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The state of education in general is a bit up in the air right now. For all of my college students and their anxious parents who aren't so sure what they want to major in, I recommend not following your passion. Make sure you have an understanding of what your future can afford. You can assume that it's only going to get more expensive. Right now it's 300k. By the time my kids go, maybe a million. What's up rich friends? And welcome back to another episode of Net Worth and Chill. I'm your host Vivian Tu, AKA Urich, BFF and your favorite Wall street girly. It's officially Back to School season. Whether you're starting college, recently graduated, or just have a younger student living under your roof, we can all agree that these days education has gotten ridiculously expensive. And under this current administration, it looks like education and student loans are only going to get pricier and confusing. The state of education in general is a bit up in the air right now. Let's get into it. Support for this show comes from Lufthansa. When you want to get away in style, Lufthansa Allegris offers a range of new features and amenities across all travel classes. The Lufthansa Allegris Business class allows you to choose from five different seat options, including the extra space seat or the extra long bed in the first class suite. Almost floor to ceiling partitions and closable doors provide maximum privacy and make your trip above clouds feel just like home. But no matter where you sit, your travel experience is tailored to your needs and you'll wish it could last a lifetime. Say yes to Lufthansa allegris and visit lufthansa.com so before getting into ways to save during the school year, we got to talk a little bit about the outlook you have when you go to college. You have to first understand what you're actually interested in studying and what you can realistically expect to make. And for all of my college students and their anxious parents who aren't so sure what they want to major in, I I recommend not following your passion. Listen, I know this is contrary to a lot of the gurus online who are saying, follow your dreams. If you, you know, do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. I think that's a crock of bs. Why? Because my passion is being able to afford rent and pay for groceries at the same time. My passion is making sure that I can get a career that affords me the lifestyle I want. What do I recommend? I say check out the bls.gov that's Bureau of Labor Statistics bls.gov occupational outlook handbook. This can help you determine what majors and careers sound interesting to you, but also understand what they pay. Once you go to this handbook, you're going to be able to find very literally every single profession, A through Z. I know that sounds like a really big promise, but truly, pretty much every single job is there. And what it will ultimately show you is exactly how much education you'll need to get that job, what kind of degrees or certifications or licenses you might have to acquire. And roughly, you'll then be able to back into what that'll cost you. But even more importantly, it'll show you what you'll likely be able to make based on where you live. So whether that's a rural, suburban or urban area versus what if you work in the private or the public sector. Because this is important to note, depending on what area of the economy you work in, you'll naturally make more or less money. A private job in an urban area is always likely going to pay more than a public job in a in a suburban or even a rural area. So you just want to have a good sense of what your lifestyle will likely look like if you get this major and then ultimately end up getting that career that you're dreaming about. I can't stress this enough. I'm all for following your passions and studying what you want, but you should also know what majors might have the best financial outcomes for you. If you are passionate about teaching elementary school or doing social work, that is amazing. The world needs more of that. But knowing that the median salary is around $50,000 for a social worker, while you might graduate with $40,000 in debt helps you plan accordingly. Maybe you look into loan forgiveness programs for public service, or you double major to expand your career options. You're already spending an arm and a leg for this tuition, so this can just help you better understand what you could be making upon graduation. Because turns out it's really important to make sure that you can fund a lifestyle that will make you happy. Some of the most dissatisfied people I know are people who thought they were going to be making X amount and living a certain type of lifestyle, but then realizing that no matter how good they get at their job, they they're likely not going to be able to hit those goals. And then they feel like they've wasted all of that time and all of that money. So just make sure you have an understanding of what your future can afford. Now let's get into some tips and tricks to help you save on your expenses this upcoming school year. First and foremost, we got to master the art of the student discount, because they are everywhere. Let's talk about Unidays. This should be your new best friend. It is a free platform. U N I D A Y S It's a free platform that verifies your student status and gives you access to discounts at hundreds of retailers, including Apple, ASOS Express, Nike, Best Buy, and literally hundreds more stores. This is not an ad. I'm not being paid to say this, but making an account is 100% free. You just have to verify that you're a student and boom, discounts galore. Before you buy anything online, check Unidays first. Make it a habit. I'm talking about checking before you buy clothes, electronic software, even food delivery sometimes has student discounts. But because as a student, it is pretty much assumed that you're likely not bringing in an income. And if you are, it is a very limited income. So you gotta make sure your dollar stretches as far as humanly possible. And these brands, they're all hoping that if they get you as a customer when you are 18 to 21, that you'll become a customer for life. And they're willing to, you know, give you a little something something at the beginning in the hopes that later on you'll continue to shop with them. So make sure you take full advantage. Next up, never pay full price for travel. Travel is expensive, but it is one, in my opinion, one of the most rewarding things you can do. It helps to open up your worldview and furthermore, there are ways to make it affordable as a student. We all know and use Kayak for booking flights, but instead of going to the regular Kayak website, you're going to go to kayak.com c students. There you're going to find discounts on student travel ranging anywhere from 5 to 40% off normal flight prices. And when you're searching for flights, all you have to do is change the information on who's traveling from one adult to one student. This is just going to really help you lower some of those travel costs. And if you're listening and you're not a student, before you think about pulling a fast one. Student validation is usually required when you book through Flyla, Scholar Trip and Student Universe, which are the three student travel discount programs that Kayak works with. So unfortunately, if you are like me, this is not going to work for you because you're no longer in school. Additionally, for train travel especially helpful if you live on an Amtrak route. If you're between the ages of 17 and 24, Amtrak offers 15% off trips booked a day in advance. So essentially what you would do is say you're traveling on May 25th. You would want to book this on May 24th to get that 15% off your trip. Obviously, booking your Amtrak ticket months and months in advance would likely still be cheaper, but I know a lot of students who are waiting last minute to figure out when their final schedule is or oh, all of a sudden they want to go see their mom or dad last minute for a holiday. This is a really great way to to get an Amtrak ticket with a discount when you are getting closer to that departure date and you can get a pretty hefty savings. Up next Books can be some of the most costly purchases you make every single semester. I personally know I spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on books, and let's be honest, I didn't even read some of them. Here's how you can get them at a much cheaper rate. First and foremost, rent. Don't buy. You use sites like Chegg or even Amazon to rent textbooks for a fraction of the purchase price. To check your library. Many university libraries have copies of required textbooks that you can borrow or use in the library. You can also buy used, so check Facebook, Marketplace, student groups, or directly just from older students who may have taken the class before you. And last but not least, the most helpful tip. While I cannot officially legally recommend specific sites, let's just say the Internet is a vast place with many resour sources for resourceful students. PDF sharing, PDF sharing. On top of all of that, just talk to your professor. Sometimes professors can provide older editions or alternative resources that work just as well. For I would say probably half of the college classes I took, the textbook was written by my professor. So oftentimes when they were on their 27th edition, it was just to sell more books. But if you really speak to them and say, hey, I'm having financial hardship or I just need a little bit of help, most of them are more often than not willing to help you out. So don't be shy about asking. There is no shame in your game. If you can save a little bit of money, it could help. Just set yourself up for a little bit more of an easy semester in terms of managing your money. Now let's talk a little bit about subscription services that actually save you money as a student. So several subscription services offer substantial student discounts that you should absolutely be taking advantage of. If not it's just money being left on the table. First and foremost, Amazon prime about 50% off the regular rate. Plus you get free shipping, which saves money on everything from those textbooks to your dorm supplies. Also, it's really good to note that Amazon prime has so many other perks, whether that be discounted gas for your car, whether that be obviously their streaming service so you don't necessarily have to pay for entertainment over the breaks or you know, on a nice Thursday in I don't know how many of you guys are actually staying in on a Thursday. I was out and about every Thursday. But it's just good to know that this is a great way to kind of save all over your different lifestyle. And be sure to check all of the quote unquote hidden Amazon prime perks that are less commonly known about There really are so many. Up next, Spotify Plus Hulu bundle just 5.99amonth for both services. That's less than most people spend on coffee in a day. So if you are someone who wants to be entertained, wants to listen to music, I loved listening to music on my way to class. This is a great way to kind of get both in a little bit of a twofer deal and it is very, very affordable even for students. Now let's talk a little bit about our creative folks. Adobe's creative suite is 66% off their normal pricing for students. That gets you Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Acrobat and more. And even better, here's the real hot tip. You can check in with your school's library if they provide Adobe Suite for free before even paying for it. With this discount. Many, many schools purchase something called an enterprise license, meaning a license for multiple people, up to a certain amount of people and they will essentially give you a temporary one year, two year membership and then you just have to keep going back to the library and asking for it. This was the case at my college and think about all of the other licenses that they may also have. Your school library is going to become your new best friend. They have some so many freebies and don't be shy about asking for them. Support for this show comes from Lufthansa. A flight is more than just a flight. It's a journey and a promise of a destination. But how you travel matters just as much as where you travel. And with Lufthansa Allegris you can find a high quality travel experience to relish every step of the way. The Lufthansa Allegris first class suites provide almost floor to ceiling partitions and closable doors, creating maximum privacy for travelers. They also come equipped with a spacious dining table, individually adjustable and temperature controlled seats with a do not disturb feature. Plus, the wide seat in your suite can easily be converted into a bed that is over 6ft long, ensuring a restful night's sleep on board. And if you fly Lufthansa Allegris business class, you'll have five different seat options to choose from such as extra long bed, the privacy seat, or the extra space seat. Enjoy your travel experience tailored to your needs. No matter where you sit, you'll want to stay on your Lufthansa flight for as long as possible. Say yes to Lufthansa Allegris and visit lufthansa. Com now let's talk through one of my favorite stores on the planet, Costco. Through Unidays, Costco offers a $20 gift card when students sign up for a membership. If you're sharing bulk purchases with roommates, this can lead to significant savings on groceries and household items. But here's another hot tip. If your parents have a Costco membership, they can purchase you Costco gift cards to be spent at Costco. And you don't need to have a membership to actually then go to the store. So say you live in New York, but you go to school in Texas. If your parents go to a New York Costco and they buy you a Costco gift card for $400, they give it to you. You fly to Texas, you go to school in Texas. You can go to a Costco in Texas with your Costco gift card and spend that money. You can even without having had a membership so they can essentially prepay for some of those purchases. Additionally, let's talk through some lesser known money savers. You got buy nothing groups, so if you join your local Facebook buy nothing group, people will actually just be giving away items they no longer need. You'd be surprised how often people give away furniture, electronics and school supplies. Normally this does come with the caveat that you have to be the one to go to the location to pick this item up. It is a great way to get stuff for free. But what I do encourage you to do is go with a group, go with a couple friends, go with, you know, a safety net because you just don't know when you're going to a stranger's home or a stranger's location. You want to make sure that there are essentially witnesses but also other people that can help out if things get a little bit dicey. And just use common sense if possible have them meet you in a public place, but if not, ask to pick it up and bring a couple friends. Additionally, there's community swaps. So many communities host seasonal swap events where you can trade items that you no longer need for things you do need. So if you happen to grow out of a pair of jeans, if you happen to no longer want a dress you have, this is something that you can then go trade for perhaps a small alarm clock or whatever you might be looking for. Additionally, if you are going to buy from a store shop clearance late in September, retailers clear out back to school inventory in late September, which is perfect timing. If you need supplies for spring semester or want to stock up for next year, this is a smart way to essentially buy the purchases you need and pay less for them now for all of my parents out there looking to help save for their kiddos education parents, the number one thing you can do for your child's education is set up a five to nine plan. These are tax advantaged accounts that have evolved far beyond just college savings. These days, five to nine plans for can cover K through 12 private school tuition up to $10,000 per year college tuition fees, books and supplies, graduate school expenses, trade school and vocational training, student loan payments up to $10,000 per your lifetime limit. So really, these five to nine accounts can really, really just help defray some of those educational costs. How this works is that you would open up a 5 to 9. Many people open them up through the state that they live in, but others choose other states. Reason you put money in and those contributions grow tax free. Withdrawals for qualified educational expenses are also tax free. And while you won't personally as a parent get a federal tax deduction. Thirty plus states do offer tax deductions or credits for contributions, so you'll get a little bit of a state tax benefit. What I love so much about the 529 is that these plans are incredibly flexible. If your child gets a scholarship or doesn't use all the funds because they become this, you know, prolific YouTuber at age 19 and they're making $50 million a year, you've got some options. You can reassign the beneficiary of the account as another family member, another child, maybe a niece or nephew or here's the newest and most exciting option. You can actually transfer up to $35,000 from your kid's 529 into a Roth IRA for your child. You could potentially be giving your child a head start on both their education and and their retirement. This creates an incredible opportunity for generational wealth building. It gives them a head start. So when it comes to planning for your 5 to 9 plan, start early. Even if you can only contribute 25 or 50amonth, starting when your child is young gives compound growth and compound interest decades to work its magic. You want to automate those contributions. Set up automatic monthly contributions so you're consistently building the account without having to think about it. Consider and research your state's specific 529 plan benefits. Some states offer additional perks like matching contributions or higher deduction limits for residents. So just make sure you understand exactly what you're getting yourself into and what benefits you can tap into. Hey friends. Gonna take a quick pause in our show to take a question from my besties in Phone a Friend presented by Lufthansa where I'm answering your burning question questions. Jenna asks what is the best way to get a first class seat without paying for one? Are upgrades still a thing? So getting a first class seat without breaking the bank can feel almost impossible these days. And tldr this is because back in the day, 80% of the first class seats were upgraded and about 20% were purchased. Nowadays though, it's more like 80% of first class flights are now purchased out of pocket and 20% are given away for free free as upgrades. So they are definitely less frequent now. But here's a few things you can do to give yourself a better shot at an upgrade. First and foremost, let's talk travel hacking. You've got credit card rewards. You can use travel credit cards that offer points for every dollar spent. Many of these cards allow you to redeem points for upgrades. Also, we should definitely talk about frequent flyer programs. Joining a loyalty program is really important because if you can sign up for this airline's loyalty program, you can then aim for elite status. This can provide complimentary upgrades on flights with less popular routes, especially if you're flying on a flight with a pretty full economy cabin. This is actually how airlines determine who gets those upgrades. They're typically going to dole them out in order of your elite status. Also, timing is everything. You should definitely check for last minute upgrades. Airlines often offer last minute upgrade deals at a discount. So this isn't free free, but you will spend less. While they may not be as common as they used to be, upgrades are still very much alive and well, especially if you know the right strategies to leverage. So make sure you are taking advantage of all these tips. And now let's get back to our show. Alrighty now friends, now we're on to the fun part. Live Q and A. These are questions that I got from my BFFs through an Instagram story. I polled everybody asking, you know, what are your burning student loan questions or educational questions? So we're going to be answering some. What I do want to say is that if I don't get to your question, which frankly we don't always have time for, everybody's question, please check out my platform. It's called ask dolly.com it's going to be a way for us to answer pretty much every single question you could possibly have about finance, the economy, student loans, your money. It's going to scrape all of the knowledge that I have through my book, the podcast, through my social posts, and it's going to give you solid financial answers. And I know you're probably wondering, hey, how is this different than ChatGPT? Because ChatGPT cannot actually provide financial advising, but we are going to be getting a registered investment advisor designation. So not only will you be able to scrape and access financial knowledge from a reputable source, not just from any source, willy nilly, but but if you have a very personal question, it'll connect you with a one on one CFP who can help you with your situation. We're currently just gathering a wait list, but we will be launching our full beta very soon. So get on it. Ask dolly. Com a s k d o l l y.com join the waitlist. Love you guys. Okay, now onto Q and A. Let's go through our questions that my lovely producer pulled for us. Okay, question number one was so fortunate that my 75k private loans were canceled because the company folded and now I feel like I want to go back to get my master's. But we are still in hella spelled hella credit card debt. Sad face. Should we do it? So here's my thing. Credit card debt is one of the scariest and fastest growing debts out there because it has an annual percentage rate. So the interest rate of 20 to 30%. Typically federal student loans have an interest rate of mid single digits. Even private student loans can have high single digit or low double digit. So I'm talking like you know, 9 to 15% interest rates, whereas like federal loans are typically closer to the 5, 6% interest rate. This is all to say I would prioritize clearing your credit card debt first because that debt is compounding very very quickly, taking on additional debt even if it's at a lower interest rate right now when you are still trying to pay that off doesn't seem like a move I would personally make. I would encourage you to really prioritize that, get that under control. And then once you don't have any high interest rate debt anymore, so I'm talking credit card and pretty much anything over 7%, you are then going to be in a much better position to consider whether or not getting your master's is worth it. And, and taking on more debt at that time might be a little bit more prudent. So that's my advice. Let me move on to our next question. Too late to start a 529 if your kid is already in high school? It is not. It is not. So listen, I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. If you start an investment account of any sort for your child when they are five years old, you're going to have to put less money in to have more money in that account once they ultimately want to withdraw the funds. If your kid is already in high school, a five to nine is certainly still worth doing one because you might get a tax credit or a tax benefit from your state, but also they're going to be able to withdraw that money and pay for educational costs tax free. There's a lot of tax benefits. Obviously, as I mentioned, you still have, you know, a couple years before they're ready to go to college. And even if this money hasn't really grown that much by the time they enter college, it could still be more helpful in their sophomore, junior or senior year as well. So it's certainly still worth doing. There's never a moment that it is too late to start investing. And there's also never a moment where it's too early. So I encourage you to do it. And kudos to you for thinking about this and congrats to your kid for having a great parent. Next question. What do you think is the limit you can borrow for student loans that you can reasonably pay off after? Ooh, that's a personal one, my friend. It really, really depends on what career field you're going into. I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but leveraging the bls.gov you know, handbook to figure out what your major and what your potential career will actually end up paying is really, really important. I'll give you an example. I have friends who, you know, went to college with me and they ended up getting an education that cost a quarter of a million dollars at the University of Chicago. That's how much my education was. Even if we were in the same major, if we did the same thing A couple of them ended up working at NGOs or, you know, doing the right thing. They worked at nonprofits after school, but some of them had the luxury of doing that because they came from familial money. I did not. My parents, there's no trust fund, there's no plan like I am my parents retirement plan. So I knew that was going to have to make money. And so I took my public policy double major with environmental studies. And instead of joining an environmental organization like so many of my peers, I went and traded energy stocks on Wall Street. Call me a sellout, call me whatever you want to call me, but I knew that finances were such an important part of my story because I did not have that kind of help at home. And so I was very fortunate. My parents had opened up a 529 for me. I got a lot of merit scholarships and I did get a grant from the university itself to help pay for school. But this is all to say if I had taken on six figures of student loan debt working on Wall street in the private financial sector, ultimately I would have been able to pay those loans off no problem. Because, you know, my first year on the Street, I made, I want to say, $95,000 and it only went up from there. I know people who, who are 10 years into their career and maybe just finally started making $85,000 because they work for a nonprofit. That's not to say that the work they do is not important. And frankly, it's probably more important than the work I was doing. I had to be really, really thoughtful about how much debt I could take because I knew what my financial situation was. So this is a very personal conversation. If you take on six figures of student loan debt to go to a private university to then study, I don't know, I'm trying to think of something like an art history or an English. That's again, not to say that those majors are not valuable, they're not valid, you shouldn't do those. But you have to realistically think about what are the jobs available to me if I do those majors. Because if you end up becoming an editor or a copywriter, that's going to pay a certain amount. But if you end up being a freelance journalist, that's going to pay a very different amount. And so you have to have an understanding of how much money you'll likely make based on your investment. Next question. Does it pay for a doctor to work in a public hospital to qualify for loan forgiveness? Okay, so my understanding is that you're probably asking me, would it be better for you to do work in the public sector because you'll likely make less money, but you'll have the option to have private student loan forgiveness versus taking on a private sector medical job where you would certainly make more, but then not have access to that kind of resource. I think it really depends how much debt you have for one of my girlfriends, not only did she take on undergraduate loans, she also took on medical school loans. And you know, obviously residency is certainly one of the most thankless processes and thankless jobs because these doctors that are treating patients who are, you know, working 120 hours a week are making 60, $65,000 a year. And I know this because I have friends who are doing this right now and they are tired all the time and they are broke all the time. But there are certain programs right now. I know, I believe it's NYU's medical school is actually not charging anything, so you might end up with a lot less debt. So I think as a doctor, it would depend on one how much debt you took out to become your specialty of doctoring, but also how much more you think you could potentially make in the private sector. Would you actually just be better off making so much more money that you could pay your loans off yourself? Like, I think there really has to be, there really is a lot of consideration that needs to go into this depending on your specialty. You know, if you open up a private plastic surgery practice, you are going to make so much more money than you would at a public hospital that you might actually be able to pay your loans off personally faster than PSLF could even help you with. Whereas, like, if you are in a different specialty, that may not necessarily be the case. So I would look into what quote unquote department you would be working in and what the numbers actually crunch out to be. And final question of this episode, how do I anticipate how much a private out of state school will cost? Worst case scenario, I'm dying at the fact that somebody typed in worst case scenario. You really want to prep here? So here's the thing. I don't have a crystal ball, but I do know that education has continued to rise in cost, but at a certain point it's just going to be harder and harder to stomach. We already know that even upper middle class families are having a hard time affording schooling. So what I would say is that, you know, there have been numbers thrown around that by the time my child, so my unborn child, I'm not pregnant right now, I probably won't be for years, but like, you know, in let's call it 20, 30 years, a private college education for my child would be roughly a million dollars. And so I cannot emphasize this enough. If you are interested in doing this, the earlier you start saving and investing, the better. These days right now a private college education is it was, it was a quarter of a million dollars when I went. So these days my guess is, I think I looked at some numbers as well. It's close to almost $300,000. So I only believe that that number is going to continue to go upwards. Schools that have large endowments have really, really focused on being generous with lower to moderate income families so that they can get the best talent. But I think that oftentimes can come with a little bit of frustration from middle class families or upper middle class families who are still having a hard time making a $300,000 cost work into into their work into their budget. So this is all to say I don't know what it's going to ultimately wind up being, but you can assume that it's only going to get more expensive. Right now it's 300k by the time my kids go maybe a million. Well, that was a doozy. Again, education is expensive. Valuable, but expensive. It's still one of the best investments you can make in yourself. It is one of the easiest way to have socioeconomic mobility. But like any investment, you want to maximize your returns while minimizing your costs. So use every resource available, take advantage of discounts and savings and opportunities, and always keep the bigger financial picture in mind. Thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you guys next week. Bye. Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Net Worth and Chill, part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. If you liked the episode, make sure to leave a rating and review and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Got a burning financial question that you want covered in a future episode? Write to us via podcastourrichbff.com follow net worth and Chillpod on Instagram to stay up to date on all podcast related news and you can follow me at yourrichbff for even more financial know how. See you next week. Bye. Thanks to Lufthansa for supporting this podcast. Some think of flying as just a mode of transportation, but Lufthansa understands that how you arrive is just as important as where you arrive. No matter if you fly first class or business class, Lufthansa Allegris elevates your journey. Lufthansa Allegris offers a range of new features and amenities across all classes. The first Class suites provide almost floor to ceiling partitions and closable doors, creating maximum privacy for travelers. In business class, you can choose between five different seat options, tailor your travel experience to your own needs, and elevate your air travel. Say yes to Lufthansa allegris and visit lufthansa.com.