Thank you to all with good intentions.
Student debt
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ANSWERS: 8
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Elect the democrats. They want everyone to go to school for free. (well, we all know it's not actually going to be free, don't we.)
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Linda Joy So true! Scotland has the free college for everyone and they pay about 10% more in income tax than we do! The problem is EVERYONE pays 10% more income tax and only 25% of the population are getting degrees. Does that sound fair to you? -
Archie Bunker Well, I'm a conservative, so I'm blatantly unfair, so.....
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1. Change your name. 2. Steal underpants. 3. ???? 4. Profit.
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I believe it is usually recommended that when one begins to work full time that they maintain an extremely frugal lifestyle and put as much money as possible into becoming debt free. Check out Dave Ramsey's books and/or his radio programs if they are available in your area. I don't buy into all his religious stuff but his financial advice is excellent.
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Like Archie said, with someone else's money! The best option is to work your way through college and not take out a loan. But if its already done then like Joe said live frugally. In fact, you should do that anyway. Don't buy anything that is not necessary for your survival. If you cut out sodas, sugar, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, entertainment and eating out you'd be surprised how much more you have left. Of course nowadays most kids have the added luxury of living off/with their parents, but if that's not you, set your thermostat at 60 and wear more clothes. Cut your own hair, do your own nails, cook your own food, sew your own clothes, maintain your own vehicle, pack a lunch, carpool, take the bus. Better yet bike or walk and you won't need a gym membership, use free wifi, and the computers at the library. Do what it takes. Operate on a cash only system. And all those personal products, paper products and cleaning products are unnecessary. All you NEED is soap and water. You can look up online how to make your own soap even. But there are also recipes for all kinds of cleaning supplies and cosmetics online, as well as recipes so you can learn to cook. Again, don't buy anything that's not necessary for your survival. Dave Ramsay and Suze Orman are both good. They can tell you how to be rich. I can tell you how to live on nothing, I've been doing it all my life. The book Rich Dad, Poor Dad is also good. And if you have kids there is another entire list! That reminds me of Amy Dacyczyn who wrote the tightwad gazette. That was a good one, too! And if you're trying to feed a family or even just yourself the hilbilly housewife is a good site.
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bostjan the adequate 🥉
Well, college is about ten times as expensive as it was when I went, so I think student loans are just a thing everyone will have to deal with, unless they are filthy rich and don't need college anyway... But yeah, the budget advice is the best advice universally for any financial problem. If you make $750/week, and you plan to spend $500/week on expenses, you can save $250/week for emergencies or repayment of loans or whatever. My grandparents had tons of money, just because they budgeted everything and cut every expense they could, to the point where they *were* making their own soap, building their own appliances out of junk other people were throwing away, etc. It's amazing how much money a person (or couple) can accumulate with a modest income and no expenses. -
Linda Joy
Well, I'm not filthy rich, but I did get a Presidential scholarship after paying for my first quarter and I had a pittance from VEAP that covered my gas and books so I managed to get an associates from a tech college, but most of my time was spent working, trying to feed my child as a single parent. And I f you only get $750 a MONTH disability to live on you learn the difference between need and want. But at least I'm poor enough now to qualify for educational assistance. So its possible to go to school on a grant if you're poor enough! And Thrift stores and yard sales have saved my life! lol The older generation - our parents and grandparents lived through the depression. They didn't have uncle sam holding their hands and supporting them from the cradle to the grave. They knew what it was like to be hungry! They didn't have the sense of entitlement kids today do. Mom took my phone away? Please! We were lucky to have a phone in the house at all! I remember getting emergency messages from the police coming to the door because we had no phone and thought we were lucky when we had one phone in the house for all 8 of us to share!! I wore clothes all 6 of my older sisters had worn! And clothes my mother made! I've never made my own soap. But I have made my own laundry detergent. Fortunately I've been blessed to help and be helped by a lot of people who really do care about others. And what good does it do to go through all that if you can't use what you've learned to help others through the same thing? -
mushroom
In 1970, it took about 15 weeks of minimum wage employment to save enough for 1 year of college tuition. Today, it takes all year. Doesn't leave much time for classes, does it? -
Linda Joy
Most adults who take care of themselves and earn minimum wage qualify for a grant, don't they? And so what if a person has to work 4 years to save up for 4 years of college? It grows appreciation and character! They will be less likely to take what they earned for granted and less likely not to apply themselves in their efforts! Besides it will give them work experience and a job history the pansy grads don't have! I don't understand these people who think college students need to be coddled and their hands held! They need to grow up and get to work! Welcome to becoming an adult and taking care of yourself!! Unless they are geniuses college students are no longer children!! My son managed to go to school full time and work full time while he and I cooperated to raise his son without help from the boy's mother. And I went to school full time and worked full time while raising him. Yeah its hard but so is life!! May as well learn that early and get used to it! -
bostjan the adequate 🥉
"And so what if a person has to work 4 years to save up for 4 years of college?" I agree with your point, but there's more to it than that. College should not be as expensive as it is. There used to be less pocket-lining and corruption in higher education, and it is just out of control now. It's not the cause of the problem, but it is the root cause of the epidemic. I could validate your point further by mentioning that I went to college at age 11, and was also working two jobs and still going to college by age 12, but it means nothing today, since you can't get a job at age 12 anymore. The government regulates so much more than they used to and it never keeps the corrupt people from taking your money, because they don't care about the regulations anyway. It just makes life harder than necessary for people who make morally right choices. -
Linda Joy
I hired my son at age 12. It is legal with the parent's permission. "He [God] never said it would be easy, He only said it would be worth it!" And if it was easy it wouldn't be worth it. Struggling builds strength, character and empathy! I'm thankful for every challenge I've faced in my life! And its not just college that has skyrocketed! Think about all the other things that have gone up, like health care, prescriptions, gas, housing, pork, beef, chicken, orange juice, coffee, milk, produce, movies, cable. I'm not saying its o.k. to jack up the price of college or that pockets aren't being lined, I'm just saying its happening everywhere now! Everyone wants something for nothing and it drives up inflation on everything! -
Archie Bunker
Wrong, Linda. We need to keep giving people trophies for just signing up. That's working out so well.
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i did it in installrnents
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I follow Dave Ramsey somewhat. Make every dollar count and every dollar has a purpose. Make a budget, count out unnecessary stuff like eating out, get a second job, etc. https://www.daveramsey.com/ It's really hard but in the end, you are FREE
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The student debt issue is due in large part to the government offering everyone a loan for college, irregardless on whether or not they'll be able to pay it back. It's the same thing that caused the mortgage crisis in 2008. Loans were given to people that the lenders knew wouldn't be able to pay it back. And when you have the government giving out loans, the colleges know that they'll have more students. More students who can now pay for college means they raise their tuition. And when Joe Student graduates with his masters degree in Gender Studies with a focus on Social Awakening of the Hipster and can't figure out why he can't get a job in his chosen field and then ends up working at Starbucks while he complains of corporate elitists, he can look back and see that maybe he should have went to a trade school to be a plumber instead.
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bostjan the adequate 🥉
The economy needs plumbers, but, if everyone was a plumber, plumbers wouldn't be able to find enough work to survive, and everyone's electrical infrastructure would fall apart. In reality, the economy needs plumbers, cooks, engineers, electricians, builders, farmers, mechanics, inventors, surgeons, pharmacists, taxi drivers, truckers, welders, lawyers, computer repairers, food quality assurers, etc. Yes, we even need people who understand the societal aspects of gender and sexuality, but we only need one or two people like that for every ten thousand plumbers. No matter what a person chooses as a career, they have to be able to find a market for it, and then they have to be good at it. In the USSR, the government decided what your job was going to be, based on supply and demand. In the USA, we have freedom to choose whatever we want to be. Since the colleges are free to admit whomever they want, and can charge whatever tuition they want, we have a lot of people making mistakes with their education. Since the USA is no longer a purely capitalist economy, the government offers loans to young people who have no idea what the job market needs going to a college that is simply happy to rake in money, and then you end up with this situation. Maybe better career placement in public schooling would reduce the scale of the issue, but really, the government needs to pony up and place a sanity check in the student loan system, since the colleges will never do it. -
Archie Bunker
Well, and what they also need to do is make sure that those kids who took gender studies, pony up and pay back the loan that they made the choice to take. When you have all the liberals says they want to wipe out student loans, what kind of lesson is that? Why keep the taxpayers on the hook because you didn't do your research and realize that a gender studies degree wasn't gonna get you shit? -
Linda Joy
People need to pay their debts, PERIOD! And its not the government's job to bail everyone out! I know it may be news to liberals, but our government is in horrendous debt and doesn't have money to give away! -
bostjan the adequate 🥉
I know what you are both saying, and I don't disagree, but I think it's worth noting that the taxpayers were put on the hook from the moment the loan was granted. If the student ended up studying "gender studies" without any realistic career path planned, then that money was gone as soon as FAFSA handed it over. Saying that the students should have to pay off the debt is all well and good, but if the students have no money and no income potential, then how do you expect them to pay? -
Archie Bunker
Then don't take out the loan. Again, first of all, they shouldn't have gotten the loan in the first place. But once they signed that paper to take out the loan, it's theirs and theirs alone. It's a hard lesson for some people to learn about paying your debts, but the hard lessons are the best lessons. Why should I (or anyone else) have to absorb the debt because the Democratic candidates want to wipe out the student loans? But also to your point about income potential, that just proves my point about why colleges raise their tuitions. They offer classes in useless areas because they know that now that folks get their government approved loan, they're gonna get paid no matter what. No matter how stupid the class. Classes like "What if Harry Potter was real?" "Arguing with Judge Judy" "The Art of Walking" "The Joy of Garbage" "Klingon as a language" When you know that you're going to get paid to teach a stupid class, why not offer it? Especially if you know that the government is giving people money to take these stupid classes? We need to be quite a bit more stringent with the government handing out money so people can take a college course in "Zombies in Popular Media"
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Just a thought, but how about getting a job? :P
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Archie Bunker
Can't. That would be the responsible thing to do. -
Chad Hillard
You shouldn't assume shit about people you don't know t just makes you look stupid when you don't know what your talking about.
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