Peter's Viewpoint

Your Money, Financial Wisdom From a New Graduate, By RON LIEBER in the New York Times boasts how to be a wise student with references from Madison Nipp a recent graduate.

It’s funny how the story runs about the hardship of Miss Nipp and her brother living in a home that their parents bought for them and yet at the same time she contends with the problems of life because she did not have a credit card for a period of more than a year.

I remember my first days of going to college.  I was 18 and managed to be accepted at a school with a reputation.  I will agree that I did not fully understand the costs involved and yet I received assistance being that I did not have parents who could buy me a home to live in while I pursued my degree.
What did I do?  During the first six months of school I realized that I would be taking not courses in my major but courses that would give me the ability to produce the documentation towards my degree, English, Mathematics, and a some other courses that were more like an advanced continuation of high school.
At the time, I became fully aware of the costs and the loan that would keep me afloat to complete my degree so the only option was to increase the value of my education by reducing the cost.  I switched to a community college to complete 18 months of the courses that I would have taken at the other college and saved a huge amount of money.
Was there any difference or problem in doing this?  No, the first school did not care as long as the credit hours were transferable.

So where is the essence of being smart?  Fussing around with trying to get a credit card, or thinking about taxation when most jobs today will be at even lower pay?
No, if your goal is to attain a degree then you should do it minimizing the cost.
One last mention, if you are going to get a degree, get a bachelors and then get the masters while working because there may still be some companies interested in developing their staff from within and in doing so they will most likely assist you financially towards reaching that goal.

Of course for those of you on daddy’s wallet, well, don’t feel bad, you can always hire those that do it themselves later on assuming that daddy’s wallet doesn’t have any moths after the economic crisis is over.