Wisdom from a Grandmother

While working remotely from a coffee shop today, I couldn't help but overhear a conversation that an elderly lady was sharing with her female friends. It was about her son's excitement over his daugher's (her granddaughter's) taking out of an extra $50k in student loans because she decided to pursue a new career path, and it was "only going to add 2 extra years" onto her time in college, for a total of 6 years for a BS degree.

This woman (again, I was not trying to eavesdrop, she was speaking loudly and was at the table next to me) was telling her friends how she shared her concern with her son about how much debt the granddaughter was going into for school.

According to her, it turned ugly. Harsh words were said to the point of the grandmother hanging up on her son because he was "berating her for not being more happy" for the granddaughter's pursuits when "it was only going to add a few extra hundred dollars a month to her loan payments", and how he "couldn't believe she wasn't more supportive". At one point, she shared that after she asked the son how the granddaughter was going to pay for this, his response was: "Well, we hoped and expected grandparents to chip in."

She went on to talk about how different things are now because she (the elderly woman) grew up working for and paying for whatever she wanted to pursue, and never would have dreamed of taking a loan out for an education.

I bring this up because this highlights a scene that is all too common, and it is living out what research is showing.
Student loan debt is leading to: broken relationships, broken family dynamics, increasing mental and physical health issues, the inability to buy a home, marriages that start with increased burden and conflict because of the amount of financial struggles due to debt, and more.

More importantly, it highlights the broken mindset of parents:

"DO WHATEVER IT TAKES AT ANY COST TO GET A COLLEGE DEGREE, BECAUSE YOU WON'T BE SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT IT."

This is a generational problem built on inaccurate information and poorly informed beliefs. Families who carry debt, can't afford to save for their kids' education, so the debt problem perpetuates (if the child feels pressured to go to college because its the "only way to get a job or make a living"). Then these kids rack up debt, can't save for their child's education, so THEIR kids have to take out loans for school (and costs are only going up).

This seems like such a common-sense thing to avoid, but parents and guardians can't lay aside the lies that: 1) you can't be successful without a degree, and 2) community college education (a way more affordable option, and skill-driven) is "less-than".

College isn't a savior to all, nor a solution for the masses. Going broke for life is NOT success, and sacrificing retirement contributions for more loan payments is a bad choice.

If we can stop these generational lies, we can change generational lives.