Teachable Moments
Financial Moments
April is Financial Education Month…so in this spirit…
On Monday, a Financial Education Summit took place in Chicago (see video-on-demand of the hour long summit ) focusing on “Millennials” or Generation Y, and more specifically, young adults in college…graduating with an average debt of $23,000! Including a college student, the business owner who inspired the movie “Pursuit of Happyness”, and heads of government, higher education, financial services, and national not-for profit entities, the panel conveyed many messages (not shared by all panelists): Some are:
- provide financial education at teachable moments messaged within new technologies (youtube, financial football gaming, online resources, etc.)
- offer incentives for learning (for example, savings bonds for students and continuing education/certification/training for trainers/teachers).
- advocate for financial education requirements in high schools (8 states have instituted this requirement) and test if competencies have been captured.
- collaborate across sectors to address the gravity of the situation.
- Shift the value of consumption toward the value of savings, investing, and personal (long-term) responsibility.
- Re-invest in accessible higher education (so students don’t need to go into so much debt to get educated)
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So, what is your experience with debt? Would financial education be helpful? When? Look forward to hearing from you…
challenges in life
Our life can be extremely hectic and time consuming. You spend mornings and afternoons in traffic, all day at work, evenings as a chauffer for your kids at extra-curricular activities, and of course that twenty minutes tops that you get to grocery shop for everyone in between everything else. This is why when a temporary cash crisis occurs.
With tuition, rent, and school books, college can be a financial roller coaster. It takes money to stay in college. Don’t let money take control of your future.
There's an interesting post
There's an interesting post on this over at
The Ladder, an asset building blog (thank you Jeff). Here's what caught my attention:
I have a friend who works for a college loan company that is now, due to foreclosure fallout, having to cut significantly back on college loans. Even, my friend said, for students entering school this year. It's anecdotal, but it think its an urgent indicator that money and debt is quickly becoming a greater issue, earlier. You may want to hop over to the Ladder to take a look.
As a recent college
As a recent college graduate, with a sizable amount of debt under my belt I can’t help but think back to my high school and early college days, before I was in the hole for more money than I make in a year. If I had known then, what I know now, would I have made different choices?
When I applied to schools, I didn’t really take into consideration the price, because I was so focused on my major and the quality of the programs I was applying to. I knew that financial aid would be available, and figured I would have a lifetime to pay it all off. When I got accepted into schools, and received my financial aid packages, it all looked good to me. I didn’t really understand any of it, but signed my life, and all my future earnings away. My parents didn’t go to college, so they didn’t quite understand what I was getting into either.
Over my time at school, the price of tuition went up by about 5% a year, but I never really thought about the implications of that. My scholarship and other assistance wasn’t going up by 5%, so I was just taking out more loans. I will never forget the day, close to graduation, when I got my first bill with the total amount that I would be paying, with interest, over the next 25 years. It was shocking, and scary. (still is!) I remember thinking, how can I be starting out, with no job, or any foreseeable income, owing so much?!
Financial education was not something that was offered at my high school, or even at college. Would I have considered it important back then, when my biggest expenses were gas money and Backstreet Boy tickets? Probably not. I recall my parents telling me to go to UCONN but I didn’t listen. Could I have benefited from learning about loan options, savings accounts, interest rates, and other financial tools? Absolutely.
Some argue that forcing youth to learn about these things so early doesn’t make sense because they don’t think it’s important. In high school I recall not thinking Algebra, Chemistry or Shakespeare were important, but I still read Hamlet, memorized the periodic table, and can tell you the value of x if y=9 and x+5/4 =y. (x=7.75). My college program had required “core” classes, one of which was science, and really, I learned a lot in my Geology class freshman year, (did you know that any rock larger than the size of your fist is considered a boulder?) but financial education was NOT on the core requirement list. Why isn’t it required learning, when a financial education would remain useful for the rest of a young person’s life? Algebra, while very useful to some, doesn’t really do much for me on a daily basis, and that boulder fact has yet to be important either.
I can’t help but wonder if I had a better financial education in high school, or as a requirement my freshman year of college, could I have planned better for my financial future? Would I have chosen to go a school that’s tuition for one year is more than some school’s cost after four? Would I have thought long and hard about putting my extra loan refund money on my “Husky Card” so I could buy a school sweatshirt, that at 6% interest, over 25 years, will end up costing a lot more than its original $39.99? If I had invested my income from my high school job at the local movie store, or the money I made on my 6 month co-op’s, could I be more financially secure?
I am certainly ready and willing to become “financially literate” now, but if I had been financially literate at 16, 18 or 20, I can’t help but wonder the difference it would have made. The choices I made at 16, 18, and 20 will certainly affect me financially for the rest of my life.
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