Over the course of the spring semester, Winona State University will be offering events focused on educating students on various financial avenues to build their personal wealth via programming through the Wealth Building Series.

The Wealth Building Series is made up of six sessions and will cover: basics of building one’s wealth, credit, how to invest your money, paying off debt, how to budget and entrepreneurship. The series will also feature a variety of Winona State professors and faculty as speakers.

The first seminar in the Wealth Building Series, held via Zoom on Monday, Jan. 31, was about financial basics, led by Associate Vice President of the Office of Equity & Inclusive Excellence, Dr. Jonathan Locust. In the hour the event lasted, Locust focused on teaching attendees the basics of investing in the stock market as well as other topics, such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Locust spent most of the seminar speaking on the stock market and various ways students could try to predict when the best time to enter the market is. One important tip Locust shared with the audience was to search for upcoming IPOs–Initial Public Offering(s). In other words, when a company goes public, so people can buy stocks in it.

Locust also expressed interest in cryptocurrency and NFTs. According to Locust, a cryptocurrency is a “digital currency that no single person/group has control over.” He described it as being a more efficient way to send money to people overseas. Locust described NFTs as a form of digital collectibles that are sold in scarce supply. He believes there is a growing market for NFTs, specifically among those who enjoy collecting sports memorabilia.