So you're friends had nearly three times the debt of their average peer. That would be 80k now. I'm not saying it is an undue burden. My point is and always has been that students right out of college now have it tougher financially than those who graduated 20,30 or 40 years ago. My point is purely in the short term. The future is far too uncertain to predict how millenials will fare in the long term relative to other generations.
My first job out of college was a warehouse job. I was being groomed to take over a guy's job that was retiring at the end of the year. Three months, he died in a car wreck. It was awful, because the guy was awesome and everyone pretty much thought of him as a grandpa around there. That being said, I got a significant pay bump I wasn't expecting. I ended up hating the job and quitting to start a business, but that job bought me a house and paid off my student loans
And the only reason I was in line to take over in the first place is I worked between 50 to 70 hours a week in the summers there during college, which kept me from going nipples deep in debt.
I pulled many "lites" (industry term for a piece) of glass off of a float line and into various containers during the summer while in college to stay out of debt. I averaged 3 or 4 sixteen hour shifts/week so I could pay my own way.
I worked through temp agencies during summers going back into high school to pay for college. I managed to graduate with no debt, but I also took a spring and fall off to work a full time internship that paid better than I made when I got out. Without the intern work, I wouldn't have been able to keep up with costs. Tuition increased a little more than 100% from the time I started to the time I left. Then, I got married and paid off my wife's loans.
I've been on my own and working since 17. I honestly don't know how I could have gotten through debt free, and it wasn't like I was making minimum wage.
The issue are the people taking tons of debt just so they can party and have a higher life style in school. IMO. While I was in college they were quite a few doing that while running up hundred or two bar tabs
Yep, I know several. They're usually the first to [itch bay] about debt and not being able to find "good work"
I must have been very fortunate when I went to school. I lived at home (no rent and little food bill). Tuition was still manageable and I worked a part time job. I had very little debt (cannot remember, but it might have been $7-10k) when I graduated.
I went to Tech so the cost of living was cheap but it wasn't hard to get through school while not going crazy in debt.
I set out to pay my way up front and even chose where to go partially based on that goal, but I didn't anticipate tuition increasing like it did. I probably would have gotten loans at the very end to go ahead and finish, but I was fortunate to have a way to earn the money and stay in school. I might have taken loan money for grad school if I'd followed through with that plan.
