About the Book
Yikes! Your child is growing up faster and faster! A teenager now, in a blink or two he or she will be a young adult. Many parents worry about their teen's ability to manage money and coming debt needs. Maybe you're one of them? It can be a scary phase.
Updated in 2018, THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE is the first volume in the ongoing DEBT is a Four-Letter word, But it Need Not Be! book series. It's written by a professor with 30+years of experience teaching/advising young people. He managed grant budgets totaling millions of dollars and provided financial aid to countless students. As a parent, he used his fiscal skills to achieve wise debt management and positive outcomes for his daughter's needs. Together, they "walked the talk" of THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE. Along the way he caringly taught her fiscal skills and motivated her to use them.
Lots of books have been published on the money management needs of a typical lifetime. They're written in third person with broad coverage of strictly monetary aspects. What is unique about this one?
Your teen isn't facing lifetime needs. He or she is facing the period of anticipating, pursuing and paying for a college education.THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE focuses specifically and solely on that stage of life. It's comprehensive and in-depth. Yes, it covers all the monetary matters. But it also covers how a parent and teen can work them out together.
Your teen's college experience begins before stepping on to a campus. It starts with a heartfelt desire to be accepted into a college that best fits his or her career endeavor and the family's financial means. The path is full of monetary challenges, unknowns to research, emotional trials, and decisions to make. It ends when all the costs of that education are paid. How can you and your teen accomplish that? It can be exhausting. With the guidance and tools provided in THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE you'll greatly lessen the pressure and time-demands.
Written in narrative style, it describes the fictional experiences of a typical teen (Nicole) and her Dad. It's a story of how she encounters debt as she moves from high school into college and through the college years to graduation. Along the way, balancing encouragement and pragmatism, her Dad guides her through. You'll see how,
●Dad caringly but craftily weans his way into Nicole's comfort zone
●Nicole and her Dad verbally relate to one another
●Dad teaches her concepts, methods, calculations, tactics, and strategies
●Nicole and Dad make all the financial decisions together
●Nicole chooses between Sure Thing University, Hoped For University, and Dream University
At the end Nicole and her Dad have managed THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE successfully. Following their example, you and your teen can achieve similar results.
THE COLLEGE EXPERIENCE is comprised of 20 chronologically sequenced LESSONS. Within each, arising debt SITUATIONS and detailed procedures for monetarily addressing them are described. You see how the debt involved is handled either poorly or effectively. Periodic EXERCISES offer check points for you to confirm understanding of the subject matter. By reading and implementing the content you and your teen will understand
●the federal student loan process and rules and the student and parent pieces of the puzzle
●estimating college costs and comparing financial aid offers
●making and repaying student loans wisely
●consolidating student loans and handling hidden pitfalls
●repaying loans faster - saving lots of interest.
●student loan enemies Nos. 1, 2 and 3
And, your young adult will walk down the Commencement aisle feeling much less financially overwhelmed than typically happens. You'll watch with a big smile, feeling much more secure about having managed the financial costs!To get there, start by Buying
About the Author: Richard M. Gutkowski is a caring parent, educator and successful survivor of his daughter's college experience - the time period of anticipating, pursuing and paying for a college education. It started with her heartfelt desire to be accepted into an academic program at a college that best fit her career endeavor and the family's financial means. It ended when all the costs of that education had been paid. His work experience includes four decades of teaching and advising college students. As a professor, teaching and advising young people was a large part of his heart beat. His endearing commitment was to helping them hone their technical talents and launch professional careers. He also managed research and grant budgets totaling millions of dollars. He transferred his highly developed professional fiscal skills and tools into managing his family's home finances. Over time discipline, wise financial decision-making, astute financing principles and strategic borrowing methods became his forte. Now retired, it was with that same vigor and caring that the ageless professor undertook developing a valuable guide for young people and their parents to use in managing debt matters as they move toward and through their college experience. He believes parents and their child must team in the development of and use of the resources necessary to complete the experience. Richard resides in Fort Collins, Colorado. He earned B.S and M.S. degrees in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and is an Emeritus Professor at Colorado State University. He wrote STRUCTURES: Fundamental Theory and Behavior and 167 refereed technical papers and reports. He reviews journal articles and grant applications in his field for publishers and agencies world-wide. The second published book in his financial series is sub-titled THE CAR FINANCING EXPERIENCE. Reach him at: https//: www.debtisafourletterword.net, www.facebook.com/richard.m.gutkowski/
