The Way to Work: Finding Your Financial Footing

You spend the better part of your life at work. Our weekly feature, The Way to Work, offers tips and guidelines to help you succeed in the office. This week, figure out to manage all that money you earn at your job, so that your hard work will pay off for years to come.

A college education is no route to easy street, warns The New York Times. Researchers at MIT found that while college graduates make slightly more than people who don’t go to college, recent college grads don’t immediately start reaping the financial benefits of education. Furthermore, the formula for gaining wealth is a more complicated than “driven kid + bachelor’s degree = cash.” A small percent of the population still holds most of the wealth, and it doesn’t flow easily into the hands of young people.

Although wealth takes work, don’t automatically assume that work should happen in an institution of higher learning. For many, graduate school seems like a logical next step, or at the very least, an escape from the tedium and stress of the so-called “real world.” But unless you plan to be a doctor or lawyer, or want an MBA, the professional school you attend might be an unnecessary financial burden. SmartMoney interviewed one young man who attended grad school, ended up $10,000 in debt and got the same job he would have gotten if he’d remained an intern. Make sure that graduate school is absolutely necessary in your field before you accrue more debt.

Speaking of debt, what makes you feel you’re still in college, but provides no intellectual stimulation, Frisbee or beer? Yes. It’s your student loan bill. It seems pretty horrendous that you’ve got to devote a chunk of that early paycheck to keep paying for school, but it would be even worse if you got scammed into paying even more. Sometimes, student loan consolidation programs that promise to help you get discounts can include something Young Money calls “gotchas.” For example, if you consolidate your credit card debt and student debt into one, you’ll save a bit of headache, but you’ll also lose your low student loan interest rate. On other plans, making a single late payment will disqualify you from your discount. Always read the fine print.