Building Smart Money Habits: MBS Students Learn from Financial Expert Lauren Rosenberg-Moffitt

Award-winning financial planner Lauren Rosenberg-Moffitt, APMA®, CRPC®, met with students from Ricky Kamil’s P’15 Economics class, as well as members of the BFI (Business, Finance, and Investment) Club and GLOW (Girls Leadership Outreach and Worth) Club, to talk about how to build smart financial habits.

Lauren emphasized the importance of controlling what you can control. When it comes to managing money and investing, the best strategy begins with discipline and awareness. Markets rise and fall, trends change, and sectors shift, but the one thing you can always control is your own approach. She encouraged students to start young, explaining that saving early provides a powerful advantage through compound growth. The sooner you begin, the more time your money has to grow. Avoiding credit card debt is also essential, since high interest rates can quickly erase gains and limit financial flexibility. True financial security, she said, comes from living within your means and staying in control of your spending.

She also reminded students that markets are unpredictable and always moving, so the best way to handle uncertainty is by focusing on what you can control: your strategy, your knowledge, and your discipline. Using analytics and market tools to understand trends can help, but it is equally important to interpret data thoughtfully and connect it to your own goals. Past performance can provide useful context, though it never guarantees future results. Lauren also spoke about developing a personal system for decision-making. Investing works best when you build your own process for analyzing companies, evaluating stocks, and managing your portfolio. Tools such as screens and filters can help identify opportunities, but investors should always understand why they are making a particular investment, not just what they are buying.

Diversification, Lauren explained, is key to reducing risk and maintaining a strong portfolio. By spreading investments across different sectors and asset types, you can help protect yourself from large losses and stay steady through market cycles. No one can predict the market with certainty, so managing risk is essential. She also discussed the difference between trading and investing. Trading focuses on short-term opportunities, while investing is about long-term growth. Both approaches can work, but each requires a different mindset, set of goals, and tolerance for risk.

Lauren encouraged students to keep learning and stay confident in their approach. Making compound interest work in your favor by using tools such as the Rule of 72 to estimate how long it will take your money to double is one of the smartest ways to build wealth over time. Investing automatically from each paycheck helps create consistency and discipline. She closed by reminding students that financial success is not about timing the market but about spending time in the market, building good habits, and focusing on what you can control.

The ultimate goal, she said, is to create a financial foundation that supports what truly matters in life: family, friends, and community.