocket. Suddenly someone approached him from behind and said, ‘Excuse me.’ He turned around, and a man pushed a hundred-dollar bill into his hand, said, ‘Merry Christmas,’ and walked away. That wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. It had been going on for years, and no one knew the giver’s identity. He was only known as Secret Santa. He would walk around during the Christmas season giving money to people who needed food, clothing, or shelter. He came forward in 2006, because he had terminal cancer and was given one month to live. His doctor told him that if he wanted anybody to understand his mission then he should reveal his identity. Secret Santa’s real name was Larry Stewart, and he was a very wealthy entrepreneur. He’d given away $1.3 million in hundred-dollar bills, but he had also given away tens of millions of dollars more in traditional philanthropy—building youth centers, building a YMCA, and helping the community. When the press asked him why he gave so much, he said, ‘I’m just doing what the Lord is directing me to do. I’m just a pair of hands and feet. He’s using me. He’s lighted my path. Part of my daily prayer was, ‘Lord, let me be a better servant.’ I had no idea this is what he had in mind, but I’m happy. I’m so thrilled he is able to use me in this way’ (Marriott Alumni Magazine, Winter 2008; Marriott School, Brigham Young University). The author of the BYU article, Arthur C. Brooks, quoted from a study done in 2000 by Harvard, other universities, and community foundations. He expected to find that when people became rich they gave more away, but was surprised to learn that the reverse is also true! When people give money away charitably, they became richer. This

rather startling finding seemed to defy all logic, so he repeated the study and arrived at the same result. For every $1 individuals give away, they get a financial return on their “investment” of about $3.75. Psychologists have also scientifically confirmed Larry Stewart’s sentiments that giving makes us happy. Those who give and serve smile more, describe themselves as happier, and secrete less stress hormones in their brains.

In the Book of Mormon, specifically speaking to us in our day, the Lord chastises us when he says: For behold ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted…Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? Mormon 8: 37, 39

… There are only three reasons to borrow money: 1. For an education,2. To start a business, and3. To purchase a home.

Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

No matter our income, whether great or small, our true happiness has always been found in the gospel and with our family.

Remember, the Lord doesn’t need our money, but He does desire to bless us for the righteous use of money. For some, and perhaps most of us, it will be the widow’s mite, but that is fine with the Lord. We won’t take either our wealth or our debts into the next life, but we will all carry the consequences of our decisions in these matters with us as we return home to Him whose children we are.

Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually

Paying For College: Aid And Other Resources

All information below is taken from: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/loans

3. Aid and Other Resources From the Federal Government

The federal government offers a number of financial aid programs. Besides aid from the U.S. Department of Education (discussed below), you also might get

• Aid for serving in the military or for being the spouse or child of a veteran• Tax benefits for education• Education Award for community service with AmeriCorps• Educational and Training Vouchers for current and former foster care youth• Scholarships and loan repayment through the Department of Health and Human Services’: Indian Health Service National Institutes of Health National Health Service Corps

The U.S. Department of Education awards about $150 billion a year in grants, work-study funds, and low-interest loans to more than 15 million students. Federal student aid covers such expenses as tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, and transportation. Aid also can help pay for other related expenses, such as a computer and dependent care. Thousands of schools across the country participate in the federal student aid programs; ask the schools you’re interested in whether they do! Federal student aid includes:• Grants—financial aid that doesn’t have to be repaid (unless, for example, you withdraw from school and owe a refund)• Loans— borrowed money for college or career school; you must repay your loans, with interest• Work-Study—a work program through which you earn money to help you pay for school – (BYU-Idaho cannot participate in the Work Study Program. We can only participate in the Idaho Work Study program which is only available to Idaho residents [or married to an Idaho resident] who is employed off campus in work relating to their major.

Use FAFSA4caster to get an estimate of how much aid you might receive from the U.S. Department of Education.

Apply for federal student aid using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®). And remember, the first F in “FAFSA” stands for “free”—you shouldn’t pay to fill out the FAFSA! ______________________________________ 4. Aid from Your State Government Even if you're not eligible for federal aid, you might be eligible for financial aid from your state. Contact your state grant agency for more information.________________________________________ 5. Aid from Your College or Career School Many colleges offer financial aid from their own funds. Find out what might be available to you: • Visit your school’s financial aid page on its website, or ask someone in the financial aid office.• Ask at the department that offers your course of study; they might have a scholarship for students in your major.• Fill out any applications the school requires for its own aid, and meet the deadlines.________________________________________

6. Aid from a Nonprofit or Private Organization

Many organizations offer scholarships or grants to help students pay for college. This free money can make a real difference in how affordable your education is. Check with your parents’ employer or other local businesses for scholarship opportunities

7. BYU-Idaho Financial Aid Web Site Information for the following resources is found on the BYU-I Financial Aid Website:• Federal aid• Scholarships• Outside Aid Applications for federal aid and scholarships can be found on the Financial Aid Website and clicking on “Applications.”