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EVERYBODY talks about their kids. As a non-breeder (so far), I get to hear about every first step, first tooth, first whatever, and about every step in their child’s development. Since these people are my friends, I don’t mind TOO much. Sometimes I might feel a little left out, so I’ll talk about my special needs cat that is allergic to (I’m guessing) cat fur.
Hopefully this is going to be a short one, I just need to get something off my chest and hopefully get an answer to something that has bothered me for years. Stay with me, because eventually I do get to the whole finance for youth thing
At work,
Here’s where my question comes in. Does anybody have average children anymore, and if not, doesn’t everybody having extraordinary children make what is extraordinary the average?
I’m only guessing here, but I imagine when my wife and I have kids, people will ask me how my baby is, and I’ll say, “He’s fine.”, or “She’s okay.” The same way I do when people ask me how my wife is. I rarely announce every detail about my wife’s life, and I’m guessing I wouldn’t about my child. But when I ask someone else, “So, how’s the kid?” I get in-depth detail about all the ways in which they are superior to all the other kids out there. And since I don’t know a whole lot about kids, who am I to say they aren’t right? Maybe they all do have a Superzicklein. I believe that they believe it, so that is enough.
I wonder how this translates when talking about the financial education these kids receive from their families. Are they taught the importance of saving? Are they taught the value of working hard and doing your best? Or are they taught a sense of entitlement, that everything should be handed to them without effort or merit? Here’s what I mean: When I was growing up, kids got jobs. We would do whatever we had to in order to make some money, whether it be to pay for college or to pay for the prom, or even just to blow on being young. When I talk to young people today, many of them tell me that they are putting off work until after school. When I talk to parents, many support this idea with the rationale that their kid shouldn’t have to work, especially when going to school.
The problem is, I see the results of this line of thinking every day. In the young people that actually do work, I see less than best effort. In recent grads who are working, I see less productivity than in those who work their way up the chain. Recently, I’ve seen young people buying houses that they can not afford, mortgage themselves to the hilt, and in some cases-be forced to walk away with nothing to show for it save damaged credit and a mountain of debt. I’ve been seeing this with more and more frequency, which leads me to ask if all of these extraordinary people who are getting the same result are really that extraordinary after all, or if they should even try to be.
So, a lot of young people are doing the college thing this fall. With the country in the early stages of recession, and many young people not working, how do they afford it? Scholarships and student loans, mainly, but the shorter answer is financial aid.
SCHOLARSHIPS good things if you can get them. Basically, if you qualify based on the particular scholarship’s criteria, you get money for school, and you don’t have to pay it back. What qualifies you may be as simple as your race, gender, or attachment to a specific group or it may be your grades in high school. Maybe you aren’t connected, but one of your parents may be. In any event, a student can really benefit from scholarships.
There are many ways to locate a scholarship, but I’m including a resource that has few others that I feel safe in recommending to you:
One caveat that you should be aware of with scholarships is even though you don’t have to repay the money you are given, some of them may have other stipulations. Some may require that you work for a specific company or in a specific industry for a period of time. In most cases, this isn’t that big of a deal, since the scholarship is leading to working in the industry anyways, but you should be aware of this.
STUDENT LOANS are another route that young people will go to either supplement the money their parents can pay along with any other financial aid. The beauty of many of these loans is that you don’t have to pay them back until after you leave school. The bad part is that many of them accrue interest even though no payments are due, making you pay back a lot more than the original loan.
The biggest problem with student loans is that they are becoming harder to get. They are also not necessarily a good deal for the student, especially if they are not deferred interest as well as deferred payment, or if the interest can’t at the very least, be deducted on taxes. The other thing is, many students find that their career path doesn’t necessarily support the amount of debt they get into for college. Young people think they are going to be making a lot more money at their career than the reality, get a lot of student loans to pay for a really good school, and then are forced into making huge payments on a small salary for years. This really can throw a wrench into your plans for the future.
The third option, and in my opinion, the best one is to work while taking as many units as you can handle during off times. I know this is a slower method, and I know that you really want to do everything right now, but going this route will ensure that you gain some real experience in the real world (which school doesn’t teach), that will inevitably make you better at whatever you choose to do. You will also (hopefully) not be in debt when you are finished with school, allowing you to put your new salary to better uses than paying off loans.
There are other methods of financial aid, but all financial aid boils down to one of the following sources: Money given to you freely (grants, parental aid), Money given with stipulations (scholarships, G.I. Bill), Money loaned to you (loans), and Money that is yours to do with whatever you choose. College life can be stressful enough during your time at school. Do you really want to keep that stress with you as you move on to your career?
As school starts closing down for yet another year, young people start searching for ways to fill their summer. Some will fill those hours with sleep and partying. Others will fill them with more school, and others will fill them with a job. That’s how I spent many of my summers when I was young. I would sleep at school, and then party at the job! But seriously, many young people are going to be looking for jobs now.
I talk about where to look for work in other places, and I’ve talked about getting GETTING SCAMMED IN THE WORKPLACE before. I think many people understand how to stay out of pyramid schemes by now.
I was at work the other day when something “new” came to my attention. I use the quotes because this is really just a variation on an old scam that hits every few years. Companies are hiring “secret shoppers” to go to specific stores and buy some merchandise with their own money. The company will send a large check to facilitate this transaction. The “shopper” is instructed to take a small fee and wire the rest of the money back to the company.
When I first heard about this (again), it blew my mind that anybody would fall for it. Then I started thinking. If I were young again, and didn’t have the knowledge I have today, would I fall for a scam like this? The answer is no, but I’ve fallen for others.
I mentioned once that I sold knock-off perfume and cologne. This was a pyramid scheme, but on the other side of it, it was a scam just like this. Occasionally, we would go to someplace far away and set up shop for a weekend. We would pay for our own hotel room and some extra supply, and sell our product. If we did well the company would send us a reimbursement check for the expenses of the trip. Looking back, I really don’t know how I could be so gullible.
Look, people– For anybody who doesn’t get it, companies will rarely ask you to pay money to work for them. They will never offer to reimburse you in a way that you have to pay back the reimbursement, barring any mistakes. This is another in a long line of
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!
If you realize that you have become a victim of a scam like this, return any products you have not paid for and get a receipt. If you have paid for something, try to return it to get your money back. If they can’t give you your money back right away, make them sign a receipt for the products along with a statement saying exactly when you will get your money back, and keep hounding them until you do get it back. Also, make sure you never give them money again. There is no reason for you to do so. Finally, learn from the experience; like I’ve said many times, we all get taken once or twice. That’s not as big a deal as if we keep getting caught making the same mistakes over and over.
All of us, at one time or another, screw up somewhere. There is no way around it. In fact, I’ve noticed that the more you try to avoid screwing up, the more you will inevitably screw up, and each screw-up will be more severe. When Greg broke the vase on the BRADY BUNCH, he initially allowed each of the other children and Alice take the blame for his mistake. Of course, at the end, he took the blame, which is actually the point here.
A few months ago, I got a new phone. As part of the deal, AT&T gave me a debit card preloaded with some amount of money. Not hating the idea of free money, my wife and I had a plan for what to do with it. So we put the card in a drawer and forgot about it until it was time to go buy whatever it was that we were planning…, the card expired! Okay, I screwed up.
Again, screwing up isn’t nearly as important as how you react. When you are at work, and you make a mistake, or even royally screw up, you can try and cover it up, hoping nobody catches on, or you can face up to the mistake and move forward. One way will almost certainly backfire on you, and you will quite possibly lose your job. The other way, you may get in a lot of trouble, but you most likely will be given the opportunity to fix the mistake and your reputation. I’ve told many people before about times when I have tried both methods, and the results. I can’t tell you what to do, or how to act, but I can reliably predict your chances of success depending on which method you choose.
When you are budgeting, sometimes you underestimate your expenses or overestimate your income. It happens to everybody at least once, and you kind of learn to not let it happen again. Or, you compound one minor mistake with a series of ever-increasing mistakes.
So, what should you do when you screw up? First, own up to the mistake. Admit to whomever you need to that you made a mistake so that they hear about it from you and not from someone else. Second, learn from the mistake. Write down what happened, what the result was, and what you could have done differently. Try to keep this in a place where you can get to it if you ever are faced with the same situation in the future. Third, and possibly most important, resolve to never, ever, EVER make that mistake again, and stick to this resolution. Not sticking it out makes the rest of the process meaningless. Don’t forget to do whatever you can to minimize the consequences by trying to fix the mistake. It is nice to know that you learned something, but if you don’t at least try to remedy the situation, what good have you done?
What shouldn’t you do? First, don’t beat yourself up unnecessarily about it. Remember, everybody makes mistakes. Many mistakes aren’t terribly big deals. They only become big deals when we compound them or ignore them to make more. Second, don’t try to hide the mistake. This is suspicious behavior. People who see you make a mistake and try to hide it will start to wonder what else you might be trying to hide; and don’t give me the argument that they may never find out. Do you really want to take that chance? Third, if you can help it, don’t repeat the mistake—ever. Also, don’t try to pass your mistake off onto someone else. When you do this, you are cheating yourself and screwing someone else. Accept your mistake and move on. You never know what the final result may be.
Back to the debit card thing. I called AT&T, told them straight up that I had made a mistake, and asked if there was something they could do to help me out. They told me that policy was policy. They asked me to hold, and told me that my new card would be sent out within three weeks. I’m grateful for their awesome service, and I’ll make sure I don’t make that mistake again. The moral of this story: Own up to your own mistakes and do what you can to make sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
