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Seven million students will take out loans this year to finance their education. Will they know how to pay them back? Or will they become slaves to debt? Will they be able to prosper financially in a struggling economy still mired in a recession? THE MISSING SEMESTER by Gene Natali, Jr. and Matt Kabala shows students and young adults who have just entered the workaday world how to take care of their financial lives today and prosper in the years ahead no matter what the economic climate.
The statistics are grim: Outstanding student loan debt now stands at more than one trillion dollars and continues to soar. It may prove to be the next major financial crisis in the America’s financial horizon. The sticker price of a college education has increased almost 500% over the last thirty years. Textbooks costs alone have skyrocketed by 82%. The average student graduates from college with student loans in excess of $25,000 and more than $4,000 in personal credit-card debt. That is, if they are lucky.
To make matters worse, our educational system is largely designed to prepare us for careers in specific fields. Some institutions do an exemplary job of that. But few, if any, teach us “how to live” in relation to money.
THE MISSING SEMESTER, which won the 2013 Institute for Financial Literacy Award (EIFLE), is based on the principle of ownership—ownership of your financial future. It starts from the premise that our financial future is our responsibility and that we cannot plan for or expect financial help. It shows how to build a strong financial foundation, prepare for the unexpected and confront the inevitable financial challenges in store for us. THE MISSING SEMESTER is, in short, the course you wish you had taken in school before you set foot in the workaday world.
Among the many key issues, THE MISSING SEMESTER covers include:
- Two cardinal rules that will keep you living within your means, not beyond them
- How to increase your net income so you can pay down your debts and start saving
- Why you ought to think twice before you take out a car loan
- Four key rules that will keep your debt in control and you out of the poorhouse
- How to pay off student loan debt as smartly as possible and save thousands of dollars
- How many credit cards you should have and how to use them wisely
- Cost-effective career moves that will help you advance your career and gain experience while saving you tens of thousands of dollars in additional schooling.
- How to put a roof over your head that you can afford. Learn whether home ownership is even right for you and what other options you have
- Why you want to begin investing today if you haven’t already and why, if you already have, you want to do whatever you can to invest still more in your portfolio
Your financial decisions from a very early point in your life can have long-term effects. Whether those decisions will be for the best or the worst depends upon the choices you make. You are responsible for your decisions and are therefore in control of the outcome. Take responsibility today and you will be better off later. THE MISSING SEMESTER can help men and women from all walks of life and achieve financial prosperity through financial self-discipline and responsibility.
About The Missing Semester
About the Authors
Gene Natali, Jr. is a Senior Vice President at C.S. McKee, LLP, a Pittsburgh investment firm. He holds a BA in economics from Allegheny College and an MBA with a concentration in finance from Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently a Level III candidate for accreditation as a Chartered Financial Analyst. Matt Kabala is a graduate of Ohio University and holds an MBA from the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business.
