Last week, a 22 year old college student in Georgia, admitted on Atlanta radio show, “The Bert Show” to blowing through her $90,000 college fund before paying her tuition for senior year........ OK.
Long story short, the student, Kim, blamed her parents for not teaching her how to budget and had no remorse for having blown through $90,000 on clothing, vacation, and the occasional school expense. Many bashed Kim for blaming her parents, but I think she is partially right.
Who in their right mind hands a college kid $90,000 and says make this last for 4 years to pay for tuition and other school expenses. Her parents should have been in control of the money and allocated her certain funds for tuition, books, rent, etc. If someone had handed me $90,000 at 18 years old and said pay for school, I probably would have made bad choices too. Actually I KNOW I would have spent it on frivolous things.
What bothers me is that Kim showed no remorse. If this had been me I would have been in tears sick to my stomach over what I had done. Instead her response was that getting a job would cause her embarrassment. Really? I have had a job since my junior year of college and was not embarrassed about it once. I am actually proud of the fact that I worked through college while many of my friends parents handed them cash. Yes, my parents helped pay for my tuition, housing, and food, but I also took out student loans and worked part time to have extra funds.
So who is in the wrong? I think it is a blend of both Kim and her parents. She was irresponsible, but an 18 year old should not have the responsibility of almost six figures. If you have never had to be responsible, how will you learn? Budgeting is not a knowledge people are born with. It is something that has to be taught to them and sometimes this unfortunately happens the hard way.
I suggest Kim attend the school of hard knocks. Take a break from her final year of school to work full time. Return in fall of 2016 and pay for her tuition in full. Then she should take Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and stop buying stupid things and start saving!
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