ComputerHunter.org

 

Kippers or Red Herrings?


Recent news has made much of parents stretching their finances to cover costs for their twenty and thirty something children. Debts and high property prices have forced many offspring to return home, tail between legs, under the attractive new marketing term of "kippers": kids in parents' pockets eroding retirement savings.

Many graduates have developed significant debts from university and have accumulated further debt in the competitive graduate market. Student life provides an incubated protection from the reality of financial concerns and fresher fairs become increasingly populated by banks, mobile phone companies and other brands wishing to tap into the students' borrowed finances.

It is true that many young people have got themselves into very uncomfortable financial positions because of careless spending. The ethics of student finance are somewhat dubious with many financial products branded "student", not necessarily offering the best deal. Most shops, bars, cafés and restaurants on university campuses are fully commercial enterprises designed to make profit, without wanting to fit around a student's pocket. Tuition fees, whilst significant, are not the biggest problem for students.

Most students run up debts because of inadequate life skills. They're not used to doing their own washing, they don't sew, some can't cook and most have never been in charge of their own finances prior to university. If it's broke, just buy a new one. One male student reported preferring to buy take-away food, rather than cook his own food, also often buying new shirts to save washing and ironing old ones. An American exchange student, who had never been taught to do her own cooking, used some of her $90,000 loan to live on take-ways, convenience meals and restaurant food whilst studying in London.

If 16-18 year olds were forced to take a gap year before university and undertake a period of community work and life skills training, it is unlikely that they would graduate with the same level of debt. Just like binge drinking, smoking in public places and increasing levels of obesity, debt accumulation is part of a distorted value system. The kids deserve some of the blame, though the government also needs to take an interest. There is no reason, even with tuition fees, why even the poorest students cannot go to university, but expectations of a suitable standard of living have to be lowered, with a genuine concern for a suitable standard of education at the heart of the matter.

To get the best deal on financial products: http://www.moneynet.co.uk/

Information on student finance: http://www.creditaction.org.uk/documents/StudentsSample.pdf

Citizens Advice Bureau http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/

Rachel loves garlic. She is very good at raising one eyebrow and giving disapproving looks, but she is not a witch. Rachel writes for the personal finance blog Cashzilla:





Google News - Top Stories

ABC News

White House Contenders Trade Economic Attacks after McCain Home Gaffe
ABC News - 1 hour ago
By JAKE TAPPER Sen. Barack Obama says his Republican rival Sen. John McCain is out of touch and "just doesn't get it." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
McCain family wealth mostly in wife's name The Associated Press
Survey finds hunters, anglers favor John McCain Los Angeles Times
Christian Science Monitor - CNN International - CBS News - Voice of America
all 967 news articles


Malaysia Star

Two McCain offices evacuated after letter threat
Reuters - 42 minutes ago
By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Two offices of John McCain's US presidential campaign, in Colorado and New Hampshire, were evacuated on Thursday, and several staffers were hospitalized, after threatening or suspicious envelopes arrived in the mail, ...
McCain offices receive threatening letters, campaign says CNN
Officials: Threats sent to McCain offices The Associated Press
Washington Post - CBS News - CNN Political Ticker - Monsters and Critics.com
all 365 news articles


BBC News

Russia Sets Up Georgia Posts as It Pulls Out Troops (Update1)
Bloomberg - 50 minutes ago
By Lyubov Pronina and Helena Bedwell Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Russia is setting up military posts for what it terms ``peacekeepers'' outside the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia as it pulls out some of the troops, tanks and artillery it used in ...
Russians halt Nato co-operation BBC News
• Russia blocks Georgia's main port city Washington Post
The Associated Press - Voice of America - Reuters - Aljazeera.net
all 6,410 news articles


Washington Post

Spain keeps one minute silence for deadly air crash
Xinhua - 32 minutes ago
MADRID, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people on Thursday kept one minute silence in many cities of Spain to remember the 153 victims of the Aug. 20 air crash.
Video: Spain Mourns Victims of Crash AssociatedPress
Human error not to blame, says authority guardian.co.uk
Financial Times - United Press International - International Herald Tribune - The Associated Press
all 4,086 news articles


Monsters and Critics.com

Tubbs Jones, 58, five-term congresswoman, dies
Newsday - 1 hour ago
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 58, a five-term Ohio Democrat, died yesterday evening after suffering a burst aneurysm in an "inaccessible part of her brain," the Cleveland Clinic said.
Tubbs Jones Memorial Expected Between Conventions Washington Post
Remembering Stephanie Tubbs Jones FOXNews
New York Daily News - FOXBusiness - Scientific American - Ironton Tribune
all 1,867 news articles

Google
 

Copyright © 2006 Computer Hunter - A Division of Arthur´s Job Base