Student Loans

[PHANTASM]

Interesting Story...

 

 

When I graduated from college in 1992 (yeah I'm old) I had $18,500 in student loans and credit card debt. After college I moved with my grandparents (my parents live in a remote area) and worked like a lunatic at several low-wage jobs in St. Louis for a year until I landed a decent job.

 

It paid $36,000 a year and had full medical benefits (entirely paid by the company) and it had a company-matched IRA. This was normal in the 1990s.

 

I worked there for three years and paid off my entire student loan and credit card debt. I also got an apartment ($230 a month for a one bedroom place by the city), and a decent used car ($1300). I shopped at Aldis (a discount store in the US and Europe) with a weekly budget of $40 a week for food. By 1996 I was investing surplus income in the stock market, and by 2000 I had bought my first house, a three-bedroom, finished basement, two-car garage, ranch-style house on a lake, for $85,900.

 

In 2009 I got laid off and was out of work for an entire year.

 

I got a new job in February of this year. It was 40 miles away on the other side of the city. It took me 1 1/2 hours to get there each way. The pay was low, and there were no benefits. My coworkers were utter morons (smart people quit this place).

 

A month ago I finally found a decent job and now things are back to "normal" - I am making $18 an hour. No benefits of course, but it is only a twenty minute drive and it is in my field.

 

I realized that I am making the same amount I made back in 1993, only with no health insurance.

 

I miss the 20th century.

[Desu]

that video might be my future few years later.

[JoeDirt]

I had 2 jobs when I was in high school, 2 jobs when I went to college and university and had 0 debt when I finished. I am lucky to be employed in a field where there is not a lot of competition, there is about 100 people in the world with the same certifications as me. I laugh at my friends that were lazy to work in university and are still paying their debt 10 years after graduation and still living with their parents.

[Butterz]

Isn't there a HECS system in the US?

 

Cause in Australia, the government pays for your undergraduate study, and when you get a decent job (it may be 1 year later, or 20 years later) you start to pay off the HECS as a part of your tax. Isn't there a system like that?

[PHANTASM]

Isn't there a HECS system in the US?

 

Cause in Australia, the government pays for your undergraduate study, and when you get a decent job (it may be 1 year later, or 20 years later) you start to pay off the HECS as a part of your tax. Isn't there a system like that?

 

No, we have the worst system on earth for financing college. You apply for school, get accepted, then fill out your FAFSA application. Based on your parent's income, and how much money you made, if any, you get grants (free money) and/or loans. I got half loans and half grants when I was in college. I worked in high school, so my contribution was 85% of my income towards my education cost. Which is ridiculous because taxes are 15%, so you are working for free literally. I had to take out loans to cover the money I had already earned and spent the year before in my senior year of college.

 

I was pissed off because I had busted my ass washing dishes at a restaurant and painting. So every penny I made working was expected to have been saved to be applied to my college cost, but if I had not worked it would have been given to me as a grant. Needless to say, I stopped working after that, and just went off the grid to make money. And borrowed money off credit cards when I had to too. I had to learn how to make money without a job. Some education lol.

 

I would have been better off working, but they deduct all your earnings from the next year's grants, if you are lucky to get any grants at all.

 

And all you can get are minimum wage jobs anyway, you are better off studying then working.

 

When I graduated i was too broke to go to grad school, I had great grades but could not afford it and my family is too poor to help. You can defer the student loan payments if you are in grad school, but the grad school stipend is only $15,000 a year and you cannot survive on that PLUS pay minimum payments on the credit debt you get just going to college.

 

It's a broken system.

[Duckie]

It's a broken system.

 

 

Its true. Its too bad.

[Pegasus™]

In reality..It is what it is..but in life is not about how much money you make or the material things you acquire,it's about loving others by helping others in need. It's not about what you have but what you do with what you have that matter. also you might not have best material things in the world..but you always have the best people surround you that chose you for who you are.

[Thoracic]

In reality..It is what it is..but in life is not about how much money you make or the material things you acquire,it's about loving others by helping others in need. It's not about what you have but what you do with what you have that matter. also you might not have best material things in the world..but you always have the best people surround you that chose you for who you are.

 

so true, reminds me of something I heard at a funeral years ago and important to keep life in perspective.

[Desu]

Funny, In Georgia, we got a system called HOPE Scholarship

as long as your gpa is over 3.0, your college tuition is paid full by the state.

 

That is only if you do not go to private....private, it only pays for your books

[<Jose>]

Hopefully I wont have such a bad time with the loan company :S

[PHANTASM]

Hopefully I wont have such a bad time with the loan company :S

 

Not in UK. Only ultra-capitalistic USA is so sadistic to its young people.

 

extreme communism = North Korea, USSR

 

extreme capitalism = pre-1945 Germany, modern USA

 

all failed states

[Thoracic]

Not in UK. Only ultra-capitalistic USA is so sadistic to its young people.

 

extreme communism = North Korea, USSR

 

extreme capitalism = pre-1945 Germany, modern USA

 

all failed states

 

 

Indeed, the US government issues the majority of school loans now due to the great recession; one thing I don't like about their process is they will capitalize the interest (add it back to principle) while you are in school for graduate loans so if you don't pay them while in school your balance will be higher but you don't actually owe payments until 6 months after graduation. I don't think this is the standard but for those loans above a certain amount (18k) I think. Best not to get them in the first place if possible.