[quote=meadandale] . . . I started working when I was 14 and had various jobs all through high school and college. Even then, I still had to work my way up through crap jobs after college.
I managed to live on my own and pay back my college loans just fine on a low salary. I didn’t get to own a nice car, have nice clothes or go out a lot. I didn’t have the money. I had to live frugally for a long time.
I think a lot of these kids are living at home because they don’t want to give up the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to so they let their parents pay for it. They are gonna have a hell of a time when they actually get out in the real world and have to pay their own way.[/quote]
I understand what you’re saying here, meadandale. I, too, began work at 15, had tons of “crap jobs” and moved out just before my 18th birthday, never to return home.
These kids I’m speaking of aren’t driving new cars and their student loan balances range from $27K to about $68K. Their parents, by any stretch, aren’t living “lifestyles” (anyone) would aspire to become “accustomed to.” Several still have minor brothers/sisters at home and some of their homes are small and crowded. I’m sure that if these kids weren’t so in debt (because their parents were unable to help with college) that they would prefer to live with a roommate out in an apt somewhere.
If you don’t mind my asking, meadandale, how much was your student loan debt upon graduation? And how much was your rent (or your portion of rent) upon graduating?
I had no student loan debt and private student loans did not exist in my day (a typical “gov’t-backed” student loan back then was, at most, $4K per yr). My first apt. rent was $140 per mo. for 1 bdrm. apt and water/sewer and gas/elec were typically incl. with apt rent. Cable tv and cell phones did not exist. A landline phone was $8 per mo. Jobs were plentiful and if you didn’t like the job or people, there was another one down the street. A single person could live on minimum wage (or slightly over) indefinitely and also drive, shop and entertain themselves.
It’s a vastly different world that these kids are graduating into today.
I am intimately familiar with the duties of the county jobs I speak of here and can tell you that many of them do not require any skills beyond what is typically learned in the eighth grade. Hence, the entry tests for these jobs (to get on the hiring lists) are based upon successful completion of eighth-grade subjects.
I wouldn’t counsel my kid with a marketable college degree to take ANY of these jobs as there is NO GUARANTEE of ever being promoted out of them.
If they’re just a means to an end (pay off student loans) then I guess I could see their point of taking them in this job market.
