Student Loan Debt … Debt Sentence?

In the Wisconsin public university system, the average student graduated with 5 times the student loan debt in 2011 than they had in 1982.

The amount went from $5,000 to $27,000 in just under 20 years. Let’s check that number against inflation. Between 1982 and 2011, the buying power of $5000 more than doubled to $11,654.87. Let’s review:

• Wages increased 2.4x
• Consumer Price Index: increased 2.3x
• College Costs: increased 5x

We all have heard that higher education inflation is higher than “regular inflation”. For example, in 2009, the price of higher [public] education increased by an average 6.5%, despite a 2.1% decline in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) during the same time.

In 1981, I graduated from a different UW (University of Washington in Seattle) with that same amount of debt-$5000. At the UW today, the average student debt load is $23,000, $4000 under the other UW.

University of Washington Campus & Vicinity (Photo credit: AvgeekJoe)

What happens after the end of the “formal education”? You might have a job, you might be a boomerang child and move back home with your family, or you might get an “internship” that pays $10 an hour for a job that used to be given to a college graduate. That graduate may have made $20,000 in 1982. Last year, a college graduate or a worker of any age needed to make $46,619 to equal that 1982 buying power.

I know people who have $15,000, $25,000 and $50,000 in student loans. Even if they have “good jobs”, as opposed to a paid internship [formerly a permanent a job with benefits], it is hard to pay your bills.

Here’s a website for everyone to check out as their kids graduate from college this spring.  http://www.thecalculator.org/ This one is for Washington State only and illustrates how much they need to make to cover expenses in every Washington county. For information on other state self-sufficiency calculators, please click here.

For an interactive graph on student debt in the entire US, check out this chart at truthdig.org.

Please be careful as you check the cost of higher education for yourself and family members. Bankruptcy is not an option for student loan debt (or medical expenses).  Trick question:

1. Who will loan you money to retire?

I’m not saying don’t do it, but really dig into the post-graduate numbers to see how much your graduate will need to earn to cover their debts. Ideally, they are by your side as you engage in this process!

Related articles

• Student Loan Bankruptcy Fears Drive Congress to Rethink Law – WSJ.com (policyabcs.wordpress.com)
• Class Notes: Law School, Student Loans and More Education News (newsfeed.time.com)

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Are You Having Budgeting Fantasies?

A friend of mine recently confessed to me that she grew up with, wait for it …budgeting fantasies. Before you get in a kerfuffle over this, here’s  the story.

One of her parents would send her to the nearest store to pick up a box of cereal, bag of apples or extra milk. She would march 2 blocks up the hill  to the local grocery and shop for what was on the list. However, before she chose those items and walked back home, she created her own mental shopping list for playing house. When I have my own house, she mused, I will buy this and this, and this! Plus, she added the prices in her head to keep track of her spending. Eventually, she did go back home with only her family’s requested items in the bag! (She assures me that this was one of her very favorite things to do.)

You may not have experienced this in your family, but I am sure that you can see some advantages to allowing a child this independence, instead of dragging a bored, screaming child down yet another grocery aisle.

Would you allow your child to assume responsibility for choosing one group of food for the family each week? Maybe milk or cereal? If you’re bolder, how about fruits or vegetables? Here are some benefits to consider:

• it may increase their cooperation at meal-time
• they might enjoy it
• it will give them a practical application for arithmetic
• it gives them a window into what their parents do with their income each month

Pick a popular food group, assign a dollar amount to it that you can live with – for better or worse, and try it out with your children.

Vegetables in a grocery store, Paris, France. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Would your child eat more radishes if they chose them at the store?

Try it out and let me know what happens!