Posted on 06/09/2019 4:06:40 PM PDT by reaganaut1
The experience of repaying student loans is unpleasant for millions of graduates, but for some borrowers, paying off student debt is an almost insurmountable challenge.
Twelve years after entering college, white men have paid off 44% of their student-loan balance on average, according to an analysis released Thursday by Demos, a left-leaning think tank. For white women, that share drops to 28%. For black borrowers, the picture is even bleaker. Black women see their loan balances actually grow 13% on average, 12 years after leaving school, while black men see their balances grow 11%.
The age at which students enter college also plays a role in their ability to pay off debt. Students who start college at age 20 or older have paid off just 5% of their debt on average, at minimum, 12 years after leaving school. Students who enter school at age 18 or 19 have typically paid off more than one-quarter of their debt 12 years after leaving college, the report found.
“We think of the ability to pay off student debt as only having to do with student debt,” said Mark Huelsman, associate director, policy and research at Demos and the author of the report. “We know the ability to pay off your loans has everything to do with wages and the ability to gain secure employment, it has everything to do with housing affordability, it has everything to do with child-care costs.”
Huelsman’s analysis is the latest to indicate that structural inequities mean that the student-debt burden is experienced differently by different types of borrowers and that a borrower’s demographics dictate in part how much of a financial benefit they get out of their degree. Undoing the harm caused by the nation’s $1.5 trillion student-loan problem requires a broader solution
(Excerpt) Read more at barrons.com ...
I graduated with $76K of debt (advanced degrees, mostly useless) and the first few years WERE unpleasant, because I’d send a payment of $385 and see only $200 of it go to the debt, and the rest went to interest. That was miserable. So I started paying more than the minimum, and once I got it down about a third and started seeing the amount going to interest shrink, that gave me incentive to pay even more. Near the end I was throwing every bit of extra income I had at it. The day I paid it off, I was euphoric.
I have taught my children this: Going into debt is like taking out the canoe with the tide and bringing it back against the tide.
My experience is that minorities and women have tremendous advantages in obtaining jobs. It is called affirmative action.
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It’s been that way ALL my working life... and I have to admit to myself I’m no longer a spring chicken. Will it EVER end?
Part of what you say is correct. However, the data from years ago show that black female college graduates were actually making a lot more than a white female. That makes sense, if HR hires a black female they can claim two categories, black and female.
I explained the need for living below one’s means to my indebted son. I helped pay off some of his credit card debt, but his applied OCD did the rest.
Can’t blame it on the melanin so it must be the work ethic.
You are so smart!!! I wish more people were as smart (and good looking) as you are!
My thoughts precisely; did they measure propensity to take a second job and work nights & weekends?
Two jobs ago, most of my coworkers were black women. Every single one of those women was working 2-3 jobs (60-80 hours/week). I'm just sayin', I don't think an unwillingness to work multiple jobs is the problem.
The real problem is that students today think college is so important, they're willing to go tens of thousands of dollars in college debt. Young people are convinced that a college degree is the ticket to paradise. Today, a college education costs as much as a house. And students are gambling all that money away on degrees that might not even get them jobs.
Could it be that different cultures have different propensities to save?
Black Womens’ debt is increasing. This means that they are not paying in any regular disciplined fashion. It seems like they are hoping the Dems get in power and forgive the loans as part of reparations. It has been talked about and an urban legend that can come true.
In the old days (even back in the 1980’s and 1990’s), we could work through college and graduate without debt.
Today many colleges charge around $50,000/year now.
The “affordable” state colleges might charge as low as $25,000/year. Even then, if a student borrows all that money, he’ll have $100,000 in debt by graduation.
But, a student still can graduate without borrowing any money. Either by scoring high enough for a full scholarship. Or, by commuting and taking classes part-time. That’s what all students should be doing. Not going into debt for college.
Part of the problem is that young people think that a certain degree will get them a good job in that area. Colleges and universities should have to fully disclose what a degree will get the student and what the likelihood is that they will get a real job. Then they can figure out if it is worth it.
Cripes, i paid off my loans in a few years. I made a point to double or triple pay them, I made it a priority to get out of that debt.
When was that in the 1980’s??? LOL
I am also guessing that the degrees white guys were in fields that pay more than the degrees black women received.
All I know is there were very few blacks that made it through engineering school with me. Almost all the ones that did were foreign students.
yeah a bit after that
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