College Economics Won’t Help Your Finances
Emma Johnson’s article Why Generation Y is broke, struck a chord with me. My recent post, about 401ks not being enough for retirement, is just the beginning of advice that Gen Y needs to heed. The good news is that there are tons of references out there now-a-days. Finance blogs, TV shows, books, and many other resources.
The biggest issue is that you don’t know that you don’t know. Let me explain. In college I took both Macro and Micro Economics. Neither of these classes prepared me for what I would experience post graduation financially. There was not a single class during my entire education process that talked about personal finances, mortgages, 401ks, or anything else that I or Gen Y would encounter. There is no class offered called “How to live paycheck to paycheck” for seniors in college, but there should be.
It is an injustice to Gen Y and future generations that they are required to take a lab science in college, like “The Sea Around Us”, but not be required to take one personal finance class. Which one of these two classes do you think would be more useful?
The good news is there seems to be a movement toward educating today’s youth, but for those that have already graduated you need to start learning these lessons on your own. Read blogs, watch TV, read books, talk to friends and family. Learn from your own and other peoples’ mistakes.
