$100,000 in student loan debt?

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I keep reading about new nurses saddled with $100,000 worth of student loan debt. I'm curious about this. Are these students using their loans to live off of while they attend school or are they attending very expensive schools? You could almost buy a house for that amount. How common is that level of debt?

Specializes in L&D/Maternity nursing.
Sorry, you have tried, and tried to somehow equate home ownership to an expensive private school. Not gonna work.

Maybe that's why we question comprehension?

I did no such thing.

What I did do was point out the irony of those who were criticizing other's debt when they in fact have their own. Having a mortgage is debt, especially in these trying times where many people owe more than what their home is actually worth.

Are we really going to try and argue the validity of this? Isnt this why many people are facing foreclosure these days?

DISCLAIMER: not saying you personally owe more on your house, I was simply using it as an analogy, which apparently was a big fat FAIL. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, right?

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Question: Did you pay for your house in cash? Or did you rely on your credit score to get you a good interest rate on your mortgage?

If its the latter, then yes, having a good credit standing is beneficial.

And what about that one car loan of yours you previously mentioned? Again I ask, did your credit score qualify for a good interest rate on that car loan of yours?

And my intelligence and comprehension skills have been called into question in this thread? As Cher Horowitz once said, "As if!":lol2:

Oh dear lord I feel like i am conversing with my teenager. I was speaking about getting to a point where you have NO DEBT and you have a savings. You said you NEED debt for good Credit, I said when you get to that point that point is to NOT USE CREDIT for ANYTHING. Also, there are lenders that will go off of other things that aren't your credit scores. Dave Ramsey' Classes you teach you about this and where to go for this. Places that do their own underwriting. Seriously, if you actually READ with what I am responding to you would see this. I am not to that debt free point YET my goal is to GET there. My car with the payment I bought 3 years ago. Before I took the Financial Peace Classes and got a reality check. Since then I have cut up all Credit Cards and when we bought our latest card we paid CASH for it. We saved up 7 thousand dollars and paid for it in full.

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Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.
The economy isn't tanking because people borrowed money to go to college. You want to jump on the debt destruction bandwagon, be my guest! But there are far worthier targets than people who take out loans for their education.

How bout the idiots who paid insane prices for their homes and are now facing forclosure? Or the people who have racked up thousands in credit card debt they can't afford to pay? Those are the reckless and irresponsible folks who are now filing bankruptcy to get a clean slate without paying that money back. Student loans get paid back one way or another--the government will keep tax refunds and garnish wages (I know someone who was in this situation) if you don't pay voluntarily but one way or another, those of us with student loans are paying them back.

Ah. There is a good point that may show where the true differences in our opinions are. See, you make a definite distinction between people who borrow for education in excess and people who cant manage their credit card/mortgage.

In my eyes, the ones who borrow in excess for their education ARE or BECOME the ones who take out mortgages they cant afford and run their credit cards to heavenly heights with no intention of getting them paid off.

Kind of..............the kid in grade school who is caught stealing milk money is likely to be the one stealing cars in HS. Thats how I see it. Human behavior is rarely random or impulse. We act a certain way and show tendencies towards certain approaches to problem solving because that is where our experiences/attitudes/moral compos leads us to. If you show a tendency to spend recklessly in school with borrowing for things you should be taking care of yourself, more than likely you will be doing the same post graduation.

Then you get into what I was talking about from the start. Someone who has shown poor decision making from the beginning and has put themselves in a hole vs. someone who has sacrificed and been responsible. Those that spend recklessly rarely take any accountability for the end result of their poor decisions. Eventually they look for a hand out, expect to be saved from the debt beast they've created for themselves. And the government is beginning to sympathize with these individuals.:down: Not fair for those of us who have gone without the frills and luxuries in the name of being responsible. Our taxes go up, we continue to go without and get no sympathy/hand out from the government. Looking at things in this light, I think one can see why the responsible people tend to be bitter.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I did no such thing.

What I did do was point out the irony of those who were criticizing other's debt when they in fact have their own. Having a mortgage is debt, especially in these trying times where many people owe more than what their home is actually worth.

Are we really going to try and argue the validity of this? Isnt this why many people are facing foreclosure these days?

DISCLAIMER: not saying you personally owe more on your house, I was simply using it as an analogy, which apparently was a big fat FAIL. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, right?

BTW, owning a home if you are smart about it can be an INVESTMENT. We bought our house for 185 we sold it 3 years later for 255. You do the math.

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Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.
I did no such thing.

What I did do was point out the irony of those who were criticizing other's debt when they in fact have their own. Having a mortgage is debt, especially in these trying times where many people owe more than what their home is actually worth.

Are we really going to try and argue the validity of this? Isnt this why many people are facing foreclosure these days?

DISCLAIMER: not saying you personally owe more on your house, I was simply using it as an analogy, which apparently was a big fat FAIL. Oh well, you win some, you lose some, right?

There is a grand difference between "having debt" and "being in debt".

One who owns a car and makes car payments to go to work is in a completely different realm than one who.............owns a tripped out Hummer to go camping and a sports car to go to work.........but only makes 20K a year.

One who owns a house and got a mortgage they can afford has taken a different route than those who..........live off CCs to the point that they cant make their mortgage payment, or one who is trying to "keep up with the Jones's" and got a mortgage they only afford if many variables go their way.

Having good credit and using it does not equal being in debt. At all. Nope. Way off.

Thats the problem with the school loans. They are not so dependent on your credit since most people at that age have not built up a credit history. They are giving huge "max" borrowing ceilings to people who can not comprehend the implications of what they are doing.

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BTW, owning a home if you are smart about it can be an INVESTMENT. We bought our house for 185 we sold it 3 years later for 255. You do the math.

And their is also people who bought homes for 400K in California that are now selling it

for 250K.

Im glad you were LUCKY.

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Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.
And their is also people who bought homes for 400K in California that are now selling it

for 250K.

Im glad you were LUCKY.

More than likely the same people who paid 100K for an RN license.

See, it all makes sense when you break it down scientifically.

100K TO MUCH for an RN license

400K TO MUCH for a 250K house

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More than likely the same people who paid 100K for an RN license.

See, it all makes sense when you break it down scientifically.

100K TO MUCH for an RN license

400K TO MUCH for a 250K house

I think most people who read this will understand the problem with this logic.

I think anyone who bought a house within the last 5 years would. Probably would be offended. Especially those who saved 20% to see it wiped away.

But If you dont, I think its obvious you will not be changing your opinions.

It been a great debate everyone!

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
And their is also people who bought homes for 400K in California that are now selling it

for 250K.

Im glad you were LUCKY.

It isn't just California,and it was NOT luck!! but those are the people that were not smart about debt and got themselves into a mess. Had that not borrowed more than they could afford they would not be in that mess. This is how buying a house works for most people that are smart about their investment, they find a house they can afford and is at a good price, they live in it for many years, when they go to sell it, they have equity in their home and they actually make money off of it. This is the norm for the past couple hundred of years, the norm isn't people paying an obscene amount for a little house in comparison and than NEEDING to sell because they didn't pay attention to the loan terms and all their buddies did the same and others were not going to be dumb with their money and pay that amount for the same house. Although it isn't just the people to blame, I also blame the lendors, but in the end the responsibility falls on the individual IMO and the lenders shouldn't have gotten bailed out either. IMO

The thing about Student Loans is the limits are pretty high where they look at need and it's not hard to keep borrowing the max amount allowed, they also don't check your credit to see if you have a history of being smart with credit. Although your payments will show up on your credit report. Private loans will check but not the federal ones, so they are allowing all these people to pull out the max amount and than what happens when it's time to pay back and you didn't realize you have a 1200 dollar a month payment??? I can assure you, the person is going to pay the house payment and utilities and probably even a cell and food and clothes and non necessary items before that loan payment and if they don't have enough for the loan payment it won't be the number 1 priority. I don't see many people being homeless, and hungry in order to pay for this loan and because there is a huge gap on what truly is a necessity and what people just consider a necessity all that will come first.

Sure I suppose I might just be assuming and people really might pay the loans above anything, but being that they responsible about it to begin with, I highly doubt I will be wrong. Just like the people with the homes they couldn't afford.

I have a little more sympathy with the people with the homes though.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I think most people who read this will understand the problem with this logic.

I think anyone who bought a house within the last 5 years would. Probably would be offended. Especially those who saved 20% to see it wiped away.

But If you dont, I think its obvious you will not be changing your opinions.

It been a great debate everyone!

I bought a house in the last 5 years and I am not offended. I would also be willing to bet that MOST of the people that have lost their homes did NOT save 20% because they got into these no money down or interest only home loans and ARMS with no money down. Financing at 110% and when it came time when the Arm is up or it's no longer interest only they couldn't afford the payment. People weren't losing their homes the first few months of payments, it happened when the "real" payment kicked in. But as I stated before, if these people were responsible with their hard earned money to begin with and didn't borrow more than they could afford, they would not be in their situation.

We were dumb about our home loan as in the TYPE of loan we got, thankfully though we were SMART with the home we purchased so even though our payment jumped over 800 dollars when our ARM went up, when we decided to move to a new state and sell our home, it was still worth something. No one has any right to be offended, the ones that lost their homes, bottom line, they weren't responsible with their money. IMO I can admit my fault in financial decisions without blaming everyone else, it's an amazing thing to put blame where it actually belongs.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.

I can't believe the emotional investiture that you all have in this topic! It astounds me, actually.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
I can't believe the emotional investiture that you all have in this topic! It astounds me, actually.

LOL.......you frequently say that after you start a thread. You're the master at starting these kinds of looooooong threads. :yeah:

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