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>If you are indebted for life because of this, its your own fault. So you managed to pay off a college degree with no parental support, no scholarships, no gra

>If you are indebted for life because of this, its your own fault. So you managed to pay off a college degree with no parental support, no scholarships, no grants, no subsidized federal loans, and at an interest rate of 4%+? What's your secret? Be born before the 90s?

yummyfajitas 11y ago
If you consume only 50% of what you earn, you can pay it off in 2-3 years. I consume far less than 50% of what I earn.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
  Good for you that you can exert self-discipline and have a high paying job. The rest of us have trouble finding work after graduation (engineers with masters degrees that can't find anything more than 45k) or are paid so poorly that they have no hope of ever paying off their loans (teachers in my high school were still paying their loans in their 50s and 60s, mostly because they wanted to procreate and housing in my town is very expensive). Or maybe you're right. Maybe it is their fault entirely. Maybe if it's too expensive to be a teacher, nobody should train to be one. Maybe if it's too expensive to have children, then nobody should have offspring. "Just be as perfect as me" is poor social policy. At best, it's merely smug advice.
  - yummyfajitas 11y ago
    People live on $20k, so that engineer can certainly pay down his loan in a few years. He is just unwilling to consume as little as his parents did.
    - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
      More: he is just unwilling to consume as little as his parents did at the same stage of life. That is, I never saw what my parents' life was like just after they graduated from college. When I was born, they were several years past that. When I was old enough to remember much, they were pretty much into their peak earning phase. If I expect that lifestyle just after graduating from college, yes, I'm going to have a lot of trouble paying down college loans...
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
    - rmxt 11y ago
      Is it too far-fetched to conceive that there might only be sub-optimal decisions to choose from for some people? Not saying that this is strictly the case for all people, but I certainly can imagine that there are some for whom "parental support, scholarships, grants and subsidized federal loans" are hard to come by. In that case, is it still completely the fault of the individual? What do you suggest that these people do instead of taking out -- what a financially-aware person knows to be -- a bad loan?
cryoshon 11y ago
Psst... interest rates on some federal student loans are 7%, and can go much higher for private loans.

yummyfajitas 11y ago

If you consume only 50% of what you earn, you can pay it off in 2-3 years. I consume far less than 50% of what I earn.

rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
Good for you that you can exert self-discipline and have a high paying job. The rest of us have trouble finding work after graduation (engineers with masters degrees that can't find anything more than 45k) or are paid so poorly that they have no hope of ever paying off their loans (teachers in my high school were still paying their loans in their 50s and 60s, mostly because they wanted to procreate and housing in my town is very expensive). Or maybe you're right. Maybe it is their fault entirely. Maybe if it's too expensive to be a teacher, nobody should train to be one. Maybe if it's too expensive to have children, then nobody should have offspring. "Just be as perfect as me" is poor social policy. At best, it's merely smug advice.
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  People live on $20k, so that engineer can certainly pay down his loan in a few years. He is just unwilling to consume as little as his parents did.
  - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
    More: he is just unwilling to consume as little as his parents did at the same stage of life. That is, I never saw what my parents' life was like just after they graduated from college. When I was born, they were several years past that. When I was old enough to remember much, they were pretty much into their peak earning phase. If I expect that lifestyle just after graduating from college, yes, I'm going to have a lot of trouble paying down college loans...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
  - rmxt 11y ago
    Is it too far-fetched to conceive that there might only be sub-optimal decisions to choose from for some people? Not saying that this is strictly the case for all people, but I certainly can imagine that there are some for whom "parental support, scholarships, grants and subsidized federal loans" are hard to come by. In that case, is it still completely the fault of the individual? What do you suggest that these people do instead of taking out -- what a financially-aware person knows to be -- a bad loan?

cryoshon 11y ago

Psst... interest rates on some federal student loans are 7%, and can go much higher for private loans.