COLLEGE GRADS’ JOB PROSPECTS IMPROVING? DON’T STAND AND APPLAUD YET

#CollegeGrads #employment #jobs #StudentDebt
It may be the best time to graduate college since the Great Recession. But they are still not great.
So writes Ruth Serven of The Kansas City Star. Her story was published July 3, 2016, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The unemployment rate for college grads is less than 5 percent, and job prospects are getting brighter, Serven writes. But 45 percent of those recent grads have jobs that don’t require their degrees, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Serven writes.
Though there is more work available, grads still face stagnant wages and the highest debt load ever, the article says.
In fact, 42 million people owe $1.3 trillion in student debt, according to the cover story in the August 2016 issue of Consumer Reports magazine, which condensed and reprinted an article by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
“I feel I kind of ruined my life by going to college,” the CR article quotes Jackie Krowen, 32, of Portland, Ore., who owes $162,000 in student debt.
We’ve recently discussed this topic in this space, but it bears hearing another perspective.
Many graduates are coming out of college with debt the size of a home mortgage. How can they be expected to 1) buy a house? 2) begin saving for retirement? or 3) buy some of the essential things they need to live a decent life?
On top of the debt, the students’ expensive education is not giving them work that would be worth the investment, in many cases.
Also, some students are getting calls at all hours with prods, if not threats, to make payments on that debt.
Though most consider a home mortgage not just productive debt, but an actual financial vehicle, college debt, without having a commensurate job to make its burden light, is not productive debt.
Certainly, all education has value. But some education has more value than others. If a student goes on to be a doctor, for example, and goes into debt to make that happen, that’s, more or less, expected.
A medical practice can be lucrative and usually, before the doctor gets too old, it is usually paid off. Some even practice medicine in less lucrative places, in exchange for some eventual debt relief, among other inducements.
But if one studies, say, the liberal arts, and goes into debt to pay for that education, it’s very possible, even likely, that, if he gets a job at all, it will not be terribly lucrative. The student debt, therefore, becomes perhaps a lifelong burden. As that student ages, the burden may be so great that he will retire with little or nothing to help him get through old age.
Fortunately, there are solutions that don’t involve stiffing one’s debtor. There are ways to earn an extra income for a few part-time hours a week that might not only pay better than the job you are doing, but has the potential to make you financially free eventually. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau.
By all means, before a student decides to go to college, sit down with parents and other advisers and do the math. If you have to borrow money to cover most of the costs, think about how you would pay it back. If you don’t have a good answer, reconsider your future.
Colleges and universities, too, should contemplate their futures. How good would it look to produce thousands, even millions, of graduates that are so crushed with debt, they’ll be paying on it forever? Someone needs to retool education to prevent this.
We have a love-hate relationship with education. We may love it while we’re in school, but, when we graduate, often we don’t love it nearly as much.
Peter

PENSIONS: WHAT YOU WERE PROMISED MAY NOT BE DELIVERED

#pensions #retirement #RetirementSavings
Retired Teamsters are sweating.
For those covered by the Central States Pension Fund, a multiemployer pension fund, the outlook is grim.
Central States is paying out $3.46 for every dollar it’s taking in, according to Mary Sanchez, columnist for The Kansas City Star. Her column appeared in a February 2016 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
To avert a dissolution of the fund, Central States applied to the Treasury Department, the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which ensures pensions against bankruptcy, and the Department of Labor for permission to cut pension payments to beneficiaries, Sanchez writes.
If the plan goes through, many beneficiaries would face cuts of up to 60 percent in the payment they had spent their lives working for, believing it was guaranteed, Sanchez writes. Until 2014, it wasn’t legal to do that. But that year, the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act was attached at the last minute to a must-pass omnibus spending bill, according to Sanchez.
On its face, it’s not fair to those retirees. It is not their fault that their pension fund is losing its economic viability.
But it’s not as if this was a surprise. We’ve been warned for years that because there are more retirees than workers to support them, a pension crisis was looming.
The Great Recession exacerbated the problem because many of the workers have lost their jobs. In the case of the Teamsters, union membership has declined. There are fewer jobs, and more of the jobs that still exist are being done by non-union labor.
In fact, many employers are not including pension benefits as part of the employment package.
If you are still working, chances are very good that you are on your own to fund your retirement.
What to do?
First, especially if you are young, dedicate a portion of what you earn toward your retirement. Put that amount from each paycheck into a fund and, with the help of a trusted adviser, invest it properly. Don’t fret the gyrations of the stock market. Time usually heals such wounds, and the market, over time, has proved to increase a person’s wealth considerably.
Another solution is to find one of the many alternative ways to earn money outside of your job, and see whether it is right for you. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. If you like what you see, and do it properly over time, you may not have to worry about your retirement.
If you are currently retired, or near retirement, such Plan B options may help you live a secure retirement.
As Sanchez points out, the solution to the pension debacle will be costly. Even the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. is in danger, she writes.
Though making the pensioners pay the price may be unfair, it may be unavoidable.
Even if you were promised a good, secure pension, be it from the public or private sector, don’t presume those promises will be kept forever. The option of working longer may not be available. It’s best to take such matters into your own hands. Only you can assure a comfortable, secure retirement.
Peter