cocojambo

http://www.moneysavingfreetips.com/s...oan-debts.html

"Graduating seniors who just finished their degrees on average carry debts of $19,000 or more. On the other hand, medical graduate students carry debts in the range $19,000 - $105,000 (Source: Department of Education).

Tuition fees have risen 32% at 4 year private colleges whilst they have risen by 41% at public universities and colleges. Average accomodation and board and room fees at private colleges cost $29000 at private colleges while costing $12000 at public institutions."

zippyjuan

And unfortunately a college education is not as much of a ticket to a well paying job as it used to be. Since more people are getting a college education, at least the undergraduate level is pretty much to try to stay even with everyone else. A college degree can help you get a job that only required a high shool degree thirty years ago. Reduced influence of unions and competition from countries overseas has been lowering real wages for most jobs and that combined with rising student debt makes it harder to pay the money back.

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I add new pictures to my photo gallery pretty regularly. You can see them here if you are interested: http://www.pbase.com/jeffryz

clutchy

I had $25,000 at graduation. I have a little more than that now...

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LK was treated unfairly

thanks X

kimchicowboy

i still have about $13k to pay off over a 13 year period. hehehe

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"I pick my nose too but never eat it." - bachviet, 3/30/04

if anyone wants to go scuba diving in oahu or wants to learn who to scuba dive in oahu, PM me.

zippyjuan

Is the rate you are paying lower than you can get for investing money somewhere? If so, then pay it off as slowly as you are allowed to and invest whatever you would have paid into the loan. If you cannot get that kind of return, then pay off the loans as quickly as you can. In thirteen years you could end up paying a lot of interest in terms of dollars.

ramazank2

My wife and I have about 40k in student loan dept at a rate of <3%. So I pay the minimum every month.

mcs328

Is there any reason you don't pay more than the minimum amount? I'm thinking because money is tight and you can't afford to take a chunk of the principal out.

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LegendKiller

I completely are with this viewpoint, however, it's difficult to hold on to.

Consider my wife and I at more than 130k combined student debt (mine being way more than half). We make a pretty good amount of money, and we can float even without her paycheck coming in for another 2 months.

That being said, we pay ~1k/mo in payments. This is still a pretty huge piece of income, something that weighs on my mind constantly, sometimes my obsession over this amount gets the better of me and I start thinking of slaping down massive amounts of cash (bonuses) on it to get it down faster.

It's a tough balance. However, considering my career development, it was well worth the cost.

ramazank2

Because ING gives me 4%... And it is tax deductable.

mcs328

Ah I see. Makes sense to me.