If so, how? If not, how did things get so bad?
Not sure I understand your question fully, but if I am interpreting correctly you are asking how to get over college debt? There’s really only one answer, do what you have to in order to pay it back, and pay it quickly if you can. My husband and I had student loans from undergraduate and graduate school, combined about 60,000 dollars. We decided to take overseas jobs that came with housing, free child care where we worked (we had a new baby at the time), no income tax, and for about 18 months we sent almost all of our income toward our student loans. No trips, fancy restaurants, etc. We paid the loans down and haven’t had any debt since. That was over 20 years ago.
My kids have not yet “overcome student debt.” And that’s just the 27k max on student loans. Don’t borrow more than that. Mine have good jobs, but loans can make life tough.
My kids “overcame” it by not having any. As for me, I had it for grad school and it too 10 years of working in healthcare to pay it off. Avoid if you can, as it can affect your kids’ abilitity to pay rent, buy a car, get married, etc.
Keep your initial debt outlay low. Some student loan debt is okay, but borrowing more than about $30K can be detrimental to future efforts to live an adult life, and sometimes even that amount is a struggle if you have a lower starting salary.
I will say, however, that I am not a fan of the extreme debt repayment articles I’ve seen everywhere. If you have the means and resources to pay off $$$$ in student loans in 6 months then maybe, but student loan interest is pretty low (for federal loans) and sometimes it makes more sense to do other things while paying the minimum balance on your loans or maybe slightly more. For example, I wouldn’t liquidate savings to pay off student loans, because you need an emergency fund. I personally wouldn’t make the decision to not have any of the fancy trimmings that make my life fuller (trips, fancy restaurants, nice clothes) - you balance it in moderation. There are other things that you’ll want to do, like invest in your 401(k) or save up for a house. I could theoretically pay less into my 401(k) so I could pay down my student loans faster, but because of compound interest it makes more sense for me to tend to my 401(k).
I started repaying my loans after I finished graduate school, when I was in my late 20s. I will probably be in my early late 30s/early 40s when I finish repaying my loans, but that’s okay. My earning power is much higher than it would’ve been without the graduate degree (during which I incurred most of the loans) and I can quite comfortably afford the loan payments.
Juillet, ever look at how interest adds up, when one goes ten or more years? Mindboggling.
I graduated with $35k in Student loans in 1993. My first job paid $22k. I paid it all off in 10 years. During that time, I bought a couple of cars, a house, and had 2 children. It’s doable.
The best way is to minimize it in the first place. Take advantage of every scholarship opportunity possible, do two years at a community college and transfer the credits, live at home if possible, consider the military, etc. Sure it may not be the typical Hollywood “College experience”, but graduating debt free or with minimal debt is far better.
For us, its a few hundred dollars a month, we put it on autopay and forget it. It doesn’t bother us, we don’t even feel it.