Most Popular
1. It’s a New Macro, the Gold Market Knows It, But Dead Men Walking Do Not (yet)- Gary_Tanashian
2.Stock Market Presidential Election Cycle Seasonal Trend Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
3. Bitcoin S&P Pattern - Nadeem_Walayat
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
4.U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - Raymond_Matison
5. How to Profit from the Global Warming ClImate Change Mega Death Trend - Part1 - Nadeem_Walayat
7.Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - Nadeem_Walayat
9.It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - Stephen_McBride
10.Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - Richard_Mills
Last 7 days
Stocks, Bitcoin and Crypto Markets Breaking Bad on Donald Trump Pump - 21st Nov 24
Gold Price To Re-Test $2,700 - 21st Nov 24
Stock Market Sentiment Speaks: This Is My Strong Warning To You - 21st Nov 24
Financial Crisis 2025 - This is Going to Shock People! - 21st Nov 24
Dubai Deluge - AI Tech Stocks Earnings Correction Opportunities - 18th Nov 24
Why President Trump Has NO Real Power - Deep State Military Industrial Complex - 8th Nov 24
Social Grant Increases and Serge Belamant Amid South Africa's New Political Landscape - 8th Nov 24
Is Forex Worth It? - 8th Nov 24
Nvidia Numero Uno in Count Down to President Donald Pump Election Victory - 5th Nov 24
Trump or Harris - Who Wins US Presidential Election 2024 Forecast Prediction - 5th Nov 24
Stock Market Brief in Count Down to US Election Result 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Gold Stocks’ Winter Rally 2024 - 3rd Nov 24
Why Countdown to U.S. Recession is Underway - 3rd Nov 24
Stock Market Trend Forecast to Jan 2025 - 2nd Nov 24
President Donald PUMP Forecast to Win US Presidential Election 2024 - 1st Nov 24
At These Levels, Buying Silver Is Like Getting It At $5 In 2003 - 28th Oct 24
Nvidia Numero Uno Selling Shovels in the AI Gold Rush - 28th Oct 24
The Future of Online Casinos - 28th Oct 24
Panic in the Air As Stock Market Correction Delivers Deep Opps in AI Tech Stocks - 27th Oct 24
Stocks, Bitcoin, Crypto's Counting Down to President Donald Pump! - 27th Oct 24
UK Budget 2024 - What to do Before 30th Oct - Pensions and ISA's - 27th Oct 24
7 Days of Crypto Opportunities Starts NOW - 27th Oct 24
The Power Law in Venture Capital: How Visionary Investors Like Yuri Milner Have Shaped the Future - 27th Oct 24
This Points To Significantly Higher Silver Prices - 27th Oct 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

You Must Understand These Two Cardinal Rules of Debt

Personal_Finance / Debt & Loans Mar 29, 2015 - 02:31 PM GMT

By: Investment_U

Personal_Finance

Andrew Snyder writes: It’s a tough subject. Nobody wants to admit they spent years of their lives - and thousands upon thousands of dollars - in an effort that may quite easily turn out to be detrimental to their financial well-being.

On Friday, I spoke to a small church group about what it takes to build lasting, liberating wealth. It was the second time we met and I knew going into the evening that it wouldn’t be easy.


I learned during our first session that the majority of the folks I was talking to were swimming in student debt.

They weren’t looking for riches... they simply want some breathing room.

There is no doubt student debt is a quiet yet dangerous headwind for the American economy. Students are graduating from school with huge piles of debt and job prospects that can barely afford them groceries, let alone allow them to tackle a stack of loans.

One young couple I talked with has six figures’ worth of debt and a couple of great-sounding degrees on the wall... yet only the wife has been able to find full-time work in the two years since graduating.

There are plenty of folks responsible for this mess.

Uncle Sam certainly deserves a poke in the chest. Washington has caught flak in recent months because it readily admits it’s lost track of the issue. Sure, it backs most of the loans and creates the slippery conduit that allows students to pile on loan after loan with a few clicks of a mouse... but it can tell us virtually nothing about delinquency rates or who is eligible for loan relief.

In fact, when the Federal Reserve recently went searching for data about the issue, it was forced to go to credit-tracking firm Equifax... not the Department of Education right down the street.

Then, of course, plenty of blame needs to go to our education system that’s more about prestige and connections than actual education.

For example, the University of Pittsburgh is often touted as the most expensive public university in the country. In-state tuition runs a student nearly $17,000 per semester. Meanwhile, students at Bismarck State College pay just over $4,000.

Why the huge gap?

Some would say the value of the diplomas (the “resume value”) from each school is different. But it’s hard to argue the actual education is all that different. It’s not as if the expensive schools have access to better textbooks.

The difference in price is largely a function of a greater perceived value. That’s a major problem America must tackle.

Finally, I suppose, we need to blame the students for simply not knowing any better.

It’s hard to blame an ambitious young student for getting sucked into the vague and glitzy promise of higher education, but most college borrowers break a cardinal rule of debt.

That’s what I focused on with the church group. No matter the circumstance, no matter the promise, the rules of debt are the same.

They are incredibly powerful... and they’re simple.

In fact, there are only two rules. Abide by them and you’ll never have to worry about being smothered by debt.

Rule No. 1: Never take on debt that you don’t have the income to pay off.

It sounds simple, right? Yet every day countless students lock in decades’ worth of monthly payments... with little more than a hope and a prayer that they’ll have a job.

Sadly, it’s not just students. Much of the mortgage crisis came thanks to homebuyers with budgets dependent on rising incomes to pay the bills. They took on a loan with no concrete way to pay it back.

One kink in their plans... and it’s hell.

Rule No. 2: Don’t borrow money for assets that don’t produce income or have any chance of appreciation.

This is why I beg readers to understand that mortgages aren’t bad and yet car loans should be despised. It’s also why credit cards should be outlawed.

Sure, we can argue a student loan creates an appreciating asset... your education. But that’s not always the case and the value of an education is slipping by the week.

At this point, I’d rather my kid be a trade-school-educated plumber than a debt-burdened art historian searching for a job.

We argue America is not facing a student loan crisis. Yes, more than a trillion dollars’ worth of debt on an intangible, potentially depreciating asset is surely a problem.

But the real crisis is that most folks don’t understand why this situation is so dangerous and, more importantly, how to protect themselves.

Good investing,

Andrew Snyder

Editorial Director

Source: http://www.investmentu.com/article/detail/44552/two-cardinal-rules-of-debt

http://www.investmentu.com

Copyright © 1999 - 2015 by The Oxford Club, L.L.C All Rights Reserved. Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. Any reproduction, copying, or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), of content from this website, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Investment U, Attn: Member Services , 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 Email: CustomerService@InvestmentU.com

Disclaimer: Investment U Disclaimer: Nothing published by Investment U should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized investment advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation. Any investments recommended by Investment U should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

Investment U Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in