Here is yet another "I borrowed too much money" story. At least this not a slam on the usual targets. I found it funny (in a twisted way) that UoP had a banner ad as I read a story about someone in debt over paying high tuitions. placing-the-blame-as-students-are-buried-in-debt: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle. For much of the time since her 2005 graduation, she's been enrolled in night school, which allows her to defer loan payments....Meanwhile, universities like N.Y.U. enrolled students without asking many questions about whether they could afford a $50,000 annual tuition bill. Then the colleges introduced the students to lenders who underwrote big loans without any idea of what the students might earn someday — just like the mortgage lenders who didn't ask borrowers to verify their incomes.
"Instead, they might deputize a gang of M.B.A. candidates or alumni in the financial services industry to offer free financial planning to admitted students and their families. Mr. Deike also noted that the bigger problem here is one of financial literacy. Fine. He and N.Y.U. are in a great position to solve for that by making every financial aid recipient take a financial planning class. The students could even use their families as the case study." Great idea - My wife and I believe financial literacy should be a part of high school education (perhaps replacing a math course). "an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies.' Another bad decision - not much call for such a degree in today's economy.
I agree but did not want to go there. Do you really need an NYU interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies? Wouldn't a SUNY interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies get her the same results?
"$22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies. After taxes, she takes home about $2,300 a month." This is what's wrong with this country. People are getting these huge freaking loans for degrees that have no value. She is only making $22 an hour with six figures in student loan debt. Instead (like in Texas) jobs like LVN and RN's are in huge demand and there tons of openings. An LVN in Texas which only takes 1 year of school makes $30 + an hour to start in some places. Total cost for the certification, under $3,000!
So... would the proposed financial planning class be credit bearing? I would consider supporting it then but otherwise I am doubtful. I also question the value of it, because I think people know how money works and most people simply make bad decisions until the bite of debt hits home. What about people who already are good with their money? Wouldn't their time be better spent elsewhere? As for the idea of high school class on finances, yes, yes a thousand times yes! @b4cz28: I disagree with your assertion that a degree that is not the most lucrative cannot be valuable despite this downside. Even if you do not go into that field a degree can be valuable, my dad has a degree in agriculture and worked for a stockbroking firm. He just had to start a little lower on the food chain, but he worked his way right up.
These two groups: MoneySKILL® and Family Economics and Financial Education both offer free curriculum that any school can use (and some apparently do*) to teach personal finance. It would be nice if even more would, considering this takes the cost of materials out of the equation at least. *"The MoneySKILL curriculum reaches more students each year. More than 6,500 teachers from all 50 states have registered to use MoneySKILL to teach students personal finance concepts, and more than 118,000 students have been enrolled in the course since its inception." FYI - Homeschoolers: The Family Economics site does allow homeschoolers to access the info, according to an email I received from them when I inquired. I have not been able to contact MoneySkills because their "contact us" form kicks over to an error page, and I haven't gotten around to calling them to ask.
Even thought I made a joke about it, this is what she should have done. I do not think the degree has no valve in truth, just very little. Now she has a degree from a great school and six figures in debt that will never go away. She must be real passionate about religion and woman's studies to take on that kind of debt.
It could earn credit and have similar content to the DSST exam on personal finance. I've met a lot of people, including my very intelligent engineering staff, who have very minimal knowledge of personal finance. Some avoided putting money in 410K even when the company match 75%. Then some of my neighbors lost millions of dollars (and their home) to poor investments (one of whom invested all his money in a "guaranteed" 20% return for long term investment - there are other Bernie Madoffs around). Based on what you have said in the past you seem to be pretty smart about money. People with agriculture degree can earn decent salaries but maybe it is area dependent.
Thanks for posting this. Really sad story. It really doesn't have to be this way. Unrealistic expectations + lack of knowledge = a lifetime of misery
Sorry b4, I didn't know you were joking . To Ian, Sorry for my poor clarity, the point was not that an agriculture degree is inferior in any way, it was that it was not applicable to his job and therefore not a choice degree for what he did. What I was basically trying to communicate is that any degree has value even if you cannot find work in that field. For some reason I just cannot seem to communicate to anybody today.
here you go: MoneySKILL Contact Information: AFSA Education Foundation 919 18th Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20006 Telephone: 202 466-8611 Toll Free: 888 400-7577
The education bubble will pop when too many people have garden variety degrees with excessive debts from it, without having high paying jobs -- and when it becomes abundantly apparent that simply having a degree is no guarantee of getting a high paying job. When people begin to realize this, it will be akin to when the people realized that the king really is naked. Esoteric degrees will always have a market value, while garden variety degrees may not. For example, a degree in accounting (esoteric) always holds more employability prospects than a degree in women's issues (garden variety). The education bubble, along with federally sponsored education-debt, continues to rise at an alarming rate, just as the housing market and the commercial real estate market did. The housing market crashed and is still deflating, but the education bubble is still rising, at the time of this writing.
More on Cortney Munna’s Student Loan Tale (Cortney Munna, Bucks: Making the Most of Your Money blog, The New York Times, June 1, 2010)
The bubble won't pop if the government keeps propping it up. I almost hope they do, straighterline.com will become the top school in the country and then we will have real change in the system.
Thanks! You know, for some reason I thought they were in California. Clearly I didn't spend enough time poking around the website. I'm still going to call them, though. The program looks interesting and I'd like to find out more about it.
Was he also an agricultural commodities trader? An agricultural degree would be quite useful in understanding agricultural products traded on a futures exchange.
I am in the financial services industry and have completed the Certified Financial Planner certificate through the College for Financial Planning. This program teaches information about investments, taxes, and other relevant stuff about money. I am not familiar with Moneyskills, but I can bet you one thing....you cannot teach common sense. All the brains and skills in the world cannot make up for common sense. Just my 2 cents.