Here are three of the week’s top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web:
Too-great expectations
College students are dreaming too big when it comes to first-job salary expectations, said Wyatte Grantham-Philips in USA Today. A survey by Real Estate Witch found that today’s students “expect to make about $103,880 in their first job” after graduation. “The reality is much lower — as the average starting salary is actually about half that, at $55,260.” The extent of the overestimation could contribute to further disillusionment with the higher-education experience. Already, “less than half the respondents felt college is worth the cost.” Job prospects for the class of 2022 are better than in recent years, however, “and most fields have seen increases” in starting salaries — though they are still not nearly as high as many students think.
Scammed by romance and Bitcoin
A Texas woman is suing two digital currency exchanges she claims abetted an $8 million “pig-butchering” fraud, said Francesca Maglione and David Voreacos in Bloomberg. “Pig butchering” is a growing type of scam, so called “because emotionally manipulated victims’ accounts are fattened before being drained.” Divya Gadasalli, 25, suspects she was targeted by a man she met on the dating app Tinder because her father, a highly successful cardiologist, was murdered in 2015. “Suggesting she could become a financial hero to her family,” the fraudster convinced her to wire millions to a fake digital currency brokerage called Digital Fund. “Profits” coming back to Gadasalli in cash for months kept her from suspecting the crime.
Privacy worries loom over bank rules
A long-awaited U.S. “open banking” rule is being held up by privacy concerns, said Katanga Johnson and Hannah Lang in Reuters. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been exploring new regulations that would let customers easily share their financial data with nontraditional banks, making it simpler “to switch to service providers that might offer lower fees.” Advocates, including the White House and fintech companies, say this “would unleash a slew of payment, investment, lending, financing, and money-saving services and apps,” spurring competition and boosting access for many Americans shut out of the traditional financial industry. But the rule has now hit a roadblock, as CFPB director Rohit Chopra grapples with “concerns focusing in part on how Big Tech companies may use the data” from consumers.
This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, you can try six risk-free issues of the magazine here.
