Student Life Archives

Since the day I received my acceptance letter to the University, my dad’s favorite line has been, “Better take full advantage, honey, because once you graduate you are off my ticket.” He’s never forgotten to remind me, as the years have passed, that time is ticking. So, as my last days as a student come to a close, I’ve been anxiety-ridden and scared to death.

In May I will be thrown out to the wolves to naively flounder in the real world. If you are like me, you don’t have any idea about personal finance. Currently, I don’t even have finances to speak of.

I decided to meet with personal finance expert Mike Gordinier, a senior lecturer at the Olin School of Business, in hope of finding enlightenment.

The moment I walked into Gordinier’s office, the computer at his desk made some kind of female ooh-ahh sound to signal that the financial guru had a message. I thought, “Personal finance can’t be all that hard – this man has a sense of humor.”

But once we got started, I realized I had a lot to learn. “Time is money” was the first thing he told me.

“Starting early makes the most sense,” he said. “You can set aside $300 a month in your 20s and you’ll be a millionaire by the time you’re 50-something. If you start in your 30s or 40s, it’s not going to happen.”

One step to saving money is understanding where the money you have is going. Gordinier suggested a budgeting practice where you write down how much you spend on food, entertainment and other expenses. This way, if you see you are spending way too much on one thing, you can put some of that money elsewhere.

He also said that now, in college, is the time to establish credit. He suggested acquiring two different credit cards in your name and just once or twice a month using them to buy coffee, pizza or beer.

“Pay off those balances religiously. Get a card with a decent enough credit limit. Then in a year or two the company will see that you haven’t used all the rope they’ve given you to hang yourself and know you are responsible,” said Gordinier.

A lesson I learned was that credit cards in your name but only extensions of a parent’s account don’t count.

“If you don’t have any credit history when you go to buy a house or car and need a loan, the banker is put in the position to be the first person to take a chance on you,” said Gordinier. “Risk isn’t something they like.”

Establishing credit seems easy enough; every friend I have is good at spending money. What about when it comes time to save the money you have?

There are many possibilities when deciding where to put your money. Gordinier suggested visiting mutual funds’ Web sites, such as www.vanguard.com. These sites not only entice you to invest in their funds but also offer many educational resources that describe how the funds work and what kind of fees are attached.

“Another good source would be to go to the b-school or Olin library and look at the Morningstar Fund Reports,” said Gordinier. “Morningstar is a private company that has no bias, and they have a ton of educational material about how things work. Best to start with Morningstar.”

Now, I’ve tried my hand at mutual funds, and they take more monitoring than I have time for while in school. They are not, however, the only place for a student or recent graduate to put money. Gordinier recommended that before you invest anything you should create a liquidity fund, which is about three to six months of your expenses saved up.

“With months set aside you can leisurely go about finding a new job,” said Gordinier. “The best place for that is typically a money market account, typically offered through a mutual fund company. You can get higher rates of return than what you can get at a bank.”

This is good advice for recent graduates, but he made another suggestion to students who simply have summer or part-time jobs. According to Gordinier, it would be smart to create a Roth IRA account, which allows you to invest in the stock market through mutual funds.

“You can put up to $4,000 a year into the Roth IRA account and then that money grows with no taxes on it. When it comes out for retirement purposes, there is no tax on it either,” he said.

I left Simon Hall feeling better already, repeating to myself, “Morningstar Report, liquidation fund, money market account, Roth IRA…” Maybe these will be the words to live by as I enter the next phase of my life.

But as Mike Gordinier said, “Time is money.” So the next place I am headed is to the campus bookstore to buy the textbook he uses to teach his class, Personal Finance by Arthur J. Keown. Maybe I’ll pick up something written by Peter Lynch, while I’m at it.

“Lynch is one of the most successful money managers on the planet,” said Gordinier.

So I think I’ll rely on the experts and get the “straight skinny on how to get started and how to do it right.”

As spring break approaches, some students are off to sunny beaches, snow-filled ski resorts or just the relaxing environment of their own home. But for some, that plane ticket home is destined for an entirely new city.

Whether it is due to work constraints or restless empty nesters, for many students the return home is not to the house they grew up in.

Freshman Laura Coye grew up in Mamaroneck, N.Y., but her parents recently moved to Taipei, Taiwan, for work-related reasons. Over the summer Coye will stay in a rented apartment in her old town with her mother and sister. Although her parents are now far away, Coye takes an optimistic approach.

“It’s exciting because it opens up a lot of travel opportunities to places I wouldn’t be able to go to,” she said. “I was born in Taiwan so it kind of completes the cycle.”

Despite the distance, the move has had little impact on Coye and her family.

“I still see them the same amount, so it’s not a huge change,” said Coye. “It’s easy to keep in touch. I e-mail them a lot and they set up calling plans so it’s really cheap to call internationally. It’s kind of tricky with the time difference, but once you figure it out, it’s not that bad.”

For many others, the distance affects their relationships with friends from home, not their family. Freshman Hannah Bonomo recently moved 45 minutes away to a different part of Westchester County, N.Y. While remaining in the same state, the move still makes keeping in touch a bit more difficult.

“The hardest part was I didn’t know my way around the new town,” said Bonomo. “Even when my friends came to visit me, I didn’t know where to take them. Also, since I don’t have my own car, I couldn’t just go visit them on a whim.”

Freshman Lucie Germain, who will be moving into New York City from the suburbs this summer, shares Bonomo’s sentiment.

“It will suck during the summer, but it will be okay,” she said. “I’m just going to live at friends’ houses over the weekend. Both my sisters live in the city, and it’s a cool location because there’s all this new stuff there.”

While Germain is more optimistic about city life, Bonomo misses her suburban home.

“Where I live now is more urban. I miss seeing familiar faces at shops and restaurants,” said Bonomo.

For freshman Erica Woodruff, who moved from California, moving is nothing new, but this time produced some unexpected change.

“Initially, I didn’t really care because I moved a lot in my life, but once I did move I was upset at having to leave my friends early,” said Woodruff. “Also, I don’t get to see [my friends] over breaks, which I didn’t realize.”

For many, keeping in touch with friends throughout the semester is hard enough, but living in a new area poses even greater problems for the students who have moved.

Whether it is through Facebook, the phone or an old-fashioned visit, though, keeping in contact is always possible.

“I was really upset because I thought the transition to college was hard enough and separating me from my friends at home would be even harder,” said Bonomo. “I knew they were thinking about moving closer to the city for awhile, but I didn’t think it would be as soon as I left for college. When I came to college I already had to filter out who I was going to keep in touch with and this made me decide who my real friends are-who’s worth keeping in contact with.”

Woodruff also understands the effects on old friendships.

“At the same time it strengthens our friendships because I know we can’t just hang out over break, so there’s more of an effort to keep in touch,” said Woodruff.

A relationship can be going along nicely until three small words change everything. No, unfortunately not “I love you,” but rather, “Sorry, I cheated.”

The months of good times, deepened friendship and unforgettable moments can be destroyed immediately. It’s a hit from which many relationships can never recover. In the world of relationships, cheating is often viewed as the unforgivable act.

Why would someone risk something amazing for just one fun night? Everyone has their own reason: a relationship getting boring, a new exciting attraction, a drunken mistake – but is there really any excuse for this action? No matter the circumstance, someone will get hurt. It is inevitable that the temptation will arise. If you can’t resist it, should you be forgiven?

The negative consequences of cheating are undeniable. One obvious consequence is hurting your relationship partner. When asked what he would do if a girl cheated on him, sophomore Chris Salgado said he would “fuck her up…or cry like a little girl.” Salgado hits on the joint emotions of anger and sadness after receiving the terrible news. Senior Kristina Stein also voices these coexisting feelings, explaining, “I would be devastated, then pissed, and then I would break up with them.” Cheating is powerful and incredibly painful.

Unfortunately, cheating is not unlikely to occur. The difficult choice of whether to forgive lies in the hands of the cheated-upon. What are the circumstances that make it easier to forgive? Are there also those in which forgiveness is out of the question? Chris Salgado thinks it would be easier to forgive someone if there were extenuating circumstances affecting their decision, such as if “she were drunk or if we were in a fight.” Though cheating is never excusable, in some circumstances it can be more easily understood.

What about the boy who cheats on his girlfriend with her best friend? Will he be forgiven? It’s very unlikely. There are some instances when the relationship file needs to be labeled “terminated” in permanent ink. Salgado said he would deem forgiveness to be impossible if the cheating “was prolonged and [he] didn’t find out for a while.” If she has been sneaking off nearly every night to supposed “study groups,” her chances of pulling off a perfect score on a chemistry exam are greater than her chances of gaining forgiveness.

If the other partner ultimately decides to forgive the cheater, how is their relationship affected? Kristina Stein blatantly states the truth, saying, “It always changes the dynamic of the relationship, and usually not for the better.” Is it possible to get past this major disruption in a relationship? Salgado thinks there might be chance, but noted that “the trust level just isn’t the same.” If there is no trust in a relationship, there is no foundation. People say you can forgive and forget, but if your significant other has cheated in the past, will you actually be able to stop worrying about what they do on their weekend crew team trip? Will you ever be able to let go of the fear of another painful confession?

While it’s easy to condemn others for cheating, it’s harder to look at ourselves and ask, “Would I give in to the temptation and if I did, would I tell him the truth?” Things are unpredictable, and though we might say we’ll never cheat, there is never any certainty. What is more in our control is the ability to tell the truth. Is it better to let the events of one drunken night stay a secret to maintain an otherwise healthy relationship? Or will the lie keep you from ever feeling real in the relationship again?

Kristina Stein said the guilt would prevent her from keeping it a secret. She believes that “even if it means ruining something good, that’s better than knowing you’re lying to someone everyday you’re with them.” Never telling would probably keep you from ever investing fully in the relationship.

So what’s the answer to the question of why people cheat? Maybe just because they can. It would not work to simply say, “Don’t cheat.” It will happen regardless. So here are three words for you: think about it. Think of the damage it will cause to the relationship, the pain you will inflict on someone you care about and the trust that will probably never be recovered.

Cheating on the relationship test will result in an automatic zero on the trust scale. Be smart.

Guido’s Pizzeria and Tapas
5046 Shaw Ave-The Hill
314-752-8272
Price range: $7-15

For our last review, we tried a tapas restaurant. This week, we’re reviewing a tapas joint a second time. But this time we’ll call it a “Remix” and add berry flavor because that’s what those guys over in marketing said the kids would love.

Restaurants are like a box of chocolates – you have to spend money on them if you’re a guy. And you never know what you’re going to get. In addition, each is subdivided into “rooms,” be they for truffles or travelers. They both go well with milk, they’re fun for the whole family and they usually both cost more than you think they should.

In the proverbial chocolatier that is the dining community, Guido’s is Hershey quality at a Russell Stover price, if you get the drift.

Picture your fantasy world – a cozy corner of the Hill, sunset on the horizon, pasta and tapas in your mouth. Wake up. Now it’s the future, where fresh Italian-Spanish hybrid establishments are engineered by European Union super scientists. There’s a revolution against engineered tapas-pasta style cuisine, however, and everything is in chaos. Everything is destroyed, save one family eatery. Guido’s emerges from the rubble, equips itself with a stealth cloak and hides for centuries until time travel is realized.

Which brings us back to the Hill, and to the now. While browsing through the now, one might select a few tasty treats. Perhaps the all-original GeeDoh Masterpiece, flavored chicken strips for antipasta, maybe some Mixta insalata or a nice homemade zuppa. Why waste your time with these mundane foods from the future – go straight for the Primi Piatti Italiani, platos fuertes/calientes, paninis or the pizza specials. You can’t go wrong.

We pondered the origin of the restaurant’s name while eyeing the premium menus. Guido. The name evokes thoughts of mopeds, muscles, hatchbacks in Tuscany, overly tight pants and a man with an accent as slick as his silky black hair. Soon, for us, those images would all change.

There were so many good options that we were soon happier than that one night we all started singing the “Doug” theme song from back in the day – and that was a good night. Guido’s has the knock-you-off-your-feet combo of homemade pizza and delectable tapas, a duo so dynamic that they almost beat out Batman and Robin for “Second Best Dynamic Duo.” As for the best duo, well, we think that’s pretty obvious (coughJakeandChriscough).

You may not like the pizza at Guido’s if you don’t favor the traditional St. Louis style – taking provel, adding some provel and topping it off with roughly six more pounds of provel. While the thin crust and sauce were to die for, the overlaid shrine to provel was a bit over the top. The pizza was affordable and better than Imo’s, but that’s like saying a new beer you tried is better than warm, leftover Natty Light Ice.

The tapas are recommended over the pizza, and there is a wide selection of items that you might not find somewhere else. Cold and hot tapas are both offered, as well as paninis, entrees and a few desserts. Baked goat cheese, saut‚ed shrimp, empanadas and broiled codfish are a few examples of dishes largely unique to Guido’s. We opine that the tapas here do not quite match up to Modesto’s, but they are a little bit less expensive.

All in all, if you’re looking for a fairly laid-back, friendly place with an opportunity for a little culture-mixing, Guido’s might be your spot. Their offerings are more diverse than at a single Italian or Spanish restaurant, and there are certainly a few highlights on the menu worth trying. For a nicer outing, or if you know that you specifically want only Italian or Spanish food, then you can probably find a place more fitting to your tastes.

As a wild card variable, there is an enormous bull head mounted on the wall as you walk in which is definitely worth a look – the picture possibilities are endless.

“Thursday night is my favorite night of the weekend!” a group of girls shouts while jumping on one of the many school buses parked outside of the Olin School of Business late on the night of Thursday, Feb. 23.

Unbeknownst to many high school students, Thursday night kicks off the college weekend, especially at the University, where the club scene rules. Due to the prevalence of individual students putting forth their own cash to fund buses, clubs around St. Louis are becoming the place to be for some Thursday night fun.

Sophomore Megan Eberhard recently joined the echelon of students funding these private parties with her Spyglass party on Feb. 23. While Eberhard asserted that the endeavor did take up a fair amount of time in planning and caused a lot of pre-night stress, she is excited to continue opening up clubs for University parties.

Eberhard went through a few different steps to end up with the popular dance party she provided, which ended up hosting about 350 Wash. U. students. Her first choice involved the venue.

“I initially started calling around to a few places, trying to get the best deal that I could,” said Eberhard. “I wanted to get the best returns.”

Eberhard finally decided on Spyglass, a new bar located in the Central West End, which she believes has recently started trying to open up their clientele to include more University students. She describes the ease of planning her party, highlighting that Spyglass helped her a lot with the arrangements.

“Tom, the owner, is really willing to work with you,” said Eberhard. “Spyglass told me that if I didn’t make this much money, they would give me some of the bar tabs. The other clubs are stricter with their rules.”

Spyglass may also see a boom in popularity due to the legal conflicts other area clubs have seen recently. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Vault, another Central West End dance club that used to be on the University’s club circuit, was been penalized with a 70-day liquor license suspension since late December for allegedly allowing several women to expose themselves publicly for the taping of a “Girls Gone Wild” episode. This suspension was appealed until a hearing in mid-February.

Club Ten14, another popular venue for University student parties, has run into opposition from residents for extending hours until 3 a.m. at their Washington Avenue location, said the Post-Dispatch.

Club owner Kip Fischer told the Post-Dispatch that he would probably go out of business if he couldn’t stay open past the current 1:30 a.m. closing time.

It seems as though University student parties have helped increase the community’s awareness of these late-night venues.

A lot more goes into organizing the parties than merely picking a venue and paying for the buses. Eberhard believes she spent about 10-12 hours working on the event during the two weeks prior to the party, mostly working on publicity. From posting the event on Facebook, putting up flyers, calling her friends and their friends and sending an Evite to many University students, a number of whom she did not know personally, Eberhard worked to create a buzz about her event.

In the end, Eberhard ended up making a hefty sum of money, much more than covering her costs, but she admitted that she had hoped for more. Eberhard credits the somewhat lower amount of money to the many different parties that were all happening on that Thursday night.

“There were eight buses running [Thursday night] to four different places,” said Eberhard. “That’s ridiculous, and that’s why we didn’t make enough money. We were all splintered up. It would be nice if there was a master calendar of everyone’s parties; we don’t want to compete. We shouldn’t cannibalize on each others’ parties, because there aren’t enough of them.”

Washington University certainly seems to be holding true to the stereotypes about early weekend events for college students. These private club parties may be key in helping to provide yet another facet for the active social student.

Being your own boss is cool at any age, but especially so when you’re younger than 25 years old. No longer is the business world purely for adults. Some Wash. U. students have taken the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship before they are even allowed to sip alcohol legally.

“Being a student business owner is exciting,” said smiling junior Ari Vared, CEO of U-Trucking, which is best known for its storage services. “It’s unlike any other experience. I fly home to California and I talk to people next to me, and [they exclaim], ‘You own a business and you’re only 20!?'”

Running a business is quite different for students than it is for people outside of college. In fact, running a business as a student can be quite beneficial, especially here at Washington University.

At Wash. U., businesses are passed down among students, especially those in the storefronts on the South 40. Sophomore Daniel Fox, one of the five co-owners of Wydown Water, said that some of their previous owners have intense jobs on Wall Street, for example, but will still take the time to talk to the current owners if they need help.

“People are teaching and learning at the same time – it encourages the entrepreneurial spirit,” said junior Alex Schwartz, one of the three co-owners of Off The Row, a screen-printing and monogramming business.

The student businesses on the South 40 also have a valuable resource in Washington University itself. The Student Entrepreneurial Program, directed by Julie Thornton at the Office of Student Activities, of which most of the student businesses on campus are part, provides panel discussions and opportunities to network with other business owners in the St. Louis area.

The business school offers aid to students with start-up businesses, not only through the skills it teaches in finances and marketing but also through their entrepreneurship program.

The Hatchery is one class where mostly upperclassmen get to join in with St. Louis entrepreneurs’ business plans. Freshman Justin (who’d like to leave his last name unmentioned) has used the Hatchery program to put his own business idea into reality.

The summer before he came to Wash. U., Justin was sitting in the Admiral’s Club, a private airport business lounge, with his dad and wondering why this kind of workplace didn’t exist outside of the airport. He decided to make a version himself, which he plans to open in Manhattan very soon. He presented it in the Hatchery course, and three other students joined in his group. With his other entrepreneurship classes, about six of Justin’s 15 credits last semester were devoted to opening this business.

Justin has used all sorts of resources at Wash. U. to help create his business. He has involved others in his classes on his project, especially in making the financial models. He made a connection with a visual communications class in the art school, and 18 art students have been working on his logos and visuals.

“Basically I’ve been getting a lot of free labor from Wash. U.,” joked Justin.

Yet planning, owning and running a business is not an easy cash-making extracurricular project by any means – it still requires lots and lots of work. Networking is paramount. Justin still has to do interviews with potential investors, people who are going to supply his business, potential landlords and people who own locations he wants to use. He has to know his stuff; potential investors won’t take him seriously if he doesn’t know about what they do or exactly what he wants to do.

Gregg storefront owners at Wash. U. have it a bit easier than students planning for the outside world – they don’t have to start their businesses from scratch, they have several people to do the work and they don’t have the pressure to turn huge profits with the business in the future.

Nonetheless, running a business is still a challenge for them. U-Trucking has to correspond very closely with several St. Louis businesses, especially storage companies. They all have to send e-mails to potential customers and suppliers, tally inventory and balance the books. It is an everyday commitment. Junior Matt Rubin, owner of Off The Row, often has to stay up late into the night working on e-mails and projects.

It doesn’t have to be this hard for all businesses. Some students, like sophomore Pehr Hovey, have followed the business-as-a-hobby track. Hovey and his roommate, Richard Ockers, started Pehrtree Productions, a DJ business, at the beginning of this year. Hovey got professional DJ equipment free from his father’s old audio equipment business once it was liquidated. He also has a wide music collection. They do gigs at student parties about every other week (charging around $100 each) and they advertise through word of mouth. They play music and bring decorations, like rope lights.

As they incur no expenses, “basically everything we make is profit,” said Hovey. The team would like to make the business a bigger deal, but as they are both heavily involved with school and extracurricular activities, the business stays on the side.

Student business owners have another advantage: they do not need to stress constantly over balance sheets because they don’t have a lot of outside responsibility or overhead costs for the business. Most student business owners also don’t have to support a family, and oftentimes don’t really have to support themselves. Some students bought into their businesses with loans from their parents. Others used their own money, from savings or expert poker playing (like Schwartz). Justin is using some money from past ventures for his business, but most of it is being leveraged from investors.

“In the real world, time is money and we need to support ourselves,” said Justin. “That’s why students have the upper hand. Because of [relative financial freedom], we can be more liberal with what we do.I can wait for the right opportunity.”

Whether it is a hobby or a big deal, student business owners say they mostly do it because they love entrepreneurship and they love their product. Pehr said he started the DJ business because he had been to many a party where the music “sounded like crap.” Justin has owned three businesses in the past (mostly in design) – he loves the entrepreneurial process and seeing his ideas become realities, and the business lounge is something he would use. Fox says he really thinks Wydown Water makes your quality of life better.

“For an entrepreneur, it’s not the money involved,” said Justin. “It’s the dedication to the project. After so much time, it feels like your baby. You love it and you want to see it succeed.”