Speaking from personal experience, if one chose a major carefully, it’s a very good idea to borrow for an education.
[quote=bearishgurl]It is unbelievable to me that a “boomer” would be delusional enough to do the following:
Borrow to get ANY degree for themselves after the age of 45;
-borrow more than $20K to get a degree for themselves while under the age of 45;
-co-sign for their kids a student loan;
-take out a student loan for their kid’s education;
-co-sign a mortgage for a personal residence for their kid and going on title with them;
-co-sign a auto loan for their kid; or
-co-sign a credit card for their kid.
I’ve seen a LOT … Persons a few years away from retirement have financially WRECKED themselves by doing the above. There is a such a thing as giving money to your kid for part or all of a downpayment on a principal residence as a gift, or;
-opening up and regularly feeding a college fund while your kid(s) are young;
-giving your kid a gift or graduation present of a vehicle or a downpayment for one, paid directly to the seller;
-providing your kid with vehicle insurance, cell phone and medical coverage while a full-time student;
-taking out a 2nd trust deed on your kid’s principal residence for part or all the downpayment you “loaned” them (although this is fraught with peril as well) …
-and, taking care of your grandchild(ren) while your kid (their parent) works.
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Even with a college degree under their belt, as an adult, your kid could very well:
Get into an auto accident with injury or death for which they are liable and are uninsured or underinsured;
-become severely injured themselves and unable to work;
-get a judgment against them for collections on consumer accounts and have their pay garnished;
-borrow too much to buy property they really can’t afford and become upside-down quickly;
-try to start a business with all their savings and lose it all;
-marry someone who gambles or turns into a drug addict;
-marry someone whom they have kids with who refuses to hold down a job for any length of time;
-have a child with birth defects;
-have multiple children and have to pay child support for all of them or be unable to collect child support for any of them;
-become a drug addict or alcoholic themselves and be unable to work;
-get addicted to gambling;
-get arrested and convicted of a felony and sent off to the Big House;
-file for divorce and their spouse turns vengeful, charging up, making claims against the “marital” property and taking everything they can;
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Don’t laugh, Piggs. I’ve seen ALL of this happen to college-educated young people who have/had FT jobs where their parent(s) “over-helped” them throughout life.
For YOU, as a parent, who is “retired” or “soon to retire,” all of the above (your kid’s) problems will become YOURS if you enmesh yourself with your adult child’s (age 18+) problems to the degree where you actually can’t afford to help anymore. YOU need to be able to pay for your OWN food, shelter and Medicare parts B & D until you die. YOU have NO CONTROL over how your kids conduct their lives when they are an adult. If YOUR kids can’t properly manage their OWN lives, how the h@ll are they going to be able to help YOU if you become indigent in your old age as a direct result from helping them … long past the age (for you and them) where you actually SHOULD have done so?
Thanks for posting, scaredy. It’s an eye opener and those affected seniors should be grateful that the GOV is only garnishing 15% of their SS checks. I foresee a lot of these seniors with a balance still owed to Sallie Mae, etc at the time of their deaths.
Piggs, PLEASE COACH your kids to REFRAIN from taking out student loans ENTIRELY!!!!!!
Like flu posted earlier today, tell them get a job at Costco for $20 an hr. They likely won’t make that kind of money fresh out of college with a(n expensive) “Bachelor Degree.” If your college student runs out of money midstream …. tell them to finish the quarter or semester and WITHDRAW and continue another day when they have more $$.
That’s what people in my generation and those before us did. It’s really okay to go to school at night after work when you are working in a FT job – 1-2 classes at a time. You know exactly what you want to do by then 🙂
College is getting to be a scam … ESP private “for profit” schools.
