Student blows $90K college budget on trips and shopping, blames parents
ATLANTA — A college student blew through her $90,000 college fund in just three years, and she says her parents are to blame.
When called into an Atlanta radio station to air her grievances last week, she found that listeners were less than sympathetic to her perceived plight, according to USA Today.
The 22-year-old incoming senior named Kim was basically set when she started college, thanks to her grandparents.
“Years ago, my grandparents set up a college fund for me, which was amazing,” she told the hosts of “The Bert Show.” “I haven’t been very good with my budget for school.”
Not very good at all. Kim said she spent much of the $90,000 on a trip to Europe and shopping sprees. The spending was so frequent that she emptied the entire account in just three years. Entering her final year of school, she now owes $10,000 for the fall semester.
“The first payment for my senior year just arrived, and I don’t have the money basically,” she told the show. “I’ve just been avoiding it. I knew it was coming.”
The radio hosts suggested she turn to her parents for help. When she called in a few days later with an update, she told “The Bert Show” that her parents were actually very much to blame for her excessive spending habits.
“Maybe they should have taught me how to budget a little more carefully. They never sat me down and had a real serious talk about it,” she said.
Kim said her parents told her they didn’t have the money to help her — something she said she didn’t believe was true.
“They’re not being honest with me, saying they don’t have money because my dad has worked for like a million years and they have a retirement account,” she said.
Her apparent sense of entitlement did not sit well with listeners. Twitter lit up with talk of Kim and her “non-issue.” Things got more heated when the hosts suggested she get a job to cover tuition costs.
Perhaps at the school cafeteria?
“That’s embarrassing,” she replied.
In the final segment, Kim called back to let the radio hosts know that she’d finally come to an agreement with her parents: They’d co-sign a loan, but only if she got a respectable job.
Seems like a reasonable solution, but Kim wasn’t too happy about it.
“I just want to say that I know they’re trying to teach me a lesson and blah-blah-blah and character-building, but I hope they realize that this could have such a negative effect on my grades and as a person,” she said. “I won’t be focused on my studies.”
Yikes.
The show’s host, Bert Weiss, told People that the phones have been ringing off the hook since Kim first appearance. Many of the callers are in Kim’s age group — outraged at how she’s portraying their generation.
“The millennial generation is calling in to defend themselves, saying, ‘We can’t believe she thinks she has it rough,'” he said. “It’s really struck a nerve. People think she’s a selfish idiot.”
Weiss said it was difficult to take her frustration seriously.
“I have two kids — this is every parent’s nightmare,” he said.
