Student loan documentary

[clydosaurus]

I can't really begrudge a 17-year-old for not knowing or understanding the details of their loans. It saddens me that they go into this with seemingly no parental guidance... but many parents are financially clueless themselves. My first time college-go-round was 17 years ago, and I took out < $3k in student loans. Just paying that $50/mo for a few years burned my butt. Its been paid off for many years now, but still. I have friends whose balance is just as high as graduation day 10 years later. What really blows my mind are parents who co-sign these loans without reading the fine print, and grown adults who return to school still clueless about what a 50K debt looks and feels like. I have friends who owe close to 200k and they're not doctors. I fall into the category of folks who didn't learn about personal finance until I had my own meltdown, but geeze, student loans are dangerous debt, and I thought that was common knowledge!

Over the years I regret not having a degree, but I'm working on that now. As early as 2000 (a year after my proposed graduation) I already knew that I was unwilling and unable to finance a $40K education debt. I already had a mortgage, car payment and living expense, there was no money left over and I was not entirely convinced that a degree was going to bring in much more money. I'm still not... but I'm willing to make a $5K investment, it won't ruin me forever.