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Originally Posted by Admin  Let us talk about the types of investments we plan or are currently investing in right now. But before I start, I was surprised to know that some of my friends that have graduated from college barely knew how the U.S. stock market works, how real estate appreciates in value, how the mortgage business works, and the factors that affect their FICO credit scores. 
Personally, whether you have taken any financial classes at Cal Poly or not, college graduates should learn the basics of personal finance. Personal finance includes how to reconcile personal checking accounts, learning what affects your credit score, how to obtain and repair your credit report, credit management, knowing what and how to apply for a 401(k), health, life, and auto insurance policy, and etc.
And for those that read the newspapers, the stock market shouldn't be foreign to you. Soon or later, you'll be advised by maybe a relative, colleague, or even a financial adviser on why you should allocate a percentage of your investment portfolio in stocks and different investments but this alone is a whole new topic.
I'll occasionally post new posts in this thread that I find helpful from the WSJ paper and other financial sources. Feel free to post your own experience and personal advice that would benefit students and alumni alike. Thank you. |
I totaly agree with you on knowing investments, but its harder to learn about something when a person really doesn't want to invest at the moment.
I think the main problem with students and even entry level workers is the whole money situation.
What I mean is that in order to do investments it requires money. Not necessarily a whole lot of money, but it's money. At the same time i'm sure students, workers, californians find it hard to let go of that money due to the fact that every penny counts and would rather spend it on things that they may need or want.
I think this is why most people have a hard time investing money, because it's hard to put money asside when you would rather spend it on something else at the moment. Even knowing that it would benifit you in the future.
This is my guess on the lack of knowledge and interest toward investments with the younger adults.
I think also that finding a proper course or class may be hard, due to the fact that finding someone highly educated in every aspect of investing is hard to find. Also possible getting the feeling that someone is trying to get you to use a particular program. I've know a lot of smaller programs and even TV commercials that pretty much guarantee's success and money, but over all they are the ones gaining the money because you used thier bank, program, or what ever it is they were trying to get you to use.
I do very little investing myself 401k, company stock, and other things, but it's mainly due to the fact that I have very little knowlege myself on the best way to invest. So hopefully this thread will get bigger with great advice from people with solid knowledge or real world experiance on the topic.