As Christian parents, we are very protective of our kids. Our kids might even say over-protective. (At least mine do.) However, there’s one area where we may be not protective enough – their college loan debt.
I recently read an article in The Houston Chronicle, entitled School Loans Could Spell Trouble, that really upset me. The article, by Marcy Gordon of the Associated Press, begins “The near doubling in the cost of a college degree the past decade has produced an explosion in high-priced student loans that could haunt the U.S. economy for years.” (Italics mine.)
From my standpoint of a mother, that's not the worse news. It goes on to say that college loan debt could haunt our children for years too.
The article cites Kristin Cole, a 30-year-old graduate from Michigan State University’s law school, who owes “$150,000 in private and government-backed student loans.” Kristin is quoted saying “I could never buy a house. I can’t travel; I can’t do anything. I feel like a prisoner.”
She now works as a legal aid worker, but says that she may need to go to work for a law firm, which is “something I’m not real dedicated to, just for the sake of being able to live.” Her payments, currently $660/month are scheduled to increase to $800/month in a year or so!
How can our Christian graduates accept calls to be new pastors or missionaries if they have huge college loan debts? I don't think they can, and that's a situation that's bad news for Christian students and for our community of faith.
The good news is that there are solutions to this problem. There are ways you can maximize scholarships and grants while you minimize loans. Through extensive research and personal experience, I've discovered the secrets about financial aid. I will share financial aid tips in the next and future blogs.
As we advise our children on financial aid, I believe it is our duty to protect them from excessive debt. If we don't, we will have to watch them struggle for many years under the burden.
What do you think? Are you facing this situation? Or do you know someone who is? Share your story with us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
So true and you didn't even mention the fact that there is no creditor protection when it comes to student loans. Even declaring bankruptcy won't get you off the hook. Like any financial decision our kids need to be taught to weigh the risk-reward and investment vs return. In many cases the numbers don't add up!
I'm hoping to get way ahead of the curve since my three girls are young. However, I know my sister-in-law was forced to move back home when debt payments kicked in and she is just a teacher. Don't forget to talk about managing expenses and money when they get to college since, aside from student loans, credit card debt is a huge burden to students once they get out.
Great comments! I'm glad that we are starting a dialog since the more people who contribute, the better this information will be.
panamamark-
Terrific point! Since not everyone will look at the comments, I'll quote you in one of my next blogs, since I think this is definitely something everyone needs to realize.
the_dad-
I'm going to quote you too in the blog. I don't think people realize what a problem this is until they are faced with it.
Another great point, re: managing money and credit cards. Credit is so available to college kids and most of them don't know how to deal with it. Since the bankruptcy laws have gotten stricter and the interest that credit card companies are allowed to charge has gotten much, much higher, some college kids get over their heads quickly.
Debt Counseling is carried out to help the individuals troubled by the current financial problem. Debts counselors provide them personalized guidance and expenditure plan so that they could get rid of bad debts by cutting their unnecessary expenditures.
http://www.christiansdebtcounseling.com/
Debt Counseling is carried out to help the individuals troubled by the current financial problem. Debts counselors provide them personalized guidance and expenditure plan so that they could get rid of bad debts by cutting their unnecessary expenditures.
http://www.christiansdebtcounseling.com/
Valuable resource of financial aid news summaries: http://ng2000.com/ng2000bb/YaBB.pl?num=1222427467
Post a Comment