It’s graduation season again. Time to write about how totally screwed today’s college graduates are. They didn’t learn enough in school, certainly not enough about personal finance, they owe amazingly large amounts of money, 
and they have bleak employment prospects. (Note to college seniors: anybody over 30 who says they wouldn’t trade places with you is lying.)
This year, there is hand-wringing particularly over the debt part. Bargaineering asked last week if students should have credit cards at all. The credit card reform act passed by the House last week would ban the issuing of credit cards to those under 18. If that survives the Senate, it will mean that credit cards will join such things as alcohol that we expect young people to learn about on their own after they leave home. (Will there be big burly guys at the door of the bank checking ID?)
There can be no doubt that young people can do dumb things with credit cards. Nor do I doubt that they are more likely to do so than older Americans. In the immortal words of that guy who had the job before Obama “When I was young and foolish I was young and foolish.”
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Normally, I have the criticizing personal financial gurus business all to myself. I like to think this is because I am the only one who sees the faults in their advice, or alternatively, that I am the only one bold enough to say the emperor has no clothes on. But it is also possible I am the only one who takes them seriously enough to bother writing about what they say.
This is not the case with Suze Orman’s recent advice on credit cards and emergency funds. It took a while, but quite a few people thought it was important enough to comment on critically. Welcome to my world.
It started with Orman’s March 1 Suze Scoop. There’s been some disagreement as to what exactly she told her readers to do, so if you are as obsessed about this stuff as I am, click on that link and come back when you are done. In the event that you have more balance in your life, I’ll quote the first two paragraphs.
If you have an unpaid credit card balance and not much saved up in emergency savings I need you to listen up. My advice has changed.
I want you to only pay the minimum due on your credit card balance and instead make it your top priority to build as much of an emergency cash fund as you can.
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It was a rather light month in the frugalosphere. I am certain this does not mean that the trendsetters of the frugal lifestyle have run out of ideas. Could it be an early indication of strengthening economy? Did Tax and/or Earth Day distract bloggers from the frugal cause? I hope not.
I got my hopes up when I saw that there was a post entitled Suggesting Frugal Alternatives to Friends at Art of the Coupon. I was expecting something on how things like Second Life, and, uh, blogging, are cheaper than having actual friends. Sadly, it’s about how to suggest doing less expensive things with your friends, not getting rid of them entirely.
Bargaineering had a detailed post on how to make your own breadcrumbs. More than just a recipe, the post has great tips, for example, that breadcrumbs make good gifts.
Speaking of useful tips, How I Save Money introduced me to the concept of reusable cloth wipes to replace toilet paper. Now I concede that this is the obvious next step from using cloth diapers, but I see an obvious objection. If a frugalist does this they will have no toilet paper tubes to reuse in frugal ways.
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and they have bleak employment prospects. (Note to college seniors: anybody over 30 who says they wouldn’t trade places with you is lying.)
Credit Cards | Frank Curmudgeon | 
May 5, 2009 10:00 am | 
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