|
Fiscal responsibility as it relates to higher education:
1) You're more likely to find funding for a field that needs more specialists.
2) If a current student can't navigate the financial aid/scholarship/grant circuit, they will not develop necessary skills for navigating the bureaucracies that they will face later in life.
3) The College/University financial aid system is increasingly easy to navigate due to internet search programs and financial aid counselors. I didn't believe it would be easy when I started - I paid out of pocket my first couple of years of university. But then I realized that I couldn't find a work schedule that would permit me to attend my upper-division lab classes. So I broke down and went to the financial aid office. I coudn't believe how easy the system is. I felt stupid for paying for my education out of pocket previously.
4) There are fields that do not offer any funding aid. Leave these to the exceptionally wealthy. Part of living your life comfortably is accepting financial reality.
If you spend $70,000/year for two years pursuing an MFA, then paint out of your garage for the rest of your life, you're probably not going to make up that "reasonable" educational debt.
If you spend $30,000/year pursuing your undergraduate in creative writing, then work as a freelance poet with no connections, you're probably not going to pay off that "reasonable" educational debt.
If you spend $100,000 on an MBA program, then land a job as an auditor, you're probably not going to pay off that "reasonable" educational debt.
If you spend $200,000 and several years of your life becoming a physician, only to enter a socialized healthcare system where you can't earn more than $60,000/year, you're probably not going to pay off that "reasonable" educational debt.
Just because you study a certain field doesn't mean you're going to find a profitable job in that field. If you pay nothing for your edcuation in a field that needs workers and is willing to pay for their training, you're going to be more successful overall.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal responsibility isn't about using coupons.
Coupons are designed by manufacturers to get you hooked on a product, not to save you money. It's better to avoid consumer culture and the coupons that come along with them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Fiscal responsibility is about knowing when to save and when to spend. When there's more money coming in - save it.
When there's less or no money coming in - try not to spend what you've saved.
That's all there is to it. Don't over-spend. If you see a little extra cash coming in unexpectedly, don't increase your budget by adopting senseless expenses. If you can't see yourself affording your lifestyle with half of your income, you shouldn't be living that lifestyle.
------------------------------------------------------
I realize I have a different slant on finances than most people. You don't need to agree with any of my statements. Thank you for the stimulating conversation, none the less.
__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq
"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy
|