Personal Financial Planning (Student Debt) Term Paper

Conclusion

Few students are prepared for the relatively easy availability of credit after they enter college. In many cases, they may have had no experience managing their own credit. Many are encountering their first period of significant debt accrual with student loans, whether directly from the government or through private lending institutions. A student should regard him/herself as an asset, and make some financial assumptions about how much he/she will earn in the future, and what his/her debt capacity is at present.

Although credit card offerings are tempting, it is best for the student to ignore the come-ons and attempt to live on his/her own resources during college. This will insure that the student does not take on short-term debt which he/she cannot cover through current income.

Bibliography

Block, S. (2006, February 22). Students suffocate under tens of thousands in loans. USA Today, p. n.p.

Carnahan, I. (2003, August 11). Pay Now, Learn Later. Forbes, p. n.p.

Day, J.C. (2002). The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Life-Work Earnings.Washington: U.S. Census Bureau.

Hecker, DH (1998). Earnings of College Graduates, Women Compared with Men. Washington: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Holub, T. (2004). Credit Card Usage and Debt among College and University Students. ERIC Digest. Eric Digest, n.p.

Lazarony, L. (1998). Credit cards teaching students a costly lesson. Bankrate, n.p.

Lucas, P. (2007, February 27). College can be a crash course in debt. CNN, p. n.p.

Payscale. (2007). What is the salary of a physician. Retrieved November 18, 2007, from Payscale: (http://www.payscale.com/research/U.S./People_with_Doctor_of_Medicine_(MD)_Degrees/Salary

Rimmer, T. (2006, May 9). Paying Off Student Loans in Different Ways. Retrieved November 18, 2007, from AC: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/31234/paying_off_student_loans_in_different.html

This debt level may be higher today.

Personal Financial Planning

For undergraduate bachelor of arts degree recipients, by type of college for the 2003-04 academic year:

Private, for profit

Private, nonprofit

Public

Source: CollegeBoard's….....