Sell your nose rings and make a payment

[bigsky]

The 5.3 million defaulters on their student loans are about to go to collection. What to think about this? My first reaction in the headline.

1) The lenders need to be on the hook, that is, the Universities, colleges, and matchbook cover for profit schools.
2) Just stop the interest. It IS a big hit to the lenders. Student debt needs to be valued at the risk that it is. For example, never borrow more than the first year's salary should also be "never lend more than their first year's salary".
3) Borrowers need to share some of the pain, but not all of it. They WERE misled, like Harold in The Stand, by a hundred million parents preaching "just get a degree". They were the suckers at the higher ed carnival. I have talked to many borrowers who will say this exactly, "They gave me a paper, and I signed it, so I could keep going to college". Also, it was the Universities that extended the time to degree with their "core curriculum" that made sure professors in unpopular degrees still had jobs. It was the universities that encouraged students less than qualified who went to school, partied through the freshman year, and flunked out, stupider (yep, dumber) and in debt and worse off than when they left high school. And it is all of us here in Bozeman cashing in on the students and their parents as they party for six years, paying exhorbitant rents and $20 breakfasts and $9 IPAs and $60 ski lift tickets.
4) So go to three year degrees in the future. Mandatory 15 credit semesters/quarters.Yes, I know you need to work, but aren't your living expenses are what you are really borrowing! (won't help current defaulters but it will address the future.) Guide juniors in high school into trade school, two year degrees, one year certificates or dual credit dual enrollment opportunities at the "three year degrees" colleges.
5) Make a path to redemption and make it hard. Not a job in an NGO. Instead, the A)the military. B) involuntary budget supervision C) Living and volunteering in "the yellow cities". For some reason, "yellow" are "affordable", meaning low entry, and job opportunity/advancement. (Heh, like Lexington! I use "move to Lexington" all the time to the people who can't afford to live in Bozeman.)
6)Address the part time job issue that oppresses adults. Businesses built around cheap labor are obsolete. Prohibit the hedge fund purchase of existing neighborhoods. Redo the restrictions around automobiles to make them available again and (import the Hi-Lux) but also the VW diesel that gets 75mpg they used to sell in Canada.

This is the complaint from Forward Montana and all the other Soros funded youth Democratic Socialists movements:

You've denied us the dream:
High student debt we can't repay
Expensive housing we can't afford to rent or buy
No jobs in my field and excess credentialism from HR.
No reason to bring children into this mess.

Also, sell your nose rings, stop paying for new tattoos and eating breakfasts at chi chi restaurants, and get a job, the old boomer reiterates.

[dan_bgblue]

The 5.3 million defaulters on their student loans are about to go to collection. What to think about this? My first reaction in the headline.

1) The lenders need to be on the hook, that is, the Universities, colleges, and matchbook cover for profit schools.
2) Just stop the interest. It IS a big hit to the lenders. Student debt needs to be valued at the risk that it is. For example, never borrow more than the first year's salary should also be "never lend more than their first year's salary".
3) Borrowers need to share some of the pain, but not all of it. They WERE misled, like Harold in The Stand, by a hundred million parents preaching "just get a degree". They were the suckers at the higher ed carnival. I have talked to many borrowers who will say this exactly, "They gave me a paper, and I signed it, so I could keep going to college". Also, it was the Universities that extended the time to degree with their "core curriculum" that made sure professors in unpopular degrees still had jobs. It was the universities that encouraged students less than qualified who went to school, partied through the freshman year, and flunked out, stupider (yep, dumber) and in debt and worse off than when they left high school. And it is all of us here in Bozeman cashing in on the students and their parents as they party for six years, paying exhorbitant rents and $20 breakfasts and $9 IPAs and $60 ski lift tickets.
4) So go to three year degrees in the future. Mandatory 15 credit semesters/quarters.Yes, I know you need to work, but aren't your living expenses are what you are really borrowing! (won't help current defaulters but it will address the future.) Guide juniors in high school into trade school, two year degrees, one year certificates or dual credit dual enrollment opportunities at the "three year degrees" colleges.
5) Make a path to redemption and make it hard. Not a job in an NGO. Instead, the A)the military. B) involuntary budget supervision C) Living and volunteering in "the yellow cities". For some reason, "yellow" are "affordable", meaning low entry, and job opportunity/advancement. (Heh, like Lexington! I use "move to Lexington" all the time to the people who can't afford to live in Bozeman.)
6)Address the part time job issue that oppresses adults. Businesses built around cheap labor are obsolete. Prohibit the hedge fund purchase of existing neighborhoods. Redo the restrictions around automobiles to make them available again and (import the Hi-Lux) but also the VW diesel that gets 75mpg they used to sell in Canada.

This is the complaint from Forward Montana and all the other Soros funded youth Democratic Socialists movements:

You've denied us the dream:
High student debt we can't repay
Expensive housing we can't afford to rent or buy
No jobs in my field and excess credentialism from HR.
No reason to bring children into this mess.

Also, sell your nose rings, stop paying for new tattoos and eating breakfasts at chi chi restaurants, and get a job, the old boomer reiterates.

It can be done. My daughter and her husband are both 4 year grads who went to work in their field of study within 30 days of graduation 22 years ago. They are raising 3 children one a freshman in college owners of 3 autos, and making payments on their home. I am extremely proud of them both, as they set their mind to it and did it, and they both have paid off their student loans.

[bigsky]

You should be proud. I wish the exception was the rule.

Not everyone borrows. So if mom and dad want to spend six years on a the collegiate lifestyle and a political science degree, fine.
But let's not kid anyone about six years of debt fueled collegiate lifestyle being a social good or an investment in anything but a good time and good jobs for university employees.

[Doc]

I had minimal loans thanks to my parents, who basically paid for 10yrs of school for me, plus my 4 siblings. All have degrees of some type, all paid for by my parents. I put two kids thru school including one with a masters. We did so because it was important, we felt obligated to and want our kids to be successful. Both my kids understand the value of that. Our grand daughter currently has a $16,000 college fund investment portfolio so her college will in some aspect be covered.

If you can afford college, don't go. If you chose a profession that requires college, be sure it provides adequate income to cover the debt. Its idiotic to take a student loan to get a degree in English Literature or music

[TNCat]

All great points.

Many years ago I helped clean up the accounting for a two year college that had deep financial problems. The college was a nonprofit organization that was supported by a church. Its mission was to help marginalized students however their enrollment had dropped to a level that was unsustainable. I walked away from the engagement when I realized that they were enrolling students who had no chance of graduating. Why, because they needed the funds to keep the college going and to sustain the compensation of the college staff. The students lasted one year and walked away with little or nothing gained except student loans.

Plenty of blame to go around in that scenario but the college knew what it was doing and justified it by the mission of saving the college. The college eventually went under which was what needed to happen. Unfortunately, that didn’t help the students who were stuck with loans to be repaid.

[Catonahottinroof]

STEM degrees are useful for employment and unless you plan on teaching or are a trust fund child, then go for the English, or music degree. Agree with Doc that borrowing for that kind of degree has diminishing return based on you paying it off within your lifetime.

I had minimal loans thanks to my parents, who basically paid for 10yrs of school for me, plus my 4 siblings. All have degrees of some type, all paid for by my parents. I put two kids thru school including one with a masters. We did so because it was important, we felt obligated to and want our kids to be successful. Both my kids understand the value of that. Our grand daughter currently has a $16,000 college fund investment portfolio so her college will in some aspect be covered.

If you can afford college, don't go. If you chose a profession that requires college, be sure it provides adequate income to cover the debt. Its idiotic to take a student loan to get a degree in English Literature or music

[catmanjack]

The majority of the young graduates believe that their tuition should be waived so why pay the loans.
I can tell you that my daughter in law racked up loans using tuition to by cars and travel a lot then expected her loans to be waived.

[bigsky]

The majority of the young graduates believe that their tuition should be waived so why pay the loans.
I can tell you that my daughter in law racked up loans using tuition to by cars and travel a lot then expected her loans to be waived.

And interest is like rust.