ot; alternative housing for debtreduction

[scaredyclassic]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/duke-grad-student-secretly-lived-in-a-van-to-escape-loan-debt-194021112.html

liked this story…

[paramount]

All of that and now he’s a medical guinea pig?

The real moral to this story IMO: don’t buy into the hype of a college education.

Stop looking down your nose at those in skilled trades.

Finally – THERE IS NO “IT” WORKER SHORTAGE AT ALL!

[paramount]

BTW, a 2 year community college education can be a GREAT value.

I know this is well understood, but…

From there, you can go into a skilled trade or transfer to a 4 year school for further *vocational* education like:

*nurse
*engineer
*lawyer (only become a lawyer if you can attend a tier 1 law school)
*Other medical careers/dental
*CPA
*Teacher

[EconProf]

Great inspirational story about a guy who quickly learned the trap of taking on too much student debt. And to think he only ran up $30,000! Way too many students get conned into majors that have poor employment prospects and will be burdened by the resulting debt for decades.
I’ll bet when he decides to buy housing he does not overpay or take on excessive debt.

[scaredyclassic]

We pooped the seats out of our old minivan to pickup a new couch from the goodwill and now my kids considering van living. Needs to be vacuumed badly.

[Coronita]

I wonder if I can turn this into an enterprise…If I buy a bunch of furnished vans, and park them on a Qualcomm or other tech company campus in Sorrento Valley, could I lease them out at $500/month? Still cheaper than renting or owning in MM….

[UCGal]

The son of one of my dad’s friends did 3 years at UCSD in an old VW bus. This was in the 80’s. Used the showers at the swimming pool. This was before ubiquitous cell phones – so he’d use his parents phone number as a message service – call in daily to pick up his messages.

A former coworker lived in her Roadtrek converted van with a VERY large dog for several months. She had her favorite parking spots near the beach to overnight… and rotated them to avoid pissing off neighbors.

What’s impressive about the guy in the story is not the van dwelling… It’s the intensity of paying down his student debt. Very admirable.

[joec]

This is one of the benefits of paying your own way through college and understanding possibly at a younger age the value/cost of money/a degree…

People who got their way paid through college (me), don’t realize how much it costs and probably wasted more time/money then they realized (me as well) and probably didn’t focus as much. Maybe I was just immature and an idiot as well.

After graduating and working and taking/paying for further education, I was a lot more studious since I took it more seriously. Maybe I was just older/more mature…who knows.

Unfortunately, I think college now vs. 20+ years ago when I went is just too expensive for everyone to go and get that degree or college experience. It’s nice if you or your family can afford it, but I think most people would be better off just trying to code/start a business or what not at a younger age, especially if they were planning to major in something very hard to get a job in.

Of course, if you plan to pursue being a doctor/lawyer or anything else which requires a degree, then you’re out of luck really.

I suppose I sorta feel that having it easier as a youth made me “less” competitive as an adult.

One thing I do realize now is also that if you aren’t part of the old power/wealth/connections, etc…it’s also very hard to get far far ahead…

You can do “ok” as an engineer or what not, but as any asian male will tell you, you start to notice that asian male glass ceiling eventually…

[CA renter]

[quote=joec]This is one of the benefits of paying your own way through college and understanding possibly at a younger age the value/cost of money/a degree…

People who got their way paid through college (me), don’t realize how much it costs and probably wasted more time/money then they realized (me as well) and probably didn’t focus as much. Maybe I was just immature and an idiot as well.

After graduating and working and taking/paying for further education, I was a lot more studious since I took it more seriously. Maybe I was just older/more mature…who knows.

Unfortunately, I think college now vs. 20+ years ago when I went is just too expensive for everyone to go and get that degree or college experience. It’s nice if you or your family can afford it, but I think most people would be better off just trying to code/start a business or what not at a younger age, especially if they were planning to major in something very hard to get a job in.

Of course, if you plan to pursue being a doctor/lawyer or anything else which requires a degree, then you’re out of luck really.

I suppose I sorta feel that having it easier as a youth made me “less” competitive as an adult.

One thing I do realize now is also that if you aren’t part of the old power/wealth/connections, etc…it’s also very hard to get far far ahead…

You can do “ok” as an engineer or what not, but as any asian male will tell you, you start to notice that asian male glass ceiling eventually…[/quote]

Totally agree with your post, Joe.

[(former)FormerSanDiegan]

I thought people like Patrick Soon-Shiong broke the asian male glass ceiling.

If you don;t know who that guy is, you should.

[Author]

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