By Frank J. Diekmann
Sure, Ready Player One and Black Panther are popular in movie theaters, but down at the Credit Union Bijou it’s CUTomorrow: The Movie Preview that’s drawing crowds.
More than 1,400 people (at the time of this writing) had watched via either LinkedIn or on YouTube the one-minute movie trailer that previews CUToday.info’s CUTomorrow Conference, set for later this year in Austin, Texas and designed to be a credit unions-helping-credit unions event that is all about sharing successful strategies. You can get more information at CUTomorrow.info.
You might want to register soon, as it’s just $499 and (seriously) the event is starting to fill up.
And thanks for watching.
Now, in other news…
Speaking of Tomorrow…
Telling yourself you will be financially responsible with money in the future is a lot like dieting: it’s easy to sacrifice and be responsible when the temptations and realities of life aren’t in front of you. It’s why New Year’s Resolutions in late December are as forgotten as the Christmas tree by mid-January. How many people have said to themselves, “I’m definitely going to eat better as soon as I go on my diet, but hey, for right now it would be a shame to let this piece of cake go to waste.”
The same thing’s true when it comes to ye olde finances–the promises aren’t the challenge.
PenFed recently conducted a study that found among other things consumers said they would be “more likely to be fiscally responsible with new found money, rather than spend it on entertainment or social activities.” Sure, they would. Who hasn’t told themselves what a model financial citizen they would become with money you don’t have or that you envision receiving in a windfall? The survey found that if given $5,000, those surveyed would put about half of it (48%) into savings, spend 42%, and give 10% to charity.
My money is on 99% of people spending it exactly as they do now.
Doing the Right Thing
CUToday.info recently profiled someone who has led one of the most interesting careers ever in credit unions, having worked all around the world and having faced everything from threats from monkeys, to Molotov Cocktails in Afghanistan, to the joys of seeing impoverished areas and people pull themselves up using the credit union bootstrap. That person is Lois Kitsch, who is retiring from the National Credit Union Foundation. You can read more about Lois’ career and experiences here.
As part of the interview with CUToday.info, Kitsch was asked for her views on the future of credit unions, if there is to be one. Here’s how she responded:
“I think the future of credit unions is very strong – especially for those that recognize the business opportunities in living our mission. When I think of credit unions, I think of a pendulum that swings gently between social and business opportunities – if the pendulum swings too far to the social side, financial failure is likely. If the pendulum swings too far to the business side, we lose the competitive advantage we have in living our mission. So, if credit unions live their mission and do the right thing they will flourish.”
Loans Gone Wild!
You could create an entire course syllabus on all the studies done and papers written about the level of student debt many Millennials are carrying. It’s at $1.5 trillion and counting, and as Ronald Reagan once quipped about the deficit, “soon you’re talking real money.”
There have been lots of proposals over what to do, ranging from employer assistance, to debt reduction programs to outright debt forgiveness. There has even been a bill in Congress that would swap out student debt now in exchange for giving up Social Security later (of course just about anyone in college or their mid-20s would take that deal, as retirement seems so far away).
But my own sympathies with many of these debt-holders took a serious hit recently when LendEDU conducted a survey of student loan borrowers and found 56.78% of current college students who have taken out student loan debt and are going on spring break this year are using some of that loan money to help pay for their fun-filled excursions.
If you’re interested in how they are able to do that, you can find more information here.
So, for many, any debt forgiveness means the rest of us are picking up the tab for a free Spring Break trip. And I’ll be onboard with that just as soon as we also reimburse every person who ever worked their way through college at a job that didn’t allow for any Spring Break.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday.