Career Ideas for Single Moms
June 30, 2009
I remember when before I became a parent I decided at 18 that I wanted to be a cosmetologist. I did just that and that path helped me own my own business, carried me through marriage and divorce. But I decided at 32 that I wanted to do more and go to school. Little did I know that I would be on the path that I am on now. Circumstances can really change the way we see who we are and what we have to offer the world. I ran across this STORY and thought it would inpire any of you who are wondering how and what you will do to take care of your children as a single parent. Read and be inspired!
Love,
SMD,
Thanks for the article. As a single parent myself, I also know how challenging the balancing act of work and family can be. This article reminded me of an article I just wrote for my own Big Picture Personal Finance Newsletter. Higher education is so valuable but it’s not for everyone. I thought I would republish that article here because I think it is very relevant to the single parent.
Is College Overrated?
by Susan Boskey
July 2009
“In the ethical sense, propaganda bears the same relation to education as to business or politics. It may be abused. It may be used to over-advertise an institution and to create in the public mind artificial values. There can be no absolute guarantee against its misuse.” – Edward Bernays, “father of public relations” 1891-1995
Celebrations for 2009 college grads have come and gone while summertime plans take center stage. In a recent article, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports their Student Survey shows “that less than 20 percent of 2009 grads who have applied for a job actually have one in hand. In comparison, more than half of 2007 grads and 26 percent of those graduating in 2008 who had applied for jobs had one by time of graduation.” That’s in addition to the almost 1.9 million college graduates already unemployed according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, February 2009.
Getting Real
In the last 30 years, tuition for public four-year universities has gone up 430% (6% alone for school-year 08-09) while personal earnings over that same period rose 10% at best, adjusted for inflation. Four-year grads typically end up with a minimum of $20K in debt upon graduation. When added up: 80% of 2009 grads without a job in-hand plus big debt to pay via skyrocketing tuitions equals needing to scramble for whatever employer will take them. This trend is troubling and speaks volumes even when factoring-in the economic downturn.
“Students are not getting the jobs that afford the lifestyle they expect, which includes owning a home or perhaps purchasing a new car or making other major investments,” said Matt Ward, vice president of enrollment management at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. “If you add substantial student loan debt, it makes it even more difficult.” June 2009
Nonetheless, educational experts, the government and the media speak in one voice: The key to a successful life and the American Dream they tell us is a college degree. Certainly most readers would agree on the value of higher education and realize that those who would become doctors, attorneys, etc. must be degreed. But is it really for everyone? Current reality for college graduates does not reflect the formula for success they were led to believe.
Digging Deeper
My mentor, R. Buckminster Fuller wrote and talked about the value of comprehensive thinking as a way to come up with the most effective solution to any problem. He also said that experts don’t think from the whole (big picture) but rather from the parts; i.e. their tunnel-vision area of specialization.
Comprehensive thinking on the topic of higher education brings us to comprehensive questions such as: What is a successful life, anyway and by whose definition? Regarding the definition of success that includes an extreme emphasis on a “college degrees for all”, logic would have it that this definition also includes grads shackled with a chunk of debt and quite possibly no job upon graduation. Yet we instinctively know that to begin adult life with overwhelming debt, etc. is unsustainable at best.
The question then becomes, who benefits?
Ultimately, it is a multi-trillion-dollar financial industry; the same one that has shaped a politically-correct definition of success disseminated by the media. One aspect of their definition, “college degrees for all”, has become the cash-cow concept turning academia into an end in itself. Financial benefits also trickle down to governmental and educational systems via tuition costs and student loans repaid with interest.
It’s all about money.
Most people bombarded with repetitive advertising from a huge-marketing-budget financial industry have taken the bait. Consider the emotional hooks used to sucker people into home ownership and the American Dream even when most cannot actually afford it. Similarly, given that virtually every parent wants to be proud of their child and see them succeed; selling “college degrees for all” has become a total no-brainer. Once firmly embedded in the American heart and mind “college degrees for all” went on auto-pilot as keeping-up-with-the-Jones kicked in. You don’t want your child to miss out now do you?
Contrary to popular opinion, successful living is not a cookie-cutter proposition. What’s good for one may not be for the other. To buy-into the politically correct definition of success sets up future generations for ever-more debt and stress-filled lives. Laughing all the way to the bank while extracting wealth from our children, those already obscenely rich further line their pockets.
Just as we must re-think money as per a debt-based monetary system that erodes wealth over time, we are also called to re-think and take a stand for a sustainable definition of living a successful life. Do it for the sake of our children and our children’s children. Otherwise we unwittingly walk and lead them down the primrose path.
You can visit my website http://www.AlternativeFinancialNow.com to learn more and to sign up for a content-rich no-charge eCourse.