Article: To succeed after college, avoid taking out student loans

[crisi]

I may not be hitting the mark here, but DH is in the field of finance and it DOES indeed matter what you studied as well as where.

Everyone at his level has to have an MA in the field.

Everyone hired for the first time out of college at entry level must at least have a degree in the field and have plans to continue school.

It also matters where you studied, which is why we made sure his MA was from a prestigious school for that field of study.

They won't even look at someone from a no name school, but they also won't look at anyone from a good school who didn't major in some business, finance, tax, or related field.

Dawn

I have friends who work in Finance at Target from no name schools. They aren't Directors and they probably never will be, but for basic Finance work? One of my girlfriends doesn't even have a degree and is a manager at Target Corporate in some business related field (it isn't Finance or Accounting though - Logistics I think).

Depends on the company, the position, the field, and who you know. Its possible to work your way up into a halfway decent position with no degree or a degree from a no name school with a LOT of firms - if you have talent.

The former CEO of my company - which is a Fortune 500 sized firm (but foreign owned) has his degree from some minor State School - a B.A. in History, I think. Talented and charismatic guy though.

 

[bettymae1121]

I am very fortunate to have a husband who grew up in a family where the parents taught him to fix things around the house and how to build.

We have renovated 3 houses now and sold them at a good profit. Dh has done 90% of the work himself. He is also teaching our boys how to do the work.

On the other hand, while I am fine with my boys wanting to be plumbers, I personally wouldn't enjoy it and I do want them to do something they enjoy.
If they enjoy plumbing, great.....but I do want to direct them to their field of interest.

Dawn

While I will be suggesting it, at the end of the day my (future) kid(s) will be free to do what they want, as long as they get good grades DH and I plan to pay for their undergrade degree in full (baring unforseen major events we should be able to afford it).

 

[disykat]

Its true, I think a lot of young people today see what their parents have and don't realize it took a long time and a lot of work to get there. (and that they won't get it right out of school).

Very true. My Dad worked his way through med school. Due to his nature he lives still lives fairly frugally, but I REMEMBER when we started to have more money. I'm the youngest child and we bought our first house when I was about to start Kindergarten. Prior to that, they rented. We started going on nicer vacations and stopped "pinching pennies" when I was about in 4th grade. (I'm talking things like hiring a painter to paint the house instead of doing it themselves, etc.) So, he became a doctor at around age 26 and it took until around 37ish until his income started to meet what people might think a doctor should make.

 

[RadioFanatic]

The amount you owe for school will directly impact your life for years to come. For women, it has the most significant impact, as it directly impacts your childbearing years.

My husband and I both knew we wanted to be lawyers, while we were in high school. Neither of us came from rich families. But both families pledged to put us through college. We both went to state schools and graduated with no debt. Thanks to our families. We knew we were on our own for law school and law school tuition is a whole different ballgame. The $ earned for a part-time job I had in college didn't make a dent in the tuition. So we both graduated at the ripe old age of 25 with over 140,000 in debt.

Next step, we clerked for judges, then we worked in private firms and got married. You make good money but you owe a lot. You also spend a lot because your never home to eat ect.

Suddenly, life was upon us and I was 30, maybe a child? The tuition payments were more than our mortgage. Had the first child, left right before giving birth and came back ASAP. Continued working into the 2nd child. Then the 3rd. Now, mid-30's -- still paying it off. Your life doesn't stop because you have the debts, you have to know how to manage it.

How did it impact our lives? Well, for two lawyers, we live in a modest house but we are in good company, we have many two lawyer families who ended in the same situation. We have been able to build savings, but we drive one newer can and an 11 year old honda. We don't have the shore house, or the boat.

My advice, as far as undergrad, spend as little as possible. Your earnings will rarely outstrip your debt for the first couple years. For grad school, don't marry a lawyer if your are becoming one.

I could have written this except I only have one child. Both dh and I went to law school. Thankfully, my parents helped me so I only had a very small loan upon graduation; however, my dh has a huge loan we are still paying off 12 years later and plan to for a long time. We actually did not buy a home until we were 35 (married when 26) because we called our loan our mortgage. We were smart and bought when house rates were the lowest in decades so were able to get a five bedroom house for the price of a 2. People are still shocked how little we paid for it and we do not intend to ever move. We just had a child two years ago. But we have already started a 529 for him for which we contribute $200 a month (already has over $5000 in it), I pay into my 401k, my dh will have a pension (he works for government) and we now pay the mortgage. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

 

[DISdreamin']

<snip>We started going on nicer vacations and stopped "pinching pennies" when I was about in 4th grade. (I'm talking things like hiring a painter to paint the house instead of doing it themselves, etc.)

I had to laugh at this...I don't think of us as pinching pennies, but we paint the house ourselves when things need painting, cut our own lawn, clean our own house, etc. We're *just* getting to the point where we are debating hiring a company to seal our driveway instead of doing it ourselves. I think it's a way of living rather than a necessity, truthfully.

And yes, I drive a 7+ year old car with 125K+ miles on it. Why not? It's why I'm on the budget board.

However, I went to school for a lot of years and so did DH (11 for each of us), and we make what I consider to be a comfortable living. We aren't wealthy, but we certainly aren't deprived of necessities - or quite a few luxuries either. Without my schooling, I believe I would be making a fraction (and a small one...maybe 1/3) of what I currently do. And I probably wouldn't be doing something I enjoy so much! So yeah, I took out student loans - and I don't regret it, not even for ONE INSTANT.

 

[wdwfan16]

I am very fortunate to have a husband who grew up in a family where the parents taught him to fix things around the house and how to build.

We have renovated 3 houses now and sold them at a good profit. Dh has done 90% of the work himself. He is also teaching our boys how to do the work.

On the other hand, while I am fine with my boys wanting to be plumbers, I personally wouldn't enjoy it and I do want them to do something they enjoy.
If they enjoy plumbing, great.....but I do want to direct them to their field of interest.

Dawn

I always tell girls there are three kinds of men you can marry 1)Those who make enough to hire all work out, 2) Those who are good with their hands so they can fix everything and 3) Both 1 and 2.

I am lucky that I got a #3 and I too can do many repairs. I am glad my dad insisted that I could do certain car stuff before I could drive. I also helped my dad around the house as a kid. These are valuable skills. When I do need to hire somebody I do not worry about getting ripped off.

 

[punkin]

I always tell girls there are three kinds of men you can marry 1)Those who make enough to hire all work out, 2) Those who are good with their hands so they can fix everything and 3) Both 1 and 2.

I am lucky that I got a #3 and I too can do many repairs. I am glad my dad insisted that I could do certain car stuff before I could drive. I also helped my dad around the house as a kid. These are valuable skills. When I do need to hire somebody I do not worry about getting ripped off.

MyDD17 says she want a man who is "handy" and will "take care of the kids". DD11 says she wants a man who will "make enough money that she can hire whomever she wants".

 

[DawnM]

Sigh.....we find we either have time OR money, rarely both.

Dawn

I always tell girls there are three kinds of men you can marry 1)Those who make enough to hire all work out, 2) Those who are good with their hands so they can fix everything and 3) Both 1 and 2.

I am lucky that I got a #3 and I too can do many repairs. I am glad my dad insisted that I could do certain car stuff before I could drive. I also helped my dad around the house as a kid. These are valuable skills. When I do need to hire somebody I do not worry about getting ripped off.

 

[Tiana]

.

 

[Camping Griswalds]

I agree about the "Backpacking through Europe" thing. i would love for my kids to experience this! We have plans on treating the two oldest boys to this when they graduate. The oldest from college, and the youngest from High School.

 

[disykat]

I had to laugh at this...I don't think of us as pinching pennies, but we paint the house ourselves when things need painting, cut our own lawn, clean our own house, etc. We're *just* getting to the point where we are debating hiring a company to seal our driveway instead of doing it ourselves. I think it's a way of living rather than a necessity, truthfully.

I see a huge difference between painting the whole house and doing a little painting, mowing your lawn, doing housework, etc. I don't know anyone who pays for those things, but I do know people who pay for the big projects - especially when they have careers where they work 60+ hours a week!

I consider us to be super frugal, but we hired someone to paint our exterior - then we did the trim and the entire inside ourselves.

 

[deerhart]

The amount you owe for school will directly impact your life for years to come. For women, it has the most significant impact, as it directly impacts your childbearing years.

I think this really varies on the priority of the people. I know many many people who's school debts had no bearing on having children. What it DID have an impact on was whether or not that woman worked.

Many young families right out of school can't afford paying both the debt AND daycare for both parents to work. So its either defer the loans or have someone not work in order to avoid the daycare costs.

As for paying for your kids college, I think its unrealistic to think that ALL (or even most) parents have the ability to start saving money when the child is born. Even IF your living below your means, the costs of having a child ripple down easily. Daycare, medical bills, diapers, clothes, etc and suddenly your not so far below your means as you were. Plus saving for retirement, rainy day fund, emergencies etc..

I chose the college I went to, I KNEW going in I would have to take out loans and would have to pay them back. I knew it when I got married, when I had kids, I have known it with every decision I have made. It has been my choice to have a small mortgage in student loan payments each month (I have great interest rates too on those loans).

 

[DISdreamin']

I see a huge difference between painting the whole house and doing a little painting, mowing your lawn, doing housework, etc. I don't know anyone who pays for those things, but I do know people who pay for the big projects - especially when they have careers where they work 60+ hours a week!

I consider us to be super frugal, but we hired someone to paint our exterior - then we did the trim and the entire inside ourselves.

In our neighborhood, many of the neighbors hire ChemLawn or some service to treat their lawn, they have a company that comes and mows, edges, etc., they hire for snow removal in winter, they have someone come clean weekly (I just returned a neighbors dog to their cleaning person not long ago - she'd let him get away!), etc. Thus my mentioning this...

As far as painting, I'd definitely have someone do the outside if possible because of the prep involved, but the painting itself doesn't bother me at all. Thankfully all we've needed to do so far was the trim, and I did that. Inside, we do it all. We've also done our own deck (my dad really did it and we helped).

Personally, I think it's all about time versus cost. And yes, if I worked 60 hours every week, I'd certainly be up for hiring for more things!