Your Student Loan Should not be greater than your first Years starting Salary

If you click on the following button and watch the video from CNN it might be helpful to you or your soon to be or new college student.

NY on verge of tuition-free college

 Because of the era I grew up in and the fact that neither my father nor mother had ever been to college (they both graduated high School in the 1930s). So, even though my father was valedictorian of his Senior High School Class his father wouldn't allow him to go to college and instead trained him as one of his own employees to become and electrician in his electrical contracting business. This actually helped my father since he was a reserve Marine from 1934 to 1937 so instead of being drafted into the Army during World War II he became an Electrician building LIberty Ships in Seattle Harbor for the War effort from 1941 until 1945.

So, because of my father's experience as an electrician and Electrical Contractor by the time I was becoming an adult I took no student loans until my late 30s when I attended UCSC. And then these loans became a problem for me during my divorce in 1994. So, student loans if you can avoid them are a good thing to avoid.

I was working part or full time whenever I went to college during my life after I was 18 so I never needed to take out loans until my late30s when I had teenagers I was having to get through high school and college.

So, in your major you have to think about what your earnings are going to be getting a job in your field. If you haven't declared a major this can be a problem, especially if your parents don't have a college fund for you and so you don't have money set aside for you to go to college.

By the Time my oldest son needed student loans my present wife and I made an agreement with him, we would pay off his student loans up to about 50,000 dollars as long as he got his bachelor of Science degree. We told him we ONLY would pay off his loans if he actually got his degree. So, when he got his bachelor of science degree we paid off his student loans like we said we would. This agreement worked out just fine in our family.

most of my undergraduate work that was lower division I received at community colleges wherever I was living in California after age 18. So, the only really expensive college I attended was at UCSC. 

Now places like San Francisco and the State of New York are making community colleges free to attend for residents (it takes one year of living some place in San Francisco now to become a resident). However, rents are going up fast there because rich Techies from Silicon Valley are now buying up houses in San Francisco because it is a beautiful place to live. There is no smog because of the eastern moving sea breezes off the ocean, there are beautiful views of the ocean almost any place you go and there are open minded people who live there and who are highly educated. So, San Francisco is expensive but highly educated as a city population. There are Broadway type Shows there and entertainment venues of all kinds also.

And now New York State also is making lower division (the first two years) free for public education at community colleges as well. So, this is a trend you are likely going to see in some or all of the wealthier states from now on. This is pretty obvious now.

Another thing to think about regarding all this is that Barach and Michelle Obama were paying off their student loans becoming very fine lawyers into their mid 40s. So, even if you are very successful like both the Obamas if you are middle class or poorer often people are paying off their student loans into their 40s.

This can greatly affect what you actually can do in life if your first job isn't giving you enough to pay back your loans successfully. So, this is one of the things that holds people back after College Graduation: Student loans.

Sometimes (if you are a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs) a college degree can even get in the way of your success (both Gates and Jobs) are college Dropouts. Gates from I believe Harvard or Yale and Jobs from Reed College in Oregon.

But, it might be important to understand both Gates and Jobs strategically dropped out of college to become entrepreneurs who eventually became very successful.

In my family since neither my parents had been to college I never tried to get a student loan and just went to a community college instead with the idea of eventually transferring up to a state university or  UC. So, I paid my own way as I went so I never had to get into debt because I was working part or full time usually even if I was living still with  my parents while going to college.

The poorer you are, MIddle Class or lower without a college fund full up the more risky it is to move away from home on student loans in the long run.

Also, you are likely to get a better education during your first two years of college at a community college than at almost any university because universities do not prioritize ever Freshmen and sophomore students.

 

Why is this?

Because for every 5 Freshmen entering college only 1 graduates with a degree. This is the reality of college here in the U.S. and then it is even more extreme for post graduate degrees. 

So, for the worst possible outcome in your life you are poor and then go to college and take out too many student loans that you can never pay back and then you don't graduate. This creates a real mess of your life because you cannot get rid of student loans even through bankruptcy. So, at this point moving to another country might be your only escape from your loans if you are poor and can't find a job making enough money to survive and pay off your student loans

This is just the very hard reality here in the U.S. if you aren't rich.