Any alternative to TESC Capstone?

[Prloko]

How will one payment cover over the entire amount? She/he's looking at about $3000 in tuition. TESC only releases the pell grant in quarterly increments. She will still have a deficit. I don't advocate for debt, but some people treat it like it's this horrible thing. Only enough to cover the tuition and then pay it off. Why force the student to hock their belongings. The rich leverage debt all the time. If she/he takes out $10000, BIG MISTAKE. 1 or 2 thousand, not the end of the world, and like I eluded to earlier, it raised my FICO score (according to the FICO simulator at least). Enough to save me thousands when I had taken out a mortgage.

Nightmoves, I'm not saying to go out and buy a car with the money, I think that's a horrible move. But you're talking about a loan that's current at 4.29%. If you saved for a year for $1000 and assume a 2% inflation rate, the future value of your money saved would be around 980. If you took out a $1000 loan, you're looking at the same equivalent value at 960. $20 in interest charges..You could take the course now, possibly start looking for higher paying jobs now, and you can make the same $83 per month payments, that you would have been saving and pay it off in the same time. It requires the same amount of discipline to make early payments as it does to save the money.

A lot of those people you see in trouble with those huge student loans are students who financed an entire education at an institution, not 2 courses and CBE. Just food for thought.

[dfrecore]

Prioko, I understand where you're coming from. BUT, Nightmoves5 said that he/she couldn't save up the money in a reasonable amount of time. If you can't afford to save up a little bit every month until you can pay for it, then why would it be easy to make the loan payments when they were due? I wouldn't wish that stress on anyone.

And plenty of rich people do NOT make use of loans and leverage. The richest people I personally know have NO DEBT. None. They own everything free and clear. They saved up. They paid off their debts and never took loans out again. Many years of not owing anyone money makes you rich!!! Just my personal experience with family members worth more than a million dollars...all 3 families had no debt for a very long time. They all credit that with being rich.

[Prloko]

Prioko, I understand where you're coming from. BUT, Nightmoves5 said that he/she couldn't save up the money in a reasonable amount of time. If you can't afford to save up a little bit every month until you can pay for it, then why would it be easy to make the loan payments when they were due? I wouldn't wish that stress on anyone.

And plenty of rich people do NOT make use of loans and leverage. The richest people I personally know have NO DEBT. None. They own everything free and clear. They saved up. They paid off their debts and never took loans out again. Many years of not owing anyone money makes you rich!!! Just my personal experience with family members worth more than a million dollars...all 3 families had no debt for a very long time. They all credit that with being rich.

When I was talking about leveraging debt, I wasn't talking about making car payments, etc. I highly disbelieve these people saved up every penny for their homes unless they inherited money. And if you say they rent, well renting IS debt. If they went to college, how did they save for it? And was this in the 70s when college was more affordable? Also, the wealthy make HEAVY use of credit cards, they just know to pay them off at the end of the month, leveraging debt to make money for them, I'm not rich, but I do this with my cards. But I don't know your relatives from Adam and good on them for achieving so much without using any debt for years. That is definitely inspirational.

What I'm telling night moves is to consider their situation and weigh their opportunity costs. I love the forum, but I think one of it's biggest flaws is the cookie cutter mentality that all people need to follow a formula. This is done without considering their personal situation (not saying you're doing this per se, just a general observation). I don't know nightmoves' situation, so I gave them options to consider. its up to that person to weigh what they will do. I won't tell them, NO don't do that, without knowing what is going on. I will tell them consider opportunity cost.

For me, I was fortunate enough to have government help through tuition assistance to pay. I could have easily extended my enlistment to make use of additional TA, or used my GI Bill. I decided that my timeline couldn't afford those options. I used a student loan to shorten my graduation time and save my GI Bill for when I was able to make BAH (only using a month's worth to pay the enrollment fee). This allowed me to separate from the service, with a severance bonus, then take a GS position and get a promotion in a year.

Had I done the "smart" thing and saved for two years, I'd had missed out on a lot of opportunities that have already been paid for in full with additional future benefits. Yes, who's to say that wouldn't have happened to me anyway a year down the road, but who's to say it would not. My $1000 student loan has paid me back thousands. Again, this may not be the right decision for nightmoves, but again I don't know their full situation. So I gave them two options and left the decision to them. In the end, it's their future.

I'll stop here as to not hijack the thread. Either what nightmoves, make sure you weigh your current situation carefully. If you can't take on debt, understandable, in the end YOU have to pay that back. Good luck and don't forget to keep us posted on your progress! This forum is awesome!

[dfrecore]

Sorry, not trying to hijack the post either. Yes, some of us are a little rabid with our no student loan stance, just because we have seen so many people get in way over their heads! It's painful.

Nightmoves5, definitely look at all the options and make the best decision for you. Good luck!