<p>"Hernan Castillo is treading water, trying to survive under the weight of $5,200 in credit card debt and $30,000 in student loans. Hes making payments on time, but the Orange County, Calif., resident sees little hope for getting out of the warehouse job he holds and landing a job as an accountant, the field in which he earned his degree. And forget about saving money for a home or retirement. He now firmly believes the money he spent earning a college degree was a waste.</p>
<p>"Every day I wish I had never gone to college, Castillo said. It has been the biggest mistake of my life. Sometimes I wish I had gone to prison instead of college. At least I would have learned a trade or two and started being independent once I got out."</p>
<p>Castillo is one of thousands of student debtors who've found their way to the StudentLoanJustice.org Web site, propelled by last years credit squeeze and the abrupt economic downturn, according to Alan Collinge, who runs the site.</p>
<p>Good heavens, he even has an employable degree! And not that much college debt (relatively speaking)! And a weird idea of what goes on in prison!</p>
<p>I’d love to know what college he went to because it seems the career placement office hasn’t done well by him. I’m also curious about what kind of education left him thinking that prison is a means to acquire useful skills.</p>
<p>He is more typical than we would like to believe. The prison part of the story is what makes this such big news. I think that is just for effect and he has no idea what he is really wishing. Like my sons tell me that they would rather live in a homeless shelter than at home. </p>
<p>However, this is a real problem. Even with a nice paycheck, some of these loan levels are crazy. I was writing on another thread about a young person who visited me; someone I had not seen since her preteen days, mother a good long distance friend. She has debt that puts chills down my spine and she has no idea how much trouble it is going to be to pay them off. She ended up with extra money from her loans (one private loan for 15%, yes, secured with a cosigner), and she is traveling and enjoying herself with the money. With nearly $1000 in monthly payments looming over her, she is choosing to ignore that specter until it actually becomes a reality. She is even talking about going back to school taking more loans! Her parents are in a tight financial spot right now, unemployed and no business, so they cannot help. A nightmare.</p>
<p>Agree. It’s not really a “new” story and he did make the comparison for effect but starting jobs out of college do not pay big bucks. Period. Sure there are a handful of kids that win the job lottery or go into a family business with some guarantee of financial safety, but the vast majority start at the bottom and work their way up. Who knows how “hard” this person is working to even find an entry level accounting job. Is he networking, is he involved in association groups…etc. Even thirty years ago I remember how upset my parents were that they had paid for a private college education and my starting salary was half of what’s my dad’s secretary made and there was no debt for me to repay. No car for moi and lots of scrimping and saving for a few years to live in an apartment even with a roomie. This is not a “newish” story. Even traditional higher-paying jobs like mechanical engineering have salary depression happening right now because of the influx of off-shoring and importation of lower salaried engineers from overseas. Youngish parents especially need to understand the ramifications of what they are “setting their kids up for” as they did not come of age in a particularly stressing economic time and most likely did not have depression era parents who drilled fear into the brains of their young LOL. For the data driven parents there are plenty of salary calculators out on the net that will tell you about what a no-experience, college grad will make in a given job position in any city in the country when they finally land a job. It is quite enlightening. There are some hidden gem industries too, like retail, where one starts at the bottom along side the kid who never went to college but with a college degree advances fairly rapidly if one has the right stuff. You pay your dues but then what industry does a young person not pay their dues?</p>
<p>The article is missing some important information, and without it, this guy looks plain stupid, imo. He is 30 years old, and apparently still ignorant about taking on credit card debt. I don’t feel sorry for him about that.</p>
<p>The real problem is not that he went to college; rather he decided to take on a lot of debt to do it. Makes little sense in California, where the junior college system is far stronger and cheaper than in most other areas of the country. Doing well in junior college is a much more predictable route to the University system, too, in terms of admission. </p>
<p>I don’t think it helpful to pick on “lower ranked” schools (assuming this, perhaps wrongly, to be the case here). The real problem with so many of them is not their academic quality, but that they consistently admit marginal students and have them run up so much debt, with low four or five year grad rates. There is a truth in advertising problem with these kind of schools.</p>
<p>If you can’t find a job in your field where you live, MOVE! Don’t stay in CA where real estate prices are ridiculous, which makes the cost of living insane, as well. Immigrants have been doing this for centuries - leaving their country, theilr family, everything they have ever known to in order to better themselves and their families. They struggled, but they worked hard and they did whatever they could. There are areas of the country that are not hit as hard. Yes, it isn’t easy, but…</p>
<p>I think Castillo is missing the part that despite all the “marketable skills” you learn in prison, it’s hard to find employers who do not actually mind hiring ex-convicts.</p>
<p>His problem isn’t the debt so much, his isn’t all that bad, as the lack of finding a decent accounting job. He should focus on that rather than debt, college, prison. I wonder how much he’s tried to find an accounting job and how he’s gone about it.</p>
<p>Now whoever lent her money at that rate should be in prison. And she needs some education in finances.</p>
<p>My daughter who has been very uninterested in learning anything about finances ended up having to to take a consumer business class (she dropped a class which dropped her slightly below full time and the only available ‘short course’ to bring her back up to full time was the business class). She was very unenthused about it at first but the teacher was excellent and humerus and she learned a heck of a lot. She keeps saying ‘did you know’ - followed by little titbits of information that we have been trying to impart to her for years (ok - and a couple of things we actually didn’t know)!! Should be a required class for all students in my opinion.</p>
<p>One of the things she learned about was what it means to be a cosigner - and she thinks it is a very bad idea!</p>
<p>My guess is the young man doesnt come from a family that can guide him in job search. I would tell him, it is a terrible economy, but it will get better, and he will be better off with degree.</p>
<p>I come from a background where a college degree was not valued. The advice I received some 30 years ago was “get a good union job”. The primary justification was that there were “guys with a college degree working on the loading dock with the rest of the guys.” </p>
<p>My point was how many of the employees without a college degree were working in management? Maybe a couple grandfathered in, but not many. We lived on the cheap but managed to put ourselves through 4 year State schools. I recall ending up with about $6k in loans upon graduating in the mid 1980s. Given inflation, not much different from the situation outlined in the article.</p>
<p>Nothing has really changed. A college degree provides opportunity, not a guaranty. The man in this article obtained a college degree and ended up with $30k in debt. There are plenty of people his age who have a $30k loan on a car. The college degree can hold significant future value while the car slowly (or quickly) devalues. With effort, fortitude, and a bit of luck that college degree can open doors for years to come. You can get an interview while a competitor without a degree cannot.</p>
<p>We’re going to sit the kids down and show them this article. I think perhaps that this not so young man, at one time, probably thought that a college degree was a ticket to a better life, raising his trajectory. I’m still reading many posts where kids think 6 figure indebtedness isn’t an unreasonable thing.</p>
<p>Well, it IS an unreasonable thing unless you do what it takes to get the absolute most out of the college experience, include summer employment/internships to augment the degree. Also, ambition and initiative. No one is going to just give you a job because you have a degree.</p>
<p>I think many, many kids, especially from disadvantaged situations think the diploma is the ticket. It’s just the starting point, and I think one has to look very, very hard at signing loans before embarking on the “debt for diploma” treadmill.</p>
<p>Unfortunately he graduated in tough economic times. How marketable is he? How could one wish to be in prison? Would someone hire someone who thinks that way, or is it a ploy to get publicity and get hired.? pretty dramatic.!</p>
<p>If he really thinks prison would a good deal, getting into prison is very easy. All he has to do is stick up a liquor store and hang around until the cops show up. He’ll find himself in prison amazingly quickly.</p>
<p>I suspect the prison comment is really just a bit a sensationalistic hyperbole meant to attract attention.</p>