USA Today Article: Young earners face intense financial challenge

by Amnesty Vendor 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  joelbear

  when i left home 27 years ago i had $1500 and a credit card and a car loan.

  i ate balogna sandwiches and had a black and white tv and drove a datsun B210.

  i made it! yay.
• 

  DanTheMan

  Hi Soledad,

  Dan I know that there are many peoples my age who can't live without the newest gizmo or whatever but there are also many that I personally know that don't care to live beyond their means either. Don't make such a sweeping generalization.

  Sorry if I sounded like I was generalizing, I know that, with the cost of a college education going ever-higher and with so many good jobs being exported to India and China, that today's 20 and 30 somethings are really feeling the pinch. But I also know many who are monthly-paymenting themselves to death in order to live a fashion and gizmo rich lifestyle, and these are the ones that I don't have a lot of sympathy for. I guess maxed-out credit cards has become the American way of doing things though.
• 

  moshe

  
  
  College loan debt is at an all-time high.

  College has become a money drain on the youth today. Fifty years ago businesses provided the main training for it's employees and because of that they had a vested interest in retaining it's workers. It makes more sense to hire a newly minted college graduate, use his skills for 5-10 years and then replace them with a new college graduate . While corporations have modernized and lowered prices, colleges have not been able (wanted) to reduce the cost of their product. The need to keep tenured professors paid has kept universities from endorsing alternative education schemes,ie. - internet classes for starters, unless they can still obtain full prices for the courses. The $50,000 cost of college for your kids might be better spent on a good business or starter retirement trust fund.
  
  peace,

  Moshe

  peac
• 

  serendipity

  College costs have risen much quicker than wages. I lived at home while I attended college here in Texas back in the early 80's. Tuition at the public university was only around $400-$500/semester. Books and lab fees added at most $200. One year cost at most $1200 for 18 hours/semester. Today, one year at a Texas college is $7000 for tuition alone. Minimum wage was $3.35 back then. Today it's around $5.15. It would be hard for a student to pay as they go, if they don't get help from their parents.
• 

  DaCheech

  They better teach in high school money managing courses!