I've been harping on this for awhile...

Guard Dad

Guard Dad

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Student Debt Loans Up More Than 450% Since 2003
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/21/student-loan-debt-up-more-than-450-since-2003.html

Several things wrong

College education costs too much. I'm not sure what the answer is, but even while my kid was in school, I saw the cost of it go up dramatically every year. My suspicion is that we're paying for a lot of things that have little or nothing to do with the classes a student is taking, especially in the campus universities. To be clear; I don't want the government to get any more involved in this, that would only make things worse. I suspect there are some private enterprise solutions that would bring costs down.

It appears that people just aren't thinking ahead and putting money back for their kid's education. Even if you don't save for college, there are other solutions besides student loans. I've shared before that I wasn't able to put money back because of the business having some bad years, so I worked nights and weekends to pay for my kid's education. I didn't borrow a dime and we had zero college debt.

Though I think we're starting to see some signs of this changing; the economy of the last several years has rendered a lot of college degrees worthless...at least for the time being. There has to be jobs for these college grads to fill, and those jobs have not been there. There are scores of young college grads out there who are either unemployed or working near-minimum wage jobs because that pretty diploma is doing them no good whatsoever. And frankly, I think a lot of the degrees that people went after were poor choices. I suspect a lot of the blame for this goes to the colleges because many of them seem to care more about selling degrees than doing the right thing for students and the need of industry.

Most of my daughter' friends have massive college debts. $50,000 to $100,000 in some cases. Yet most of them are working as waitresses, nannies, etc. Nothing against those jobs, they are all honorable work. But they simply don't have the income potential to pay the massive debts these young people have.

These massive college debt burdens will typically be borne either by the young people with the degrees, or their parents. Both are problematic, but the former likely worse because it forces young people to begin their adult life with a huge anchor tied to them.

I see this as one of the next financial crises' to hit.

/rant off

Comment as you please
 
I read a while back that a survey of recent graduates showed that over half thought their debt would be forgiven soon and a third said that they wouldn't have gone to college if they didn't think it would be forgiven.

News flash. Obama isn't President any more. Of course since the Republicans just introduced a new Dream Act, I wouldn't put anything past them.
 
I did a research paper on this topic during my graduate program. Each time the federal government increased the monetary amount a student could borrow, universities increased their tuition rates accordingly. The additional money universities are getting are not going towards salary increases or increasing the number of classes to expand enrollments. The money is going towards aesthetics instead; those things that will increase more student applications.

My research also showed during the 60s, 70s, and early 80s how students could work full-time jobs during the summer making minimum wage and save enough to pay all their tuition for the next academic year. Today, a student would have to earn $37 an hour working full-time during the summer to have enough money to pay their tuition for the next academic year.

The bottom line is the federal government's generosity of increasing student loan amounts have resulted in a drastic increase in the cost of receiving a higher education.

The rate of borrowers who are in default or more than 90 days past due is approaching 40% and total student loan debt is around $1.4 trillion. The amount of student loan debt is now second to mortgage debt.
 
Boss 302 said:
I did a research paper on this topic during my graduate program.

The bottom line is the federal government's generosity of increasing student loan amounts have resulted in a drastic increase in the cost of receiving a higher education.

The rate of borrowers who are in default or more than 90 days past due is approaching 40% and total student loan debt is around $1.4 trillion. The amount of student loan debt is now second to mortgage debt.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

Someone during the time Obama was talking about increasing student aid pointed out the fact you stated above. The more money the Government pays, the more tuition goes up... well above that of any component of the consumer price index, including health care.
 
Far West said:
Thanks for the info.

Someone during the time Obama was talking about increasing student aid pointed out the fact you stated above. The more money the Government pays, the more tuition goes up... well above that of any component of the consumer price index, including health care.
Click to expand...

Isn't it a shame that more don't understand this.

This is one of the main differences between liberals and conservatives.
 
Boss 302 said:
I did a research paper on this topic during my graduate program. Each time the federal government increased the monetary amount a student could borrow, universities increased their tuition rates accordingly. The additional money universities are getting are not going towards salary increases or increasing the number of classes to expand enrollments. The money is going towards aesthetics instead; those things that will increase more student applications.

My research also showed during the 60s, 70s, and early 80s how students could work full-time jobs during the summer making minimum wage and save enough to pay all their tuition for the next academic year. Today, a student would have to earn $37 an hour working full-time during the summer to have enough money to pay their tuition for the next academic year.

The bottom line is the federal government's generosity of increasing student loan amounts have resulted in a drastic increase in the cost of receiving a higher education.

The rate of borrowers who are in default or more than 90 days past due is approaching 40% and total student loan debt is around $1.4 trillion. The amount of student loan debt is now second to mortgage debt.
Click to expand...
I went to college, the first year using a scholarship and the rest was borrowed at a bank because there was no way in 1981 that a student could pay all of their college while they were in school or between years. Maybe it depends on the state but in GA it was not as easy as you describe.
But I persisted and paid off my loans in 2 years of working. I didn't expect any handouts.
 
Guard Dad said:
Student Debt Loans Up More Than 450% Since 2003
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/07/21/student-loan-debt-up-more-than-450-since-2003.html

Several things wrong

College education costs too much. I'm not sure what the answer is, but even while my kid was in school, I saw the cost of it go up dramatically every year. My suspicion is that we're paying for a lot of things that have little or nothing to do with the classes a student is taking, especially in the campus universities. To be clear; I don't want the government to get any more involved in this, that would only make things worse. I suspect there are some private enterprise solutions that would bring costs down.

It appears that people just aren't thinking ahead and putting money back for their kid's education. Even if you don't save for college, there are other solutions besides student loans. I've shared before that I wasn't able to put money back because of the business having some bad years, so I worked nights and weekends to pay for my kid's education. I didn't borrow a dime and we had zero college debt.

Though I think we're starting to see some signs of this changing; the economy of the last several years has rendered a lot of college degrees worthless...at least for the time being. There has to be jobs for these college grads to fill, and those jobs have not been there. There are scores of young college grads out there who are either unemployed or working near-minimum wage jobs because that pretty diploma is doing them no good whatsoever. And frankly, I think a lot of the degrees that people went after were poor choices. I suspect a lot of the blame for this goes to the colleges because many of them seem to care more about selling degrees than doing the right thing for students and the need of industry.

Most of my daughter' friends have massive college debts. $50,000 to $100,000 in some cases. Yet most of them are working as waitresses, nannies, etc. Nothing against those jobs, they are all honorable work. But they simply don't have the income potential to pay the massive debts these young people have.

These massive college debt burdens will typically be borne either by the young people with the degrees, or their parents. Both are problematic, but the former likely worse because it forces young people to begin their adult life with a huge anchor tied to them.

I see this as one of the next financial crises' to hit.

/rant off

Comment as you please
Click to expand...
good for you for doing that but reality is the student needs to help pay for the education and you only had one child. That is one reason it's hard for people who have several.
The parents are not responsible for these massive debts. The adult child is. In GA selecting school for Hope Scholarship really helps alot. Also commuting the first 2 years helps instead of partying 5 hours away. Parents can lead children under 18 to options and educate them on responsiblity of money but unless they invest in it they are not going to care if they build up loans or not.
Parents should be saving for retirement because it's obviously harder to obtain and a reality that no one can get away from.
It is not true most college kids are waitressing with a degree. A college degree does help in the job market quite tremendously.
No one forces an adult (after age 18) to go in debt for their simple pleasures without having the ability to acknowledge they may have to do without for a while.
I know some parents think they are children through age 26 but that is a little crazy. If they get a financial anchor tied on them, it's their own fault for not making good financial choices.
I think sometimes parents tie the anchor and don't know when to let a child become an adult. Honestly, we send people over 18 to war so I would think at 18 they can make other serious choices as an adult.
 
J-man said:
BINGO!!! That's what has fueled a lot of the recent debt run-up but nobody is talking about it.
Click to expand...
actually the high schools start talking in 9th grade.
I attended many meetings and my kids were given info on scholarships, private and public. They chose not to take it seriously.
One now has a masters degree in forensic accounting and is not waitressing.
The other is all over the map because he lies and lied to staff at the college and moves from one place to another like his dad and now 31 and still not making a living .
He got side tracked in the romance of the recruiters that walked the high school floors selling military promises and he took it and found out most of it was not quite exactly how he was told.
Kids/ and adults have to learn their choices have consequences. If they don't they go on to become the same even decades later, with noncommittal attitudes and no sense of financial spending. Some don't still know what they want to do in their life. Its sad.
 
Mrs. Foxmeister said:
good for you for doing that but reality is the student needs to help pay for the education
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, it's a case by case situation.

The cost of going to an actual university these days is far too high for a kid waiting tables to make much of a dent in. So it just isn't feasible for a young person to work their way through that kind of a college. Maybe a community college or trade school, but not a state university. Just estimating, but I spent somewhere between $75,000 and $1000,000 for five years of college. Working a job bagging french fries isn't going to earn that kind of jack.

Now, I do agree that the kid should work and do what they can instead of getting a totally free ride. My daughter worked 2 and 3 jobs the whole time she was in school. She paid for her own gas, some of her clothes, her "running around" expenses, and once she moved out she paid all her bills for that. I just paid for tuition and books. She fully understood and appreciated the sacrifice dad made.
 
Guard Dad said:
Not necessarily, it's a case by case situation.

The cost of going to an actual university these days is far too high for a kid waiting tables to make much of a dent in. So it just isn't feasible for a young person to work their way through that kind of a college. Maybe a community college or trade school, but not a state university. Just estimating, but I spent somewhere between $75,000 and $1000,000 for five years of college. Working a job bagging french fries isn't going to earn that kind of jack.

Now, I do agree that the kid should work and do what they can instead of getting a totally free ride. My daughter worked 2 and 3 jobs the whole time she was in school. She paid for her own gas, some of her clothes, her "running around" expenses, and once she moved out she paid all her bills for that. I just paid for tuition and books. She fully understood and appreciated the sacrifice dad made.
Click to expand...
I encouraged mine to choose a school that has Hope scholarship so tuition was covered. I don't know if you are against Hope scholarship but if they want to use some gambling money to pay for college that's a better choice than other things.
I helped with 1/3 and they were responsible for 1/3 however they wanted to do it. Actually a student loan is not a bad debt. The interest is the lowest and they get to find out what it is like to pay back an investment in their education. Sometimes no matter what you do you will end up with my son who gets easily side tracked into believing everythings new for about 3 months and then on to something else. He was very immature to say the least.

I had no ability nor would I if I had paid that much money for an adult child to attend college.
I didn't bag fries by the way. Like I said, if they are hell bent on going to a private college and living in a condo out of town. Yeah, that's about right but my kids knew my family was not made of that fiber. My dad could have helped some but he didn't in my education but you can bet your bottom dollar he guided me through making adult choices including attending any scholarship events to help myself pay for college.
I worked with a doctor who said he could have paid all that easily but he did the same with his kids.

If you are going to a university IN STATE, making the option to stay near to home and making good grades to get the Hope scholarship, it shouldn't break anyones' bank account like that. I'm glad they are raised because today I am in worse financial shape than then and not stable which makes a huge difference.

I think alot of parents together or not, are divorcing, and in an unstable environment (not talking about yours) but honestly in general population where there are 3 or 4 kids by 2 fathers or whatever, they have lost the sense of accountability, lost a sense of who they really want to be, and also social media is not helping at all to distract them from reality vs. virtual unreality.
There are adults that struggle to have committments to real reality in the real world not in some secluded room of a virtual world only. They lose out too on consistency and making decisions, and being accountable. It's really a mess. And it really affects their relationships or lack of, their opportunities to see the real world, and interaction with real people.
Peer pressure extends way beyond teen years.
 
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