RE: The Steem Sister Show - Episode 24 // Higher Education - Part Two!
This was so awesome, first off, thank you so much for the shout out, for using my questions, and for letting everyone know about my mild-mannered alter ego of being one of the leading experts in the field of student debt.
I absolutely loved the idea of having a "Life Impact" calculator for high schoolers to help them select schools to see how their school selection will change their lives financially. I'm keeping that one!
Really interesting the topic @maryjaney brought up about the "Gap Year," in other countries, this is almost mandatory and really gives a person much-needed life perspective. Only recently have we began studying its effects here in the states.
I'm not saying college "should" be free however I will find a way to finance it that doesn't involve higher taxes or taking away from other programs 😎
Great show, much appreciation and love to you both! 😊💖
P.S. Lea, I'm super passionate about teaching financial education in school as well and have found some interesting data to back up the reasons why it is so needed, besides the painfully obvious ones.
Thanks again for the awesome questions - it definitely sparked some great discussion! It's funny because I had never really thought of the "life impact" calculator either - it just kind of came out in the show while we were talking about it. :)
I also loved Mary's suggestion for a gap year to get your footing as an adult, learn the value of money and learn a bit more about yourself and what you want. It's so crazy to me that we have a societal expectation that people will "know what they want to do" when they are so young and are still being taken care of by their parents.
It's funny that you mention the free college piece because when re-watching my own reply to that, it really struck me that I need to spend some more time thinking about that topic. I thought my response was a little scattered and not all inclusive of the complex topic that it is!
Awesome that you have some data to back up the need for teaching personal finance in schools. I know Dave Ramsey has a program for students and is having more and more of his classes taught in schools - but that's still just a small overall fraction of the school system.