Student Loans are a Trap!

I hate student loans!

This is money that is so easily handed over to 18-year-old college students with a wicked sneer....saying "Here little girl, do you want some candy?" or "You can have all you want little boy! Here take some more, and more, and more..."...and then the trap door slams shut *BAM*.

I borrowed $3,000 of student loan money for my 2nd year of college (in 1994)...and now 17 years later I now owe $12,000. I'm sure you are wondering how $3K of student loan money can turn into $12K. Well can you say subsidized? or involuntary consolidation fees? more fees? or interest accruing at a phenomenal rate? interest only payments? can you say TRAP!

Listen people! These are the facts:

• You can not file bankruptcy on student loans.
• You can not write-off student loan debt.
• You can never get rid of student loan debt except through death...
• Student loan companies can garnish your wages.
• Student loan companies can take your taxes.
• Student loan companies can haunt you for the rest of your life.
• Student loan companies will not use Vaseline (harsh but true)

 ...You will owe this money until your death, even if you don't finish your degree.

I encourage everyone to exhaust all other possibilities before accepting more than your first year's salary in student loans.

For example, a social work (BSW) student should not accept $65,000 of student loan money.

A BSW will never make $65,000/yr which equals a lifetime of debt. Run Forest Run!  The research says that a student should only borrow up to their first years expected salary.