Are you financially better off than your parents were at your age?

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Good lord, I'm 31 and I've had less than $2000 for the last 3 or 4 years. I pay $50 a month, and my interest is like 2.25%. Only reason I haven't paid it off is because the interest rate is soo low, and it's like the rate of inflation. I don't even see how they are making money off of me. Instead I just threw everything at my house and paid it off last year.

My GF is on the same boat as you though, she went to a private school, and unfortunately her parents were too dumb to tell her to look for grants and aid. She has 200k and she ONLY has a bachelors. If you look for it, and even just ask the admissions office, you can get TONS of grants and aid if you go to private schools, and once it's said and done usually you can get the cost down to just at or below what a state school is. Well, she didn't do that and she has/had 200k of debt too, and she hasn't paid it down too much either.

I did a little blog for my company on the payback of higher education last year, for associate, bachelor, and master's degrees. If I remember right, the average payback period for a college degree is six years in terms of salary. I assumes various years of lost income pursuing the degree, and then analyzed the average income differential once you get the degree. For all three types of degrees, the payback period was about six years. i thought that was interesting.

But your point also reminded me of the cost. That payback period was for a public school and in-state tuition, and I think I included room and board. For all the talk about massive student debt, I was shocked at how inexpensive college costs are if you're doing an in-state public school. There's no need to go $200,000 in debt for a college degree if you think the quality of public universities is adequate.