What is this horseshit? Almost $2k in interest this year and it will not even let me throw money against the principal.

  • TrackinDaKraken@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    It’s predatory to allow teens to sign these things without fully explaining them and ensuring they understand.

    It’s not taught at all in grade school, no one tells them about interest rates, or amortization tables or how to pay extra toward the principal, or that their wages will be garnished if they don’t pay, or if they get married, then their spouse’s wages might be garnished without warning, and so on… It’s just, “sign here, and we’ll give you the money.”

    • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      We 100% did learn about amortization in high school math, no idea if it’s still taught though

      • thejml@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        It is. Actually my daughter learned it in middle school (7-8th grades). Not that people have many other choices for college cash.

    • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.net
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      8 hours ago

      The thing is, I understood perfectly I was getting fucked, it’s just that without a degree you can’t get a good job. That’s the most predatory part

      • sunsofold@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        Often enough, even with the degree, you can end up no better off for some time. If you don’t get a degree and make x/yr, or you get the degree, spend 6~8 years in school and looking for a position that pays 2x/yr but you spend half of the money on paying down your debt for 20 years… That’s a long time to get back into the black, assuming you even went for a degree leading to a position that will pay that much. It is almost criminal that a credit hour learning to work on machine learning systems often has the same cost as one spent learning about art history. Both are valuable to society in their own ways, but they definitely won’t get you the same paycheck, and the cost of entry should reflect that.

        • Fluffy Kitty Cat@slrpnk.net
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          7 hours ago

          Pays for a house and kids. I wasn’t able to finish and with the kinds of jobs I can get I can’t afford a car and struggle with bills even with frugal spending. Even the traded require postsecondary training you usuially gotta pay for

          • Switorik@sh.itjust.works
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            7 hours ago

            Fair enough. I believe college education stopped being a requirement and more of a hindrance around 2010. The pay didn’t keep up with the loans and education requirements. Nepotism is now the best way to get a high paying job.

        • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          In the US, I’d say good health insurance, retirement benefits, and fair pay. Bonus points of it’s something you enjoy, but that’s more rare I think. I’m as close now as I’ve ever been to checking all of those boxes, pay is a little low for what I do, but liveable with a little extra. I got my degree about 13 years ago. I did get a job about 6 months out of school with a livable wage, bad retirement, good health insurance, but I didn’t like it. Took a little over nine years for an opportunity to come up that I applied for and got. Maybe could have moved sooner had I put in effort, but my job now isn’t directly related to my degree and I got it because I know a guy that got my foot in the door.