Parent Plus Loan information and experiences

blossom
Fri, 21 Jul 2023 16:05:44 +0000

I work for a multi-national company (and have worked in others for my entire career-- 35+ years) so I will respectfully take myself out of the pool of folks who you are calling out as having a vested interest in the current state of affairs re: college costs, government assistance, etc.

So I’m approaching college costs (and did so with my own kids) with a corporate lens AND a strong background in personal finance (required, non-credit courses when I got an MBA decades ago). Simply put- there are some people who you cannot save. You just cannot. They revel in their financial illiteracy. And no amount of regulation, transparency, guardrails, limits, etc. will change that.

I see folks IRL on the brink of declaring personal bankruptcy proudly give their 17 year old kid a brand new jeep for a birthday gift. How and why? I’m stumped. I mean- I get it. Even with lousy credit, someone who is determined to borrow and take out a loan they cannot afford is going to do it. But the why? I have no clue.

I see folks paying ridiculous amounts for low deductible home owners insurance (and filing claims like crazy) but who don’t have life insurance (arguably, the single biggest financial risk a family will have- the death of the breadwinner). I could go on and on but you get the point.

You seem irritated that some people take out loans they cannot afford to repay. Never mind the tens of thousands of responsible borrowers who use PPL’s like any other financial tool- useful for some, useless to others, unaffordable for many. I’ve got people in my own family who used PPL’s with great success- anticipating a job change (doing a graduate degree at night which would almost double their income) and paid the loans off early with ease. Or another lifestyle change (downsizing the family home after the last kid graduates from HS) which makes paying off the PPL for an older child quick and easy.

So sure- some people are financial idiots and do things they shouldn’t, and sign their names without reading the documentation and have no clue how interest rates work. No argument from me on that.

Equating work study and PPL is a curious comparison. Not sure why you feel it’s a relevant datapoint?