Cato,
It is a good point, but your point is different than Lighthouse's.
I too kept debt to a minimum.
I actually didnt take the full amount of loan I was authorized to take (most students take the whole loan and arent aware they can take *less* than what is offered). I averaged 35 hours a week while going to school fulltime. I graduated ontime and took classes in the summer.
My peers partied, took summers off, took ski trips, bought snowboards and recreational equipment, went to Hawaii and trips to springbreak destinations where theyd have sex with as many drunken whores as they could, and they all graduated with triple the debt I had.
I paid mine off in 10 years after graduating and it wasnt difficult at all. It could have been faster but I felt I was doing just fine with reducing my debt without taking it to extremes and eating catfood.
100K sounds *incredible* to me. In fact, 50K would have been a lot to me back then.
When I hear people taking such large debts for schools I never heard of it baffles me. When I graduated i worked with a guy who paid 900/mo for his student loans and his wife's were worse. They went to some private college in the midwest I had never heard of.
Baffling. Why so much debt and when youre interviewing for a job or someone is reading your resume and they think "where's that?" That's gotta hurt.
And yes, pick a marketable major (unless youre independently wealthy).
I was wise enough to make such choices, and I was 18. So age and naivete is no excuse. And my parents were not college educated so I had to figure that out on my own. But debt seemed like a bad idea. Im lucky I didnt saddle myself even to this day from decisions I made 20 years ago.
Your advice is sound Cato, but it is another thing entirely to say "Dont go to college" or "too bad". Youre saying be responsible, I'm saying trade school, Lighthouse is saying "take it or leave it" and as Telesphorus points out, no post high school education isnt exactly an option.
Im not a tradesman but most of my family are in various trades, and theyre often in better financial shape than the college educated ones (like an uncle I have who has a ton of debt negating his high income), but they (my family) tell me they went through trade unions through apprenticeships which do not 'cost'. They seem like theyd be hard to get into, or youd have to know someone, but they all assure me it was about persistence and that there are far more guys who will squander the apprenticeship than finish it like they did so keep applying and be persistent.
One is a welder, one millwright, one a crane operator/welder, my dad a diesel and turbine engineer, a carpenter, 2 electricians, a plumber and one is a general contractor. My grandfather was a stone mason, my maternal grandfather was a mechanic (who later opened a parts store). So I have a lot of data on this.
They all say they got in without knowing anyone, just by being relentless, which I inhereited because I got into my field with relentlessness.
My wife says I'm kinda smart but ten times more relentless than smart. I've had an employer tell me about 15 years ago, after I had been working for him for nearly two years, that he primarily hired me so I would leave him alone.
My dad and uncles say they did the same thing getting apprenticeships.
Topic: dealing with student loans (Read 1778 times)