Student loan debt and the older generation

[signal4l]

My seventeen-year-old son is looking at colleges. $40,000 is the average cost of tuition, room and board for the smaller, private schools. Of course, that's where he wants to go

The majority of the degree programs offered by the colleges we looked at are so left-leaning and out of touch with reality it's frightening.

I'm strongly in favor of trade schools. I hold the old-fashioned belief that it's a good idea to get out of college without crushing debt and with some employable skills

[SteyrAUG]

Lack of a degree is not a lack of knowledge. I was fixing COBOL code as a summer job as a teen and I am here to tell you that you don’t need a degree to do my job (it certainly helps later). I don’t regret college, but it really has become diluted with the go nowhere degrees that got all too popular since the 80s.

Still, as it stands most adults don’t have a college degree at all.

The people I'm talking about couldn't change a car tire and I don't mean the physical difficulty, I mean it is too complicated a process for them.

[thepatriot2705]

The people I'm talking about couldn't change a car tire and I don't mean the physical difficulty, I mean it is too complicated a process for them.

I’ve helped over 100 people change tires on the side of the highway since 2011(closest call was a semi on the white line). Too many damn males can’t change a damn tire.

As for the topic on hand, i had my college paid for thanks to my mom working at a private university. I’m extremely grateful for that. If I did it again, I would have gone to trade school. Why? Because I’m not even using a degree which is practical and typically lucrative

[Averageman]

Do you think this would continue if we required classes in Personal Finance in our High Schools?
I couldn't/didn't have any personal credit until I was in my early 30's. No credit cards, no atm cards, I paid for everything cash in hand. Most of that was because I chose to live in Germany when the exchange rate was great and tried to never leave. So when I got back to the States, I had some money and avoided a lot of traps along the way.
Bounced one check along the way, but I will be sixty pretty soon. Not bad at all.

[AKDoug]

I'm in the age group that this article is about. The only thing I see in that article is a bunch of whiny, irresponsible adults.

They also mention adults in this age bracket owing for their kids' education. I still can't fathom why people do that. If you couldn't save for your kids' education, why do you think you'll be able to pay off a loan for it? It sucks, but it's still totally possible to work your way through college and pay for it yourself. My oldest daughter is doing it. Nope, it's not an expensive college, but she's had zero issues in getting employment with her community college associates degree. She turned that degree into a decent job that is assisting her with her bachelors. She's chipping away at it and I'm proud of her.

[mRad]

I'm in the age group that this article is about. The only thing I see in that article is a bunch of whiny, irresponsible adults.

They also subtilty mention adults in this age bracket owing for their kids' education. I still can't fathom why people do that. If you couldn't save for your kids' education, why do you think you'll be able to pay off a loan for it? It sucks, but it's still totally possible to work your way through college and pay for it yourself. My oldest daughter is doing it. Nope, it's not an expensive college, but she's had zero issues in getting employment with her community college associates degree. She turned that degree into a decent job that is assisting her with her bachelors. She's chipping away at it and I'm proud of her.

I personally worked full-time or more and attained two bachelors degrees owing zero dollars at both graduations. It is certainly possible. In fact, it should be the norm.


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[SteyrAUG]

Do you think this would continue if we required classes in Personal Finance in our High Schools?

Used to be called Home Economics, I took it my sophomore year. I even learned a few things I didn't already know.

[Honu]

Kinda like when they were calling the home loans predatory not to long ago

Greed and or stupidity a bit of both

Agree on going to be a lawyer or doctor BUT those folks are usually smart and understand

the ones mentioned like I am going to study fluid gender fish of the amazon are not so smart and the $300,000 degree must be sold to them with some kinda this is the future ? No idea but the idiocy anymore nothing surprises me any more

[SteyrAUG]

Kinda like when they were calling the home loans predatory not to long ago

Greed and or stupidity a bit of both

It was actually Fuct.

First it was you wont give low income families a chance at the American dream and it's RACISTS.

So then in order to NOT BE RACIST, they were qualifying people who made $30,000 a year for $300,000 which of course made housing prices go crazy and what once sold for $80,000 was now selling for $150,000 and rather than buy a house for $120,000 they were buying houses for $280,000 because that is what they qualified for. Never mind the economics of buying a house WAY out of your budget based on income, they felt if they qualified for that amount that is the amount they should shop with.

This created the bubble and now people who made $30,000 a year could qualify for $400,000 homes based upon the projected retail price of the house 10 years into the future. At one point people were getting 125% loans which meant if the house was selling for $200,000 the bank would loan just about anyone $250,000 to buy it because all house prices were trending up and the house would be worth $250,000 within 10 years so it was seen as low risk.

Then came the flippers who bought houses for $100,000 and put in granite countertops and a couple other "most requested features" and then sold the house for $180,000 even though they might not have invested much more than $10,000 in materials and a months work. Given that some people don't even make $70,000 a year much less every month it was a bubble that anyone with a brain had to know can't last forever.

And when it came to an end, people who bought $300,000 homes that were now worth $120,000 still couldn't pay their mortgage because they only made $30,000 a year. People who bought a house for $80,000 with the intent to flip it usually ended up living in it when they lost their ass on evaporated profit potential. Banks and investment groups that provided those "non racist" loans to buyers who were shockingly unqualified got bailed out with the tax payer left holding the ball.

Some of those unqualified buyers simply stopped paying their mortgage and lived in their $300,000 homes "rent free" for up to two years in some cases all the while banking the money that would have been going to the mortgage payment and they ended up with a huge windfall that let them actually buy nice houses in nice neighborhoods when the prices had decreased by 70% or more.

The only people that got hurt were those who bought within their budget and were 50% or more paid off and suddenly their home was worth half of what they paid on it. They were too invested to walk away or go into foreclosure and squat in it for a couple years, but it would be another 10 years until their house broke even and was actually worth what they paid for it maybe 20 years ago. So basically those who did it the right way and paid their mortgage for 20 years on a 30 year note earned nothing from what is for most people their largest investment.

I always explain to people that I can easily finance a new Ferrari, but I cannot afford to own a Ferrari. Those who are savvy quickly have an "aha" moment and understand what was so dangerous about the housing market back then, other people look at me and say "but if you qualify for financing you CAN buy a Ferrari." And those are the same people who bought houses that cost 10 times their annual income.

[teufelhund1918]

I graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Studies with majors in aircraft maintenance and management. The airline industry tanked about the time I graduated and there were no jobs to be had for years afterwards. Airlines like Piedmont and USAir went under flooding the industry with skilled workers. I left owing over $48,000 in student loans... a tidy sum at that time. I found work after graduating, but only at minimum wage and had to defer paying on my loans all the while interest was building on the loan. At least a job that would help pay my student loans back which were $450+ a month at that time. After over a year and a half of job hunting, I finally got a good paying job at a coal fired steam power plant, nothing to do with my degree at all. I worked all the overtime I could putting in 70-80 hour weeks living in a s@!#y little rental and driving a cheap car while applying every bit of income I could to pay off my loan. I finally did it after 6 years!

I say all the above because I was grateful to have help from my folks when the loans didn't cover all my tuition. My loans went to pay the tuition for my education. But I know from being there in college and seeing that a lot of students took out student loans when they didn't need the money for tuition. They used the funds to purchase cars, party, pay rent in upscale apartments, etc. That is why when I see this stuff these days about student loan forgiveness, I get burned up. It will only encourage those that don't need the loans to take out every penny they can if they know they don't have to pay it back. They need to hold these people accountable for how those loans are used IMHO. But they also need to make the loans easier to repay once someone graduates from college.