<p>You want to be careful before assuming too much school debt. You have to plan for repayment and a large monthly payment will definitely affect your lifestyle. </p>
<p>I have shared this story on other threads, but I’ll share again. I finished grad school in 1982. When I finished, my undergrad and grad school loans were $10,000. I got married in 82 and my husband started med school, graduating in 1986. He paid for med school with loans. He then did a residency and fellowship which enabled us to defer payment for some of our loans. When we finally started paying back all of the loans, we were around $120,000 in debt. I’m sure my memory is failing a little but I believe (adding up the different loans) we were paying close to $1200/month when we first started. My loans got paid off and we consolidated his with a 4% interest rate and ended up paying $716/month. We still pay that $716/month and my husband is now 52; we’ll be done paying in about 5 years (the year after my first son graduates from college). We did eventually get to a point where we could have paid our loan off sooner, but with the lower interest rate we decided against it. Also, we are mostly just paying principle now. Early in our marriage we had to make many sacrifices and all life decisions (children, house, cars…) were based on what we could afford. We are an example of how you can get out from student debt, but you need to be in a field that pays well and you need to be willing to live frugally for quite a while. We also did it as a two income family.</p>
<p>I think it’s much harder to have large amounts of student debt with today’s economy. It costs more to live and jobs aren’t a sure thing. I worry about students going into great debt without the assurance of a job in a high paying field. I have one niece who has large student loans and she is a music therapist. How can she repay her loans and build a comfortable life for herself?</p>