saving money for college education as opposed to retirement, there are several other factors that contribute to Gen X’s lack of funds for retirement (Powell, 2015).
Gen X carries the most debt in comparison to Baby Boomers and Millennials. According to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Gen X owes an average of $142,007, mostly comprised of mortgage debt. In comparison to Baby Boomers, Gen X held about 60% more debt at age 44 than the earlier cohort. In addition, the household income at the same age was only about 5% higher than Baby Boomers. Therefore, while Gen X is not making much more money than Baby Boomers, they have accumulated more debt, and are reducing debt at a slower pace than any other generation (Matthews,
…show more content…
The first step in creating a retirement plan to last at least 25 years is to set short term goals, understand good debt versus bad debt, and how to prioritize paying off debt to allow the additional income to be saved for retirement. Bad debt, such as personal loans, car loans, and credit card debt carry high interest rates, and do not represent a future investment; bad debt loses value over time. Good debt, or debt with a low interest rate, can be viewed as a future investment. This type of debt includes mortgages, business loans, and student loans (Von Tobel, 2014). Paying off bad debt first reduces high interest payments, which then can be applied to an overall retirement savings plan. Approximately 50% of credit card users carry a month-to-month balance, and are required to pay accrued interest charges. According to Ghilarducci, actual credit cards should stay home, in a hard to reach place to be used only in the case of an emergency. While it is critical to pay down credit cards, high interest loans, and avoid carrying a balance, it is also important to make solid financial decisions pertaining to good debt. Paying off a mortgage in 7 or 15 years will raise the current monthly payment, but will save money overall by qualifying for lower interest rates, and
Some people think that getting a college education is not really a good idea anymore. According to Abel and Deitz, “In recent years, students have been paying more to attend college and earning less upon graduation—trends that have led many observers to question whether a college education remains a good investment” (2014, p. 1). If the student cannot find a job that pays a decent amount of money, after graduation why should the government ‘fund it?. College costs are rising each year. Future generations may not be able to go to college because tuition will be too high. But Abel and Deitz
When opportunity knocks you should always open the door. College is a great opportunity to garner success from a secure career. Furthermore, college or university education is worth the debt you will accumulate from it. If you're still weighing your options, consider this, "Lifetime earnings for college graduate are substantially higher than the earnings of someone without a college degree," (Source 4, pg. 13). Getting a higher education is not just good for you, but its also good for your bank account. On the plus side, it is easier for you to live a better life, and if America ever hits a recession you will be in a better position to support you and your family.
An estimated 20 million Americans attend college each year, and 60% of those students borrow annually to pay for it (qtd. in asa.org, “Student Loan Debt Statistics”). Moreover, citizens continuing to pay off debt after schooling brings the overall number of student-loan-borrowers to about 40 million- with a collective 1 trillion dollars in debt (McCarthy, “10 Fun Facts About the Student Debt Crisis); a fourth of these borrowers owe over $28,000, a tenth owe over $54,000, 3.1% owe more than $100,000, “and 0.45 percent of borrowers, or 167,000 people, owe more than $200,000” (Haughwout, “Grading Student Loans”). While some view this predicament as the result of laziness or carelessness, the bulk of this substantial group are not at fault.
At the same time, a growing number of millennials are facing burdensome student loan debt. Rather than come out of college with pristine back-end ratios primed for a hefty mortgage, they are handcuffed by the debt that they have amassed in their early twenties. As the Pew Research Center has noted, 37 percent of people under the age of thirty have student loan debt. They contribute to the $1.3 trillion in student debt, leverage that could presumably be used for a mortgage or some other useful credit if it were not locked up already. Millennials are trying to increase their earning power by going to school so that they have the opportunity to advance economically, but it is simultaneously holding many of them back via years of extra debt—debt that is notably not going to a
These statistics mean that college student have to do part time jobs in school and still be gather debt. To figure why this is happening we will need to go back to the how of college loans got to be this way and look at a couple different thing.
Depending upon the person, the colossal amount of money already owed takes part in the financial decisions this person makes. Recently, the argument that the generation of people with all of this debt (the Millennials) and even the generation after them (X) are being affected by this debt in such a way that they are, “delaying major life milestones such as buying a home or saving for retirement…” (Chang) The meaning of this is to inform that these common milestones in life are not being reached. This stands as an important point because it will just be a continuous cycle of debt if these graduates cannot pay it off within their life time. Also, if they are not investing in their retirement--which they will eventually have to retire--there will be nothing to live off of when it comes to the time that they are no longer able to work. To counteract that, there is no proof that the college debt is what is holding these graduates back from attaining these major milestones. According to Matthews, “the problem is, there isn’t any proof that higher student loan debt is actually causing young people to own homes at lower rates than they did in the past, or that the overall student loan burden is leading to a smaller share of first-time home buyers. These trends could be cause by other factors, such as a cultural shift that has led young adults to delay all sorts of decisions, from buying a home, to marrying and having children.” (Matthews) Matthews expresses that there is no hard evidence to prove that it is the student loans that are cause the delay in the Millennials to doing such things as buying a house; it could simply just be the new “trend”. This is important in showing that there might not be a correlation between these graduates debt and buying a house (amongst other major milestones). To sum up, the debt these youngsters are in when they graduate is something that is
Applicants with a trade school diploma already have both the know-how and hands-on experience to attain a job, at the entry level, that pays a significant amount.
Today in society the determination for a college degree lies beyond education towards future financial security. While college debt seems to be ever increasing, students from low-income families are less likely to attend college due to the financial hardship. The social class that a student’s family falls into shows correlation on whether that student will or not attend college (Peske & Haycock, 2006). However, looking at this issue from my own prospective it seems as though no matter the social class students are attending college. What more so seems to have an affect on outcomes for individuals is how there family’s social economic status effects how well a student performs in college. For a student from a low-income family nothing can seem more daunting than the overwhelming amount of debt we have to pay after college.
The average debt suffered by every 2013 college graduate was a staggering $35,200 (Roos p. 2 par 1). According to experts, this is the worst the economy has been in 80 years (Thompson, par 4). There are so many things working against the generation of today from an economical standpoint. The housing market crash of 2007-2008 took a toll on the economy as a whole, but in turn managed to affect millenials more so than any other generation. Throughout American history, every generation has had one of the same major goals; get rich quickly and be more prosperous than the generation before. Even today as the country has grown richer, Generations X and Y (people up to the age of about 50) have amassed less wealth than their parents had when they were the same age. If this is not harrowing enough, the average net worth of a person aged 29-37 has been lowered by 21% since 1983 while the average net worth of a person aged 56-64 has more than doubled since the same year. It is depressing to think that millenials will almost indefinitely suffer more instability in their retirements than their parents or even their grandparents (Lowrey, p. 2 par 5). Someone at the age of 30 in 2013 was worth 21% less than someone at the age of 30 in 1983, meanwhile the net worth of an average 60 year old in 2013 was more than twice as high as a 60 year old in 1983. In other words, young people are getting poorer as older people becoming richer
If there is one thing that is known about the national debt, it is that it goes hand in hand with Millennials. It is a shame to think that our country's debt will be forced onto the younger generation, and we will ultimately be the ones who have to fix the situation or deal with the consequences. To be clear, the term millennial usually refers to someone who is in the 18 to 34 age bracket. Millennials are also the first generation after the baby boomers. We are now facing a time when the national debt is growing faster than the American population, and this affects everyone.
Economic impact from rising student loan debt is being felt throughout the United States. According to research performed by the Pew Research Center and Rutgers, between 25-40% of 20- and 30-year-olds are delaying large purchases such as homes and cars (Daniels). The delay of such
Everyone wants to go to college, but the cost of most colleges can be really high. The cost of a college can be from $9,000 to about $30,000. Sometimes the cost is even higher. That price is just for one year of college. Some students will be in a huge amount of debt by the time they finish four years of college.The first problem is that students may not go to college because of the cost. The second problem is that different types of colleges can have a higher cost. There are some solutions for this problem. A couple solutions would be lowering the cost of college or making college free.
The continuous rising cost of higher education is frequently spoken about today and deserves much more attention then it receives. College tuition for students is a rather large investment and considered to be one of the most expensive to make. As college tuition prices are continuously increasing so is the cost of housing. The average American family is finding it more and more difficult to be able to have a fair shot at affording to go to college. Although there are numerous possibilities, the cost of higher education for student is still too high and implementing a solid accreditation process and examining the student loan crisis happening could help improve a lot of problems.
Baby Boomers have been one of the most powerful forces in shaping the economic environment and are the wealthiest generation in the United States (Kotler and Armstrong, 2015). “In their early years, “Leading Edge” Boomers enjoyed economic prosperity, and their resulting financial power in their prime years drove rising trends in everything. However, the recessionary years of the early 1970’s also added cautionary realities to their youthful consumption and employment dreams” (“America’s Oldest Boomers”, n.d.). Baby boomers control approximately 70% of the disposable income in the United States, therefore, they are known as being one of the most influential financial forces in the marketplace (“Baby Boomers Report”, 2015). As they reach their
Budgeting can be very difficult, nevertheless for college students, so I will be explaining how to budget in college by making smart decisions. A college education is probably one of the most expensive purchases a young adult will most likely ever purchase in their lifetime. College can be very expensive as a consequence tuition can range anywhere from 10,000 to 70,000 a year. Nearly all college students pay for college by a college fund, scholarship/grants, out of their own or parent's pocket or borrowed money. Despite the fact some of those payments aren’t directly coming from the student it is more than likely that they still don’t have a stable income to provide themselves with basic necessities. Most colleges don’t provide students with basic necessities which means they acquire to go out and obtain everything needed as far as food, supplies, books, also toiletries. The average college student spends anywhere from $200-$700 a month on just the articles they need. While on articles they want they spend anywhere from $20-$200. More than likely that most college students don’t work, notwithstanding first-year students and athletes, which is a large population of the school anyway. Today most students aren’t obtaining a stable cash flow and even the ones who are from allowances or a job tend to still most likely struggle with budgeting. Budgeting can be a very difficult task even for adults or people making a substantial amount of money, but it’s not impossible if