For more good advise on living debt-free see:
http://www.daveramsey.com/
http://www.crown.org/
What an irritating article.
Of course, you could go into the military to help pay for college (as I did), but I'm sure THAT option would not be preferred by most of the readers of the Village Voice.
And what ever happened to living within your means? My wife and I could have bought a house twice as expensive as the one we live in, but we bought a small ranch instead of piling into unneccesary deep debt.
People don't realize that their parent's first house was a 400 square foot box with no central heating, single pane glass, a stove, one bathroom and nothing else. No TV in every room (if you had a TV it was probably B&W), No VCR's, no video games, no CD's, no computers, no cell phones, no microwave ovens, no VCR's, no DVD players, no pagers, no dishwashers, no cloths dryers, the list goes on and on.
That was normal.
Now if you don't have all those things you're abnormal, and if you do, you're in debt up to your neck...
Here lies much of the fear of commitment of young men today, I believe. Divorce seems inevitable, and the obligation it leaves is nearly unbearable. Its aftermath is a sentence of poverty to both parties.
Excuse me, but I'm really getting tired of listening to how much "easier" your parents had it then you. That is, quite frankly, a crock of you know what. Neither I or my husband were college educated, and we managed TOGETHER by being careful with our money and working about five jobs between the two of us to have a home, children, cars and vacations. Now the home wasn't over 200 thousand and was quite modest even by 1978 standards. Our cars also, neither even had air. We managed to "manage" our debt and keep a perfect credit rating for 30 years. Our children wanted for nothing.
Now of course we have two sons who are 23 and 24 and they, much like the rest of their generation, thinks the world owes them a living, and if they need something (or want something) and they don't have it, it's ok to just "take" it somehow or sit around and whine that someone should give it to them.
Now one of them dropped out of high school, and he had a job last year working for a sprinkler company, $12.00 an hour, HEALTH BENEFITS, vacation, sick leave, and his boss even drove here and picked him up and dropped him off everyday for $25 a week (he got a DUI and has no license). Want to know what happened? He got fired. Couldn't get his butt up in the morning.
This particular son is being tossed from our home after the first of the year.
So when I read stuff like this, it really kind ticks me off. I have no sympathy for ANYONE who credit cards themselves into slavery. It's not the fault of soceity. GROW UP.
pinging you
"among 30- to 34-year-olds, the marriage rate in 2003 was four times lower than it was in 1970."
Here is a large part of the problem, if people with degrees are so uneducated as to believe that something can be four times lower then they have no hope of coping with money management. My parents knew better than that by the eigth grade. My father never even started his freshman year in high school and he had a better understanding of fractions than this writer!
Really? I had student loans for several years after graduation. I also went to grad school while holding down a full time job.
What makes them different than me?
There also seems to be a pervasive cultural pressure that says, "Live for today: your 20's are the only time in your life worth living, and if you don't have it all RIGHT NOW, you'll never get it or you'll be too old to enjoy it anyway." A brilliant marketing strategy for those who are selling expensive consumer electronics, but it's lousy financial planning advice. ;)
Ma Dad always preached the old adage about only borrowing for the house, the car, and for an education.
We have never borrowed for anything else and the only debt I have ever had to my name was for two of the above-mentioned three. And of course the debt I owe my Dad for his advice.
Call me debt-free and not shedding any tears for 33 year old architects in New York who can't manage a simple budget.
I went through college having my meager income supplemented with grants, and a $15,000 student loan.
My son, who is active duty military, has completed an AA degree, a para-legal certification and is nearly complete on his bachelors, has done all this on the GI bill but it's part-time and taking years and years. My daughter starts at Smith in the fall. We estimate she'll graduate owing $60,000.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
As long as you're working for The Village Voice? Probably! Nobody goes into print journalism to get rich.
I knew a guy in college who accepted all of the credit cards offered to him before being graduated.
He was an English major and of course had no prospects so he rented a car and went on a road trip. He stayed at the finest hotels and ordered the finest meals accompanied by fine wines until all of his cards were refused.
He then spent 3 years in the pokey.
Debt free now, I looooooooooooove it!
As for marriage, why buy the cow when I can have the milk for free?
Pathetic article. My generation embarasses me.
My fiance and I are 25 and 23, respectively. He's finishing up his degree at the moment and I work full time and go to grad school part time. He'll be done with school in May and hopefully will find work soon thereafter. I have a moderate amount of student loan debt, which I consider money well spent considering that my degree gave me the stable career and relatively good salary that I have. Thankfully my employer pays 100% of my educational expenses for grad school. He has no debt of any kind. We hope to have my loan paid off in the next 5 years.
We both have credit cards and have had them since our late teens. The balances are paid off monthly and the only reason we have them (3 cards between the two of us) is to build credit. Our parents reinforced to us the importance of using credit responsibly and we have had no problems even during the "tempting" college years.
We plan to buy a home in the next year, once he's been gainfully employed for a while. We have friends who maxed out their mortgages to buy in very exclusive areas and are extremely cash-poor as a result, but we plan to buy well below what we'll qualify for. If that means all we can afford for now is a condo, or a house in a less-desirable town, so be it. Our overall goal is to be debt-free except for a mortgage within 5 years.
I know an awful lot of people in their 20s who are tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt - mostly because they were foolish in college and wanted expensive clothes, cars, and free-flowing alcohol without having to work to get the money for it. Then they go back home to live rent-free with Mom and Dad, and complain that no one warned them of the pitfalls of consumer credit.
They have no one to blame but themselves!
Many younger people are realizing their mistakes, but usually only after they are already paying half their take home pay to credit cards and such.
Within ten years, the only debt I will have is possibly a reasonable mortgage. That's one of my goals.
Many younger people are realizing their mistakes, but usually only after they are already paying half their take home pay to credit cards and such.
Within ten years, the only debt I will have is possibly a reasonable mortgage. That's one of my goals.
Funny, I must have missed that part growing up.