Day of Reckoning

[LDAHL]

I see that the government will restart collection of student loans today. The internet is full of cranks offering crank strategies to refuse paying, from claiming DOGE scrutiny violates their loan contracts to convoluted bankruptcy tactics. Others announce they will simply defy collection on a “they can’t get us all” basis.

I expect we will be seeing a rash of heartrending news stories about the suffering of the poor souls unfairly burdened with obligations they freely undertook.

[iris lilies]

Dave Ramsey has been counseling his listeners for the past several years to just continue and pay off your student loans. Take advantage of whatever forgiveness program there seems to be, but assume the government will screw you change policy. Nanny G giveth and Nanny G taketh away.

[frugal-one]

I see that the government will restart collection of student loans today. The internet is full of cranks offering crank strategies to refuse paying, from claiming DOGE scrutiny violates their loan contracts to convoluted bankruptcy tactics. Others announce they will simply defy collection on a “they can’t get us all” basis.

I expect we will be seeing a rash of heartrending news stories about the suffering of the poor souls unfairly burdened with obligations they freely undertook.

The only way I believe they should not have to pay back is if the degree is not worth the paper it is printed on … such as from trump university, et al.

[Rogar]

Our state legislature will be voting on a measure that would require a semester of "financial literacy education" for high school graduation. Possibly a step in the right direction for preventing something similar in the future.

[ToomuchStuff]

Our state legislature will be voting on a measure that would require a semester of "financial literacy education" for high school graduation. Possibly a step in the right direction for preventing something similar in the future.

Do you have a state lottery, "that helps fund education"?

[catherine]

Do you have a state lottery, "that helps fund education"?

I have to admit, I've often wondered where all that lottery money goes.

[ToomuchStuff]

I have to admit, I've often wondered where all that lottery money goes.

They use it to fund education, making ads that make people believe it will be in addition to the school budgets.
Instead the money goes back in the general fund, and this replaces that so no budget increase. Then when they bring things in like online gambling, they go back to advertising it as more money for schools.

[bae]

I paid off my undergraduate student loans, of ~$32k, by the time I was 28. The other half of my fees at the time were covered by generous scholarships from the university.

I just last week paid off my daughter's undergraduate student loans, from the same institution, of ~$240k, by the time she was 28. I paid about $50k also for her Masters program at Cambridge, and her Ph.D. program there was totally grant-funded by some British Bond villain who is trying to rehabilitate his image. On her salary as a research fellow there, it would have taken her many more decades to pay off the undergraduate and masters loans on her own.

We both knew what we were signing up for.

I have little sympathy for students who sign up for massive loans for degrees that they will not be able to pay for somehow. My degree was in math/science/engineering, and there was a reasonable chance I could pay off my loans once I graduated. I did the math before signing for my own loans.

My daughter's program of study was unlikely to yield a high-paying job capable of ever paying off the investment. $250k undergrad + $50k masters + probably $200k for the Ph.D. if she had not gotten the grant would be a total investment of $500k plus the opportunity cost of all those years of schooling. Her salary as a research fellow at Cambridge is roughly £65k, plus room and board, travel expenses, research expenses and equipment, and a parking place in downtown Cambridge (which is priceless). She'd never have managed without generational wealth and grants. The grant she got was for highly promising scholars in endangered fields of study - in her case, Anglo-Saxon/Norse/Celtic studies. There are only 2-3 institutions on Earth where she can find a tenured position to sustain her once her grant expires. She's made the final cut for job interviews at one of them next week.

She'll basically spend her life in lovely university housing, being paid enough to afford coffee and snacks, and provided her main meals at dining halls that look right out of Hogwarts.

Here's the front door to her current flat:

[ToomuchStuff]

Kid my grandmother referred to as her fourth grandkid (families have been friends for 3 generations), had never worked a day in his life (first mistake), graduated around 30-32, with a degree in comic books (uhm, really?). Found a school where he is teaching a semester in comic book mythology and he hopes to turn that into a tenured position. (unless he is able to convince Disney theme parks to start a Marvel U, I don't think what he thinks is going to happen, is anywhere close to what is going to happen)
I hate to say it, but I don't think he has the maturity level, to get a job asking if you would like fries with that order.

[iris lilies]

I am old and do not remember all of these student loans I was going to college. Did people of my age, 70, actually get loans back then? I know that no one had credit cards. Our lives were pretty much pay as you go.