I just can’t fathom how people can get themselves in such enormous amounts of debt and then refuse to take responsibility for it.

The best solution is to try to avoid student debt completely. Save up before your degree, apply for scholarships, work part time throughout your degree and in the summers, and live as frugally as possible.

If you still need a bit more money for your degree after all this, a loan might be an option. But remember, it is a loan and not a gift and you will have to pay it back! And it should never add up to these ridiculous figures like 100,000 or more. I don’t understand what those people are spending their money on?

Before deciding to take a student loan, you should calculate how much you will owe at the end of your degree, how much more you will make in your job because of your degree, and how long it will take you to pay off the loan. A student loan is an investment in yourself, and you have to make sure that the investment will pay off or why bother? If the calculation doesn’t make sense, consider whether or not it is the best idea to go to university at all. University does not equal success, as there are many other ways to make it in the world.

Many people seem to be so surprised, like, “What? I owe $180,000? How did that happen?” and also, “What? The starting wage in my field is only $9 per hour? I didn’t know that!” If you can do simple math, you could have added up how much your loan and expenses were going to total after four years. With basic research skills you could have found out what kind of jobs graduates with your degree were getting. These are crucial things that you should have figured out before deciding to go down that path, and it’s not anyone else’s fault but your own that you are in that position.

While I think a bailout is just as unnecessary for taxpayers as it was for companies, I do think the government ought to consider extending the same benefits of public loans to private student loan debtors. My federal loans have income-based repayment (IBR), but they don’t consider the fact that I have to make large payments on my private loans (they only consider the total federal loan amount). Thus, instead of my student loan payments being 15% of my income (under IBR), they are closer to 25%. I am lucky enough to have chosen a field within the sciences that has good incomes down the road (because of the economy, companies have taken advantage and have lowered starting salaries from $55,000 to ~$30,000, but one can reach $85,000 within 5 years), but initially it will be very difficult. If only I had qualified for federal loans initially, I would be able to make more reasonable payments when my income is lower, and be able to ramp them up as my income increases.

Since the government doesn’t seem to be considering this, I will just be tightening my belt until my income increases. That’s great, but it also means that I’ll be spending less on retail items (which, unlike banking, drive the economy), and will probably continue to rent instead of buy a house (another key economic indicator being housing sales and new housing ‘starts’).

Also, I have to smile at the original article, with $17,000 in student loans. I have $160k (courtesy of being an international student and then grad school) and my wife has $60k.

1.) You CHOSE to go into the field that you are in. You should have thought about things ahead of time and went for something like engineering or medical related if money was that big of deal to you. When I say medical related I do not mean a nurse or an assistant or something of that nature. I mean a full on doctor where you make at least six figures starting. Oh and by the way, most hospitals forgive the hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans that doctors accrue. Why do you think a trip to the emergency room costs so much? If you would have picked a career path other than something that a mentally handicapped individual can do in their sleep then you might be getting paid.

2.) Jobs are out there. They may not be where you are living, but jobs are out there. If jobs are not available where you are living then move. Do not give me any of this crap about how you cant move because you have family or a house or whatever. I have a wife whos getting a doctorate degree in virology and has 3 years of schooling left and I graduate in 3 months with a masters in mechanical engineering. Guess what, All kinds of job offers. None where I live but I’ll tell you what, I am sure as hell going to move to where ever I get a job and my wife will have to move later. (and by the way, going back to point number one the lowest offer I have right now is $70,000/year not counting hiring bonuses and I have 5 offers to choose from).

3.) Those of you complaining that the US government needs to bail out college graduates are rediculous. I’ll bet 100 to 1 that those of you saying that are democrats. It was your decision to go into debt, not the US government. If you wanted to avoid debt, work part time and only take the amount of classes that you could pay for. Its the same thing as saying, “well I really could only afford a ford fiesta but I decided to finance a rolls royce instead and I expect someone else to fix my mistake”. ITS YOUR PROBLEM and nobody elses. GET THAT STRAIGHT AND DEAL WITH IT.

4.) Cut back and suck it up. It’s called growing up and it sucks. Welcome to life. For instance, in one of the earlier posts someone was complaining about not being able to afford the student loan payment because of the car payments and gas because they lived outside of town about an hour from work where they just bought their new house and they have to make renovations to their house and blah blah blah. Give me a damn break. It was your decision to buy that house. You know full well that gas is at an all time high. You do not HAVE to make renovations to the house, the house will be there whether you make renovations or not. People, Pull your head out of your rear end and wake up. You need to take responsibility for your actions. Every action you make has a consequence and it is either good or bad. You need to always think about the future and if you made a dumb decision, it is nobody else’s fault but your own.

In ending my rant about how bat shit stupid the majority of you are acting, all I can say is tough shit, you made some stupid choices in life. Now deal with it.

I graduated from college with $14,500 in student loan debt. My Junior year in college, I bought a brand new car for $16,500. I worked summers, plus I had a job on campus, and that helped me out before I began my career.

I fortunately got a full-time job three months after graduating. I lived at my parents house for free for the first few months. During that time, I decided to pay minimum payments to my student loan, since my car loan had a significantly higher interest rate. So, I paid massive amounts (talking $500-$1000) to my car loan until moving out of my parents house. I kept paying much more to my car loan and minimum payments to my student loan until I fully paid off my car (I paid my car off in less than 4 years on a 6-year loan).

After that, I continued paying minimum payments to my student loan, because I knew that, after teaching for 5 years, I would be able to apply for a loan forgiveness. Unfortunately, right before I got tenure, I was laid off, so the loan forgiveness didn’t apply to me anymore.

I couldn’t find a teaching position for the next school year, so I subbed and tutored for that full school year (being underemployed sure was better than being unemployed!). I ended up being able to still live in my apartment without having to move back with my parents…But I still paid minimum payments to my student loan.

A few days before the following school year, I got a full-time position and am currently in my 3rd year in that position. I make about as much at that school as I did my first year teaching out of college 7 years ago, but at least it’s livable and I lived with that kind of a salary before, so I can budget pretty well. Once I got that full-time position, I started paying larger payments for the first time to my student loan and have been doing so every month since!

At this point, I have only $3,100 left on my student loan, and as long as I don’t get laid off at my current job, I will be able to pay this off by the end of this year and be completely debt-free! I will have paid off $31,000 in total debt (car and student loan) in about 9 years.

A few things I have done to cut costs:

1. I still have the same car I bought 8.5 years ago. It only has 76,000 miles on it, and I intend on using it until it can’t be used anymore, which means I’ll probably be car payment-free for at least another decade (it’s a car that’s known to be very reliable).

2. I sometimes shop at Aldi for groceries. If I shop at regular grocery stores like Jewel or Dominicks, I see about buying items I can get club card discounts for. I also eat out only once a month (girl’s night).

3. I combine shopping trips so that I minimize the amount of distance I drive.

4. I have satellite TV so that I don’t feel the need to go out to a sports bar or movie theater. My DirecTV bill is far less than what I would spend going to the bar or theater a lot.

5. I go to quite a few Chicago Blackhawks hockey games. But, I know of a place just a mere two blocks from the arena where I can park for free on the street. I get to the game early enough to assure I can get a parking spot on that street (it fills up quickly).

6. I keep my heat on at a lower setting and wear sweats in the winter while using a low-energy fan and less a/c in the summer (I will often just open a couple windows during the summer). This saves on the 2 utilities that I must pay (landlord covers water).

7. I chose HMO insurance over PPO insurance. I was given the choice when enrolling for benefits, and since I rarely have any health issues, it was an easy choice, and the difference is an extra $80 in my pocket each month!

8. The first weekend of every month, I make my monthly budget and stick to it. At the end of the month, any extra money I have left from my “Miscellaneous” balance is paid towards my student loan!