Good Debt, Bad Debt, No Debt

I actually made an argument for debt over the weekend.  And lost. 

Here's the background.  My son's girlfriend, Megan, is a college freshman studying to be a teacher.  She is doing the right thing attending a junior college and will then switch to a local state college after two years.  Two years at the junior college, two years at the state school, a teaching certificate and then making whatever a starting teacher makes these days which is not bad. 

The problem is limited financial aid like in zero.  Not exactly true as she has a scholarship that covers tuition but after that, zip. 

The good thing is that junior college is cheap compared to a state school and super cheap compared to a private school.  But still there are books, car insurance, lab fees,  and so on.

So if anyone qualified for student loans or aid, it would be Megan.  Went over this weekend to see Marc off as he is deploying to Guam for four months (18 hours flying in a plane where you can stand up in one place on the whole plane and your station is about the size of a refrigerator box--no thanks). 

Also heard about the Megan situation so did what I always do--jump in.  Look up the student loan office at the college, get a name, number and so on.  Go online and find the form for student loans and so on and so on.  Loaded for bear. 

So out to dinner with Marc, Megan, a few pilots and navs and another parent and then over to a pilot's house for a few hours of video games (which I don't get but they seemed to have fun).  Few words with Megan--got all this information, you certainly qualify, so on and so on.

Nothing.  No interest.  She had it all figured out.

Take six courses.  (I was already pretty impressed.  I never took six courses in one semester, one year I barely took six courses in the whole year.) And work 32 to 35 hours a week.  What?  That's nuts.  The French work only 35 hours a week by law and the vast majority of them do not go to school full time.  Most don't work either but that is another story. 

So two part time jobs and a full (actually more than full) student load.  Why?  Why not borrow a couple of grand, get a subsidized interest rate and sit back and relax?

At that point I was more schocked at myself than at Megan.  Here I was giving somebody an out for something she didn't want out of. 

Megan told me she gets bored if she is not working or going to school so the heavy load; school and work,  kept her active.

Plus she doesn't want any debt when she gets out of school.

Wow.  What a shock--somebody that wants to work hard, overly hard in my estimate, to reach a goal that much quicker without acquiring a bunch of financial baggage in the process.

Hats off to Megan.

Comments

[SleeliRip]

xx1kb0 cambodia house for rent tc0mp1 cambodia house he9pu9 siem reap house for rent hm7bp4

[Michael Kors]

I just required some information and was searching on Google for it. I visited each page that came on first page and didn’t got any relevant result then I thought to check out the second one and got your blog. This is what I wanted!
http://www.cheapmichaelkorsusoutlet.com

[buy ritalin online]

I can not stop reading this. And 'so fresh, so full of information, I do not know. I'm glad that people actually write the smart way to show the different sides of him.

[Sunless Tanning]

This is more than an excellent post
Self Tanning

[Viagra]

I wish her the best of luck as it is very difficult to not have debt while going to school.

[zetaClear]

This is an excellent site for nail fungus .
ZetaClear

[renting]

Thanks for sharing your urls and i have added these sites on my bookmarking list,

[Mac Keylogger]

It’s always my pleasure to read this type of stuff. I am very much interested in these types of topics and it’s my habit to read this. Thank you for taking the time to share with it, and this blog is very useful for me. Have a nice day!

[Nasrullah Mardani]

Thanks for sharing your urls and i have added these sites on my bookmarking list,
You can also visit my site:http://www.all4payday.com/

[Evering2010]

we can provide you with high quality Ugg Boots ,just take action now do not miss it!

[Moncler Outlet]

Mostly I don’t come up with upon blogging sites, but I want to say that this document extremely asked others to do this! Who would have thought, fairly wonderful provide.

[LouisVuitton]

I think that this post is very good because has useful information.

[cash advances loans]

Excellent friend, The track coach at Kp is Tony Gaddis for all of those who are wondering. He must be a great caoch to have an athlete like Brian Carter and the rest of the big 3.

[uggs.com]

this is definately a way to sustain your growth. Who doesn't need more clients? Give it away if you can, and keep traffic coming in!

[Burberry Handbags]

Failure by that committee would trigger automatic cuts in programs beloved by Democrats and Republicans, respectively, unless Congress later this year passed a Constitutional amendment requiring balanced budgets.

[antibiotic zithromax]

Hi, thank you for sharing this great info. Was just browsing through the net in my office and happened upon your blog. It is really very well written and quit comprehensive in explaining with a very simple language.

[Buy Cheap Valtrex Online]

Thanks for sharing this post, now that i know your blog I will read from it more often,very nice and so true

[windows7 certification]

What was score on the A+ Cert 220-702. I scored 770 on my test.

[Handwriting analyst]

It’s really a great post..I would like to appreciate your work and I am going to recommend it to my friends. Thanks for sharing.

[online payday loans]

Great job on the net worth growth. Sounds quite impressive so far, and here’s hoping you keep it up.

As for debt, I’m with you; borrowing money is just a tool. When I look at my debts and try to evaluate the good and the bad, I look more at the interest rate you have to pay.

[ベネトリン]

Hey, Great post

[chronic sinus infection symptoms]

Thanks for another incredible blog. The place else might anybody get that kind of data written in such a perfect method? I've a presentation that I'm simply now engaged on, and I've been on the look out for such information.

[hassan wali]

roamnsyiat

[Sildenafil Citrate]

I think that she did the best thing to do. Because when you finish your major. You have to find a job as quickly as you can because you have to pay your debt.

[scoremore]

do not see how we could eliminate out debt. Lowering it would be nice and is not beyond reason. Eliminating it seems impossible though. Since the founding of our nation we have always been in debt, as are most large nations. However the issue now is that we are at the highest point we have ever been in debt...