2008 Woodie Awards
Letter To The Editor
Concepcion Fails To Understand The Difficulty Of Saving After College
Issue date: 6/9/08 Section: Commentary
Paul Concepcion's column in the graduation edition of the Daily Campus was well written, but lacked a basic understanding of the financial situation of most college students.
While it is true students would be significantly better off financially if they began saving money right away, this is generally not a possibility for most, although not because of financial irresponsibility, as Concepcion seems to believe.
Instead, most students cannot begin saving immediately for retirement because they are probably already saddled with debt from their undergraduate education. With the cost of tuition rising, more and more students are forced to take out loans to cover tuition. And, while student loans do provide some time before they need to be repaid, failure to at least begin repayment within the first five years after college can result in the accumulation of large amounts of debt.
In other words, while saving for retirement would be beneficial, not paying back student loans is detrimental. Indeed, I have heard horror stories of students who made only minimum payments on their student loans for years, launching themselves deep into debt and ruining their credit histories for years to come.
And student financial obligations do not end with just the repaying of loans. After college, most graduates earn fairly low salaries, making saving money all the more difficult.
Thus, while Concepcion's belief that students should start saving early is idealistically good, it is unfair for him to blame students' lack of financial discipline as the reason it generally does not occur. Rather, the more likely culprit in students not saving is that they are busy paying back student loans, while scrimping by on just-out-of-college salaries.
It is an unfortunate truth that most students will need to wait years before they are financially stable enough to start saving for retirement, not because of laziness on their part, but because student loans, the possibility of paying for further higher education and meager salaries often make this necessary.
- Lauren Willocks, 7th-semester, psychology major
While it is true students would be significantly better off financially if they began saving money right away, this is generally not a possibility for most, although not because of financial irresponsibility, as Concepcion seems to believe.
Instead, most students cannot begin saving immediately for retirement because they are probably already saddled with debt from their undergraduate education. With the cost of tuition rising, more and more students are forced to take out loans to cover tuition. And, while student loans do provide some time before they need to be repaid, failure to at least begin repayment within the first five years after college can result in the accumulation of large amounts of debt.
In other words, while saving for retirement would be beneficial, not paying back student loans is detrimental. Indeed, I have heard horror stories of students who made only minimum payments on their student loans for years, launching themselves deep into debt and ruining their credit histories for years to come.
And student financial obligations do not end with just the repaying of loans. After college, most graduates earn fairly low salaries, making saving money all the more difficult.
Thus, while Concepcion's belief that students should start saving early is idealistically good, it is unfair for him to blame students' lack of financial discipline as the reason it generally does not occur. Rather, the more likely culprit in students not saving is that they are busy paying back student loans, while scrimping by on just-out-of-college salaries.
It is an unfortunate truth that most students will need to wait years before they are financially stable enough to start saving for retirement, not because of laziness on their part, but because student loans, the possibility of paying for further higher education and meager salaries often make this necessary.
- Lauren Willocks, 7th-semester, psychology major
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Science Major
posted 6/09/08 @ 11:47 AM EST
Dumb psychology majors! If you had a real major you would be able to get a decent job, and if you have student loans, maybe you shouldn't have even gone to college in the first place. (Continued…)
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