How To Avoid Student Debt

Improved Essays
Many remember high school as the most tumultuous time in their lives. Students grow up, mature, and prepare for life by themselves. How do they expect to avoid all the mistakes and pitfalls modern society has set for them? Learning the nuances of personal finance can help students avoid financial mistakes and their devastating consequences. It also sets them up to retire on time, and often changes family trees. Arguably, debt has become the worst problem facing our nation. Our national debt today has reached a whopping eighteen trillion dollars, the student loan debt has risen to over one trillion, while consumer debt tops three trillion dollars. Financial education can help students make better choices and live debt free. Basic knowledge and concepts of financial strategies can make a lifelong difference. If the average American college student took the thirty-five thousand dollars they owe in college related debt and invested it in a mutual fund at six percent, in thirty years that thirty-five thousand, without adding a dime, would have transformed into two hundred thousand dollars. Having the knowledge to avoid potential financial snares can change people’s futures for the better. …show more content…
Average people have four credit cars and a mountain of debt. College students, however, find themselves the focal point of credit companies’ advertising. Fifty percent of college students have over four. Without a good financial education, students already struggling to make ends meet might inadvertently make their situation worse by adding on credit card debt. In fact, nineteen percent of graduating seniors left college with a balance of over seven thousand dollars. When used wisely, credit cards do not automatically equal debt, but without some financial knowledge and sense, many fall into the credit

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