Generations have been told that the only way to get a good job is with a college degree. The student population and infrastructure have grown tremendously in that time. Tuition growth greatly out paces inflation.
That price inflation is the thing that can't be justified. The return on investment stinks. At some point students and especially parents will realize these bloated costs aren't worth the subpar education most institutions provide. Research and/or tenure are the goals of most profesors. Teaching is a distant third or completely ignored and left to the graduate teaching assistants.
Ridiculously high student loan debts are a result of a society that places too much emphasis on a hollow diploma.
RTWG--I have to disagree with your criticism of Philip on student loans. Why is the cost of a college education so high? Why is it always going higher?
It's because everyone is going to college. Higher demand = higher cost. The rate of return on a college degree is falling in most fields because the cost of the education is rising, and salaries are falling because there's no shortage of college educated prospects anymore. This is probably the main reason you haven't had so much success since graduation. Most fields are just too crowded with candidates and wages are falling.
And how is everyone affording all that education? Loans. That's the point. It's not as worth it for most people to run up debt for a college education as it was 20 or 30 years ago, but the mindset that a college education lifts all boats isn't keeping up with the changing times.
Skilled trades, which often pay more than college norm jobs, usually require only a year or two of technical training, or a paid apprenticeship, but jobs go begging for want of applicants because everyone is sold on the supreme necessity of a college education.
What's rare is valuable, and college graduates are no longer rare. I think even white collar environments are aware of this because I've been in companies where top performers and managers weren't college graduates. Credentials matter early on, but there's no substitute for creativity and performance. Our REAL educations never stop.
Hmm, I think the price for travel has dropped, but with it has come an increase in airport fees, taxes, etc.
"Dollar Store?" I don't think so- there's tax! So it's really the "1.07 Store." Plus the ones near me have started selling really really horrid quality items- children's toys containing lead, toothbrushes that snapped in half, tuperware with warnings of not to store food inside (honestly!)..
The dollar really is getting us nothing this year.
I work in a restaurant for barely above minimum wage which means that the new law will mean a small increase in my hourly pay rate. Unfortunately that won't do me or my family any good because my job is already reducing the number of days a week I (and many others like me) can work. I had to practically beg for 3 days of work this week even though I'm available every day. So things are only going to get worse for me and with the inevitable decrease in business that fall will bring, I am very concerned.
How can the author conclude suceess if he never tried to use the warranty coverage? Dont be too quick to believe him.
Fact is you need a valid receipt. One from an authorized source.
You need the box and its serial number.
The reason you dont see negative feedback on ebay is that these guys change accounts and you as the buyer do not become aware of the problem until long after the purchase.
Even paypal will offer no recourse cause you only have 45 days to complain.
If you have to buy...get a box, insist on a receipt, and try to get from an authorized source.
BTW...check out Apples Terms of Service and you will see that they will ask for a receipt (proof of legitimate purchase).
Not at all. Education is good--and, sometimes going into debt to get an education is not just a reasonable choice but an excellent one. As I say in the post, sometimes it's a tool that can break the cycle of generational poverty.
Where I disagree is that education is worth it "at any cost." Just as with everything else, cost matters. You wouldn't pay a billion dollars for an associates degree from the local community college--and not just because they charge less than that.
So how do we figure out what the right cost for an education is? To my way of thinking it depends on a lot of things--what the student wants to do with his life, for example. But one important factor is how much a successful graduate will be able to earn. It's one thing to borrow $300,000 to become a surgeon, and something altogether different to borrow $300,000 to get a PhD in literary criticism.
The problem that I see is that this is a difficult analysis. It requires specific skills to analyze (compound interest calculations, the present value of future dollars) and depends on many unknowable things (the future job market). And yet, we expect high school juniors and seniors--a depressingly large fraction of whom can't even balance a checkbook--to not only do the analysis, but then to stake everything they own and all that they'll ever earn on the proposition that they'll pick a school and a degree program that will give them the tools to earn a good income, and that they'll be able to follow that up with actually earning the income. And the people advising them all too often think like you do: than an education at any cost is worth it.
I'm not saying that its wrong to borrow money to get an education. I'm saying that we ought to give high school students the tools to do the analysis, and that the guidance counselors and admissions officers advising them ought to make sure that they know that there are pathways that don't involve a lifetime of debt. Borrowing money for an education may well be the right path, but it shouldn't be taken automatically with no thought at all as to where that path leads.
If you look at a dictionary you can find the definition of recession. However, it will not give you the whole concept and how it is perceived, or why it happens...
Recession is the part of a cycle that most people do not like when it comes to the economic terms... (Remember, recession does not necesarilly defines economic terms, may be applied to other areas)
Sometimes, people have extremely good times. When they do, they forget about the bad times, and think that those good times will last forever. When they start acting af if there was no past nor there will be a future, recession hits to remember everyone that when you are in good shape, you must prepare a ¨cushion¨ for keep it that way, once the time of prosperity passes...
It is kind of going a long straigh road... Initially people get bored, so, they go faster because they need exciment; they forget that they can get that exciment other ways- and they forget that the road eventually has to end, but by the time you hit the brakes, you crash... It´s better when you are starting the road to be at a regular speed and use the resources to get a tv for the car, to get better food, to buy some maps (even if the road is straight), etc... By the time everyone else is crash at the end of the road, you are probably half way anyway, and have more resources than they do...
This is why, this economic recession term will be harder and longer than the one in the 1930´s... Before, good times meant more vacations and risky investments (that was the exciment back then), a few of which gave great results and nobody would ever consider buying a house they could not afford... and people did not owe money because they bought unnecesary items or overpriced houses (which is the exciment now) and now, the freedom you once had to get stuff to fullfill a space, is gone, with the space getting bigger and bigger due to the overcrowing of stuff you tried to put in...
That is the meaning of recession, you forget there is a natural cycle and a time for doing things, you impose yourself a limit and push it no matter how unnatural it may be, and then, nature hits you back, leaving you where you started when you were born: alone, naked, crying, needing someone else to help you out with everything... Only this time, you are fully grown, and you have become a freak in nature itself since your time to be a baby is over...
Great post here. I like the way you attack the traditional mindset of frontloading a massive amount of debt and then working your whole life to pay it off...
With regard to your empathy point at the end... it is difficult to be empathetic towards people who are actively engaged in breathtaking stupidity. When did it become ok to only pay the minimum monthly balance on a credit card? As for the sub-prime mortgage crisis....those mortgages were given to people who had no business in buying a house, much less the enourmous houses everyone seems to be buying.
Name-brand schools will only get you so far. In the end it comes down to what you can bring to a job (education, skills, experience, etc) that determines if you will be successful in it. And in terms of getting a job, it usually has more to do with networking than anything else, especially name-brand schools.
You complain about not getting the loans to go to your dream school (first of all, stop acting like student loans are a RIGHT --you were not denied a civil right), but there are alternatives. You could have worked through school and attended part-time, or perhaps saved in other ways, like commuting instead of living on campus...etc.
I have to admit, I think last year prices were actually higher on staples. Milk was edging towards 4 dollars at my local Publix, and meats were climbing too. Now they're advertising Basics/Staples at promised lowered prices...milk, chicken, bread...everyday items. I appreciate this because we can go through a gallon of milk in a week! I'm certainly becoming more frugal with my grocery money though, so that helps too...buy one chicken, make 2-3 meals from it, etc.
The choices people make - how voluntary are they? If you don't even know there are other options until you've already signed the loan papers, or if you've gone through school being told you are DOOMED to a life of poverty and horrible meatpacking jobs if you don't go to college, any college, no matter the cost (as I did, in the "college track" at a working-class high school).
It seems like it's denying people's agency to say they don't really want what they show they want (to work 40+ hours and have a lot of clothes and toys and electronics but no security or free time). But at the same time, my own experience is that a lot of times I got things I thought I wanted and then didnt' want them.
@RTWG - I have a bachelor's degree in a fairly useless liberal-arts topic, and until my current job I have *never* had a job that required a degree. I've known lots of people who make very good money with only a high school diploma. They work in sales, technical writing, business management, software production, project management - not to mention the trades... it has gotten harder to get a job without a degree, because so many people are getting them and it's an easy way to filter applicants. But it's not impossible - and if you get a bachelor's degree but don't learn good corporate work habits or make good contacts, you'll still be stuck in an $8/hr retail job.
Well, here's a strange one. We have a local consignment "extravaganza" for kids' clothes/toys/gear here in Charlottesville, Virginia twice a year. I noticed at the last one (late May) that the prices of items were substantially higher than they'd been in the past (the sale is usually held every May and October). Since consigners are the ones who assign a price to their own items, I can only assume it meant that everyone was trying to squeeze just a little more cash out of the items they were consigning. Probably a reflection of money being tight all around, and people trying to earn extra wherever they could. This increase, though small, was really noticeable. Regardless then, of whether a dollar buys more or less than last year, it seems like individuals have the perception that it buys less, and want to maximize how much of it they can make.
A dollar doesn't buy as much anymore - especially at the grocery store. Yes you can get a container of icecream for the same price, but the trick is that instead of being 56oz it is now only 48oz.
It seems to me that you're saying that education, if you have to go into debt for it, is bad. But without a decent education, without incurring some debt, most people are stuck in $8 hour jobs. You CANNOT live on $8 an hour. And yes, I know there are a few people like Bill Gates who don't have a college degree and are billionaires. Hardly a common occurrence or something most of us can count on.
I was not able to get the loans I needed to pursue my dreams and if I had, I could have attended a better school that would have moved me toward my dream career a lot sooner. Instead, I've had to struggle, in menial jobs, in dead end opportunities - always keeping my eye on that dream - but its taken 10 years longer to get to where I am than if I'd taken on a debt load and gotten to a better school.
And before you come back and say, "well, you could've studied harder in school & gotten scholarships" let me tell you I came through all of my schooling with a 3.5 gpa average and still didn't qualify for scholarships. Sorry, I'm not a star athlete either.
You seem to say that only the wealthy, those who have the means to go to say medical school without taking on loans, deserve to. I veheminently disagree. Education at any cost is worth it.
My point is that not all debt is bad. Debt to improve yourself can be (note I said "can be") a good thing. I think you spend too much time tearing down all debt instead of teaching how to manage debt, get out of bad debt and use debt to our advantage.
Yes, fear is a motivating factor--but it's hardly the only one, and to my mind it's not the best one. I mean, really: Twenty years of fear (even if gradually declining fear) strikes me as a poor trade-off for achieving even as important a goal as financial independence.
How about twenty years of joy, with financial independence coming (albeit at a lower standard of living) quite a bit sooner?
I'd rather live large on a small budget now, than spend years living in fear so that I can live large on a large budget sometime down the road.
I'm sure I'm not alone, but an awful lot of people seem to think more along the lines you do than along the lines I do. Mine seems to be the minority position.
I just signed up for facebook last month and the singles ads are annoying me to no end. Why do they assume a 31 year old woman has one sole interest, to get hitched? I also gets ads for single mom stuff and earn your degree even though I have marked in my profile I already have a MA. I don't have any kids either.
I did notice when I added some activities I like to do, the ads did get slightly more diverse but still the dating ones are overly dominate.
I am not in the United States right now. I used to be for a very long time. When I was there, one dollar alone could not help me out too much, but overall, I used them alone to buy ONE item on sale in some stores, mostly stuff from the 99 cents shops...
I went again to the US a month ago... The 99 cent shop was gone, and it charged 1 dollar and 10 cents for all the articles that last year were 99 cents. It´s not a lot, but it does count...
I heard from an economist professor that Inflation needed to be determine by location, not by product... I agree... At the end, because of arbitrage, certain products end up at the end being about the same price everywhere and anywhere you may look for it, but not always...
I believe, that one dollar BUYS you, according to your taste, MORE stuff now, mostly because, since competition is increasing, and people are cutting back, and more and more products are available in the market... However, one dollar will not give you the same VALUE of last year, it will give you LESS, in the sense that the value of that dollar was used for creating a sense of security in people by paying for a house, paying for going out anytime you wanted, and basically, living the moment and not worrying about that dollar; while right now, due to interest rates, due to the loss of the credit market and several other issues, no matter how much dollars you may have- except if you are extremely rich- you feel it is not enough to keep up the standard you once had...
In Ayurveda (a sister science to Yoga), it is understood that there are three types of food:
* Intelligent
* Dumb
* Dead
Which kind are you eating? Intelligent food is fresh, organic and local. It is prepared using slow cooking methods (fire, gas cooking). It is the best kind to build the best tissues of the body.
Dumb food is highly processed, microwaved, leftover foods or foods cooked under high heat. Microwaved foods actually kill the life force or prana in foods. Prana is what makes us alive. So people who eat this type of food feel lethargic, have difficulty concentrating, have an irratic lifestyle, to name a few.
Dead food is even worse and contains highly processed substances that we typically think of as quasi-food (junk foods fall into this category) and is devoid of nutrients that your body can actually digest, assimilate and use.
For me, a dollar is buying more than it did last year. We have gone from a two income house to a single income household in the last few months, this has forced me to rethink many purchases. Even though food has gotten more expensive, I am now buying generic and looking at sales and coupons. Last year, I would buy whatever brand I had heard of and bought before. I am making a lot less money stretch to buy the same amount of stuff.
I track my expenses to the penney and have done so for the last 13 years,since I retired. I have seen a big increase in costs over the years(26%), but it is not so easy to judge the real cost of living increase from year to year.
It appears whenever we get a stimulus check to encourage spending then the cost of non- discretionary expenses increases. i.e. taxes and fees. The price of gas has decreased and increased again to a lower point than Aug 2009. The price of gas was deemed to be the cause in the food prices spiking, which are now decreasing. Energy prices equal inflation! My utilities have decreased due to lower useage, but disposal and water/sewer have increased, which makes the total bill about the same.
Entertainment costs have decreased at restaurants giving perks and hotels with 30% reductions. Airline fares have reduced, but the taxes and fees are still there and no meals.I agree with my mother who said 50 years ago when we were in another recession (1959), that those with money get more.
Mortgage interest decreased for me when I refinanced( Adjustable rate to fix), but then I decided to just pay off the loan so I did not have to pay any interest. There is a good stretch since I paid 4% more in interest than I earned on the same money. I came out ahead on that one.I am debt free.
Income taxes will be less, since my income has decreased in several ways. The level of income now makes me eligible for 20% discounts on my utilities, which helps stretch. Property taxes go up every year 1% in Calif. but the new budget suggests that forced loans of those property taxes are to be given to the State to balance the budget, thus lowering the local services in police,fire and public utilities. ( Watch for an increase in local taxes) Petition to lower property taxes if house value has decreased. They eliminated the tax rebate on Senior property taxes proportional to your income. Home repairs labor has decreased some, due to competion is high for the work.
Home and auto insurance increased a little, but I increased my deductibles to lower the payment. I drive less, so car upkeep is low. With retirement, I am able to be more flexible in my spending and not feel the urgency to spend. My needs have decreased as the years have progressed. I have been following Simple Living for 13 years and one learns more with each year passing.
The general feeling that most people are feeling pinched for money, helps one to be more frugal. Activities like gardening are more widely enjoyed as hobbies, which is also good way to stretch the dollar. These are just some of the ways the dollar has stretched further for me in the last year, but the most non discretionary expenses do not seem to have decreased significantly. Whereas there was more money to help those with low incomes in their later years, now that money is being cut from the budgets.
You win some and you lose some! Where the business is decreasing due to discretionary spending decreasing and incomes decreasing then we have lower prices to entice us to spend there. All in all, the cost of living is about the same, but their are increases and decreases. This is a long answer, but it is not an easy question. Cheers! Track your expenses!
I think that our dollars are going as far as they did last year this time...if not more. Right now we are able to get things for awesome bargains. The buyer has a little more wiggle room when it comes to negotiating.
Generations have been told that the only way to get a good job is with a college degree. The student population and infrastructure have grown tremendously in that time. Tuition growth greatly out paces inflation.
That price inflation is the thing that can't be justified. The return on investment stinks. At some point students and especially parents will realize these bloated costs aren't worth the subpar education most institutions provide. Research and/or tenure are the goals of most profesors. Teaching is a distant third or completely ignored and left to the graduate teaching assistants.
Ridiculously high student loan debts are a result of a society that places too much emphasis on a hollow diploma.
RTWG--I have to disagree with your criticism of Philip on student loans. Why is the cost of a college education so high? Why is it always going higher?
It's because everyone is going to college. Higher demand = higher cost. The rate of return on a college degree is falling in most fields because the cost of the education is rising, and salaries are falling because there's no shortage of college educated prospects anymore. This is probably the main reason you haven't had so much success since graduation. Most fields are just too crowded with candidates and wages are falling.
And how is everyone affording all that education? Loans. That's the point. It's not as worth it for most people to run up debt for a college education as it was 20 or 30 years ago, but the mindset that a college education lifts all boats isn't keeping up with the changing times.
Skilled trades, which often pay more than college norm jobs, usually require only a year or two of technical training, or a paid apprenticeship, but jobs go begging for want of applicants because everyone is sold on the supreme necessity of a college education.
What's rare is valuable, and college graduates are no longer rare. I think even white collar environments are aware of this because I've been in companies where top performers and managers weren't college graduates. Credentials matter early on, but there's no substitute for creativity and performance. Our REAL educations never stop.
Hmm, I think the price for travel has dropped, but with it has come an increase in airport fees, taxes, etc.
"Dollar Store?" I don't think so- there's tax! So it's really the "1.07 Store." Plus the ones near me have started selling really really horrid quality items- children's toys containing lead, toothbrushes that snapped in half, tuperware with warnings of not to store food inside (honestly!)..
The dollar really is getting us nothing this year.
I work in a restaurant for barely above minimum wage which means that the new law will mean a small increase in my hourly pay rate. Unfortunately that won't do me or my family any good because my job is already reducing the number of days a week I (and many others like me) can work. I had to practically beg for 3 days of work this week even though I'm available every day. So things are only going to get worse for me and with the inevitable decrease in business that fall will bring, I am very concerned.
How can the author conclude suceess if he never tried to use the warranty coverage? Dont be too quick to believe him.
Fact is you need a valid receipt. One from an authorized source.
You need the box and its serial number.
The reason you dont see negative feedback on ebay is that these guys change accounts and you as the buyer do not become aware of the problem until long after the purchase.
Even paypal will offer no recourse cause you only have 45 days to complain.
If you have to buy...get a box, insist on a receipt, and try to get from an authorized source.
BTW...check out Apples Terms of Service and you will see that they will ask for a receipt (proof of legitimate purchase).
@ RTWG:
Not at all. Education is good--and, sometimes going into debt to get an education is not just a reasonable choice but an excellent one. As I say in the post, sometimes it's a tool that can break the cycle of generational poverty.
Where I disagree is that education is worth it "at any cost." Just as with everything else, cost matters. You wouldn't pay a billion dollars for an associates degree from the local community college--and not just because they charge less than that.
So how do we figure out what the right cost for an education is? To my way of thinking it depends on a lot of things--what the student wants to do with his life, for example. But one important factor is how much a successful graduate will be able to earn. It's one thing to borrow $300,000 to become a surgeon, and something altogether different to borrow $300,000 to get a PhD in literary criticism.
The problem that I see is that this is a difficult analysis. It requires specific skills to analyze (compound interest calculations, the present value of future dollars) and depends on many unknowable things (the future job market). And yet, we expect high school juniors and seniors--a depressingly large fraction of whom can't even balance a checkbook--to not only do the analysis, but then to stake everything they own and all that they'll ever earn on the proposition that they'll pick a school and a degree program that will give them the tools to earn a good income, and that they'll be able to follow that up with actually earning the income. And the people advising them all too often think like you do: than an education at any cost is worth it.
I'm not saying that its wrong to borrow money to get an education. I'm saying that we ought to give high school students the tools to do the analysis, and that the guidance counselors and admissions officers advising them ought to make sure that they know that there are pathways that don't involve a lifetime of debt. Borrowing money for an education may well be the right path, but it shouldn't be taken automatically with no thought at all as to where that path leads.
If you look at a dictionary you can find the definition of recession. However, it will not give you the whole concept and how it is perceived, or why it happens...
Recession is the part of a cycle that most people do not like when it comes to the economic terms... (Remember, recession does not necesarilly defines economic terms, may be applied to other areas)
Sometimes, people have extremely good times. When they do, they forget about the bad times, and think that those good times will last forever. When they start acting af if there was no past nor there will be a future, recession hits to remember everyone that when you are in good shape, you must prepare a ¨cushion¨ for keep it that way, once the time of prosperity passes...
It is kind of going a long straigh road... Initially people get bored, so, they go faster because they need exciment; they forget that they can get that exciment other ways- and they forget that the road eventually has to end, but by the time you hit the brakes, you crash... It´s better when you are starting the road to be at a regular speed and use the resources to get a tv for the car, to get better food, to buy some maps (even if the road is straight), etc... By the time everyone else is crash at the end of the road, you are probably half way anyway, and have more resources than they do...
This is why, this economic recession term will be harder and longer than the one in the 1930´s... Before, good times meant more vacations and risky investments (that was the exciment back then), a few of which gave great results and nobody would ever consider buying a house they could not afford... and people did not owe money because they bought unnecesary items or overpriced houses (which is the exciment now) and now, the freedom you once had to get stuff to fullfill a space, is gone, with the space getting bigger and bigger due to the overcrowing of stuff you tried to put in...
That is the meaning of recession, you forget there is a natural cycle and a time for doing things, you impose yourself a limit and push it no matter how unnatural it may be, and then, nature hits you back, leaving you where you started when you were born: alone, naked, crying, needing someone else to help you out with everything... Only this time, you are fully grown, and you have become a freak in nature itself since your time to be a baby is over...
Great post here. I like the way you attack the traditional mindset of frontloading a massive amount of debt and then working your whole life to pay it off...
With regard to your empathy point at the end... it is difficult to be empathetic towards people who are actively engaged in breathtaking stupidity. When did it become ok to only pay the minimum monthly balance on a credit card? As for the sub-prime mortgage crisis....those mortgages were given to people who had no business in buying a house, much less the enourmous houses everyone seems to be buying.
Name-brand schools will only get you so far. In the end it comes down to what you can bring to a job (education, skills, experience, etc) that determines if you will be successful in it. And in terms of getting a job, it usually has more to do with networking than anything else, especially name-brand schools.
You complain about not getting the loans to go to your dream school (first of all, stop acting like student loans are a RIGHT --you were not denied a civil right), but there are alternatives. You could have worked through school and attended part-time, or perhaps saved in other ways, like commuting instead of living on campus...etc.
Quit your whinging and whining...
I have to admit, I think last year prices were actually higher on staples. Milk was edging towards 4 dollars at my local Publix, and meats were climbing too. Now they're advertising Basics/Staples at promised lowered prices...milk, chicken, bread...everyday items. I appreciate this because we can go through a gallon of milk in a week! I'm certainly becoming more frugal with my grocery money though, so that helps too...buy one chicken, make 2-3 meals from it, etc.
The choices people make - how voluntary are they? If you don't even know there are other options until you've already signed the loan papers, or if you've gone through school being told you are DOOMED to a life of poverty and horrible meatpacking jobs if you don't go to college, any college, no matter the cost (as I did, in the "college track" at a working-class high school).
It seems like it's denying people's agency to say they don't really want what they show they want (to work 40+ hours and have a lot of clothes and toys and electronics but no security or free time). But at the same time, my own experience is that a lot of times I got things I thought I wanted and then didnt' want them.
@RTWG - I have a bachelor's degree in a fairly useless liberal-arts topic, and until my current job I have *never* had a job that required a degree. I've known lots of people who make very good money with only a high school diploma. They work in sales, technical writing, business management, software production, project management - not to mention the trades... it has gotten harder to get a job without a degree, because so many people are getting them and it's an easy way to filter applicants. But it's not impossible - and if you get a bachelor's degree but don't learn good corporate work habits or make good contacts, you'll still be stuck in an $8/hr retail job.
Well, here's a strange one. We have a local consignment "extravaganza" for kids' clothes/toys/gear here in Charlottesville, Virginia twice a year. I noticed at the last one (late May) that the prices of items were substantially higher than they'd been in the past (the sale is usually held every May and October). Since consigners are the ones who assign a price to their own items, I can only assume it meant that everyone was trying to squeeze just a little more cash out of the items they were consigning. Probably a reflection of money being tight all around, and people trying to earn extra wherever they could. This increase, though small, was really noticeable. Regardless then, of whether a dollar buys more or less than last year, it seems like individuals have the perception that it buys less, and want to maximize how much of it they can make.
A dollar doesn't buy as much anymore - especially at the grocery store. Yes you can get a container of icecream for the same price, but the trick is that instead of being 56oz it is now only 48oz.
It seems to me that you're saying that education, if you have to go into debt for it, is bad. But without a decent education, without incurring some debt, most people are stuck in $8 hour jobs. You CANNOT live on $8 an hour. And yes, I know there are a few people like Bill Gates who don't have a college degree and are billionaires. Hardly a common occurrence or something most of us can count on.
I was not able to get the loans I needed to pursue my dreams and if I had, I could have attended a better school that would have moved me toward my dream career a lot sooner. Instead, I've had to struggle, in menial jobs, in dead end opportunities - always keeping my eye on that dream - but its taken 10 years longer to get to where I am than if I'd taken on a debt load and gotten to a better school.
And before you come back and say, "well, you could've studied harder in school & gotten scholarships" let me tell you I came through all of my schooling with a 3.5 gpa average and still didn't qualify for scholarships. Sorry, I'm not a star athlete either.
You seem to say that only the wealthy, those who have the means to go to say medical school without taking on loans, deserve to. I veheminently disagree. Education at any cost is worth it.
My point is that not all debt is bad. Debt to improve yourself can be (note I said "can be") a good thing. I think you spend too much time tearing down all debt instead of teaching how to manage debt, get out of bad debt and use debt to our advantage.
@ RB:
Yes, fear is a motivating factor--but it's hardly the only one, and to my mind it's not the best one. I mean, really: Twenty years of fear (even if gradually declining fear) strikes me as a poor trade-off for achieving even as important a goal as financial independence.
How about twenty years of joy, with financial independence coming (albeit at a lower standard of living) quite a bit sooner?
I'd rather live large on a small budget now, than spend years living in fear so that I can live large on a large budget sometime down the road.
I'm sure I'm not alone, but an awful lot of people seem to think more along the lines you do than along the lines I do. Mine seems to be the minority position.
has anyone ever tried a ready made green cleaner?
I just signed up for facebook last month and the singles ads are annoying me to no end. Why do they assume a 31 year old woman has one sole interest, to get hitched? I also gets ads for single mom stuff and earn your degree even though I have marked in my profile I already have a MA. I don't have any kids either.
I did notice when I added some activities I like to do, the ads did get slightly more diverse but still the dating ones are overly dominate.
I am not in the United States right now. I used to be for a very long time. When I was there, one dollar alone could not help me out too much, but overall, I used them alone to buy ONE item on sale in some stores, mostly stuff from the 99 cents shops...
I went again to the US a month ago... The 99 cent shop was gone, and it charged 1 dollar and 10 cents for all the articles that last year were 99 cents. It´s not a lot, but it does count...
I heard from an economist professor that Inflation needed to be determine by location, not by product... I agree... At the end, because of arbitrage, certain products end up at the end being about the same price everywhere and anywhere you may look for it, but not always...
I believe, that one dollar BUYS you, according to your taste, MORE stuff now, mostly because, since competition is increasing, and people are cutting back, and more and more products are available in the market... However, one dollar will not give you the same VALUE of last year, it will give you LESS, in the sense that the value of that dollar was used for creating a sense of security in people by paying for a house, paying for going out anytime you wanted, and basically, living the moment and not worrying about that dollar; while right now, due to interest rates, due to the loss of the credit market and several other issues, no matter how much dollars you may have- except if you are extremely rich- you feel it is not enough to keep up the standard you once had...
Maybe a dollar goes further for some things. But not food! (At least in NYC.) I'm spending more than ever at the grocery store.
In Ayurveda (a sister science to Yoga), it is understood that there are three types of food:
* Intelligent
* Dumb
* Dead
Which kind are you eating? Intelligent food is fresh, organic and local. It is prepared using slow cooking methods (fire, gas cooking). It is the best kind to build the best tissues of the body.
Dumb food is highly processed, microwaved, leftover foods or foods cooked under high heat. Microwaved foods actually kill the life force or prana in foods. Prana is what makes us alive. So people who eat this type of food feel lethargic, have difficulty concentrating, have an irratic lifestyle, to name a few.
Dead food is even worse and contains highly processed substances that we typically think of as quasi-food (junk foods fall into this category) and is devoid of nutrients that your body can actually digest, assimilate and use.
For me, a dollar is buying more than it did last year. We have gone from a two income house to a single income household in the last few months, this has forced me to rethink many purchases. Even though food has gotten more expensive, I am now buying generic and looking at sales and coupons. Last year, I would buy whatever brand I had heard of and bought before. I am making a lot less money stretch to buy the same amount of stuff.
I track my expenses to the penney and have done so for the last 13 years,since I retired. I have seen a big increase in costs over the years(26%), but it is not so easy to judge the real cost of living increase from year to year.
It appears whenever we get a stimulus check to encourage spending then the cost of non- discretionary expenses increases. i.e. taxes and fees. The price of gas has decreased and increased again to a lower point than Aug 2009. The price of gas was deemed to be the cause in the food prices spiking, which are now decreasing. Energy prices equal inflation! My utilities have decreased due to lower useage, but disposal and water/sewer have increased, which makes the total bill about the same.
Entertainment costs have decreased at restaurants giving perks and hotels with 30% reductions. Airline fares have reduced, but the taxes and fees are still there and no meals.I agree with my mother who said 50 years ago when we were in another recession (1959), that those with money get more.
Mortgage interest decreased for me when I refinanced( Adjustable rate to fix), but then I decided to just pay off the loan so I did not have to pay any interest. There is a good stretch since I paid 4% more in interest than I earned on the same money. I came out ahead on that one.I am debt free.
Income taxes will be less, since my income has decreased in several ways. The level of income now makes me eligible for 20% discounts on my utilities, which helps stretch. Property taxes go up every year 1% in Calif. but the new budget suggests that forced loans of those property taxes are to be given to the State to balance the budget, thus lowering the local services in police,fire and public utilities. ( Watch for an increase in local taxes) Petition to lower property taxes if house value has decreased. They eliminated the tax rebate on Senior property taxes proportional to your income. Home repairs labor has decreased some, due to competion is high for the work.
Home and auto insurance increased a little, but I increased my deductibles to lower the payment. I drive less, so car upkeep is low. With retirement, I am able to be more flexible in my spending and not feel the urgency to spend. My needs have decreased as the years have progressed. I have been following Simple Living for 13 years and one learns more with each year passing.
The general feeling that most people are feeling pinched for money, helps one to be more frugal. Activities like gardening are more widely enjoyed as hobbies, which is also good way to stretch the dollar. These are just some of the ways the dollar has stretched further for me in the last year, but the most non discretionary expenses do not seem to have decreased significantly. Whereas there was more money to help those with low incomes in their later years, now that money is being cut from the budgets.
You win some and you lose some! Where the business is decreasing due to discretionary spending decreasing and incomes decreasing then we have lower prices to entice us to spend there. All in all, the cost of living is about the same, but their are increases and decreases. This is a long answer, but it is not an easy question. Cheers! Track your expenses!
Recession means saving money, but unwilling.
Great ideas. I enjoy working on craft projects with my kids.
I think that our dollars are going as far as they did last year this time...if not more. Right now we are able to get things for awesome bargains. The buyer has a little more wiggle room when it comes to negotiating.