What!!!!! nobody works part-time and pays for college as they go anymore?
Must be a dumb idea to get a degree, work experience and have no debt at the same time...
What!!!!! nobody works part-time and pays for college as they go anymore?
Must be a dumb idea to get a degree, work experience and have no debt at the same time...
freewill wrote:
What!!!!! nobody works part-time and pays for college as they go anymore?
Must be a dumb idea to get a degree, work experience and have no debt at the same time...
What part time job pays $30k a year?
State schools in CA used to be tuition free for residents. Then Ronald Reagan decided people should "just suck it up" and "work harder". Now tuition by itself is $15k not including any rent, living expenses, book, parking, or food you may require.
I agree state schools can be a way better choice than private. And living at home can help. But not everyone lives within commuting distance of a decent university. And $15k a year is still hard to make working part time with a full class load. And if Mom & Dad are covering your living expenses and food those are still costs that someone is absorbing.
No college for you, then?
willy willy wrote:
Your totally right
work har.
Sniff a gooch. Only pretentious dicks care about spelling/grammer on an anonymous message board.
For the most part, the people I've seen complaining about this the most are those who went to private universities that are not particularly good schools. In Massachusetts (and certainly at my high school) there was a big (and frankly, unwarranted) stigma against going to a state school, so a lot of kids went to more expensive colleges just to say they were going to a private school. These were also the same kids who seemed to have no end to big expenses (studying abroad in Europe/Asia/Australia/etc) or small expenses (concerts/daily starbucks/new iphones/etc) and did not work during college.
I recognize that not everyone is willing to make major life sacrifices, but by comparison at age 25, I am one semester away from graduating with dual masters degrees without a penny of debt. Still living at home (have been paying rent to my parents the whole time), and from the start of undergrad through my second year out of college I worked two jobs (just one job now), but it is completely worth it knowing that I will have received a complete education without any lingering financial burden.
Thanks for your post. My wife graduated last year with $36k in student loans and I graduate this year with $0 in student loans (thank you, running). Very similar to you with the lifestyle. We buy cheap, junk cars and have a very strict budget. Should have all of her student loans paid off, at this rate, in 2.5 - 3 years. With me working part time and her being an elementary teacher (34k/yr), we have been rolling ~$1,000/mo onto her loans. Her minimum payment is $290 for a 10 year period. We even live on our own. Once I start working full time, that debt will drop faster than Bill Clinton's pants in his intern's office.
The kicker is, so many idiots think they are good with their money even though they've never gone through financial material before.
I'll use one of my collegiate peers as an example. She graduated in December. Boyfriend works in a cyclical manufacturing plant and she works in management for a supplier of this cyclical manufacturing company also. They bought a stick built house, new construction, and have a mortgage north of $1,500/mo. Of course, 30 years on a zero down USDA loan. She bought a 2016 Jeep and he has a 2017 Dodge Ram truck. $500/mo for each vehicle. They bought a hot tub on loan, bought nice furniture on a loan, she always buys kits for her jeep, and they have two four-wheelers on a loan. I always see them posting on social media about going out to eat multiple times a week. They just complained on public social media the other day that they have to defer her students loans because they can't afford the payment.
She always complains about not having money and genuinely thinks she is smart with her money. You can't convince these people to sacrifice. They believe that because they eat ramen for one meal to pay their stupid-choice loans off, they are sacrificing. I try to throw nice hints at her on these statuses, but she acts like she is on my side and knows what she is doing.
These are the people who complain about student loans, by my observation. I know people in their mid/upper 30s who have north of $75k in student loans who plan on continually deferring them until they are forgiven. They live a lifestyle way out of their means, of course. (Actually, this specific example just bought a brand new van right off the lot).
I don't know the exact details of everyone's financial life that I know, but the ones that I do know are usually terrible. It's nice to see others who understand sacrifice...
The OP is stupid and ignorant: most people with big student loans DID go to state school.
You lost credibility when you said you lived at home for 5 YEARS. You would not be in the situation you are now had you had to live completely on your own. Even though you "paid rent," the financial backing of having your parents to fall back on in case anything happened is worth more $$$ than you give credit for.
You can't play the "I worked hard" card when you lived at home.
Can you elaborate a little more please (eg what do you mean by financial backing)? I saved a small emergency fund in case something unexpected happened, and I paid them $500 a month, every month. That's a little cheaper than I would've paid otherwise (which is exactly my point), but I'm not clear on how it invalidates my argument.
I mentioned it as an example of one way to give up the "cool" option (not living with your parents) now to get out of debt faster. If not living at home matters more to you that's totally fine, or if you think you'll have better job opportunities by moving to a different city, that's fine too. But that may mean your living expenses increase and you have less to pay on your loans. That's the choice you made. I'm not gonna apologize for mine.
ooga wrote:
Hello, I'm sorry the Ivy League all rejected you. Good luck with your state school degree.
work hard and wrote:Here's a simple solution for you... I know it's going to be mind blowing, but here it is.
Go to your state school! It's as simple as that. If you weren't smart enough or did enough activities to stand out to get scholarships, just go to your state school where your schooling will be fraction of the cost. If that's too expensive, you can go to community college for two years, then transfer to a state school for your 4 year degree.
It's ridiculous to hear about these student loans horror stories where they owe couple hundred grand. You are the idiot for taking on that much debt where you could've just gone to your state school to get the education.
I'm doing quite alright with my state school degree.
Mostly agree wrote:
Agree with most things you said except
the last. By living longer, you probably will rack up more hospital bills and cost your loved ones more money. I have edited it for you:
Here's some advice for dying people: die at home, not the hospital. If you're not sure if you're dying, just take a nap.
If I'm going to die why should I care how much it costs? Someone else will have to pick up the tab after I'm gone.
lol. You're saying that mainly, private schools don't accept transfer credits? Why did you even bring this point up then? Solution to save money was going to community college for 2 years and transfer to a state school.
So, mainly private schools don't according to you. And just some public schools don't. Also, you're just pulling some anecdotal stats where many state schools do in fact accept credits from community colleges. At least many of them will accept general classes just like how colleges would accept some entry level classes that you can take in high school.
MyPeersSuck wrote:
Can you elaborate a little more please (eg what do you mean by financial backing)? I saved a small emergency fund in case something unexpected happened, and I paid them $500 a month, every month. That's a little cheaper than I would've paid otherwise (which is exactly my point), but I'm not clear on how it invalidates my argument.
I mentioned it as an example of one way to give up the "cool" option (not living with your parents) now to get out of debt faster. If not living at home matters more to you that's totally fine, or if you think you'll have better job opportunities by moving to a different city, that's fine too. But that may mean your living expenses increase and you have less to pay on your loans. That's the choice you made. I'm not gonna apologize for mine.
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How about this elaboration: you can't live with your parents if your parents aren't securely housed. You can't save money for emergencies if you have to help bail your poor family members out of emergency situations.
Here's the thing. I went to my state school and had to rely entirely on student loans for tuition and housing. Community college wasn't an option because my family couldn't afford a car, so I wouldn't be able to get to class if I stayed home, not to mention that "home" was a friend's basement at the time. I got straight As in college and had avoided some debt because of grants for low income students. I went to professional school and accumulated a lot of debt that way (still a state school, btw). However, professional jobs don't pay as much as they used to, and having to help other family members with financial emergencies, as well as paying for many of the things that other people's parents buy for them during college, takes a toll. Now I pay a substantial chunk of my monthly income on student loans. It absolutely impedes my ability to accumulate savings via stocks, property, etc. I'm middle-class, but I feel the strain of student loans. For people with lower-paying jobs, the situation is untenable.
It's not about making the uncool "choice" to pay what amounts to heavily subsidized rent to your parents. It matters a lot that those middle-class resources were available to you. It's about the generational transmission of lack of resources. It's also bad for the community when educated people can't afford to contribute to schools and the tax base through home ownership, etc.
willy willy wrote:
Sniff a gooch. Only pretentious dicks care about spelling/grammer on an anonymous message board.
Only fvcking idiots can't spell grammar. BTW, thanks for the resume that you sent in with regard to the janitor's position. I decided to give the job to someone that took the effort to spell-check their writing, though.
audience analysis wrote:
How is "pick a different school" advice for people who are complaining about their loans? If someone has loans to complain about, they have already started (and probably finished) college.
+1. The OP must have gone to a state school.
What's really stupid is my nephew who didn't go to the state U one hours drive from his home ($22k: tuition, books, fees) and instead paid out of state tuition at the U of Vermont at about $55k per year all in, to get a useless degree in history , because UVM was cool, hip, and more his style. (They gave him a degree even though he never finished his senior thesis). Works construction part time, lives with parents, in late 20s trying to pay off that loan. In the words of the philosopher Ron White: "ya can't fix stupid."
And yes, he wants his loan debt forgiven: Bernie Sanders was his hero.
You're right about everything except the healthcare portion. Healthcare doesn't meet the criteria to be improved by the free-market: health-care isn't fungible, its inelastic, and it (mostly) can't be differed. There are also liability issues that don't arise in other products: it can be very hard to assign blame if you fail to get better. Is that because you were prescribed the wrong meds or diagnosed wrong? Or is it a genetic fluke that you have the rare type of breast cancer that doesn't respond to platinum chemo-drugs? Or is it you didn't follow the doctor's advice?
But for everything else, evidence shows the mortgage interest tax deduction actually raises housing prices, and federally-backed student loans have contributed (but aren't solely responsible) for the rapid rise in college tuition.
Most people who go to colleges and incur student loans are just C students looking to party.
GhostofTedKennedy wrote:
What's really stupid is my nephew who didn't go to the state U one hours drive from his home ($22k: tuition, books, fees) and instead paid out of state tuition at the U of Vermont at about $55k per year all in, to get a useless degree in history , because UVM was cool, hip, and more his style. (They gave him a degree even though he never finished his senior thesis). Works construction part time, lives with parents, in late 20s trying to pay off that loan. In the words of the philosopher Ron White: "ya can't fix stupid."
And yes, he wants his loan debt forgiven: Bernie Sanders was his hero.
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Why is a history degree useless? Let me guess, you're one of those people who think that the primary function of a university is job training/matching graduates to the labor market. If we had more history majors, maybe more people would have the sense to get really flipping scared when a major political candidate starts fanning the flames of ethno-nationalism.
One way to avoid massive student loans is to live with your parents and drive to school.
Room and board is the biggest cost of college.
It has nothing to do with he cost of education.
The problem isn't any individuals complaining about their loan.
It's the fact that so many people are paying on large loans and it is a drain on the economy as they would otherwise be putting that money towards consumption which drives the economy.