A Harris Interactive study finds 40-percent of recent college graduates have over $10-thousand dollars in student loan debt. Over 20-percent owe more than $5-thousand dollars on credit cards before age 25.
The self-proclaimed Financial Voice for Generation “Y”, James White, says there’s still time to guide our young people away from dollar-disaster. White is a 23-year-old self-made millionaire, the owner of an international empire, a motivational speaker and author of the new book “My First Million”.
“Generation ‘Y’ is in some serious money trouble,” says White. “My age group spends tens of thousands of dollars to go to college and then owes thousands of dollars more in student loans and credit cards before they get their first paycheck.”
Teenagers and young adults are growing up at a different time of history than their parents or grandparents. They are not growing up in ‘the greatest generation’ of depression-fueled frugal spenders. They are not coming of age in the baby boomer ‘me’ generation of spendthrifts that use credit to spend without consequence. This group of young adults is watching the American economy hover near recession. Generation ‘Y’ watches as parents and neighbors lose their homes to foreclosure and their grandparents try to stretch Social Security to cover basic needs. Still, this group of young adults juggles bills and hopes for a money miracle.
“We know we don’t want to spend ourselves into disaster, but we also don’t want to give up the finer things in life,” says White. “Saying ‘no’ to debt completely isn’t realistic for my generation. The problem is young people don’t know a thing about how to make money, let alone make their money work for them.”
White suggests it is not too late to guide the young men and women of this country toward success with money. He believes basic finance should be taught in high school.
“This is one of the few things we can’t rely on the parents to teach at home because many adults are just learning the consequences for bad spending habits themselves.”
Time is running out. With each passing year Generation ‘Y’ spends itself more deeply into debt. The average student loan bill is $19,000 according to Senator Edward Kennedy’s Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008. Payments tend to span 15 years ensuring most students will remain in debt past their mid 30’s. 95 percent of graduate students have credit cards.
America needs a fast financial reality check.
“We are the next generation of leaders and taxpayers. If someone doesn’t reach out and explain the disaster we are headed for America’s financial future will come crumbling down like a house of cards.”
Email this article
Printer friendly page