Student Loans – The Peanut Gallery

Mandi Woodruff | Jun. 7, 2013 | Business Insider

By the time Ken Ilgunas was wrapping up his last year of undergraduate studies at the University of Buffalo in 2005, he had no idea what kind of debt hole he’d dug himself into.

He had majored in the least marketable fields of study possible –– English and History –– and had zero job prospects after getting turned down for no fewer than 25 paid internships.

“That was a wake-up call,” he told Business Insider. “I had this huge $32,000 student debt and at the time I was pushing carts at Home Depot, making $8 an hour. I was just getting kind of frantic.”

Back then, student loans had yet to become the front page news they are today. Ilgunas could have simply deferred his loans or declared forbearance. He also could have asked his parents (who were more than willing to help) for a leg up. He could have thrown up his hands and gone to grad school until the job market bounced back.

Instead, he moved to Alaska and spent two years paying back every dime. And when he enrolled at Duke University for graduate school later, he lived out of his van to be sure he wouldn’t have to take out loans again.

“I had no idea what I was getting into at the time. I didn’t even know what interest was when I was 17,” he said. “I just think that’s awfully indicative of the incredibly poor personal finance education young people have at that time in their lives.”

In his book, “Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom,“ Ken chronicles his journey out of debt.

He was kind enough to share his story with us this week.

Click here to see how he used a van and creativity to live debt-free >

Peanut Gallery: College isn’t what it used to be!

My purpose in going to college was to become employable and self-sufficient… in other words, to “get a job” and “get a life.” And I did.

I graduated with a degree that was in demand, recruiters came to campus for interviews, and I eventually received three good job offers. And I was not the brightest star in the academic universe. Best of all, however, I met my future wife along the way.

I ended up with a good job, moved out of my parent’s home, and got married a couple of years later. For me, the benefits of going to college far outweighed the costs.

But no more. Graduation rates have dropped, tuition has soared, student debt has skyrocketed, and many graduates with useless degrees (or no degrees at all) are unemployable. And, sadly, many graduates today are not marriageable for a variety of reasons.

Didn’t anyone ask: “What were you thinking?”

The article below should give parent’s with teens cause to pause. These days, college is a very expensive flight from reality that frequently ends in a crash landing. It’s not a flight you want to board unless you know exactly where it’s going… and what to expect when you get there.

______________________________

One third of ‘millennials’ regret going to college
May 25, 2013 / Rick Moran / American Thinker

What they “regret” is financing their four year hiatus from reality with student loans.

Forbes:

Here’s an indication of how burdensome student loans have become: About one-third of millennials say they would have been better off working, instead of going to college and paying tuition.

That’s a according to a new Wells Fargo WFC +0.57% study which surveyed 1,414 millennials between the ages of 22 and 32. More than half of them financed their education through student loans, and many say the if they had $10,000 the “first thing” they’d do is pay down their student loan or credit card debt.

That’s no surprise when you consider student borrowing topped the $100 billion threshold for the first time in 2010, and total outstanding loans exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2011. Student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S. which stands at about $798 billion. Continue reading “One third of ‘millennials’ regret going to college – American Thinker Re-Blog” →