Friday, September 19, 2008

Reminder

(Thank you readers who have emailed me offline. I'm behind on email, but will catch up eventually).

Coming up:
Orthodox Union Workshop: Credit Meltdown & Practical Solutions

I'm looking forward to see what sort of advice is given and how it will square up with the advice I give myself. Workshop is this Monday, September 22. I hope my kids will give me enough downtime to take some notes and after that we can discuss it.

Shabbat Shalom.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unless they solve the yeshiva tuition crisis-depression - which they can't

They will solve nothing !!!

Anonymous said...

Not a single mention of tuition in the agenda. More OU do nothing fluff. Remember they are part of the problem (OU certified floor cleaner)- not part of the solution.

rosie said...

Possibly the audience that the OU is seeking are those individuals who do not yet have school-aged children. The young worker with his or her first job or the young couple starting out need to develop a strategy that does not include reckless spending. MONEY MAGAZINE often profiles families who have developed future-thinking spending strategies so that the money will be saved for important things. I don't know how many frum Jews read Money, Business Week, Consumer Reports as well as other financial publications and most probably the rest of the world are better savers and money managers than we are. I subscribe to MONEY so I know. Maybe the organizers of the Credit Meltdown, read it also.

ProfK said...

Anonymous,
Tuition is one part of the financial problem that besets some members of the frum community--it is not the only problem. Financial planning needs to take into consideration all aspects of spending, not just tuition. There are some people who believe that the tuition "crisis" is what is ruining their lives, when the reality is that they have little or no knowledge of budgeting or of how to allocate spending. You don't begin your study with T for tuition; you start with A for allocation, B for budgeting, C for control and common sense and work your way up.

Orthonomics said...

Tuition is a huge problem, but it most certainly isn't the only problem. . . . maybe I'm saying this coming off the most recent lovely chatunah that cost far more than the downpayment on our first home.

Dave said...

I've been to Bar Mitzvah's the cost *more* than my first home.

Anonymous said...

I normally have alot of respect for sephardic lady and prof. K - but I can not agree at all with their comments about tuition. Tuition is the number 1, 2, and 3 problem in the jewish community. one can have smaller weddings bar mitzvas and live in smaller houses and not go to aruba for pesach - but can one not send their kids to yeshiva and be orthodox in many communities ? $60,000 after taxes for 3 kids even if you cut back on everything else is an impossibility for all except the rich. To discuss debt in the orthodox community and not discuss yeshiva tuition would be like discussing the current fiscal crisis without discussing subprime mortgages - like discussing fighting terror without bringing up Al - Queda

Anonymous said...

"I normally have alot of respect for sephardic lady and prof. K - but I can not agree at all with their comments about tuition. Tuition is the number 1, 2, and 3 problem in the jewish community. one can have smaller weddings bar mitzvas and live in smaller houses and not go to aruba for pesach - but can one not send their kids to yeshiva and be orthodox in many communities ? $60,000 after taxes for 3 kids even if you cut back on everything else is an impossibility for all except the rich. To discuss debt in the orthodox community and not discuss yeshiva tuition would be like discussing the current fiscal crisis without discussing subprime mortgages - like discussing fighting terror without bringing up Al - Queda"

Except that in many communities, there are even bigger problems than tuition.

1) Family sizes (if you think tuition for 3 is bad, imagine, even with a huge discount per child, many more)

2) People not getting jobs because of a lack of education or desire. While $60k may be impossible for all but the rich, no one gets rich at kollel. If everyone could pay a little bit more, the people paying in full could pay a little bit less. The issue is not a lack of college alone (though that is certainly an issue), but also the lack of encouragement not to look into other jobs, some of which do not require a college education but are still solid jobs.