Please do the math
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| Sun, 11-08-2009 - 5:06pm |
There is something that is bothering me. It is the amount of student loans that people are taking out. I have seen some posters lately that have $70 to $80 even a hundred or more grand in student loans plus credit card debt, and a mortgage or some combination of the above.
How much money do you have to make to actually pay those student loans back? I can understand if you are going to be a doctor or lawyer or some really high paying job to be able to afford to pay this off. What doesn't make sense to me is getting into that much debt for a job that pays 40 grand a year. It would take forever to pay these loans back. From what I have learned you cannot bankrupt student loans.
Do people really sit down and do the the math before they plunge into something like this? As far as what people make in the industry they want to go into, how much they will need in loans, and how long it will take to get out of debt?
Don't get me wrong, my bf has loans. And I don't consider them small. It is something we are working on. He could have had much more debt had he not worked during the summers and lived cheaply etc. We have been able to pay off half of the total in the last year(in a couple months it will be half).
I guess case in point people don't do things with a lot of planning. I got divorced and didn't sit down and figure out how much debt I would be in when it happened. As it turned out I had no idea I would even be in debt(then I got my surprise when I bought this business). I'm not saying everyone is perfect(including me) but I was just wondering on the thought process involved in a major venture like this? Do we place to much value on education being good debt? I know it would, and does stress me out as much as other debt, although not a mortgage for some reason. Maybe that is because you have something tangible you can sell for (hopefully) what you put into it if you want to.
It seems people with these large debts are having an awful time?
Thoughts on this ladies (and Duke)?



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Just another POV here (and forgive me - I've been stuck in bed for 2-3 weeks). Before I start, let me say that we do not have student loans or any school-related debt at all.
DH has spent a whopping $600 on his education after high school. It was one of those correspondence schools. At the time it was a HUGE investment, but his grandfather was so proud (and probably shocked) that he forked over the tuition as a surprise.
A decade-plus later, he hasn't put any more money into school. But his income is low six figures and he's making more in an hour (on salary, so average it, LOL) than he did in a decent week when we got married. And working way fewer hours. He worked his way up on an odd path to be the service manager at a dealership, and frankly his salary is higher than average for the position both in regional and in national statistics. His job "should" require a BA in business or management, but needless to say, he doesn't have one.
He employs guys who mostly went to trade school and states frankly and emphatically that our 9 year old does outperform them in knowledge (although he lacks in strength, obviously). He frequently states that school would have been a total waste of time and money and he's thrilled that he didn't go. Of course, his atypical path to the top wouldn't easily be duplicated, but it WAS the result of working hard and paying attention to what went on in the business.
I, on the other hand, went to college. I was a biochemistry and biology double major. I don't have loans because my dad paid cash as I went, and for that I am SOOO grateful. But now I'm a writer, and I took the last college class that had anything to do with writing before I was even out of high school as part of my dual enrollment. I've never had a job before, but writing earns a good second income that we NEED but never planned to have. (I make more than some 9-5ers I know). First and foremost, I'm a stay-at-home-mom.
Interestingly, my in-laws - who really wanted DH to be the type of kid who would go to college - have actually told DH that he makes way more than SIL ever will, and she spent 6 years in college and left with about 3x more in student loans than she could really hope to make in a year, even after years of experience. Having MIL admit that was never, never expected - even if it's stating the obvious.
I know we walked a weird path and I don't think anyone could PLAN for things to work out the way they did, but I offer it up as an example that there's more than one way to make it. BTW, if DH HAD gone to school to do what he's doing, he would not only not make as much as he does now and have student loans on top of it, but he wouldn't have the work experience in other aspects of the field to make him HIGHLY employable. I hope nothing happens to his job, of course, but he's got a job offer coming in just about every week and he's fully equipped to work for himself - he'd need to pay $50 for a business license, but he's already got more supplies and equipment than a lot of the smaller shops in the area.
I know many, many people who don't believe there's an answer beyond education but not all education comes at such a high price. It's something to keep in mind! We firmly believe in apprenticeships for the kids when they have an interest in something (part of the reason my 9yo knows more than some grown men techs about fixing trucks) and we'll continue that as the kids get older. There's no rule that college has to come immediately after high school, and I would rather they have real life experience in a field before they put so much money into pursuing it.
I know I don't have a popular opinion, but it is what it is. =c)
FIVE KIDS.
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