Taking on loans

Paying for College
1

<p>(Working towards post #200, since I cannot leave CC until all decisions are in!!!) </p>

<p>Debt - IMO, do not let them take on too much of it. Discourage a college choice that entails lots of debt.</p>

<p>If you read the LOTR trilogy, Merry and Pippin try to discourage Frodo from going to Mordor. They state that they love him and they are his friends, but "we didn't know what it would mean." </p>

<p>I don't think it is easy for a high school senior or even a just-graduating senior to comprehend what it is like to bite your nails worrying about having enough money to pay the bills. In today's soft job market and iffy economy, you have to be either prescient (I hope so, for all our sakes) or foolhardy if you blithely assume that 'everything will be ok.' Excessive debt is a heavy millstone, and it often affects choices after graduation. I think that parents should be the voice of reason and balance when a student falls in love with an expensive option, specifying in detail the likely salaries out of school, how much it costs to rent an apartment and own a car, what the monthly payment is likely to be, etc. Try to make the choice real in a detailed, practical way - even so, I don't think they can fully understand it until it is their burden. </p>

<p>"We have gathered and we have spent, and now the time of payment draws near."</p>

2

<p>True... up to last summer, I've never had the priviledge of working with money. Until it's yours and you hafta deal with the consequences on your own, you never really take it seriously. It never occurs to you that you hafta learn how to balance a checkbook, not overspend, learn the difference between a charge vs. debit vs. credit card. A lot for a lil' one like me to learn.</p>

<p>Anyone know the difference between a Perkins Loan and a Stafford loan?</p>

3

<p>If you haven't googled yet, here is the link to the Ultimate Buyer and clearing house of all student loans.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.salliemae.com/apply/borrowing/loantypes.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.salliemae.com/apply/borrowing/loantypes.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Things to remember in any monetary program.
1. What is not said if often times more important than what is said.
2. Understand the fine print.
3. There are literally hundreds of ways to calculate interest.
4. The RATE is often times LESS important than How Much You Will Pay in Interest and When You Will Be Done Paying on the loan.</p>

<p>Expect to see the Perkins to vanish unless you contact your President and US legislator. see Barkowitz on MIT thead.</p>