The Game of Life

Do you remember playing the board game when you were a kid? Picking what color car was just given to you to play with and getting in line to "attend college" at the start? When I was younger I actually did the math to figure out how old you were supposed to be when each of the major events happened on the board. Please don't ask me what it came out to, I don't remember and have no intention of doing that much math again.

Looking back at this game now I cannot understand why it was fun because it is so unrealistic. Maybe it was fun, BECAUSE it was unrealistic. Just looking at the Big Green "Pay Day" squares gets on my nerves. Automatic pay day? Really? I wish I got an automatic payday for driving around in my car.

This game made me believe that if you went to college, you got a cool job. That was all: college = job. This is false and the makers of the game should rethink that. Even more aggravating, though, is that everyone bought a house. Everyone automatically had enough money to buy one, wanted one, and got one at the same time. There was no "apartment living" or "crashing on a couch", no, everyone bought a house, even if it was the beat up trailer option.

I want to remake The Game of Life into something more realistic so that no other generation of children grows up with such butterfly and rainbows expectations. Changes will include:

• Instead of "have a baby girl" the space will read. "pregnancy test positive" and then there will be 2 options "have the baby" or "abort!" Aborting will get you a life LIFE token.
• Rockstar will not be a career option. It will be replaced with Unemployed.
• There will be no stop sign forcing you to marry or buy a house or get a job, there will be no stop signs at all.
• Loans for college will now be $80,000 instead of $40,000. Maybe college cost that little back in the 60s when this game was created, but not anymore.
• Paydays are not automatic, they only happen when you spin a 10. Then you will realize how lucky you are to be getting paid.
• You walk your little person around the board until you can afford a car.

It is sad how unrealistic everything is when we are children. From Disney movies to board games, we grew up with some very false ideas in our heads. I guess it's time to grow up and play Gin Rummy instead. Gin and Rum are things that haven't changed since we were kids.

Insufficient Funds

I just watched a really informative documentary on Netflix called Maxed Out. It highlights some of the ways banks, lenders, credit card companies and everything like them are manipulating American citizens into paying them more than they already owe. Debt is a huge problem in America right now.

One thing that I have experienced first hand is that Credit Card companies prey on college students. Do you remember freshman orientation when there were tables all over campus that offered you a free t-shirt to sign up for a credit card with them? I do. The credit card companies want to lend to the young and naive who think it's okay to just make the minimum payment; it gets the company more money.

The other group of people credit companies target are those who have just filed for bankruptcy. There are 2 reasons they do this: they can't file for bankruptcy again and they have a "taste for credit."

Lenders get your money four main ways

1. Interest on your debt
2. Late fees
3. Over Limit Fees
4. Raising your interest rate if you are ever late or over the limit.

Who can afford all this? We just graduated. Several of us don't have jobs. Student Loans have just entered repayment. Debt is mounting, higher and higher. It's a very scary and real situation.

There is another phenomena that is hindering our generation from having acceptable credit. More and more often parents are asking their children to co-sign loans. Yes, Post Grads, that would be us.

In order to stay on top of your credit and debt and payments, I, as well as most financial experts, suggest looking at your credit score. There are several agencies that will give you your score for free. BE CAREFUL though. I used one of these once. They will give you your score for free, but then they also automatically sign you up for their service. You may cancel at any time, or so they tell you, but they make you jump through hoops to do so. Often you are not even aware that you are signed up until you credit card bill shows a charge the next month.

Don't worry too much though, if ever you are feeling overwhelmed by your personal debt, check out the national debt.

*UPDATE: Unpaid parking and speeding tickets associated with your license plate also show up on your credit report if they have been handed over to collection. Thank you DouchBag for getting a ticket in my car, never telling me, and never paying it. I REALLY appreciate it.

Just When You Thought You Could Handle it...

By Shikole Struber

You get that damn letter from Direct Loans and want to cry. Mine were forwarded from home in NY yesterday and I was completely overwhelmed, like most post grads when they are faced with the enourmous amount of debt that is looming. This letter includes 4 things you don't want to see:

1. Your name


2. A very large amount of money owed


3. A date that is waaaaay too soon


4. Payment options with lots of amounts you can't afford.

I'm going to be spending the next few days trying to make sense of the consolidation options, pay back schedules, the types of payback plans, and what I can do to stop freaking out. I doubt it will work because this notice doesn't even include my private loans, or my Perkins loans. FML. I will keep you updated.