ShroomUnleashed

CAN WE PLEASE STOP ACTING LIKE STUDENT LOANS ARE JUST A MATTER OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY? My cousin graduated with $52,000 in student debt. He did what everyone told him to do. Study hard. Get a degree. Find a decent job. Build a future. He got the degree. His first job paid $46,000 a year. His student loan payment was $450 a month that's $5,400 every year going toward education before rent, groceries, transportation, taxes, or savings. And here's the part that bothers me. The degree was supposed to improve his earning potential over his lifetime. It wasn't supposed to guarantee that his first job would make him wealthy. But why does someone have to begin their adult life with a financial obligation that can follow them for years before they've even had a chance to build an emergency fund? Yes, education can be a worthwhile investment. Yes, loan terms matter. And no, not every degree or borrowing decision has the same outcome but an investment can be valuable and still place an enormous burden on the person financing it. We celebrate graduates for getting their qualifications. We rarely talk about how long some of them spend paying for the privilege of earning those qualifications. If education is the path to a better financial future, why does the starting line come with so much debt?