Off Campus Life presents the Fall & Spring Lunch Series!
Join Off Campus Life for lunch and learn something about the topics of ...
- Budgeting
- Buying a Home
- Nutrition
- Recycling
- Transportation
- Civic Engagement
- Discovering Gainesville
- Towing
Budgeting
What we learned:
General Comments:
- Watch out for credit card gimmicks (UF logo, Disney characters, free pizza or subs)
- Some credit card offers have very high introductory rates and other rates are high
- You need to set your priorities and financial goals
- Pay yourself first and get a personal savings plan started
- The next few years are important financially for college students
- 45% of college students have an average debt of $3000 or more
- Your lifestyle back at home may not be the same at college and you need to adjust appropriately
- Need to put action behind your thoughts
- Average debt of students at UF is around $15000 which is $4000 below the national average
- Budgeting cannot be in your head, it has to be written down
- Most things are paid monthly so if you have a yearly expense, divide it by 12
- Teach budgeting at a young age so people can gain experience
- Short term goals are less than a year and long term goals are over a year
- Budget and credit go hand in hand
Student Loans:
- Still a type of debt but a good type of debt to have in school compared to other debts
- Two different platforms:
- Fell system – done through banks where the payment of the loans goes back to the bank; banks compete against one another
- Direct loan – used at UF where the loan comes straight from the Department of Education and there is no competition
- Banks have changed their strategy to market directly to students and they have very high interest rates
- Payment on student loans can range from 10 years to 30 years
- The longer plan you take, the more you will have to pay
Finance Classes:
- Business Finance Course offered at UF that shows how interest rates are calculated and information on personal investments
Credit Score:
- Shows how many lines of credit are extended to you
- Your oldest line of credit has a big affect on your score
- Lenders look at a few different things:
- Do you pay on time?
- How much do you owe?
- How long is your credit history?
- What type of credit do you have?
- Unsecured credit – credit cards, electric bills, and cell phone bills
- Watch out for identity theft – one of the fastest growing crimes
- FACT Act – allows you to get a free credit report once a year at www.annualcreditreport.com
- Do not use a public computer when checking your credit report; use your own personal computer
Building Credit:
- You can get a co-signer on a vehicle purchase; make sure the co-signer is someone with good credit
- Secured credit cards are another option
- Credit scores range from 300-850 and the higher the number the better credit you have and the lower the interest
- Car loans have ranged from 5%-18% interest
- Credit cards can charge interest on cash advances, purchases, and transfers
Credit Limit:
- Make sure you have a budget and any discretionary money left over can be used for the credit card
- Credit card should be paid off in full every month
- If you do not have enough money to pay off your credit card bill every month, you should lower your limit
Buying a Home
What we learned:
Tips from the panelists:
- Works with first time home buyers
- A lot of people consider why should they pay someone else to help them
- Houses are not like banks or stocks and need to be treated differently
- You need to assemble the best team: realtor, attorney, etc.
- You need to know your obligations if you are going to be a landlord
- Go local for your loans – they know the area, appraisers, etc.
- You need to have a game plan when deciding to buy a home
- Six step process:
- Planning – establish a time frame and get a pre-approved mortgage
- Choose the type of housing for your needs
- Seek professional representation
- Find your home and have a realtor prepare an offer
- Establish a closing date and begin the closing process
- Move in to your home
- Apartments do not look at the debt/credit ratio
- If you will be living in Gainesville for a while, you may want to think about buying a home
- You can make the home an investment
- Now is a good time to negotiate for prices
Different Types of Homes:
- Single family homes
- You own the house and the land
- Free standing home
- Condominiums
- Only own from the interior walls, not the land
- Majority of what students are buying
- They can be new or they can be conversions
- Need to make sure you have contents coverage
- You have 15 days to go through the documents for a condominium
- Planned Unit Development
- Attached housing but neighbors usually beside you
- You own the land underneath you
- Mobile Homes
- Made in a factory and delivered to a piece of land
- Iron frame and tied down to the ground
- Modular Homes
- Mobile home taken off the frame and attached to a foundation
Government programs for first time home buyers:
- Florida Bond Program: reduces principle and covers closing
Representation
- Important for writing a contract, negotiating, and closing
- Realtor can help with releases from the contract
- A lot of contingencies in the contract can protect you
- The seller has to sign off on the release if you decide to do that
- In you purchased a home and a survey was done, an attorney can help
- $350-$450 for attorney services
- Attorney will look over the title
What is the best way to research for purchasing a place to live?
- Get a realtor who has the listings of where you want to buy
- Extrapolate to get an idea
- In this area the growth is between 5%-10%
Is there anytime that you should rent over buying?
- When prices are going down
- Right now could be a buyers market if you buy in the right place
What about selling a home?
- Get a comparable analysis
- Get an advertising analysis
What is a good minimum down payment?
- As much as you are comfortable with
- The more money you put in at the beginning, the lower your interest rate
- If you decide to pay everything within 15 years, you can get a very low interest rate
- Closing costs are about 3% of the purchasing price
This link is from the Florida Bar on buying real estate:
Florida Bar Link
This link is from the Attorney's Title Insurance Fund on buying and selling real estate and has helpful checklists and information:
www.myrealestatestory.com
Nutrition
This month UF celebrates National Nutrition Month. Gatorwell has a series of programs and activities to help educate the UF community on the importance of nutrition in students’ lives. For more information regarding the programs please go to http://healthygators.hhp.ufl.edu/nutritionmonth.shtml. We would highlight that Dr. Jean Kilbourne will be speaking on March 24 at 7:30pm in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom.
Gatorwell offers various services.
- One on one nutrition counseling
- Offer other programs such as smoking cessation
- Can do presentations for organizations and classes on various health themes
- Health Hut which hands out information on a variety of health issues can be seen on around campus.
- If you like to shop around for fruits and vegetables don’t forget about the farmer’s markets. To locate the markets or the U-pick farms go to the either the hut or gatorwell website.
One of the best tips given was "Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are not."
For more information please go to Gatorwell
Campus Recreation Sports
- Four different sites: Southwest Recreation Center, Student Recreation & Fitness Center, O’Connell Center weight room, and the Broward Outdoor recreation complex.
- They offer group fitness classes, sport clubs, intramurals, and free fitness assessments
- You can check out equipment for free with your UF ID card
- You can pay a fee for a personal trainer
Suggested that you exercise five times a week for 20-40 mins.
For more information please go to Recreational Sports
Recycling
In addition to being a part of the Gainesville community, we are also a part of a global community and we need to take care of it. One area that we can work on is recycling and looking at what we throw away. There are many more things that can be recycled than people think. Our panelists of students, staff, and members of the community will address these recycling issues and others to give students new options to help their local and global community. The lunch will take place on Wednesday, April 9th at 11:45 am in Room 284 of the Reitz Union.
Transportation:
What we learned:
Transportation and Parking Services: (www.parking.ufl.edu)
- Parking issues on campus for football games; the garage just south of Archer on Gale Lemerand is available to students
- More students are now using scooters on campus and that has pros and cons
- Carpool with friends is another option to get to campus
Regional Transit System: (www.go-rts.com)
- Students can provide feedback on services or existing bus routes
- By going to their website you can also ask for new routes to be considered
- The RTS program in Gainesville is big and has a large volume of people to transport
- Students can also submit concerns to the SG Transportation Advisory Commission by emailing the Student Body Treasurer at treasurer@sg.ufl.edu. This committee can make changes to existing bus routes if there are concerns.
Flexcar: (www.flexcar.com/uf)
- Car sharing service that offers members affordable hourly access to vehicles
- Gas, insurance, parking, and maintenance are on Flexcar
- Helping to promote students not using their own vehicles for short errands
- 8 cars on campus and can be used by students, faculty, and staff
Sustainability: (www.sustainable.ufl.edu)
- Options such as walking, biking, busing, or carpooling
- You can still go to store using alternate modes of transportation
- UF GreenRide (http://portal.greenride.com/UFL/home.aspx) helps reduce the number of times staff and faculty at UF drive alone
- Bus services that will go to Orlando, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami
Civic Engagement:
What we learned:
Getting involved with your local government: (http://cityofgainesville.org/)
- There are internship opportunities (some with the mayor) for both UF and SFCC students
- Advisory committees have spaces that are reserved specifically for students
- One city commission meeting is held in conjunction with the UF Student Senate
- City officials can meet with student leadership groups
- Students are active in organizations that work with GPD and Off Campus Life
- The city council has a board for involvement
- The Alligator is looking for a columnist to cover Gainesville/city issues
- For community service opportunities in Gainesville you can visit the Center for Leadership and Service in the Dean of Students Office
- For internships opportunities in Gainesville you can visit the Career Resource Center in the Reitz Union
- Jan. 29th – 3 city commissioner positions are up for election
Student Government: (www.sg.ufl.edu)
- Community Political Affairs Cabinet: role is to get students involved with committees in the Gainesville community and inform students about city ordinances
- Chomp the Vote is Student Government’s voter registration drive to get students registered to vote in Alachua County
- Application week in the Gainesville Sun: Student Government puts one application for a different committee each week
- Student Government External Affairs Office – they have an area that focuses only on local government
Community Advocates: (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/offcampus/communityadvocates/)
- Gets students involved in groups
- Students are citizens
- Crime watch groups have been formed
Gainesville Police Department: (www.gainesvillepd.org)
- Ride along with the Gainesville Police Dept.
- Partnership between GPD and students
- Safety kiosk – information station for distribution of alcohol awareness literature
- GPD cannot be in other parts of the community when they are all downtown for game day weekends
East Gainesville:
- Initiatives: SFCC worked hard to partner with east Gainesville to offer expertise (UF faculty has as well)
- Students should go out and just see more of Gainesville
- Black on Black Crime Task Force meets the 1st Wed. of the month @ 5:30 at GPD
- Have vs. have not community
- Take resources from UF and see them in the community
Homelessness:
- Gainesville and Alachua County have a 10 year plan to end homelessness
- Cities need to identify different populations of homeless people
- We want to close the door on new homeless people coming in and open the door into housing for those who are currently homeless
- Programs: Homeward bound, faith based organizations, and Give A Better Way Campaign (parking meters that fund homeless services)
- About 300 beds for homeless people in Gainesville
- Panhandling is not illegal but there are certain rules to follow; www.municode.com (Ch. 19-81, 19-82)
- Tent City is on a former landfill and there are no facilities to keep up personal hygiene for those staying there
Discovering Gainesville:
What we learned:
Ichetucknee Springs State Park: (www.dep.state.fl.us/)
- Volunteers are needed to remove water lettuce from the river; held on Saturday from 8 am to 2 pm once a month
- Off season activities: canoeing and kayaking, scuba diving, hiking, tubing (south entrance only), visitors center, and pavilions
- Concessions and shuttles are not operational from Labor Day until Memorial Day
- Activities on land can have an impact on the health of the springs and river
- You can help protect the springs by limiting fertilizer and pesticide use, do not dump anything in sinkholes, and perform regular maintenance on septic tanks
Towing!
Has your car ever been towed in the city of Gainesville or are you not sure how the towing process works? Come speak with students, city officials, and tow company employees about issues and questions you have. Lunch is provided and it will be on Wednesday, November 28th at 11:45 am in room 282 of the Reitz Union.
The panelists for the lunch are:
Jeanna Mastrodicasa – Commissioner, City of Gainesville & Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, UF
Dr. Jeanna Mastrodicasa is the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Florida, where she works with staff development, assessment, publications, and the Reitz Scholars Program. In addition to her role at the university, Jeanna is also an elected official, serving in her second year of a three-year term with the Gainesville City Commission. She is a frequent presenter about the trends of millennial college students at conferences and on college campuses across the country, and is the co-author of the book Connecting to the Net.Generation: A Resource Guide for Higher Education Professionals, published in April 2007 by NASPA. Jeanna graduated in May 2004 with a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Florida. In addition, she earned a Master of Science degree in College Student Personnel from the Leadership Studies Unit in the College of Education at the University of Tennessee in 1997. She also holds a J.D. and an A.B.J. in public relations from the University of Georgia.
David Drescher – UF student & Student Government, External Affairs Director
David is from Plantation, FL. He is a 4th year political science major who served in the student senate for a year and a half and spent a year of that time on the Allocations committee. He has also been involved in other parts of campus including numerous roles in the Jewish Student Union and served as director of the first annual UF Homecoming Carnival. Currently David serves as the Student Government External Affairs Director. He is responsible for lobbying for SG on a local, state, and national level. His office also oversees Chomp the Vote, SG’s voter registration drive.
Lt. Pete Backhaus – Gainesville Police Department
Lt. Pete Backhaus is a 25-year veteran of the Gainesville Police Department. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in September of 1990 and has served in various capacities with the department, including Commander of each Shift, Public Spokesperson, Training Commander, and his current assignment of Support Services Division Commander. He was assigned as the department contact for towing complaints and the Trespass Tow Ordinance Administrator in August of 2007.
Mike Weber – Superior Towing