Oct 3rd – Oct 9th
Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five. This is where I share what I consider the week’s top-five money related articles from around the web. There are a lot of great personal finance websites publishing amazing content daily and I feel that I must share them with you. I hope you enjoy my five favorite articles of the week.
I didn’t have a Friday Five last week because there was just so much to say about our Trip to Philly. But we’re back!
If you haven’t, please read this week’s posts on Fitness and Writing Challenge and on Good Debt Vs Bad Debt. Also don’t forget to read last week’s post on Our Trip To Philly – Part One, Our Trip To Philly – Part Two, and on You Can’t Go To Philly and Not Run The Rocky Steps! Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, Google+, and like Million Dollar Ninja on Facebook.
In no particular order here are The Friday Five
1. Liz at Budget for More writes, Five Things You Don’t Have to Give Up to Pay Off Debt. Just a nice reminder that we should still live a wonderful life.
2. Joanna at Our Freaking Budget writes, Avoiding Common Budgeting Pitfalls. I made a lot of the mistakes she mentions. Good tips on how to avoid them.
3. Lauren at The Write Budget writes, The Hidden Benefits of Credit Cards. Credit cards sometimes leave a bad taste in people’s mouths, but there are benefits to using them as well.
4. Dee S at Color Me Frugal writes, 8 Smart Ways to Start Saving for Retirement. Retirement is coming faster than we think. Better start saving soon.
5. Deb at Saving The Crumbs writes, 8 Easy Ways to Stay Healthy this Season. We all want to be healthy, don’t we?
Please check out all these great articles. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Why Isn’t College Free in The U.S.?
We know that a college education is becoming more and more important if you want to find a decent job. But why is it so expensive to get a degree in the U.S.?
The average public university in the United States cost an average of $16,000 a year. Meanwhile, you can get the same degree for free – or nearly free – in many developed countries. College is free in Scandinavian countries and is highly subsidized in many European countries. Why isn’t college free here in the U.S.?
I don’t think anybody could argue that investing in the education of our population is a major benefit to us all. The good news is that there are people thinking about this and some have come up with a proposal on how it could be done.
Demos just released The Affordable College Compact which would allow students to graduate debt-free in four years while working a limited number of hours. It won’t just be a free ride.
The student has to commit to working a minimum wage job during the summer and about 10 hours per week during the school year. In return, the students would get grants to cover 40-75% of college costs (depending on income), a work study stipend, and a subsidized loan for the rest, which looks like it is only going to be about 10% of the total cost.
The proposal might not be the perfect answer to our problem, but at least somebody is proposing something. And it will be a big help to those who haven’t planned for college and have to rely on student loans.
Dee @ Color Me Frugal
Thanks so much for the shout out Aldo! That college compact sounds interesting. That’s pretty much how I got through undergrad without loans. I always had at least two jobs, sometimes three or four.
Aldo Rancier
You’re welcome. I really enjoyed your post.
It seems that you were a lot smarter than I was. I just took student loans and hung out and worked a little part time so I can buy beer. Oh well, live and learn.
Tawcan
Although colleges are free in Scandinavian countries, people there also have a lot higher taxes than US/Canada. It’s an interesting concept though, really hope the college tuition will get subsidized somehow in the future.
Aldo Rancier
You’re right, the tax rate is higher but they do provide a free education and free health care. I’m not sure if that’s better than our system, but at least you won’t get charged $8,000 for a band-aid in the emergency room… like it happens here in the U.S.
Maybe a solution would be a combination of the two systems.
Lauren
Thank you so much for including me, Aldo! I think that college proposal sounds great. Offering students an incentive to work and do good in school is the way to go.
Aldo Rancier
You are welcome, Lauren. I think the proposal sounds pretty interesting as well. Is it perfect? Probably not, but it is definitely better than what we have now.
Autumn
I think at some point the whole higher education system is going to need a major overhaul. Everyone is focused on healthcare right now, and rightfully so, but higher education costs have been steadily climbing over the past few years and it’s got to blow up at some point.
I worked through college, but still had to take out loans and was always in the position to have to choose between work and school. I know now that there were a lot of things I should have done differently, but it’s much easier to see that looking back at 30 then it was to understand at 18. I think the compact is certainly a good start to making college more affordable.
Aldo Rancier
Yes, it is easy to look back at it and think how we could’ve done things differently. But the fact remains that we didn’t. My mom always says “‘Should have’ never happened.” I should have done such and such… yes, but you didn’t, so it never happened.
Liz
Thanks for the link Aldo! I think this proposal is definitely a start. We are thinking about starting a family in the next few years and we’re already wondering how on earth we’ll be able to help our future kids pay for college.
SavvyJames
Good stuff. It looks like we read some of the same sources; I also read the Demos report. I also recently read an article on the same topic – I can’t remember the source – that discussed the Germany history of post-secondary education. I don’t know if free will ever happen. Scratch that, I know free will never happen again (apparently some states offered a free, or nearly free college education, 40 or so years ago?) here in the U.S. However, we need to move that way as the current system cannot be sustained.
Jayleen Zotti
Boy … that sure would take a lot of pressure off when the kids head to college in a few years! It does seem things have gotten a little out of hand.