I worked with one gal, who was talked into getting two bachelor degrees over a six-year period, and owed around $70,000 by the end of the episode in the early-90s. She got behind in the early stages and by 2007....owed near $120,000. In 2013 when I last chatted with her....she had finally got it down to $50,000. But she’s almost forty...never owned a home....and her 401k deal is about half of what it ought to be at this age.
I feel sorry for her, but the naive nature of economics really bother me. She had no sense about loans, or how deep you could get. I worked with a second gal, who had zero college loans....but instead had $60k in credit card debt. She was trying hard to put down $1,000 a month, which I felt was an outragious amount, but it was the only way over five years to really take apart this whole problem, and she was pushing forty-five with a marginal 401k package for retirement.
SOMEone in her family FAILED to teach her about money.
I was helping my mother with her checks when I was 13 years old. I wrote them and she signed them. She hated doing it.
I SLOWLY figured it out. Yikes...all that money out.