Start funding a ROTH IRA instead of your 401k after the match; you can pull out any dollars put in for any reason with no penalty or taxes. You can't touch any gains though without penalty. I wouldnt normally recommend this but it's better than having no oh shit plan.

2x check the cost these days now that states have defunded education. Baby boomers left college virtually debt free, only 9% of boomers graduated with students debt, and way less as the average debt owed was less than $2500. Nearly half and by 2018 over half of new graduates will have student loans averaging more than $46,000. Not even accounting for the fact that an undergrad degree is not as lucrative. Today a graduate degree falls more in line with what your earning power was as a baby boomer with just your BA or whichever undergrad degree you got.

Well, grad school is another 100k.

People act like the debt being asked for young people is the same, and it just isnt. Previous generations had subsidised higher education even if they weren't aware of it.

In the 60s and 70s, CA residents could attend any state school at next nothing (about $400 a year), and really only had to worry about covering their living expenses and textbooks.

Back to the finances discussion....


I absolutely COULD live at a higher standard. I could have a larger house and drive newer cars and take....vacations more than twice in 10 years. I choose to live well within my means while I know people at this very moment who have their average looking daughters on a 'model cruise" for the second year in a row...They work, but could be using that money in a much more intelligent capacity.

People find themselves "stuck" and are unhappy with their income, but if you ask most of those people, they've done NOTHING to improve their situation. I see some of them leaving every Thursday of the summer to go camping. they haven't put forth effort to obtain a new skill or trade, or put in the extra work to rise up the ladder where they do work.....

I'd very much enjoy more time goofing off, camping, hunting or spending time with my kids....but money doesn't go into the bank on it's own. It takes effort and sweat. Too many people want the reward without putting in the effort to get ahead. Most of the people I know who can't find $400 will find that issue to be very self inflicted.

I know a dozen Avila U grads that just broke into the nursing field and have on average about 50k in tuition debt. Now, they do have wide open options for employment, but paying off 50k (or more) in debt with accrued interest is going to to take them well into their career.

I got a merit scholarship, only a partial not full, for undergrad and remember my 1st semester bill was $183.17.

If you're looking at it that way, you also have to review what the starting wages are for college graduates versus what they were 20 years ago. I doubt many college grads are starting at $12/hr.

You and me. 1k covered the entire year.

Networking and building contacts and relationships for the future should be half the reason why you are there. I look back and wish I cultivated that a lot more and I was very social and had a wide net of friends and acquaintances. Same reason why the Greek system has tangible benefits down the road.

This is because of TOO MUCH government involvement, not too little. What has happened is Uncle Sam is funding students going to schools, so schools keep jacking up the price, ahving NO risk of a student not repaying the loan.

There is no long ANY relationship whatsoever between the value of the education received and the cost of hte education received, nor any relationship between the provider (school) and any risk of not being paid for providing the education (default on student loan because they charge $100K for a worthless ****ing PoliSci degree from East Bum**** U).

While this is likely true, I find it abhorrent that the NCAA has a $1 billion dollar contract per year to televise the Basketball tournament, schools have their own football networks, along with deals with Fox, ESPN, et al, while the athletes aren't paid a dime, all the while the universities charge an egregious amount of money for education.

It's a completely jacked up system.

It is not looming....it is here. My company employees over 400 welders on this site and we can't get enough of them. There are little to none coming through trade schools right now and a lot of the ones that do are soft and once they realize they have to work in the heat, they bail out in the summer months. I have meet several middle aged men that just got into the HVAC trade. Many used to work for cable companies but they can make far better money in HVAC. Same goes for plumbing.

JFC ...$400 aint shit.

If we're not talking about a major life catastrophic event here, if you're an adult and you don't have $400 to your name then you've obviously made some poor choices in life.

Recent grads aren't making higher salaries than 20 years ago. Everything else has risen in cost including their monthly student loan payments. The job market, salaries, benefits, less competition, little or no debt. Boomers cleaned up.

Sorry, I can't think of a single advantage recent graduates have over boomers in 1 way entering the job market unless being able to check Facebook on your phone or you love the advent of social media, is what you see as a significant advantage.

So if it was $500 million and tuition where cheaper would that make things better? Sports are giving my kids a way to attend college they would never be able to afford otherwise.

The athletes are compensated in other ways...training table (food), education, health care, tutors, a life time network of assistance, stipends, housing. Sure it isn't straight cash but it is compensation for the time they put in and the revenue they bring to the school. It is not always fair compensation but it is something. Without sports we know many of these kids would be into far worse things.