Imagine that your college-bound high school student finally graduates from a prestigious college or university.
Hip, Hip, Hooray!
You are proud.
Your child is proud.
Everyone is proud, but a dark cloud looms on the horizon for not just your student, but also for you.
If your student has taken out five or six figures in student loans – or you have co-signed for your child’s college education.
It could be $75,000, $100,000, $200,000, or even $300,000+ of student debt.
Sound impossible?
Maybe not.
This will be especially true if your college graduate has taken out hefty student loans (with your help), and marries another college graduate that also has big student loans (this is more common than you may think).
When you do the math, newly minted college graduates who get married to another college graduate can easily have a combined monthly student loan payment that can rival a home mortgage.
As a co-signor for student loans, you could be paying huge monthly payments too.
This is one of many reasons today’s millennials tend to be renters more than homebuyers.
The Truth about Student Loans
The truth about how to handle student loans is to do your absolute best and avoid them like the plague.
Here’s why.
The thinking goes like this: “Once I graduate I’ll get a great job, make lots of money and simply payoff my debt when the cash comes rolling in.”
Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, most college grads with student loans thought this while they were in school.
But after graduation, the bitter taste of job scarcity, low wages, life in the real world, and dreams of adventure and luxury simply do not materialize, at least not right away.
It could, and often does, take years and years to pay off student loans.
College Won’t Prepare Your Child for Student Debt
Your graduate may be brilliant and well educated, but I guarantee that college won’t prepare your degreed adult-child for the realities of student debt and the negative effect it will have on their future.
One key cause for the increase in student debt is that more Americans are going to college than ever before — and for a very good reason.
The future job market will require a significant increase in skilled workers.
Today 90% of American kids graduate from high school, but that doesn’t mean they are prepared to join the work force.
By 2020, it is estimated that 65% of all jobs in the American economy will require an education beyond a high school diploma.
And yet, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that just 33% of American adults currently possess a bachelor’s degree or more.
That’s one of the main reasons everyone wants to go to college.
Most parents have taught their kids that if they want to have a good life, they need a college degree.
That’s what my parents taught me, and that’s what I am going to teach my kids.
Best Lesson You Can Teach Your Kids
The key is to show (not tell) your college-bound high school students how to go to the best colleges in America without getting mired in insurmountable debt.
That’s much easier said than done.
Over the past decade, most college students have had many reasons to borrow for college and few reasons not to.
College costs have exceeded inflation by as much as 6% a year for the past decade, causing the average annual price for public college to skyrocket to about $27,000 per year (like Cal State Long Beach), and the top private-schools cost well over $74,000 per year (like MIT).
Is it possible that higher education is charging more but delivering less?
Since 1986, college tuition has increased over 500%.
Unless the government steps in, the dirty little secret is that higher education will charge as much as they can (and you can borrow).
Most college graduates have one major thing in common: student debt.
It’s easy to see why over 44 million Americans now hold just over $1.5 trillion in student debt.
That means that roughly one in four American adults is paying off student loans.
This means your kids could get college degrees without the income they need to pay back their student loans.
Swamped By Bills Immediately
Today’s college graduates get swamped by their bills almost immediately.
Of the 3.4 million federal loan borrowers who graduated last year, 70% now have a significant amount of student loan debt.
A student loan is one of the easiest loans in the world to qualify for.
They require no credit history, no collateral, no job, no assets, nothing.
All they (and you) have to do is sign on the dotted line.
A Debt You Cannot Escape
The only catch is that it is a debt you cannot escape.
The first thing that happens if your college grad misses a few payments is COLLECTION.
He/she will receive dunning calls, past due notices and collection letters.
But, God-forbid, defaulting can destroy your adult child’s future.
Succumbing to the dark side of federal student debt means the feds can demand payment in full, assign their case to a collection agency, garnish their wages, pocket any state or federal refunds, and even come after their retirement benefits.
The same goes for you as a co-signor.
Student loans go into delinquency when payment is 21 to 30 days late.
If they fall 60 days behind, the loan agency will readily report the lapse to the national credit bureaus while late fees and interest continue to add up.
If a student loan holder fails to make a payment for more than 270 days, their loan is technically in default.
When this happens, it will be extremely difficult for them to redeem themselves.
The default remains on their credit record for up to seven years.
When stuff like this happens, your college graduate may conclude that their debt is simply insurmountable.
When this happens, the government can garnish their wages, put a lien on their house and tap into their bank account.
Again, if you co-signed for the loan, all this can happen to you too.
That’s why you’ve got to be rational about your child borrowing money to attend college.
Never let them borrow more than you expect them to make in their first couple of years out of college, $30K to $40K (plus or minus a few thousand) can be manageable.
Don’t Let Your Child Make Foolish Choices
As a parent, it is your responsibility to help your child make good financial decisions when choosing a college or university.
Coming right out of college with no job and having to make a $700 to $900 a month student loan payment will seem like Mt. Everest; for most impossible to climb.
Don’t take unnecessary chances.
Don’t do what everybody is doing.
That’s the wrong mindset for a young person just starting their journey of life.
Student Loans Can Make Slaves of Us All
Student loans can quickly result in indentured servitude since it’s almost impossible to discharge the debt.
Student loans are very important and allow many to acquire an education that leads to a good job.
However, some colleges and degree programs are not worth the debt.
Most students entering college aren’t making the decision to get loans; their parents are the ones making that choice.
The parents are usually the ones that fill out the paperwork, while the student simply signs the promissory note.
Parents need to become educated about student loans so that their children can become educated.
My parents never created a college fund for me and I didn’t want to graduate with a ton of debt.
I had to find another way to pay for college without relying on massive student loans.
Don’t get me wrong.
I got student loans, about $35,000 worth.
But I also got $165,000 in free money grants and scholarships to attend Boston University.
Slightly Above Average GPA and Test Scores
This is really quite remarkable when you consider that the only assets, I had were an 1160 SAT score and a 2.8 GPA.
That’s why I created College Funding Remedies, to help college-bound high school students get accepted to America’s top colleges and universities and pay a fraction of the actual cost to attend.
In my case, I got my college degree for pennies on the dollar.
I was so successful at navigating the college admissions and financial aid labyrinth – I easily got jobs with financial planning firms just to help the kids of their clients get into top schools with free money grants and scholarships.
If you truly want to support your children, please don’t send them through a predatory financial lending system that promises to plunge them into pools of indebtedness just to pay for their education.
There’s a Bright Side to All of This
I can show you, step-by-step, how to find the best college for your child based on their interests, passions, goals, and desires.
I can also help your student decide what they should major in so their degree actually works to get a great job, start a business, or build a sustainable career.
I know I can do this because over the past ten (10) years I have helped over 300 families send their kids to many of America’s top colleges and universities.
You can go to my website, collegefundingremedies.com, and read the many success stories from many of the families and students I’ve helped get into the best colleges and universities in America.
In fact, I even wrote a book titled, How To Get FREE Money For College.
Look it up, it’s on Amazon.
I wrote this book to show people exactly what I do, and how they can do it too.
Don’t let your kids join the generation of student loan “debt slaves.”
It could make them financial zombies and it’s completely not necessary and I can show you why.
Your bottom line is to get the best education you can for your child, and NEVER borrow a penny more than you absolutely have to.
An 18-year-old has no business taking out $25,000+ loans each year to go to college.
College is a time for growth and learning.
When you have that amount of debt hanging over a young adult’s head, it doesn’t allow for fun and nurturing of talent.
Excessive student loans can force graduates to make bad financial decisions that will affect them for the rest of their lives.
Student Loans Are Not Bankruptible
Banks and the Department of Education know that without this protection, student loans would not be available.
If they could be discharged in bankruptcy, what would stop graduates from wiping it away the day after receiving their diploma?
The answer is – NOTHING!
Believe it or not, most Americans are financially illiterate.
Going to college is a business decision.
At your best, you’ve got to guide your child to pick a school and a course of study that presents a good return on their/your investment.
Where Are The Parents?
Most 18-year-olds are making these serious decisions without the input of their parents.
Maybe that’s because their parents never went to college – or because times have changed so much they are simply unfamiliar with the whole process.
It’s true, almost everybody graduates with debt these days, but it shouldn’t be the kind of debt that takes the best years of your life to pay back.
Seven in ten graduating seniors from the class of 2019 will have student loan debt with an average balance of nearly $55,000.
Some will owe much more.
If your child is in the 9th, 10th, or 11th grade, they will probably be in the classes of 2025-27.
You can expect costs will continue to rise every year.
Taking on debt, including student loan debt, puts you and your student’s financial security at risk.
The monthly payments eliminate other uses for your money.
Even though the cost of college is astronomical, there are ways to minimize your use of student loans.
The Alternative to Massive Student Loan Debt
I can show you how to do this. I am the alternative to massive student debt.
You can buy my book on Amazon.com or you can call me directly and we’ll have a conversation about your student and how we can get him/her into a top college for pennies on the dollar.
All you have to do is complete this short survey here: www.collegefundingremedies.com/meettrevor
We’ll use your answers to determine what’s best for your student and how to get the money you need for college without taking on outrageous student loan amounts.
It’s not rocket science, but it does take time, planning, and a certain expertise which I have spent the last 10 years of my life achieving.
Call me directly at 626-657-7887.
If I’m unavailable simply leave a message with your contact information and I will call you back within 24 hours.
I’m very good at this process. I can tell within about 10-15 minutes if I can help your student with admissions, school choice, and financial aid.
After that, the real work begins. If you don’t have all the money you need to send your child to a top college, don’t get crushed by the student loan option.
A few loans are okay, but not the high 5-6 figure ones. They take forever to pay off. Remember, borrowing money for college is easy. Paying it back is the hard part.
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