Stupid Debt

[Arcticdude]

I was fortunate enough to grow up at a time when parents were parents. At that time most parents guided their children to become financially responsible adults. They taught honesty, hard work, the value of a nickel and how to save for the future. When I was young I worked for the neighboring ranchers making $.75-$1.10 per hour, and saved every penny I made. At 16 I paid $650 cash for a 1964 Chevy pickup. Gas was $.27 a gallon. At 19 I got married and bought my first house for $32,000. I was working as a welder by then making $5.36 per hour. Kept it for 5 years. Sold the house for around $45,000 and bought a brand new house at double the size for $65,000. Over the next 40 years I kept buying and selling homes, farms, ranches, timber lands, apartment buildings and bare land. Several years ago I bought the land that I'm living on now. Retired at 57 as a VP for a major oil company. Now I'm totally debt free and building my house completely out of pocket.
The moral of this story is that for most people nothing comes easy or quickly. Life can and will be difficult at times. The best finanical advice that I could ever give anyone is to live below their means, pay themselves first and be patient. Anyone can succeed with a good plan, a little hard work and discipline.

 

[Robinjopo1]

My daughter and her husband learned this Winter. He was injured and missed 6 months work. Luckily, he had savings and they didn't go into debt. They definitely understand the need for savings.

The college kids that leave school with $100k debt and unable to find a job in gender studies and blame the world.

A friend just graduated with a degree in Middle Eastern studies. No teaching degree so if she doesn't go into the CIA she rather lost. Maybe get a job with Social security as an interpreter . Not much money there.

Her dad, the doctor, just says "I tried to tell her".

 

[Robinjopo1]

We don't have a mortgage or car payments. Which is great.

Our medical insurance is our largest monthly expense. That's just wrong. Insurance should be way down the list

 

[TexasFreedom]

A friend just graduated with a degree in Middle Eastern studies. No teaching degree so if she doesn't go into the CIA she rather lost. Maybe get a job with Social security as an interpreter . Not much money there.
Her dad, the doctor, just says "I tried to tell her".

Did her dad enable her to get this degree? She should have had a target degree on day one, and if it was something stupid like this, he should have said not one penny. If she wanted to completely fund it with loans, that's on her. It's hard to tell your child they're being stupid and break their spirit. But if they are heading for a $100k trainwreck, the kindest thing is to try to stop it. Before day 1 of school, have her find several people with these degrees and see what jobs they have gotten. Have her go to the college and talk to a prof in that dept, asking what graduates are getting for jobs. See where the rubber meets the road.