I attended Money Smart Day/Focus the Woods. The presentations I attended include Amy Waldrow "Protect Yourself: Stop Scams and Identity Theft", Dr. Dennis Bialaszewski "The Perspective of a Horse Owner/Breeder - Breeding Strategies, Costs and Benefits, Success Stories, Ethics, and the Market", Christine Wilkey "A Thin Line - Poverty and Self-Sufficiency in Vigo County", Darla Hopper "Student Loans - Trends and Student Strategies", and the ISU Investment Club "An Introduction to the ISU Investment Club."
Of these presentations, I enjoyed the brief one presented by the Indiana State Investment Club. I enjoyed this presentation because the topic interested me. I think it is a great opportunity for those interested.
For those who didn't attend this session, the Indiana State Investment Club is a club available for students interested in Finance, Accounting, Information Technology, and the. They were given a donation of roughly $500,000. With that money they are given the opportunity for hands-on experience through the financial trading room. They have had portfolios of a half of a million dollars, and are responsible for controlling that/those portfolios. A student in IT created an Excel Spreadsheet that automates a system for the club.

I wish our school had these types of resources available; I would definitely be a part of a club like this.
Speaker Amy Wardlow from the Indiana Attorney General’s Office spoke about scams and identity theft during Money Smart Day. During her presentation she discussed several ways to protect you from identify theft and ways to protect your credit card/debit card numbers.
She mentioned several ways to protect you while shopping online. Antivirus software is obviously a key factor in this. She suggested a free download called AVG. An important thing to realize is that not all viruses attack your computer, some work in the background to log your keystrokes. When this happens as soon as you enter any personal information the end user on the other side of the virus now has it.
This was just some of what was mentioned. It was an informative session with helpful resources presented.
One of the most interesting speakers I thought that I listened to was ", Christine Wilkey "A Thin Line - Poverty and Self-Sufficiency in Vigo County". She is a professor here at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. She made a lot of really good points and a lot of them were actually very shocking. Many people that were sitting in the room listening to her speak gasped and you could hear how shocked they were as well.
One of the things that she stated that stuck with me the most was “poverty is suggestive” and “needs are relative”. People can think of poverty and needs as something completely different than the person sitting next to them. Some people need to buy a certain type of hair product, when someone else may need to have a certain type of food they like. Also a person may feel poor if they cannot afford getting a manicure/pedicure every week, when someone else may feel poor if they cannot afford food. It all is dependent on that person and their views/feelings/.
There are three different types of poverty, biological poverty, relative poverty, and official poverty. Biological poverty is someone who does not have enough income to meet their basic needs in life, for instance not having enough food to get the proper amount of calories. Relative poverty is someone who has less than others in society. This is just pretty much your friend can afford an expensive top of the line apartment while you can only afford a crappy studio