It’s More Than Just The Right Thing To Do

Did you vote yet? If so, kudos to you; if not, get going. There are only a few days left to begin shaping the future you want to see. So, you may be scratching your head wondering what voting has to do with college planning… Well, it might not get your kid accepted to their favorite college but it could affect the amount of financial aid they receive and the amount of debt they graduate with. Another consideration is the job market four, five or six years down the road when your college graduate will have to find a job or move back home. Is that enough to get you off the couch and to the polls?

Way back in the early 1980’s I realized that our political system had evolved to confuse, divide and take advantage. It’s human nature that the people making the rules will allow themselves certain advantages. Legal documents are not worded the way they are by accident. It is a form of communication that only people speaking the same language will fully understand. Don’t you find it interesting that so many of our politicians have law degrees? This is not intended to cast a bad light on lawyers, but the rest of the public is at their mercy anytime the words legal or law come into play.

This is where the importance of your vote comes in. Which candidates make use of the words we hear in normal conversation and which ones use smoke screens filled with legal terms and diversion tactics? If you don’t know what a candidate stands for, Google them; the answers you find may shed a light on whether you want to support them. Cast your vote for people who support the things you believe are important. If you help get enough of them get into office, the things you want to happen will begin to gain traction.

If none of these reasons are good enough, think about your kids or someone else’s kids that look up to you. What will they think if you only shrug your shoulders when asked about voting? Don’t encourage the next generation of voters to stand by and let life happen to them. We have all seen the fallout from having too many people do that.