4 ms·

I took out around $20k in loans to study literature starting in 2001. Graduated in 2005. Rent was $150 a month. Played a lot of poker and disc golf. Studied and

I took out around $20k in loans to study literature starting in 2001. Graduated in 2005. Rent was $150 a month. Played a lot of poker and disc golf. Studied and learned a bit. Had a 75% scholarship to help with tuition. Had a $300/semester book stipend as part of that and just bought penny books off Amazon (one of the benefits of an English degree) and pocketed the difference. Basically for 5-8% or so of my (estimated) lifetime I was completely free to goof around. Great value for someone who dislikes working. Consolidated the loans after I graduated at 1.5% interest. Finished paying them off in 2021 with the Biden Bucks. Pretty sure that kind of deal doesn’t exist anymore.

Avicebron 2y ago
I'm trying to figure out if you missed a 0 at the end of your rent...
- paulcole 2y ago
  Lol no it was $150. This was Gainesville, Florida and I split a horrible studio apartment with a friend of mine. It was located in a low lying area and once after a tropical storm we had to wade through hip-deep water to get to class (the apartment itself was miraculously high and dry). Coming home one night I saw a little gator swimming along near me as I trudged through it. After we graduated my roommate moved to Manhattan for an engineering job. His month’s rent up there was significantly more than he paid for a year in college. I ended up moving to Portland, Oregon in 2007 and my first rent here was $550. Now in 2024, I’ve finally tacked on that missing 0 and my rent is now around $1500.
  - downut 2y ago
    1985-87 my partner and I rented a just fine spacious 1 bdrm with a 10 min walk to the Math building on the East side of Gville for $200/month. We both had graduate school stipends. The 4 apartments all had cool tenants. Geckos in the stairwell. It was glorious, even w/o AC. I ended up finishing at ASU. This highly educated ChE/Math imbecile took out a $12K student loan near the end because it was "free"[1]. Got to silicon valley and started learning the maths about house loans and income tax interactions and took a glance at the student loan interest payments (something like 6%? I don't remember) and freaked out. Paid it down immediately. Needless to say we advised the daughter different. [1] The application was like: name, address, and school. Less than a page.
- gfs 2y ago
  I don't think $150 is out of the question over twenty years ago with roommates and a LCOL region.
- sevensor 2y ago
  Big state U is in the middle of nowhere, and in those years I was paying closer to $250, but I could see if you were willing to compromise on quality or quantity of personal space, getting that down to $150 without even hitting bottom.
- giantg2 2y ago
  I remember rent was $1800 per semester for my friends, and they split that 3 ways. So about $600 for 4 months, or $150/month. To be fair, it was a bit of a dump. But that's less you have to worry about when having parties. I had a slightly nicer single room and closer to campus with parking and it was $1200 per semester, or $300 month. This was slightly over a decade ago. I was curious and did a quick check - seems the single rooms are about $600/mo and I saw a 3 bed for $800/mo. Still really cheap considering all the inflation that happened over the past decade.
- saltylicorice 2y ago
  In 2001-2005, my rent was $120-$160/mo in a low cost area of the US. The places weren't fancy but they were good enough and safe. Tuition started around 4k/yr, but had worked its way up to 8k/yr by the time I graduated (which I thought was unaffordable).
- wheels 2y ago
  My apartment shared with three other roommates in that era was $750 (four bedrooms and a giant living room in a trendy neighborhood of a decent sized city). So $150 checks out.
grecy 2y ago
Woah, you were paying off that debt with interest from 2005 to 2021? Damn I’m happy to live in a country with free university.
- paulcole 2y ago
  1.5% interest is well under the rate of return I got in the market over that period. I was making minimum payments the whole time. The payments were tiered somehow. I think I was paying around $50 a month when I graduated and that ended up at like $140 by the time I paid it off.
- dagw 2y ago
  I too live in country with free university, and yet I'm also paying off student loans. Tuition may have been free, but rent and food wasn't.
- linotype 2y ago
  Now do wages and taxes.
  - grecy 2y ago
    and healthcare and safety
    - paulcole 2y ago
      US is outrageously safe. People are just terrible at assessing actual risk vs. perceived risk. What specifically do you think is unsafe about the US? Healthcare, yah that kinda sucks. We’ve got a really high ceiling and a really low floor. Other countries have a lower ceiling and a much higher floor. A significant problem in the US is that people don’t know how to navigate the health care system. That raises the floor quite a bit for the average person.
- lupusreal 2y ago
  Heh, I paid off all my student debt, about that much, with the starting bonus from my first job after school. America educations are basically free if you don't do some goofy shit like go into debt to study literature.
airstrike 2y ago
> Had a 75% scholarship to help with tuition.
- paulcole 2y ago
  State school was hella cheap (it was back when Florida’s lotto money mostly went to scholarships for in-state students). I think full sticker price would’ve been around $2500/year for tuition+fees at the time? I also started with enough credits to be nearly to (the equivalent of being in) junior year and took the bare minimum credits to keep the scholarship.
  - pc86 2y ago
    I'm sorry the match doesn't even remotely work. $20k in loans over 4 years, when full sticker price was about $10k for the same 4 years and you had a 75% scholarship, and started as a junior? That plus it somehow taking you 20 years to pay $20k in loans makes this smell pretty fishy. The real question is why make something like this up?
    - paulcole 2y ago
      Impressive work, detective. 1. I took more in loans than I technically needed for school and spent it on living expenses like video games, gambling, fun stuff, etc. 2. I signed up for 4 classes a semester, often in things unrelated to my degree. Figured since I had 4 years of scholarship (and 4 years of loans available), I may as well just hang around and have fun. 3. By my math, (feel free to double check) 2021 minus 2005 is not 20. Loan payments didn’t start until after graduation. It was about $50 a month for minimum payments when I started paying and around $150 at the end. Don’t remember the exact way the payments increased over time. It was just steps, but not related to income. Any follow ups?
    - mlsu 2y ago
      At 1.5%, you should strive to make the absolute minimum payment on your loan. That is pretty much free money.
Izikiel43 2y ago
20 years to pay 20k$?
- pc86 2y ago
  Probably income-based repayment, based on the income of a job you could get in 2005 with a literature degree.
- paulcole 2y ago
  Not 20 years. Payment doesn’t start until graduation. Also, why not take as long as possible to pay it off at 1.5%?
- BertoldVdb 2y ago
  With a rate of 1.5%, paying the loan off might not be a smart move, as long as you don't mind not being fully debt free.

Avicebron 2y ago

I'm trying to figure out if you missed a 0 at the end of your rent...

paulcole 2y ago
Lol no it was $150. This was Gainesville, Florida and I split a horrible studio apartment with a friend of mine. It was located in a low lying area and once after a tropical storm we had to wade through hip-deep water to get to class (the apartment itself was miraculously high and dry). Coming home one night I saw a little gator swimming along near me as I trudged through it. After we graduated my roommate moved to Manhattan for an engineering job. His month’s rent up there was significantly more than he paid for a year in college. I ended up moving to Portland, Oregon in 2007 and my first rent here was $550. Now in 2024, I’ve finally tacked on that missing 0 and my rent is now around $1500.
- downut 2y ago
  1985-87 my partner and I rented a just fine spacious 1 bdrm with a 10 min walk to the Math building on the East side of Gville for $200/month. We both had graduate school stipends. The 4 apartments all had cool tenants. Geckos in the stairwell. It was glorious, even w/o AC. I ended up finishing at ASU. This highly educated ChE/Math imbecile took out a $12K student loan near the end because it was "free"[1]. Got to silicon valley and started learning the maths about house loans and income tax interactions and took a glance at the student loan interest payments (something like 6%? I don't remember) and freaked out. Paid it down immediately. Needless to say we advised the daughter different. [1] The application was like: name, address, and school. Less than a page.
gfs 2y ago
I don't think $150 is out of the question over twenty years ago with roommates and a LCOL region.
sevensor 2y ago
Big state U is in the middle of nowhere, and in those years I was paying closer to $250, but I could see if you were willing to compromise on quality or quantity of personal space, getting that down to $150 without even hitting bottom.
giantg2 2y ago
I remember rent was $1800 per semester for my friends, and they split that 3 ways. So about $600 for 4 months, or $150/month. To be fair, it was a bit of a dump. But that's less you have to worry about when having parties. I had a slightly nicer single room and closer to campus with parking and it was $1200 per semester, or $300 month. This was slightly over a decade ago. I was curious and did a quick check - seems the single rooms are about $600/mo and I saw a 3 bed for $800/mo. Still really cheap considering all the inflation that happened over the past decade.
saltylicorice 2y ago
In 2001-2005, my rent was $120-$160/mo in a low cost area of the US. The places weren't fancy but they were good enough and safe. Tuition started around 4k/yr, but had worked its way up to 8k/yr by the time I graduated (which I thought was unaffordable).
wheels 2y ago
My apartment shared with three other roommates in that era was $750 (four bedrooms and a giant living room in a trendy neighborhood of a decent sized city). So $150 checks out.

grecy 2y ago

Woah, you were paying off that debt with interest from 2005 to 2021? Damn I’m happy to live in a country with free university.

paulcole 2y ago
1.5% interest is well under the rate of return I got in the market over that period. I was making minimum payments the whole time. The payments were tiered somehow. I think I was paying around $50 a month when I graduated and that ended up at like $140 by the time I paid it off.
dagw 2y ago
I too live in country with free university, and yet I'm also paying off student loans. Tuition may have been free, but rent and food wasn't.
linotype 2y ago
Now do wages and taxes.
- grecy 2y ago
  and healthcare and safety
  - paulcole 2y ago
    US is outrageously safe. People are just terrible at assessing actual risk vs. perceived risk. What specifically do you think is unsafe about the US? Healthcare, yah that kinda sucks. We’ve got a really high ceiling and a really low floor. Other countries have a lower ceiling and a much higher floor. A significant problem in the US is that people don’t know how to navigate the health care system. That raises the floor quite a bit for the average person.
lupusreal 2y ago
Heh, I paid off all my student debt, about that much, with the starting bonus from my first job after school. America educations are basically free if you don't do some goofy shit like go into debt to study literature.

airstrike 2y ago

> Had a 75% scholarship to help with tuition.

paulcole 2y ago
State school was hella cheap (it was back when Florida’s lotto money mostly went to scholarships for in-state students). I think full sticker price would’ve been around $2500/year for tuition+fees at the time? I also started with enough credits to be nearly to (the equivalent of being in) junior year and took the bare minimum credits to keep the scholarship.
- pc86 2y ago
  I'm sorry the match doesn't even remotely work. $20k in loans over 4 years, when full sticker price was about $10k for the same 4 years and you had a 75% scholarship, and started as a junior? That plus it somehow taking you 20 years to pay $20k in loans makes this smell pretty fishy. The real question is why make something like this up?
  - paulcole 2y ago
    Impressive work, detective. 1. I took more in loans than I technically needed for school and spent it on living expenses like video games, gambling, fun stuff, etc. 2. I signed up for 4 classes a semester, often in things unrelated to my degree. Figured since I had 4 years of scholarship (and 4 years of loans available), I may as well just hang around and have fun. 3. By my math, (feel free to double check) 2021 minus 2005 is not 20. Loan payments didn’t start until after graduation. It was about $50 a month for minimum payments when I started paying and around $150 at the end. Don’t remember the exact way the payments increased over time. It was just steps, but not related to income. Any follow ups?
  - mlsu 2y ago
    At 1.5%, you should strive to make the absolute minimum payment on your loan. That is pretty much free money.

Izikiel43 2y ago

20 years to pay 20k$?

pc86 2y ago
Probably income-based repayment, based on the income of a job you could get in 2005 with a literature degree.
paulcole 2y ago
Not 20 years. Payment doesn’t start until graduation. Also, why not take as long as possible to pay it off at 1.5%?
BertoldVdb 2y ago
With a rate of 1.5%, paying the loan off might not be a smart move, as long as you don't mind not being fully debt free.