What gets people into trouble is buying a house that is larger than they need. As soon as interest rates went down home builders started building larger homes. So, the average home buyer ended up with low interest rates but used it up and more by purchasing a larger more expensive home.
Another is when pre-qualifying for a loan. Never ever believe the numbers they hand to you.
Itâs amusing really, my local bank always contacts me and tries to sell me a loan when they see a big balance temporarily residing in their branch. I have no idea why they think evidence of my having a lot of money means I need a loan. Well I know what they are really thinking, that they can loan me money with no risk.
By the way , hereâs the real secret to wealth, making money work for you instead of working for money. When I get my hands on ten thousand dollars, I donât think, what can I buy with this, I think, how much return can I get on this. Seems like a pretty simple attitude adjustment but it works wonders. When I see that ten k, I see a hundred a month in pocket, forever, not, buying something worth ten k. Sadly people are even stupider than that and usually turn around and leverage that ten k into ten times as much debt, using it as a down payment on a big ticket item.
It depends if there is a plan in place to invest the money that you save with money that would be spent on more luxury items. If I take that $1400 in savings I would have spent on on a smart TV and invested it in Gold, or another tangible asset over a 10 year period that potentially builds up to a pretty nice nest egg! I like the premise in which this post is suggesting, being able to think more about how we spend money as opposed to compulsive spending while allowing ourselves to drown in debt is something that should be discussed more in order to change our cultural behaviors when it comes to money. If the world had a paradigm shift with more and more people spending less on more expensive items, it certainly would be interesting to see how the world would be shaped.
The key, once in a while.
I wasnât the brightest brick in the yard, but I figured out pretty quickly that I could out work most, it paid off for me.
The outstanding student loan debt in 2014 was $1.3 trillion, 44 million borrowers had an average outstanding loan balance of $37,172. Federal student loan debt currently has the highest 90+ day delinquency rate of all household debt.
The questions are. Did all of them Need that college degree or just Want it? If they Needed it did they all need to achieve the degree by going full time to college or could they have gone part-time and worked a job that would help pay for the education?
How much of that debt is for the pyramid scheme programs of education, the race / ethnicity / gender studies programs which give no marketable skills but do manage to provide a select few academics who convince people that theyâre relevant with incomes, slavish audiences and accolades?
More than 30% of students drop out in their first year. A staggering 54% never achieve a degree. A lot of these students owe on their student loans.
But back to your point. The government like it most often does acts with good intentions but often times those good intentions end up a disaster. The government tries to fix one thing like offering student loans then that ends up creating several other problems.
Those student loans should have been issued only for degree programs that were most in need. Instead it was a free for all and we ended up with students earning degrees in subjects that are useless.
But for the students it came down to Want or Need.
Not really any such thing as a useless college degree, even a degree in some obscure liberal arts program gives you a leg up in getting hired for a decent job over applicants without a degree. Sure some degrees are worth more than others in terms of earnings but I wouldnât say any of them, from an accredited school, are worthless.
A degree in Womenâs studies is worthless.
No, it isnât, it will get your foot in the door at just about any big bank. My wifeâs degree was in French, she made it all the way up to Senior VP at one of the largest banks in the country and no, they didnât hire her because she could speak French fluently and has never used it in her career. A high school diploma wouldnât have gotten her there.
A degree to many employers shows a person is willing to complete the task at hand.
Many employers will look at the degree and toss the potential employee as they are looking for specific skills, knowledge. A business degree at one time was pretty useless however as it is a broad field of knowledge today employers prefer business degrees. In this case a degree in underwater basket weaving is useless.
To an employer in a non profit they would jump upend down fr a person with a Womanâs studies degree.
Perspective isnât it as nothing is an absolute. Problem is often the student take the easy path with the easy degree instead of the degree that could be useful.
However your wife never just took French classes. She most likley majored in something else and minored in French. My ex did the same thing. She majored in economics and minored in French. That landed her first job working for GE in France before transferring back to the US.
Itâs starting to get rather picky out there in the business world. Companies are targeting employees with degrees that fit their companies need. And again, a goofy degree in some obscure subject might open some doors but those folks have to be in the top percentage of their class to be seriously considered.
Kroger manufacturing has doped the college degree requirement for manufacturing managers/supervisors if they have the experience. Any manager or supervisor jobs within their maintenance or engineering departments require an engineering degree.
They absolutely are trending towards a targeted degree as they are as common as a HS degree.
The need for the useless degrees will always be there as liberal organizations prefer them.
To support millions who choose not to work and live off welfare. Obviously.
Double major, French and Art History.