Subject: It's only going to get worse
Content: Here is one of the latest articles from Dave Ramsey's monthly newsletter (Dave is a financial advice guy, but one of those "been there, done that, got the T-shirt and had to sell it to pay my debts and here's the easy way not to follow in my footsteps" kinda guy.)
[I][B]Before you send your child off to the mall with a credit card, read this.[/B]
High school students are graduating without knowing how to balance a checkbook, how to live within their means, or how to save for the future. Why? Because no one is teaching them! You can’t graduate without knowing what an amoeba is, but the basic life skill of how to handle money is not required. This is absolutely insane!
Credit card companies aren’t just going after college students anymore; high school students are the new target. According to Norma Mendoza, a researcher at the University of Arkansas, several studies found that patterns of compulsive buying start during adolescence. Teens are the perfect vulnerable audience for credit card companies to sink their claws into.
[B]Reality Sets In[/B]
This is the reality of many teens in your households, schools, churches, and communities:
[LIST]
[*]31% of students don't worry about their debt
[*]6.9% of high school seniors scored a grade of “C” or higher in a 2005 financial literacy survey
[*]74% of college students own at least one credit card
[*]19% of young adults admit having their phones, cable, or utilities cut off because they didn’t pay their bills
[*]15% of young adults have had their credit revoked
[/LIST]
After high school, most teens head to college and are approached with credit card offers the moment they set foot on campus. More and more, the credit card companies are willing to open a line of credit for teens without any credit history, employment or parent co-signature [/I](which, is extremely stupid as they would not be able to collect on the debt if it goes bad. The companies that do this are banking on the fact that Mommy and Daddy will pay the debt so Junior won't have a bad credit score, because as we all know, there's nothing worse than bad credit!)[I]. We as parents, teachers, and community leaders have got to do something about this![/I]
I guess this is what we get when we base our entire economy on CREDIT and not production. If those idiots in Washington think that this bailout will help turn the economy around, we'll just be back here in a few years when these high schoolers can no longer pay their debts... and will be looking for the president to bail them out, just like Bush is going to do for their parents.
For the entire newsletter, including Dave's "It's not the end of the world, we'll get through this" article, here's the link: [url]http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/newsletters/company/092608.cfm?ectid=cnl0809_05#1[/url]
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