Help with private student loans

DadTwoGirls
Tue, 22 Aug 2023 16:50:52 +0000

coolguy40:

If your son wants to study film with a pile of debt, that’s financial suicide, and your answer should be a hard no, for his own good.

Well said. I think that a vaguely related example might be appropriate.

Our older daughter wanted to apply ED to a university that would have required quite a bit of debt. I gave a hard “no” to taking on any debt. We told her what we could afford without debt, and that was the budget. She did not apply ED anywhere. She got accepted to several universities that would fit the budget (and two that would not fit the budget), and attended the one that she felt was the best fit of the ones that were within budget. After graduating university (with two bachelor’s degrees, no debt, and almost nothing left in her 529) she got a dream job. This was a job that she absolutely loved. It set her up well for a second job, that set her up well for the graduate program where she is studying right now. However, the “dream job” paid really badly (it could, because it was that attractive of a job). She could only take the dream job because she had no debt. She could just barely make ends meet and pay the bills with the (low) income from her dream job. She has since thanked me for not allowing her to take on any debt for her bachelor’s degree.

I understand that “no debt” is simply not possible for some students. However, if debt is needed, it is important to be cautious and take on as little as is reasonably possible. Sometimes a parent has to be the bad guy (aka responsible adult) and say “no”.