Student loan debt and the older generation

[SteyrAUG]

Yep!

If you're too stupid to find tax breaks and are paying too much in taxes...I don't care if you pay for Pakistan donkey sex changes!

Get a decent accountant and quit griping!

Seriously! I can't imagine anyone with a decent tax accountant griping about taxes..... I made good money last year and had no complaint with my tax bill....There are SO MANY WAYS to legitimately lower your tax burden to almost $0.....

Open your eyes fellas! It's right in front of you!

Really depends what state you live in. If you live in a place that also has state taxes, the allowable deductions change dramatically. Also there is a "prove it" rather than "list it" mentality regarding deductions.

[ABNAK]

To me the mentality of “work my ass off in a field I hate to take vacations and buy ‘toys’” seems backwards. Sounds like chips on shoulders from multiple posters.

Also seems like STEM field graduates or at least advocates have the most shit to talk about non STEM fields. Like seriously. Projection. Maybe you’re miserable or ultimately unfulfilled by and with your own sensible choices.

lol

No, I'm not miserable, far from it. I would never take a job I absolutely detested, but one I can deal with. Oh, and do it thoroughly, not half-stepping because I am not "living my dream".

I also am not paying off student loans.

“work my ass off in a field I hate to take vacations and buy ‘toys’” seems backwards. Sounds like someone's shooting for the stars maybe didn't work out?

[ABNAK]

I dig this. I do.
Money is a lot of things but it isn’t everything. Like, had I stuck with computers I would undoubtedly make more money but I would have not been content. I actually do enjoy what I do and I live comfortably.

Docsherm was right in a way, if you just sit on your ass you will stay at the bottom. Don’t be afraid to fail here and there. People will respect you for it.

I mean I can’t really think of anything else I would like to do for years on end. So I did get my dream job.

The problem with young people is they watch all these liars on YouTube who do a HD video of them driving a rented Lambo wearing expensive clothes and saying buzzwords that don’t mean anything. If they do anything they are doing some kind of Pyramid scheme that preys upon dummies thinking they can stunt their way to wealth.

No....no. You aren’t going to be a rapper. You aren’t going to shoot hoops. No you won’t get “discovered”.

Interesting you took less $$$ for something you actually like doing (compared to what you could be making). Of course it didn't put you in a shit-ton of debt either by doing so.

I took the steady, decent-paying route. Although it isn't my life's dream (nor something I pursue in my off time) I can nonetheless tolerate it while doing it well. I look at life in coldly practical terms; sometimes ya just gotta deal with shit. I have to say though, you being kind of "into" your job (while still making ends meet comfortably) is admirable.....buy a lottery ticket, you have an outlook the vast majority of working folks don't! More power to ya!

[AKDoug]

Yep!

If you're too stupid to find tax breaks and are paying too much in taxes...I don't care if you pay for Pakistan donkey sex changes!

Get a decent accountant and quit griping!

Seriously! I can't imagine anyone with a decent tax accountant griping about taxes..... I made good money last year and had no complaint with my tax bill....There are SO MANY WAYS to legitimately lower your tax burden to almost $0.....

Open your eyes fellas! It's right in front of you!

I am far from stupid. I spend a serious amount of coin on wise purchases to reduce my tax burden, but in the end there is still something to be paid. In the end, taxes are the taking of money I earned to pay for something for the public good. I don't consider paying off the debts of others to be a public good and it appears that we differ in that opinion.

You've brought up the oil industry a couple times. If you took out massive amounts of loans to profit from an industry that is well known for it's drastic ups and downs, that is on you. My brother has been in the working in the oil industry for 30 years. He stepped in knowing that the oil industry was an inconsistent place to earn a living, but the pay was excellent. He paid off his loans, he took his first years of massive amounts of income and set himself up so he was safe from the inevitable lay offs. Those lay offs came, but because he bought rental property and had other income, he weathered the storm. Unlike his co-workers that bought boats, airplanes, vacations, hookers and blow.

[apb2772]

To me looking back the last 10-15 years the cost of a higher education has turned into a greedy morass that has spiraled out of control, mostly fueled by federal student loans that throw wads of $$$ at children (Yes CHILDREN) to “Achieve their dreams”

That said there are more than a few factors at play here:

- American society as a whole has placed a social STIGMA on jobs/professions that require people to perform ANY type of physical labor, or get their hands dirty. Thus the push for the comfy 9-5 software/academic/admin jobs.

And yet there are many HVAC guys, plumbers, and ASE certified techs/mechanics out there that live more than comfortably in half million dollar homes...

- Colleges (Trade schools also) have indeed become greedy $$$$ sucking black holes for the admin of said institutions. They know that .Gov will dole out fat cash to naive young people with diminishing amounts of common sense, real world experience, and ever decreasing moral bearing. They shear these fat naive sheep for all their worth. The schools know the majority for the sheep will either drop out or take 1-2 years longer than “Planned” to attain their (Probably) worthless degree. If they take longer than planned there always seems to be a few more “Newly required classes” that need to be taken to obtain the degree that they were after to begin with - therefore costing more $$$ to pad the wallets of the educational admin pukes.

- Said institutions actively employ a plethora of ways to bend the truth and statistics of whatever field/degree path that Johnny/Jane find palatable and appealing. They are in the business of shoveling bullshit with a smile and selling you what you “Want”.

- 80% of the students/potential students and their “Best friends first/foremost” parents (That coddle/shield/enable their shitbird offspring) are clueless when it comes to choosing a decent career that actually provides solid monetary stability for the future.

- It has damn near become a cultural NECESSITY/right of passage for the newly freed children to blow $$$$ like there is no tomorrow whilst in collage - (New Mac book every year, clothes, cars, eating out every night, booze - etc, etc). This behavior is expected - as if its part and parcel of going to school post HS. Even if your kid has their head on straight the peer pressure alone is incredible to “Do as the Romans do...”. Its become an “American tradition”. “Play today - Pay tomorrow”.

- The industry and their “Switched on” HR/hiring departments (Idiots 85% of them). If you want a protected job/entrenched employment get into HR....

Anyhow - how stupid is it to require a Bachelor's degree for everything? A Bachelor's at this point is worth nothing - in most instances they might as well require a GED! And to boot it seems most of the time they don't even require a Bachelor's in an even remotely related field - just that “Youz gotta hav tha Bachelor'z or no job 4 U!!!”. I have seen people with 35 years plus in engineering management that currently work within the company get flat out rejected/told they don't qualify for the new position they have the exact time/grade and experience in. Only to then watch HR hire some nitwit with a BS in a 180deg non applicable field. THEN watch said new hire quit in less than 2 days and watch the whole process start over again.

- Employers are only as good as their HR hiring policies. If a given company allows their HR devision to run amok without any supervision reigning them in, that company is doomed until they straighten out their HR staff.

Ive seen ads targeted for GRADUATES that also require 3-5 years of experience in the field and 2 or more job references in a related field... WTF REALLY...? How in the hell is a newly minted 23 year old graduate supposed to EVER have those qualifications - its almost mathematically impossible. They've been in school full time for 4 years at a minimum! You might as well require Doctorates for every position including the Janitorial staff...

- Plus many more...


Heres my story:

At 15 I left home (1995] and struck out on my own due to serious family issues. During the next 2 years I attended the school of hard knocks and made some disastrous mistakes. I decided to get my act together and went to the local Army recruiter. He passed me on the the USAR recruiter who worked with me and I signed up.

Well, 3 months into basic my shoulder was injured and the .Mil bureaucracy decided that they were going to just let me languish in the SLAL (Sick,Lame,And Lazy) barracks and not fix me. After 2 months of that BS I pushed them to their limits and they admitted that the were not “Inclined” to fix my shoulder and that it “Prolly wasn't fixable”. I said F**k you I want out. Throughout the whole discharge process the admin called me a quitter and treated me like shit.

After coming home my dad died and I reconciled with the remainder of my family. It turned out I had 2 months left on my civilian insurance and that low and behold there WAS a well known procedure to repair my shoulder. I went under the knife, and after a year of learning how to use my right arm again I was 99.9% back to normal. After that I went back to school - took the tests and received my GED (Scoring VERY highly in everything but that bloody letters/#s cats & dogs math stuff).

After healing up getting my GED I followed my family half way across the country, bought a house, worked a ton of shitty jobs, and opened a business with my mother (A restaurant - never will I recommend owning/running one of THOES to anybody as long as I draw breath!)

When we had to shutter the restaurant I went to school (Gunsmith school - started in 2004). The admin there promised the moon and the stars - lied their ass off 1,000,000%. Job placement numbers were BS, Income $ projection the works all BS - unless you were a lucky .25% statistical anomaly.

I was stupid took out student loans and borrowed $$ and ran up 2 credit cards. (About $78K + in the hole total).

I was (And am) very good at gunsmithing. I moved back home in 2007 worked some more crap jobs, got a good job and was screwed out of it due to the internal family politics of said employer. (All the while still paying back the student loans - interest included).

In 2008 I got married and not 2 months later ended up going through more family turmoil (Legal this time) that screwed my life up good for the following year and change. (But was still paying on the Student loans +).

Finally in 2009 I landed a SOLID decent paying job that paired with my field of specialty like peas and carrots (Firearms/Marksmanship simulations) and WORKED MY ASS OFF al the while paying down the debits I had racked up like and idiot in school.

From this job I was recruited for a specialized overseas contract in the ME and lived in Beirut for 3 years doing my dream job and paid EVERYTHING off. Before I left that job (God I miss that job) we bought a house and 6 acres in bourbon country and was again back in debit - but in a better way and in a “Better kind of debit”.

Since then life has been an adventure - employment has been rough from time to time, and yes like most Americans I have much more unsecured debit than I am comfortable with. That said - that’s all on me and I DON’T EXPECT ANYBODY ELSE to cry for me and or bail me out if things go sideways for me.

I chose a career path that aligned with my hobby/interests and that choice almost led me to a life of mediocre pay at best and has almost completely ruined firearms for me in general.

Between working grueling crap jobs, dealing with terrible sociopathic/narcissistic bosses and employers and ALWAYS keeping my eyes peeled for a BETTER opportunity PLUS a bit of luck I’ve done OK.

In the grand scheme of things I ended up being in the top .5% - 1% of people in my VERY narrow and specific profession/field, and there are still MANY days in the week I want to say to hell with it and get a job pushing a broom somewhere.

As far as loan forgiveness goes NO - just no. Too many people out there have made it a CAREER to stay in school sucking down loan $$$ just to putter around aimlessly in the world of academia so they DO NOT have to actually make a choice and get a REAL job. I’ve known more than a few 35 year old + folks doing this very thing.

Or people picked stupid flowery/slick/easy degrees to which there was little to no potential employment opportunities. I know it sounds cliche, but “Doing your homework” first before choosing a degree is kinda a no brainer right?

And yes the whole (Insert ball focused/related sports club name here) that is the primary focus of and literally drives all aspects of certain institutions of higher education is to me beyond asinine. I get tradition, but things have progressed in a stupid direction - and to the highest degree.



A few things they don’t teach you in school:

- Life is not fair.

- There is never a guarantee that you will get your dream job, and or dream salary just because you finished their illustrious degree program.

- People in the workplace, in general are self serving. They have worries of their own and when push comes to shove will either step on your back and balls to get ahead or will resort to lying, cheating and sabotage to throw you under the bus and make themselves more appealing to the higher ups - even if it doesn't result in advancement “Just to make a social distinction”.

- Life is not fair.

- You may realize that your chosen career path is not what you expected at best, and something you inherently LOATHE at worst.

- You can only work so much overtime before Uncle Sam takes almost all of it, or you work yourself into ill health, or your home life goes all to hell.

- A line of credit/credit limit does NOT = available assets to spend.

- People are all deep down animals.

- People can, and will discriminate against a potential employee for almost ANY reason - seriously... I once witnessed THE most qualified “Had is shit wired tight” applicants for the given job NOT get the job where I used to work just because he was a casual Ravens fan - and my supervisor who was interviewing him was a die hard Steelers fan... I mean WFT over.?

- Life is not fair.

- Nobody worth associating with actually cares what car you drive, brand of sunglasses you are wearing, whether or not that’s THIS years LV handbag or last years - etc.

- That the “Jonses” everybody seems to try and be keeping up with are screwed up and have troubles of their own. Picturesque does NOT = stable or happy.

Oh and Life is not fair...

[Firefly]

All these Huge Facts

BROTHER!



I literally headbanged.

[AndyLate]

BROTHER!



I literally headbanged.

APB may not post often, but damn...

[flenna]

APB may not post often, but damn...

That should be required reading for all high school graduates.

[Adrenaline_6]

Points of correction
They airline industry tanked in ‘91 with Eastern and PanAm both going out of business. I graduated in ‘93 also and sounds like from the same school.
Piedmont and US Air did not go under.
US Air bought Piedmont in a leveraged by-out in ‘89 and did almost wreck both companies in the process.
US Air would later merge with America West in 2005 and then in 2015 US Airways bought American Airlines. (AA did not buy USAir as many believe)

Long time ago and I'm sure those brain cells died in my feeble mind.

Riddle Diddle Kite School?

Yup......

LOL...I have a degree from them myself that I don't use.

[SteyrAUG]

That should be required reading for all high school graduates.

Yep, that was next level mic drop shit. He should be teaching reality 101 at all high schools.