With the looming burden  of college tuition and other future financial strains, many Brahmas have concerns about money on their minds. Finance Club attempts to help Diamond Bar High School students become well educated about money management and investment.

To create awareness on money management, the new club, established about a month ago by junior Mark Tan, provides students with information and resources to teach them how to make responsible decisions regarding their financial situation.

“Even though not everyone is interested in stocks or going into the business field, everyone still eventually has to manage their own finances in the future,” Tan said.

Although DBHS does have a few other business clubs—including FBLA, DECA and LaunchX—Finance Club distinguishes itself from the crowd by directly teaching students about financial affairs, whether they are beginners or experts. The organization not only provides a place for students to register and compete, but also a space for them to learn valuable lessons taught directly by experienced club members or guest speakers who are already in the business or finance industry.

“I know that there are other business clubs, but they’re more competition oriented, while my club is more involved with directly spreading financial literacy on our campus,” Tan said.

The officers of the club said they are  confident about their ability to teach others efficiently. President Tan has invested in the stock market for approximately two years, and is currently an intern at a wealth management firm. Other officers, including Jonathan Ho and Rohun Sharma,  have also had a fair amount of experience with investing and fundamental finance topics.

Finance Club also has monthly informational meetings that cover topics ranging anywhere from cryptocurrency to stocks. An exercise that is often played out  at meetings is a case study analysis, where the officers lead club members in discussing why a certain stock dropped or why an investment went wrong.

The club is also working on providing members with the opportunity to explore and practice investing on different platforms such as Investopedia or Market Watch.

“We’re pretty active, considering the fact that we’re still a new club,” Tan said. “We have many new activities we want to bring to the table.”

Tan plans to implement stock simulations into his club meetings next year since it is something that has not yet been done by any other business club on campus. He hopes these realistic practice exercises will be effective in increasing the students’ knowledge and experiences with money management and investment.

Besides from educating students on the fundamentals of finance, Tan is planning to broaden the horizons of his club by participating in the Awards and Investing Competition. Seven members from the club will form the competition team representing Diamond Bar.

“Although those seven are the only people who will compete, we are going to show the trading activity to the whole club and analyze why we chose to make the decisions that we did during the competition,” Tan said.

Since the club is  new, Tan and his officer board are still looking to increase membership.

To attract more attention to the club, Tan is working toward offering internships and inviting guest speakers next year.

“I see a vision in the future where we could be working with real businesses to get a better idea of our purpose,” Tan said.