I did not have any hope that the federal government would pay off my student loans, so I worked my way through college and graduate school, lived in crappy apartments (furnished with garage sale and thrift store furniture), and drove the cheapest working vehicles I could find. I did not have any college loans and paid off my graduate school loans (covering the fraction of tuition and fees that I could not pay while working my way through graduate school) in one year, so I would be debt free when I married my wife.
During the almost 40 years we have been married, we did not have any hope that the federal government would pay off our mortgages, business loans, car loans, credit cards, etc., so we paid them all off ourselves. We also waited until five years after we were married to start having kids, so that we could afford for my wife to be a full-time mother.
When our kids went to college, we did not have any hope that the federal government would pay off their college loans, so we made them go to state colleges with low-cost tuition (most of their high school friends went to high-cost private colleges) and work their way through college, so that they would not have any college loans. One of our kids worked crap jobs full time for two years after high school and before starting college and then finished four years of college in three years. Our other kids worked part time during the semesters and full time each summer. All graduated debt free.
I am going to feel like a real rube if we end up paying off everyone else’s college loans.
If the fed ever gets its boot off our necks, your kids will be prosperous beyond your wildest dreams.