Trick question! As in, wrong question.
What the student in your life ought to be asking is, “How much should I borrow?”
The answer, of course, being “as little as you must – and, if possible, nothing at all.”
That was the topic for a recent piece I did for the Experian blog. Student loans are a personal bugaboo because it’s so easy to sign up for life-hobbling debt when you’re too young to understand the true consequences.
Understand: I don’t think student loans are evil in and of themselves. I just think that too often people borrow without thinking it through. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Some readers have asked me to continue these roundups, aka “where I’ve been lately.” It’s been a while since I did one (thanks a lot, summer messing with my head) so this one will take a while.
Here’s my recent work at Money Talks News:
“The 20 Toughest U.S. Cities for Starting a Career”: Hey, for once New Jersey wasn’t the worst! Newark did come in at No. 20, but the No. 1 Worst surprised me.
“10 States Where Elder Fraud is the Worst”: If you’ve got older relatives or friends, please keep an eye out to make sure they aren’t being exploited. There are some damned sad stories out there.
“Stop Buying These 7 Household Products That Anyone Can Make”: I know you guys are generally a frugal bunch, but give these suggestions a look anyway.
“10 Food Staples That Are Easy and Cheap to Make Yourself”: Me being me, I included “cake” as one of the staples. It is in our house, anyway.
“7 Common Challenges of Working From Home – and How to Master Them”: I’ve been working from home for 17 years, and it’s great. But it is challenging.
“Here’s What It Costs to Insure America’s Favorite Cars”: Is your vehicle on this list?
Insurance and credit and money, oh my!
Meanwhile, over at The Simple Dollar:
“How Car Insurance Can Save Your Retirement”: Yep, it can. Let’s hope it never comes to that.
“A Loan Won’t Solve Your Money Woes If You Don’t Fix These 10 Issues First”: I hope none of you ever end up with money woes – but if you do, take a look at these tactics.
“Car Insurance Rates Are Back Up. Here’s How to Get Yours Back Down”: There some startling jumps in coverage rates around the country. If you were affected, try these tips for lowering the premium.
“Nine Hacks to Double- or Triple-Dip Your Savings”: I bet that some readers already know all these hacks. But give it a peek anyway, just to be sure.
“You Lost Your Auto Insurance – Now What?”: Scary stuff indeed! Here’s what you need to know to be ready in case bad things happen in the future.
“18 Two-Minute Chores to Tackle Right Away”: The two-minute rule can’t fix everything, but it can make some real differences in your lives.
“You Need At Least Two Credit Cards. Here’s Why”: Your card could be canceled without warning (one of mine was) if the issuer thinks fraud has occurred. Don’t be left high and dry.
Happy solstice, everyone, and I hope you’re not overheating.
Thanks to our son’s hard work in high school and an excellent scholarship program called Carolina Covenant, he was able to graduate from UNC Chapel Hill with no loans at all. I encourage all readers who live in NC and have a young person looking forward to college to look into this program! We make our own cleaning solution, hand soap, wrinkle release, stain remover, and laundry detergent. We have not tried any of the kitchen mixes yet. Jillee at “One Good Thing” has a great many recipes for homemade solutions.
Congratulations to your son on not graduating deeply in debt! Think of the opportunity cost of all those dollars.
And yeah, Jillee knows a lot about homemade stuff. I think her site was where I found the Scrubbing Bubbles cheat. That stuff is magic.
I now have two degrees, and no debt. The second time around was harder since I got fewer scholarships, but I had been saving and my mom helped. Plus, I lived frugally. As of two weeks ago I have a full time day job with benefits.
Yaaaaayyyyyyy! I’m so happy to hear that.
Some great articles in there, Donna. Thanks for sharing them with us. Off to do some reading now.
Thanks, ma’am.
I just have such a hard time with this subject! If you borrow the money, you need to pay it back! If you are so well educated how can you say that you didn’t understand that loans process. For these law makers trying to get votes by telling the younger generation that they are going to pardon the loans….that is just as bad as the President that said everyone could go to college…the government will back them! I laugh when loans are not being paid back because the kids cannot afford to pay because the jobs are not out there for the kind of money that was borrowed. People took loans out for living expenses, cars or trips on student loans! I don’t care if they knock the interest rate to -0- on the loans but the people should be responsible to pay it back. My kids both have/had students loan…they understood that they were RESPONSIBLE for the repayment.
“Well educated” doesn’t necessarily mean “super-conversant with money.”
I agree that if you borrow it you should pay it back. My beef is that people have no clue that they’re jeopardizing their financial futures because they’ve been told that everybody borrows and of course you should go to Dream School.
Heck, there are a lot of fully fledged adults who don’t understand, truly understand, mortgages and auto loans and credit cards. Yet they go out and get those products without thinking things through. Sure, let’s get a HELOC so we can have granite countertops! Let’s trade in our perfectly good three-year-old car for something cooler! This year we’re taking the kids to Disney World for the holidays! All without any real idea of what they’re doing.
I don’t know the answer, but the current system doesn’t work.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
When my kids took out student loans on line to qualify you had to answer 20 questions, I believe it was for the government loans. We just sat and smiled because the answer to 15 of them was YOU were responsible to pay them back. You will never change some people….they don’t think things through….they want and they get! I just don’t believe that “We The People” should have to pay the price! It seems that some people just always get and some people just always give…..
It isn’t that they don’t understand they have to pay back loans. It’s that with the optimism/inexperience of youth, they truly don’t get how taking out such high loans will affect (and possibly derail) their lives. As noted, a lot of adults don’t get it, either.
Thus far there have not been massive defaults. People are making payments. But had they known, truly understood, what they were getting into I expect a lot of them would not have borrowed as much.
Well they say hindsight is always 20/20! Maybe this generation will teach the next….
From your mouth to God’s ears!