{"id":6856,"date":"2019-11-28T08:36:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T05:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6856"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:43","slug":"why-academic-degrees-dont-guarantee-financial-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/11\/28\/why-academic-degrees-dont-guarantee-financial-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Academic Degrees Don\u2019t Guarantee Financial Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Pauline Muindi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few decades ago, a\ncollege degree was something special. It was a sure path to financial success\nfor most people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after\ngraduation (or even before), one would get a job in a good company or the government.\nThat would kick off a successful career with a decent salary, attractive\nallowances, and opportunities for further development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, things have\nchanged over the years. Today, a Bachelor\u2019s degree is a mere pre-requisite for\nmost jobs; it doesn\u2019t even guarantee you a first interview. There is an excess\nof Bachelor degrees, and Master\u2019s degrees are rapidly depreciating in value as\nwell. Degree inflation has made employers start demanding degrees even for jobs\nthat don\u2019t really require one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While education has\nits place in the moulding of a successful entrepreneur or career professional,\nit might not guarantee financial success. Most of us know several people who\nwere brilliant in school, but turned out to be less successful in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three\nreasons why college education isn\u2019t a sure way to financial success:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School Doesn\u2019t Teach Financial Literacy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

School might give\nyou theoretical knowledge on many topics. But the formal education system is\npoor at teaching financial skills. They might touch on a few financial and\nentrepreneurial topics but the knowledge is mostly theoretical. Most students\nforget the lessons as soon as they write their exams. Adding to the problem,\nfew teachers are well-equipped to teach financial literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation,\nfew students know how to earn money and manage it. Even fewer have\nworking knowledge of topics such as taxes, mortgage, and the stock market.\nUnderstanding of financial basics such as earning, budgeting, saving, debt, and\ninvesting can mean the difference between financial success and lifelong\npoverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get good\nfinancial education, one has to find it themselves or be taught at home. You\ncan do this by reading books written by successful entrepreneurs and financial\ngurus. Most importantly, you need to apply financial lessons you learn in your\nlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grades Skew Perception<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say you were a\nstraight A student in school. This has primed you to expect that you\u2019ll be\nsuccessful in everything you put your mind to. But nothing could be further\nfrom reality. In real life, you will fail many times before you become a\nsuccess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Boston College\nresearcher Karen Arnold tracked more than 80 valedictorians – who had high\ngrades in college \u2013 over 14 years to find out how they fared in the real world.\nOverall, these \u201cbest and brightest\u201d students had grown into well-adjusted and\nsuccessful adults. But none of them could be categorised as visionaries or\ntrailblazers. \u201cValedictorians aren\u2019t likely to be the future\u2019s visionaries,\u201d\nexplained Dr Arnold. \u201cThey typically settle into the system instead of shaking\nit up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read\nmore\u2026<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pauline Muindi A few decades ago, a college degree was something special. It was a sure path to financial success for most people. Soon after graduation (or even before),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}