Humans of Hofstra: Koorosh Leibowitz

Photo Courtesy of  Koorosh Leibowitz

“What do I want to do with finance? I guess the first thing most people would say is make a lot of money. I would use it as a way to make good connections in life. I think that’s one of the biggest parts of the finance industry. Even when you leave the industry, you meet a ton of people who have just a plethora of resources and that’s one thing I find very important in life. Not so much what you know but who you know, and I think finance is a field that actually helps you with that. I would ideally go into banking [because] I find it very interesting. From a very young age I have found money and how money works to be very interesting. It’s one of the things I feel people think is a simple topic [because] we interact with money every single day, and it’s a piece of paper, you know. Everyone has it, but it’s more complex than that. If you just read a basic finance book, you wouldn’t be able to understand the multiple uses of money. Even the things you think have no value have value. There are processes within the finance world that can do that ... Money definitely controls society. You know the phrase ‘money makes the world go around?’ It does. Maybe not in a literal sense, but our lives, whether we say it is or it isn’t, are dictated by money. I mean, even just basic things like my dad saying, ‘Get a job,’ or, ‘If you want to get something in life, you have to earn it.’ But also, everybody has to grow up [eventually]. We’re what, in our 20s right now? But eventually we’ll be 40, 50 years old, so understanding how money works now will actually help you in the long run. With things like saving, putting things into a retirement plan and even just the power of compounding interest, that’s really what fuels your savings. It’s not just a way to buy stuff, it can be used for things like college, buying a home. People on different levels of society have different views on how money works, if that makes sense. In my honest opinion, it’s not the most important thing in life, but it is a very necessary thing.”