Education, Income & Your Clients

In the last year, Weekly Industry News has done a couple of dozen stories about the use of credit scoring to set insurance rates for auto and home. Most of the stories have been focused on Washington State where insurance commissioner, Mike Kreidler unilaterally banned the use of credit scoring to set those rates.

Kreidler was twice sued by the PIA Washington and other insurance groups. Two judges in Washington State ruled against Kreidler and he was forced to, in one case, withdraw his order. In the other, Kreidler was ordered to stop his push via hearings done in his department.

One of the criteria used in credit scoring is education. It — says the U.S. Census Bureau — is often directly tied to income levels.

Immediately, credit scoring critics will point to billionaires who have gained a fortune while not graduating from college, or having the kind of education that leads to wealth.

Bill Gates of Microsoft fame and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg come to mind.

Both had smarts enough to get into Harvard. While they didn’t graduate, they were intelligent enough to do their thing and get rich from what they devised. Not everyone — brilliant or not — is that lucky.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s statistics say the average bachelor’s degree will earn a person $80,500 a year. These days that’s a decent salary and, depending on how that money is managed, it’s enough to live comfortably.

Only having a high school degree will earn a person around $40,000 a year. That is not very often enough for a comfortable life. Someone not finishing high school will make 40% less than the high school graduate.

If you have a high school degree and some college, the income will be — on average — about $48,500 per year. That’s 20% higher than the high school degree only and usually not enough for a super comfortable life.

College grads from associate degree to bachelors degree will make double what a high school grad makes.

A professional degree — law, pharmacy, medicine, etc. — can earn someone around $151,000 a year. That’s four-times as much as a high school grad.

Here’s how the Census Bureau laid out in the average income report:

• *Less than 9th grade — $26,293
• *9th to 12th grade, no diploma — $27,987
• *High school graduate (includes equivalency) — $39,976
• *Some college, no degree — $48,555
• *Associate’s degree — $51,161
• *Bachelor’s degree — $80,478
• *Bachelor’s degree or more — $91,892
• *Master’s degree — $98,268
• *Professional degree — $151,348
• *Doctoral degree — $141,178

Source link: MSN — https://bit.ly/3CIkCFn