Could eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich save $45,000? Professor of Art and Design Michael O’Keefe and his students are putting this theory to test using a technique called deferred gratification.
For four weeks, students in the Business of Branding Yourself class are to give up something that is in the way of reaching his or her personal goals. O’Keefe challenged his students to give up things like junk food or time in order to strive toward their goals.
“We have to figure out what kind of character flaw is keeping you from reaching these kinds of goals,” O’Keefe said. “This four-week exercise helps them deal with something that is real and tangible.”
The first third of the class is focused on personal finances. O’Keefe said there are three things that are important to this project. First, dealing with something that requires self-discipline, or deferred gratification, self-discipline should entail regular savings and finally, ensuring the savings are moving toward the correct goal.
“This class is about three or four years old,” O’Keefe said. “I reflected on what causes people not to be successful in life and often times it’s a habit or several habits that keep them from reaching those goals, and so what better way than with a young college student to start practicing.”
Junior Kristen Bural, a communication design major, said she shares O’Keefe’s view about the class project.
“I think it is a really good project, and with the class dynamic a lot of people are giving up things that they are very dependent on,” Bural said. “And so I think that is really good, especially in a college setting, to get rid of those bad habits.”
Bural said she got interested in the project to better her life when she heard about the eventual benefits of the challenge.
“[O’Keefe] uses an example that every single day for the past 30 or so years he eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple for lunch,” Bural said. “He does the math and realizes that he is saving about 8 bucks a day for not going out to lunch with his friends, and he multiplies that by 30 and he is saving about 45,000 bucks in his life by just eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
O’Keefe said he believes that this project can properly teach his students to invest after they have saved.
“The little things in life that you tweak can save you money impressively where you can invest it at the end of the year so you can be more financially stable,” Bural said.
Bural said she and her fellow students are giving up items that they really depend on. Bural decided sugar was something she could live without.
“A lot of people are giving up fast food,” Bural said. “One girl added yoga to her life… she is giving up 30 minutes to her time and adding Yoga to her life to strengthen her body. Another person gave up snoozing the alarm.”
Other students in O’Keefe’s class, like junior Brian Williams, said they hope to get something out of this experience.
“For this project I choose to give up online shopping, which sounds funny, but it is something that takes a lot of my money,” Williams said. “If I ever have free time, it’s easy to just go online and look at some of my favorite stores. I’m hoping that I will be able to save a lot of money by giving this up.”
Williams said he likes the class and how it is set up.
“A lot of people thought it was a good idea to give up food items, which it is, I just wanted to go a different way with this project,” Williams said. “I hope this helps me save money when I am out of school and need to save money.”
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