<p>Even people who take out loans for cars typically have a solid income that will make it possible to pay those loans back. Not that taking out $40K for a brand new car is a smart decision- just my opinion!</p>
<p>You have no idea what your future will be like when you graduate. Everyone likes to go through college thinking they’ll have their dream job and a decent income. You don’t want to think that all of these horror stories you hear about unemployment and debt might happen to you. But what if that does happen to you? </p>
<p>Not to mention, for a lot of us our starting salaries will probably not be anything fantastic. A lot of students have very unrealistic expectations about what they’ll be earning right out of college. Sure you will eventually see an increase in pay or maybe a promotion, but when you have bills to pay and loans to pay back, every month becomes a financial nightmare. Dealing with this for a few years while you settle into your new career might not seem like a big deal now, but wait until every cent of your paycheck is going towards some kind of payment, and then add the massive student loan debt to that.</p>
<p>And it doesn’t matter how “low” interests rates are. Using this financial aid calculator you can see that even with “just” a 6.8% interest rate if you take out $40,000 in student loans you will still have a $460/month loan payment. And you’re paying over $15,000 worth of interest. </p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | Calculators | Loan Calculator](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Loan Payment Calculator - Finaid)</p>
<p>You just never know what the future might hold. Student loans are a HUGE risk to take. Sadly many students put little thought into the consequences of these loans. Like said, a lot of people literally look at loans as free money. It’s true that a lot of people don’t have money saved up to go to school, but there are other alternatives than taking out a massive loan. I’m not saying that all student loans are bad, but when I hear people brag (yes, people sometimes brag about how much debt they’re in, it’s quite sad) about how they have $40, 50, sometimes even 60K or more worth of loans I just can’t help but to wonder, how can you not know what you’re getting yourself into?. </p>
<p>Of course if you’re able to get into one of the top schools or into a really fantastic program that might be a different story. Even then, though, you still hear the horror stories. It’s always better to at least try to be financially smart than to just take out a ton of loans just because you can.</p>