“Object lesson No. 1: Do not, do not, do not cosign student loans.”
I wouldn’t use this as a steadfast rule. You are the only parents your kids have. It if makes sense, it’s ok to sign.
Our son went to community college for two years (no debt). Then he went to a ‘good’ college. He got scholarships and grants, and worked PT, but, it was a tough degree (Physics) and investing his time making $8 an hour at Starbucks was not a good investment. Better he spent his time getting an excellent GPA.
So, we signed for 10-20,000 in loans. A risk, sure, but a small one, and one we were willing to take. If you can’t invest in your own children, what can you invest in?
He got a good degree, had relatively little debt, got an excellent job and has paid every payment without a dime from us. God bless him.
No way would I have signed for anywhere near what this woman’s parents did. I wouldn’t sign for debt if I knew I could not possibly pay it if worst came to worst.
Sure if something terrible had happened, like an auto accident or something, we’d have had to pay. But there is risk in everything.
Your son did the right thing.
I think I would have co-signed that loan as well. Physics is more practical than psychology.
I went the community college route myself for the 1st two years. I also took out loans (and paid them back as quickly as I could) to support the last two years of undergrad because I arrived at basically the same conclusion you did regarding working for $8/hour being a waste of time.
The assessment should be on the amount of $ and whether the degree obtained is practical in terms of obtaining employment.
I would not have signed any loan for $120k. People that do that need their head examined.