Barnes & Noble is criminal

I didn't get into my situation by knowing how to handle money out of high school. When I was about 23 or 24, I realized how terrible my financial situation was. Then, I did something about it. We didn't have much debt at the time, but we were living paycheck-to-paycheck. So, it didn't take long to dig out of debt and get a solid footing, but we did it in about a year.

All it takes is a budget and some discipline. And, that's where parents are failing.

 

Your responsibility is laudable -- seriously.

 

Not to mention this thread turned me on to half.com!

 

And if most people had the Army paying for 90 percent of their expenses, they could do it without loans as well.

Obviously you and your wife have managed things well, but not everyone is in a situation where they only have to worry about 10 percent of their expenses or have a spouse who is working.

I'm not defending the idiots who run a bar tab four nights a week, Spring Break in Mexico, shop like J. Crew is on fire or drive the flashy car while making $23K a year. Those people offend my sensibilities.

 

My junior college years weren't paid for with debt, either. Straight out of high school. I worked a full-time job and paid for it.

There are thousands of scholarships out there, just itching to be applied for. The Army is my scholarship -- just like any academic scholarship out there.

Yeah, it can be done. It just takes a little work.

 

At the university where I teach, tuition is just over $22,000 a year. Fees, living expenses and books are on top of that. If tuitition goes up like it has the last few years, by the time my children (one is 2; one is 3 months) get to college, it'll cost nearly $38,000 a year. If they graduate in four years, that's more than $150,000 in tuitition alone for one child.

Assuming I'm still working here when they get to college, we won't have to pay that. (THE primary benefit of working here.) However, if perchance I'm working elsewhere, there's no way we could afford for them to go to school here. It'll be Local Community College for a couple of years and then the State U that's 90 miles southeast of here.

I would say about half the students in my classes work. There are some who come from money and don't have to work, but there are plenty who do.

 

You forgot the mention that it was uphill, both ways, in the snow.
With every post like this, you people only re-inforce the notion that you're spoiled crybabies. Notice I haven't called one person a name, while every vile oath has been thrown my way.

Question: When your parents call you on the carpet about the Visa bill, do you call them dumb fucks and assholes?

 

No offense, but you're a delusional moron -- and an insult to everyone who went to college but couldn't qualify for a scholarship because they had some money, but not so little to get aid and not so much to get one of the scholarships the rich fucktards set up for each other.

So you paid for junior college by working? Wow. That must have run into the high three digits, unless your Economics 101 book that you never opened cost some serious cash.

Get a fucking clue, then come back.

 

I believe Waldenbooks is owned by Borders now.

 

In answer to some questions:

I'm 50.

Went to junior college because it's what I could afford. Paid for every cent. At one point, held three part-time jobs (counting when I worked at the local weekly paper covering prep games).

Then went to state school, paid for every cent with work-study job in the college's Audio-Visual department. Moved out of the house at 19. Parents let me come back to do laundry and snag 2-3 meals a week.

Never went on a spring break trip. Couldn't afford it. Worked more hours at one of the jobs during spring break and the summer. I've never felt deprived because I wasn't doing 17 shooters a night in Cancun and puking over the side on a booze cruise.

Bought first new car at the age of 28. Rice-rocket for $7,000.

Didn't have a color TV and cable until 29. Saved a few bucks there.

Didn't have a home computer until five years ago. Only need it now for daughter to do homework and research.

Saved for first home for years, finally bought it at the age of 46 after getting married. Paid $185,000 for condo. Appraised in September for $235,000.

Buy clothes at Stein-Mart or Penny's.

It can be done. I think a lot of you should have considered colleges that don't cost $22,000 a year. They're still out there. If you want Harvard or USC or Duke, you should have made straight As and gotten a scholarship. Or be able to run the 40 in 4.5.

 

You're a bitter little person, aren't you?

 

Hondo,

I went to a state school. I did well in high school, but after a year of spending TOO much money on a private university, I transferred to state school. There are no scholarships out there for sophomores who didn't transfer from community college. I worked my ass off. From the time I was 14 until three months ago, I had never gone more than 3 days without a job. Now, I have been unemployed for three months, by choice, but every couple of months, go back to a job that I worked for eight years. I had to pay my own rent, my own bills, my own car payments, and for my own books. My state school racked up $30,000 in debt. Aren't you listening to everyone on here? Not all of us are frivolous spenders. We had to go to school to get into our career of choice. We had to go to schools with decent programs so we would have credibility trying to get a job.

Open up your mind and realize that many 20-somethings are not big spenders. We pay our bills just like you, but with the added debt of higher tuition and rent costs, we are barely holding our heads above water.