Many Senior Citizens Expect To Die With College Loan Debts
portside.org
Marjorie Sener was still in her 20s when she took out a loan for about $5,000 to get some college credits she hoped would eventually add up to a bachelor’s degree. That goal was thwarted when her partner became ill. “The burden of our living expenses fell on me,” said Sener, who lives in the Dallas suburbs. “I devoted all of my resources to keeping our heads above water.” But while Sener never got her degree, that student loan kept growing, fattened by compounding interest.
  • YourHeroes4Ghosts@beehaw.org
    1·
    2 years ago

    I know I’ll die with student loan debt, because I dropped out of college after four and a half years, never have had a decent job, and finally moved to another country without leaving a forwarding address. They found me once after I filed an absentee ballot, then I moved again. Welp, guess I can’t vote in the US anymore.

    However, I refuse to be held back for life because of contracts I signed when I was 18 and too stupid to know what I was getting into. I didn’t even want to go to college but my mom made me.

    The whole thing is ridiculous and stupid and it sucks that the way I took is the only way out, as most don’t have the option to leave the country and never come back.

    • LoamImprovement@beehaw.org
      1·
      2 years ago

      Sure it is, if, as always with articles talking about ‘the economy,’ you substitute ‘the economy’ for ‘rich people’s bank accounts.’ Then it all makes way more sense.

  • Kubenqpl@szmer.info
    0·
    2 years ago

    If you can’t pay off the college loan with job you found after finishing college, does not it mean it is a bad investment and you shouldn’t go to college? There are well paying jobs which does not require college degree, but also the minimum wage job seems to be better option than going to college if you can’t pay it off until the end of your days

    • johan@feddit.nl
      1·
      2 years ago

      Yeah but you won’t know if it will pay off until many years after studying, so it’s a gamble.

      For the majority of cases having a university degree will give you a higher salary, not to mention the value of the experience of going to university as well as the connections you make there (both personally and professionally).

      University in the US is just stupidly expensive and the loans have a crazy interest rate.

      I’m from the Netherlands where you’ll receive money from the government while studying. You can take a loan on top of it with minimal interest and so it’s basically always worth it if you can afford it and are academically able to.

      • Kubenqpl@szmer.info
        1·
        2 years ago

        Yeah I am from Poland and we have free university so usually it is worth going to university as well. It might be easy for me to say these things as I am not from USA, but most likely I would look for some jobs with good sallary to loan cost ratio or not go to university.

        • Papamousse@beehaw.org
          1·
          2 years ago

          Same in France, universities are about free, and I had a small scholarship because my parents were not rich, so in a way, I got paid to go to uni