<p>Wow is all I can say...</p>
<p>I think you should know these basic skills BEFORE you get to college, not IN college, and definately not AFTER college!</p>
<p>Whatever happened to summer jobs during high school? One job should teach you how to fill out the forms. My mom prepped me before my first job and I remembered it for each successive job I had. Exemptions can be funny, when in doubt, just write zero! Geez...that so hard?</p>
<p>The "My turn" column of Newsweek is generally about 80% of the time written by whiny, self absorbed, malcontents. Nothing surprising here, except she tries to turn down it down a bit with the usual platitudes about being thankful</p>
<p>Once in awhile, you see some people bringing up something of substance - however this was not one of those articles </p>
<p>As americans we often complain about nonsense -yet generally are spoiled and don't even realize it</p>
<p>College is a time to learn those skills. When I was in college, I got my utilities cut off (had to go down and pay a deposit to get them back on), signed on for apartment leases on my own, overdrew my bank account, got a part time job (had to deal with being stiffed by my employer), met with insurance agent to get car insurance in different state, and then ended up having to file for property tax in that state (!), get plates switched over, and take car in for inspections, wrecked car and had to get it fixed, got parking and traffic tickets, had to get car out on impound TWICE, the list goes on and on. By the time I was 21, Id learned everything I needed for living on my own, sometimes by the hard way.</p>
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<p>That prompted me to go back and reread Roger's post, and at least according to my critical reading skills, Roger didn't make any general barb about attending LACs. Roger wrote, "At an even deeper level, one wonders whether their undergrad educations helped much in the area of critical thinking and problem solving." I wonder that too. Maybe those students were so sheltered that they never took responsibility to ENGAGE with the learning opportunities set before them by their parents' generosity. The learner's own initiative is always key, whatever the learning environment.</p>
<p>Folks, I think you are taking her article a bit too seriously. After all, if she's managed to submit (and have accepted and published) an article for a major publication so soon after her 2006 graduation, I suspect she not only has pretty decent problem-solving skills, but she also has loftier goals than working at a bowling alley (if that is even true. She might be a fiction writer).</p>
<p>I agree that we parents should be teaching our kids fiscal responsibility. Yes, one can learn fromt he school of hard knocks, but why would we expect our kids to just "know" this stuff? I taught my older s. how to use/balance a checkbook, let him start off with a small gas credit card (for which he was responsible for payment), how to read a lease before signing, how to get estimates on car repairs before committing to unnecessary services, etc. He's turned into a pretty responsible kid with, I believe, a lot of life skills. Our responsibility to educate our kids doesn't end when they graduate HS.</p>
<p>Welll.some of the skills she talks about like W-2 exemption and Income tax are not hard to acquire.</p>
<p>Anyone watch the Frontline program on retirement yesterday? With the preponderance of 401k's and the demise of pension plans, people had better learn more than how to fill out a W-2 form, and fast!</p>
<p>When my then 15 year old made $1,000 in summer earnings, I started a Roth IRA for her. Every time she earns money, I make a deposit of that amount. It's not a lot of money but there's plenty of time for compounding to take affect. And more importantly, I'm teaching her how she has to save her whole life and take charge of her finances if she wants to have anything close to a comfortable retirement. Roth's don't count as student assets in FAFSA, so it's a good way to save.</p>
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Roth's don't count as student assets in FAFSA, so it's a good way to save.
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Cool! I didn't realize that. We opened Roths for both boys a few yrs ago,when they both had a bit of income. This makes me even happier that we did. Thanks, entomom!</p>
<p>Wes is know as a member of the "Potted Ivy" group. Amhers, Williams, and Wes.</p>
<p>Roger's barb that concerned me was not the quote in Tokenadult's post #24, but the following quote: "At least she's working in an upscale bowling alley. Not exactly a poster child for the value of a liberal arts degree..."</p>
<p>Her working in a bowling alley right after graduation has nothing to do with the life-long "value" (monetary and non-monetary) of her liberal arts degree.</p>
<p>jym,
Yes, I think Roth is a great way to go, here's a good link to the relationship between fin aid and various savings vehicles:
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/savings/accountownership.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/savings/accountownership.phtml</a>
Looks like we have the same philosophy about teaching kids about fiscal responsibility, give them the skills as early as they're able to handle them. When my D found out my salary she was surprised at how "rich" we were, so I showed her our budget and how much it costs for just the basics, she doesn't think we're that rich anymore! :(</p>
<p><a href="http://www.smith.edu/wfi/%5B/url%5D">http://www.smith.edu/wfi/</a> is one LAC's solution. I didn't use it as much as I could/should have (lucky to have parents who work in the financial field and can answer many of my questions) but when i was confused about requesting credit ratings before applying for grad school loans, they were very helpful.</p>
<p>Haha, I hope we recent grads don't have to start citing our sources of financial information -- I get a decent percentage of mine from CC. :D</p>
<p>Somebody recommended a particular book on credit scores a few months ago in the Parents Forum, and I bought it. It was a great book! I learned a lot about credit scores. Anybody else have book recommendations on personal finance?</p>
<p>I don't get it. In the age of google, you can't look up 'how to fill out a tax form' and get the info you need?</p>
<p>Katliamom - you can't do that if you don't know how to effectively use Google or other search engines. Most teenagers and college students don't.</p>
<p>Decades ago, I had to take a mandatory junior high school course in libraries. The course basically taught students how to find information in libraries. High schools ought to have similar courses, but include the internet in those courses.</p>
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Katliamom - you can't do that if you don't know how to effectively use Google or other search engines. Most teenagers and college students don't.
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Are you kidding? Every teenager and college kid I know is EXTREMELY well versed in all aspects of the web, especially google and all search engines. they've been using the web for research purposes for eons. To say they don't know how to use this is silly.</p>
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High schools ought to have similar courses, but include the internet in those courses.
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They do, for the most part.</p>
<p>My S reminds my D, "Google is your friend," whenever she asks something that he feels she should search for herself on the web. He's able to find a wealth of things on the web, including a free on-line mandarin dictionary that will even pronounce the words for you as desired. He & D are much better searchers than hubby & I (even tho hubby's work has been computers for the past 30+ years). They have both had access to computers since early in grade school.</p>
<p>Mollie, I loved the first version of Jane Bryant Quinn's *Making the most of your Money<a href="I%20had%20wrong%20title%20in%20previous%20post">/I</a>, but it hasn't been updated for a while. Here's a link to reviews: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Making-Most-Money-Bryant-Quinn/dp/0684811766/sr=1-2/qid=1163077093/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-2487264-0286430?ie=UTF8&s=books%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/Making-Most-Money-Bryant-Quinn/dp/0684811766/sr=1-2/qid=1163077093/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-2487264-0286430?ie=UTF8&s=books</a>
I'd take a look at her most recent book *Smart and Simple Financial Strategies for Busy People * Reviews: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Simple-Financial-Strategies-People/dp/0743269942/sr=1-1/qid=1163077093/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2487264-0286430?ie=UTF8&s=books%5B/url%5D">http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Simple-Financial-Strategies-People/dp/0743269942/sr=1-1/qid=1163077093/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2487264-0286430?ie=UTF8&s=books</a></p>
<p>Sounds like a very popular book from all the reviews. I'll see if our library has a copy--might be a good gift for several on my Christmas list.</p>