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Dani Solaru

CADS 3707

What I’ve Learned

I'm a student-athlete at Auburn University majoring in Political Science and minoring in

Philosophy. In preparation for law school, and my final undergraduate semester, I entered the

course excited to develop a new outlook on monetary spending and practice new financial

strategies. I have a passion for traveling, eating, going to concerts, and shopping -- all very

expensive interests. As such, it was important to me that I learned to improve the structure of my

budget, incorporating philanthropic contributions, to maintain a disciplined yet exploratory

lifestyle.

In learning these values, the first area of concern was my life as a single adult, which I

am now. I hope to practice strategies articulated in Money Smart Women by Janet Bodnar to

provide a solid financial base for my future. Most notably, I want to find a standard budget for

month by month expenditures and aim to cut back on my spending more efficiently. I’ll be

acquiring a massive amount of debt when I leave college and attend law school, and I believe

that any saving I can do right now is just strengthening my ability to tackle this difficult-financial

situation in the future. I have only ever worked unpaid internships, so I wanted to find little ways

to save and make money each day, even if it’s just spare change.

I tried to employ my learning as quickly as I could and opened up a small investment

account using an app called Acorns. I started out the semester by depositing $5 every Saturday as

well as contributing round-ups to the dollar from my weekly expenses. I have now saved $110

dollars just in this semester alone. I think that this small amount of investing that I can do is still

beneficial for my economic mindset later on, as well as starting a cash cushion. It’s difficult for
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me to contribute to a savings aggressively considering my nonexistent income, however I still

want to try to capture the ‘early’ and 'regularly’ aspects of our ERA rule. I think that I’ll be able

to apply the mantra with much more impact once I actually have a regular income. I plan to start

a Roth IRA once I can secure a regular income and don’t plan on withdrawing from it until I

choose to retire. My goal in the meantime is to find some kind of side-hustle where I can be

stable enough to start contributing around $80 a month to my investment account. I think that

starting early is very important because each day we wait, we are losing out on a chance to gain

from the time-value of money.

I genuinely hate spending my parents’ money so I believe that any kind of adjustments I can

make in my life to better utilize the money I have will payoff both financially and ethically. I

focused my goals on debt reduction strategies the most, because I don’t believe that I can find

complete debt-relief until I’ve graduated from law school, passed the Bar, and secured a well-

paying job.

These debt-reduction strategies included a plan to buy, at maximum, 1 clothing item a month,

starting to ride Tiger Transit to school to save on gas money, and public transportation while in

professional school, putting Limits on when I eat out, aka not home or school, to maximum one

time a week, and working part-time during law school to pay for housing, utilities, and living

expenses.

The next area of concern is how I will enter into the Pre-Marriage phase, I’d like to be at

a point in my life where I have discovered my own financial stability as an individual, and have

found a partner who has used their own financial tactics to find stability for their self. I’d prefer

to have a solid partnership, where the burden of paying off second-hand debts is improbable due

early and individual financial planning. It’s important to establish a solid financial and
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philanthropic plan in this phase of life because marriage necessitates greater responsibilities.

Whether it be child-bearing, taking care of in-laws, paying for a house, saving for future

education, or even finding that one person must cut the total income in half and stay at home,

there are many foreseen and unforeseen expenses and events that will arise.

I learned from the 20s-30s-and-40s lecture that if you save now, you can enjoy those

benefits later; I also learned that I should be focusing my joy on experiences rather than material

things. I’ve always known that I’ve wanted to travel a great deal before getting married,

spending for experiences, so reorienting my savings strategies will help me achieve this goal. I

hope to marry someone who understands that I want to explore my greatest passions and

establish myself, financially, as an individual before actually getting married, whether or not that

pushes the date back a bit.

Then, while in a marriage, I want my partner and I to operate as individuals financially.

To do this, I’d want us to each have separate bank accounts and then share a joint bank account

where we are committed to contributing a specific sum of money each month for household

expenses and savings. If we had children, I’d want to be financially stable enough to have one of

us play a stay-at-home role (not necessarily me). If neither one of us wanted to stop working, I’d

want my partner to be understanding of my passions and help find child-care services where we

could both still pursue our goals. I’d want my partner and I to both follow a strict budget early

on, making sure that we are saving up enough to care for children, retirement, etc. Ultimately, I

think it’s important to establish a solid financial platform as a partnership so that we can

comfortably raise a family and have truly equal financial responsibilities.

Next up is raising children. One thing I want to do when I raise my own children is to

teach them to be much more economically educated than I was when I was young. This
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education starts with my own awareness of how to be financially savvy. Janet Bodnar discusses

three large points in chapter five of Money Smart Women. The first point is to discover whether

or not you or your partner will act as a stay-at-home parent. In my own opinion, I would like to

work and not spend the entirety if my day at home caring for the kids. Therefore, either my

husband and I would have to find a highly rated day-care that we can regularly afford and trust,

or he would be staying home with the kids. This would go on at least as far as my interest in

having a career is concerned. The second point that Bodnar introduces, is a reminder to take

advantage of the various tax breaks and advantages that families are given when they have kids.

The different opportunities she mentions are they very reason I’ve decided to keep this

book for the long-term, it’s an amazing life-hack and one that hadn’t even crossed my mind prior

to the reading. Finally, she discusses strategies on how to teach kids about the responsibility that

comes with having money. The most important lesson that she touches on is teaching them how

to save up for important things that can give their life true value rather than junk. This includes

understanding price comparisons, the time-value of money, how to manage allowances, and that

money’s an incentive to perform a job or task. I hope my child(ren) understand that whatever is

hot or flashy in the moment will probably appear dull and boring later (sometimes not even after

a week). I wish I had saved up the money I received as a child and I’d hope to successfully pass

that knowledge on to my kids.

Leah Dubberly presented on the generational differences between the Baby Boomers and

Millennials in order to identify key ways that my generation, Generation Z, varies from both

groups both socially and economically. Since it takes time to understand the characteristics of a

generation, there’s often no differentiation between my generation and the preceding millennials.

I grew up with an older sibling and lie just in the grey area between these two generations, but
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am mostly qualified as the younger of the two, so I can identify their contrasting factors. I think

the most impactful point differentiating GenZ from the Millennial generation comes down to the

type of world we’re being faced with and the encouragement to change it. I feel as though there’s

a striking optimism between millennial social behavior and GenZ social behavior when it comes

to reformatory politics, protesting the functionality of the economy, and an overall greater social

justice awareness, as Dubberly said. In addition to raising economically inclined children I

would want them to learn the strategies of financial and social success of every generation.

Educating my children and myself on the importance of financial responsibility is that much

more crucial when considering the economic status of the country today. We are undoubtedly

faced with a worse economic situation than the preceding generations when it comes to working,

owning a home, and saving; e.g. millions she said that we would need to save in our lifetime.

However, I feel like there’s this new founded attitude of being unsatisfied with the cards we’ve

been dealt rather than sitting back and complaining about them. I am very appreciative of the

ERA type discussion that Dubberly had and know that even while my generation may be pushing

for a fairer system, I need to know the right way to invest and save myself so that I can keep my

head above water in the future, even if my starting point was up to my waist. The compound

calculator sheet she gave us explained how contributing money early on, even if it’s less than if

you started later, would grant greater rewards than waiting.

The documentary IOUSA focuses on the eminent economic disparity the country will

face with the downfall of social security. It clarifies the amount of debt the government is in and

how the promises of social security will eventually topple. The social security system gives out

money when it’s made available, however, when it’s been spent and there’s nothing left to give,

then the government only goes into more debt. Considering the startling numbers of debt our
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country maintains, a failure to receive social security benefits only means that the government

will engage in even greater debt, or you’ll be left with nothing in the time you need it most. To

fix this debt problem, every single American (including small children) would need to pay close

to 60k to the government. Though that kind of task seems ridiculous, this sentiment towards

saving money may come to be reflected in extremely high-income taxes as well as the minimized

funding of various governmental programs. Essentially, we’re on our own. The debt is only

growing and it’ll take my own initiative to make sure that I and my children are not a part of the

group of people who will, tragically, suffer from the government’s expenditures.

Though it’s safe to say that I hope I’ll never need to utilize half of the advice given to me

concerning divorce (the post-divorce advice), I appreciate the tactics we’ve been taught because

regardless of whether I will get divorced or not, I can still use this learning to prepare for the

worst-case scenario. I believe that the most important factor in having a successful divorce

comes before the decision to separate is even made. If faced with a divorce, I want to make sure

that I have built up a secure financial and educational platform whereby I could care for myself

as an individual. Should I need to return to work, hire a divorce attorney and financial consultant,

or have the sole responsibility to care for my children, I want to be comfortable enough to do so.

Bodnar’s text focuses on how we shouldn’t ‘go it alone’, and I would plan to find financial,

legal, and emotional support from specialists when going through the divorce; Mrs. Buckner also

discussed the importance of paying up front for professional services to ensure the best possible

divorce so that your children or family doesn’t have to pay for it later in the divorce panel video.

I believe that putting a lot of what we’ve already learned in the course into practice, regarding

financial independence, will enable me to have the smoothest form of divorce should that

adversity become a reality.

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The next phase of life I have started to plan for is caregiving for my parents. I hadn’t put

a lot of thought into the caregiving situation prior to this course. I think I was a bit in the dark

about what I’d do in this situation if it happened to me. However, during this semester my

grandmother passed away. While she had other family members and medical staff at her side to

care for her during her battle with cancer, my father still needed to fulfill a caregiving role. This

included making sure that her will was crafted, that someone had been granted the power of

attorney should she have become unresponsive, her estate was handled, and that her life-

insurance was organized.

To successfully navigate a caregiver situation, I’d want to have lengthy and detailed

discussions with my parents about what they would like me to do should they be unable to care

for themselves and either what their wills describe or how they should go about crafting a will. In

addition, we would need to discuss granting someone the power of attorney, the viability of

living in an assisted living facility, and long-term care insurance. My parents have expressed a

general desire to not be burdensome to my sister and I; I would predict that even if they needed

assistance, they’d likely choose to stay in the home that they own. Thus, I’d also have to think

about and discuss an in-home caregiver for them if that was the only option they’d be okay with.

These are subjects that became that much more of a reality this semester with the death of my

grandmother. Through the teachings in this course and what I witnessed from my father’s

struggle, I need to be prepared for the future and that preparation can start now. These same set

of plans and procedures can also be applied to the subject of widowhood.

The next major element to my future financial plans is my involvement with

philanthropy. I’ve never felt like a philanthropist myself, but this course helped me see that I

could take the initiative, and even have people to help by my side, to fulfill my philanthropic
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goals. In preparing for a winning planning team, I want to make sure that I have a clear picture of

my passions and where I’d like to give my time, treasure, and talent, and what I’d like my legacy

to be. I seek a legacy whereby my accomplishments, and my charitable giving, can help out

others struggling under circumstances I have had the privilege of living without and giving them

the opportunity to succeed in the ways I have been able to. I believe I would be giving to

humane-oriented causes, one that supported lower-income or marginalized communities, and I

would be proud to know that I did. I would educate my parents, my siblings, my children, and

possibly a philanthropic advisor on these goals. This situation would likely call for a financial

advisor and other finance-based experts. I would use my experience within the legal field to

ensure that I am working with trustworthy attorneys and consultants.

I’ve learned that though I may know people who give, and could be characterized by the

definition of a philanthropist, I have a hard time qualifying them as such due to this bias. I know

a lot of people who perform many philanthropic acts, yet they do so very quietly. I stereotype

philanthropists to be people who may give with no intention to receive, and yet they still receive

a lot of public recognition. When I think of a ‘philanthropist’ I think of someone who has a big

name in non-profit work, whereby I think of my family or a friend when I think of a ‘giver’.

However, we can all be philanthropists if we choose to be. I am a passionate public

speaker and am not afraid to present what I know to others, I could use these skills to help

educate minority youth on what it’s like to grow up as a minority. I think this would account for

my top issue area of anti-racism and also my top value of equality. I am committed to an ‘all for

one, and one for all’ outlook on American society. I believe that every person deserves an equal

opportunity to find success in life. Whether it’s race, ethnicity, gender, or sex: I aim to focus my

treasure, talents, and trust in programs and organizations intending to remedy the discriminatory
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obstacles unfairly forced on minority communities. This course has taught me how to concretize

my goals and understand the areas and issues in society that are important to me, helping focus

my philanthropic goals.

I’ll be attending law school this upcoming fall which means I’ll basically have a negative

amount of money in my bank account for the next three years. However, after I hopefully

successfully complete the education I’ll be making around 180k (the median salary for those

graduating from the institution I’ll be attending. I think right now I should be focusing more on

giving my time and some money here and there but I don’t think giving away a larger amount of

my savings would be wise at this time. I believe there are two kinds of needs for people: human

needs and emotional needs. People who are financially secure need to understand that some

people are lacking in both of those categories. If we’re lacking the finances to contribute, others

are still struggling with emotional needs and we should learn that it costs $0 to volunteer or teach

in our free time.

I’m going to be conservative in case my income is lower than expected upon graduation

and set it at 100,000. If I wanted to give 5% of my income, according to Gary’s chart, I would be

contributing $5,000. I will contribute to some of the causes and issues I am passionate about so

that one day I may able to solidify a mission statement of my own. For the time being, I think I

can strive to perform acts reflecting a mission statement that sounds a bit like this:

I hope humanity comes to understand the value in every human being, including

those which one may never meet or come to know, and offer a helping hand. In

addition, to make sure this offer has a lasting impact, I hope we improve upon the

unequal distribution of opportunity for children in minority and disadvantaged

socioeconomic communities.
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It’s taken me quite some time to actually figure out who I am and considerably longer to

actually deduce why. Though I believe I still have some learning to do, I’m proud to be able to

speak about the person I am today with confidence. I am a woman and find strength within

various communities who understand the ability to transcend the characterizations of one’s social

categorization. I am African American and the daughter of an immigrant, qualities which have

helped me learn the engraining nature of discrimination through personal experience. Finally, I

recognize that despite these qualifications, I am deeply privileged. I am the child of two parents

who have been kind and generous enough to impart both social and financial wisdom upon me

and given me opportunities that many have dishearteningly gone without. I am here because I

have been lucky enough to have a social, economic, and educational platform that enables me to

help others who haven’t been so fortunate. I am here because I want to learn how to utilize my

talents, treasure, and trust as both a human being and aspiring attorney to make a positive

contribution to the world in which I have undeservingly been so advantaged.

I principally value empathy, integrity, and equality. My values are centered around

political philosopher John Rawls’ Theory of Justice. The theory describes a theoretical setting

where one is asked to imagine themselves without any defining characteristics: gender, sex,

socioeconomic standing, nationality, race, etc. Naturally, a rational person would always want

the best-off for the worst-off, should that person be born into a life under the worst

circumstances. I believe that, at the very least, everyone should be awarded the most basic

necessities, rights, and consideration in life and that both the public and governmental figures

should have an interest in achieving this goal.

My vision is that one day every disadvantaged minority group will be proportioned with

the same degree of privilege that non-minority groups experience in the United States. Though, I
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am not naïve and understand the impact both legislative restrictions and social bias can play on

this process. I still believe in supporting causes and issues that have long lines of historical

precedence and think that lending our help to these issues can help move them in the direction of

my philosophical vision.

I intend to use my time volunteering at various organizations focusing on youth

development and education, such as the Boys and Girls Club, because I’ve found that positive

one-on-one experiences with children or even a single conversation can deeply impact the

trajectory of a child’s life. Similarly, I’d love to utilize my time volunteering in soup kitchens

and community food drives to help the food insecure that struggle all around the nation. I will

use my talent as a student of law to engage in pro bono work and help the underrepresented

throughout the judicial process. I will use the treasure I have now to set aside funds, however

small, to activist groups lobbying for legislative action concerning some of the aforementioned

social issues that I find value in. I will place my trust in the decided organizations ability to carry

out the actions it claims to do and in the socially-responsible values of companies which I choose

to work for.

Admitting financial and philanthropic responsibility in life is crucial to becoming a well-

balanced human being in the world we live in today. I don’t believe we had any responsibility in

our birth and find that the empathy underscoring this realization is critical to any justified moral

compass. We can all express our gratitude for being alive by giving back to others who are in

need. Understanding that your time, treasure, talent, and trust can have a positive impact on

someone else’s life rather than being stagnant in your own directs us away from the selfish path

we all so easily follow. Saving for yourself is saving for others and giving those savings to others

is forming a better world, one selfless act at a time.

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I want my philanthropic legacy to be nothing other than having a world in which physical

characterizations and variate backgrounds of all people are celebrated rather than prejudiced. I

want my contributions to organizations to be part of a wave of contributions concerned with my

same values that lead to change; that the world will be a place where opportunity and privilege

aren’t contingent on our social classifications but rather our equally afforded natural ability. I

hope to see an equal number of minorities in authoritative positions, absolute equality of person

under the law, fair treatment as it pertains to the judicial system, greater and equally distributed

funding in education, and widespread dedication to eco-friendly and socially harmless corporate

policies. While this idea may be far-fetched, I intend to give a consistent portion of my salary,

energy, and resources to organizations aligned with this same vision.