Student loan debt

Why Avoiding Student Loan Debt Was The Best Thing I Ever Did
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​More below.

"Most of us want to do it all: find meaningful work, travel while we’re young, say no to the wrong opportunities, say yes to the right ones, experiment with entrepreneurship, save for the future and create a lifestyle that allows us to live life to the fullest.

Unfortunately, the financial structures behind higher education in the United States today are constructed in ways that hinder freedom of some Americans, and we’ve only begun to understand the social and economic implications of this systemic malpractice."
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Maddogsson agrees wholeheartedly. He has mostly paid his own way through college without incurring debt. He is now in MOS school in the Marine Corps, and will be in the fleet soon. He chose reserve status mostly because he wanted to finish college, and start a nonmilitary career, although he likes the Marines so much, he may be rethinking this position. We shall see.

One thing his lack of debt has allowed him is the ability to take a few days of vacation once he is turned lose on the fleet (remember as a reservist he serves only one weekend per month, so 4 days of vacation is equal to 2 months real time). He is talking about spending some time in Europe, or traveling abroad, apparently Mexico is off limits to Marines now. 

Regardless, if he had $30,000 in debt this would be far less likely a possibility, he would need to remain focused on graduation, and work. He would be a debt slave, shackled to a desk. Instead he is a young 20 something Marine already past the necessary savings for a 40 year old regarding retirement saving. And who has a nice wad of cash after Boot Camp, MCT, and MOS school. 

1 in 3 Americans Has Saved $0 for Retirement

If he wants I would be happy to meet him on the trip, or let him spend the time wandering on his own. I am not living vicariously through my kids, but enjoy every minute I spend with them. 

College debt is a travesty, one foisted on the Millennials by the Boomers. 

Today’s feral, no-wing, fascist, authoritarian, infantile and incompetent colleges

Chart of the day: The astronomical rise in college textbook prices vs. consumer prices and recreational books

"The chart above shows in the percentage increases between January 1998 and July 2016 for: a) the overall CPI for all items (+48%), b) the CPI for college textbooks (+181%), and c) the CPI for recreational books (-4.2%). In real terms, college textbook prices have increased by 90% while recreational book prices have fallen by more than 35%. (The increases in the real rates were calculated using the formula: (1 + Nominal Rate) = (1 + Real Rate) (1 + Inflation); and solving for the Real Rate.)

The huge divergence in book prices over times — college textbooks getting significantly more expensive while recreational books are getting significantly less expensive — would suggest that the college textbook publishers can’t really blame rising publishing costs for the exponential rise in college textbook prices. Rather, a better explanation would be that the college textbook market is insulated from the normal market forces that would lead to falling, not rising, book prices over time, like the recreational book market."