Inflation, a problem circulating throughout the global economy, has become a worldwide problem. For students, one obvious impact of inflation is their education. Looking ahead to college, even from a middle school perspective, cost of living as well as the cost of college can deeply impact the decisions students make.
According to an article on BestColleges.com entitled “3 in 5 College Students Say Inflation Has Impacted Their Mental Health: Survey,” over half of students say that “inflation has impacted their educational decisions, such as their choice of major.”
In the survey taken by 1,000 college undergraduate and graduate students, 66% of them said their financial well-being was affected by inflation, 60% of them said they were affected mentally by inflation, and 53% of students said their educational decisions were affected by inflation. In that same article, 61% of college students believe that higher education should be free.
With these concerns weighing on our minds, we wanted to find out whether inflation is always a bad thing.
“While high inflation is generally considered harmful, some economists believe that a small amount of inflation can help drive economic growth,” says an article entitled “When Is Inflation Good for the Economy?” published by Investopedia.
The article also states that “When the economy is not running at capacity, meaning there is unused labor or resources, inflation theoretically helps increase production. More dollars translates to more spending, which equates to more aggregated demand. More demand, in turn, triggers more production to meet that demand.”
Logic suggests, however, that if inflation increases, it could cause a growth in poverty due to the costliness of items. However, like Investopedia stated, inflation can help the economy strive through business production. As long as the inflation is maintained and balanced, the economy will remain stable.
Civics teacher Marin Parker, shared her personal experience and advice on finance. Parker’s main advice is to use a budget.
“Honestly, having a budget brings such peace of mind because it’s like I know I have enough money to do everything I want, or everything I need first and foremost and then, I have this much extra to do whatever I want with.”
She recommends having multiple places for savings, such as an emergency fund, a fund for future large purchases, like a home, and another smaller savings for smaller purchases, like a new computer or phone.
“Always pay yourself first, always put stuff into savings, too, which goes back to our Finance Park lesson,” she advised.
