Failure to Launch Part 1

Why so many grads 'fail to launch'
Many 20-somethings find themselves moving home to live with Mom and Dad, just like in the movie 'Failure to Launch.' Blame it on inertia -- and some very real challenges.
At 24, Lorena Bravo appeared to be a card-carrying member of the so-called boomerang generation. Despite being bright, articulate and well-educated (she has a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's in teaching), Bravo couldn't find full-time work after she graduated. So she moved back home with her parents in a Los Angeles suburb.But if you're thinking Bravo fits the model of "Failure to Launch" -- that movie starring a Porsche-driving Matthew McConaughey, who loves living with his parents so much he won't leave -- you'd be wrong. She doesn't love living at home; she just doesn't see another option.
That makes her a poster child for a darker side of the boomerangers, many of whom graduate unprepared for the daunting financial realities that await them -- whether it's dealing with massive debt, a dicey job market, the high cost of living or D, all of the above. "It's a myth that 20-somethings don't want to get on with life, that they don't want to grow up," says Abby Wilner, co-author of "The Quarterlifer's Companion: How to Get on the Right Career Path, Control Your Finances, and Find the Support Network You Need to Thrive," a book that aims to help recent grads get on their feet. "It's a choice to move home and often something they do out of financial necessity."
The transition from college to real life has never been easy. But today's young adults face an unprecedented number of financial hurdles.
Whether you're attending a pricey private college or a public one, college costs have nearly doubled in the past 20 years (and that's after adjusting for inflation).
The average student will graduate with about $15,500 in student loans, according to the College Board. And that's not including loans from parents, home-equity loans or credit-card debt.
About 25% of college students use credit cards to help pay tuition and fees.
Graduating students carry an average credit card balance of nearly $3,000, according to the most recent Nellie Mae survey.
Years ago, a college grad could hope to land a good job to cover all these expenses, but it's no longer that simple. Increasingly, all that BA will get you is a service-sector job, says Elana Berkowitz, editor of Campus Progress, a division of the Center for American Progress.Half the workers in restaurants, grocery stores and department-store chains are under 24, she notes."Time was, you could get an entry-level job and be able to pay your way," says Cathy Stocker, Wilner's co-author. "Now, even if you're lucky enough to get an entry-level job, many people can't pay their student loans and make rent."An annual survey by MonsterTrak found that nearly half of 2008 grads plan to move home after graduating. That's down from nearly 60% in 2005. More than three-quarters of grads who moved back home last year expected to stay less than six months, but 43% have extended their stay, mostly for financial reasons.


Easy ways to save money nowGot 20 minutes? That's all it takes to put $2,500 in your back pocket, according to one expert.
Drowning in debt Needless to say, this isn't part of the college student's game plan. "You go in believing that a BA is your ticket to the American dream," says Lorena Bravo. "But for most of us, college just didn't pan out the way we expected."
Bravo emerged from college with $18,000 in student-loan debt. "That's nothing," she says, "I know people who graduated with $100,000 in debt. I was one of the lucky ones."Still, she wasn't able to find a job that paid more than $20,000 a year, even with the degree and plenty of college work experience.
By MP Dunleavey