Debt- the American Way of Living.

So here is the question I raise… “How much value would you place on your education?”

Here I am. One and a half years out of college and have accumulated student loan bills equaling close to $1,000/month for the next 20 years! What did I get for that kind of money?

Well, first and foremost, my friends are what I carry as my most important benefit. My friends from undergrad and my number one, most favorite friend from grad school are completely priceless…

But besides the people and the friendships, what do I have? I have one piece of over-sized paper in a fame (the other is in the mail) that states I completed a four-year degree (and a master’s).

Education gives you a high-paying rewarding career, right? What kind of job do I have? Well, one that definitely does not allow me to pay my student loans and not live at home… or own a car, or take vacations, or better yet, to afford health insurance!

Now yes, I admit that due to credit card companies deceiving a confused, shopaholic 20 year-old that a $10,000 credit card limit is basically free cash, I have more debt than I should at this age (but hey I am an American). I did, however, make a positive stride by taking the advice of an Internet ad and consolidated a few maxed out credit cards. Each month I make that payment so my outlandish shopping, of which is my responsibility does cut into my measly hourly wage, but there isn't much to cut into anyway.

So let’s see, if I didn’t have debt I would be able to afford a car payment and a small mortgage? But what would I eat, could I afford heat, cable, furniture? Probably not.

So what is the answer? Find a better job that pays more? Good luck.

That is something my undergraduate and graduate courses left out of the curriculum. The course on “How to have a job you don’t hate and get paid a decent amount of money to survive without your parents,” must have slipped through the cracks.

What do you think colleges should do? Does any shcool offer classes in learning about life lessons such as getting a job, being financially stable, paying back student loans or how to successfully have a credit card without acquiring $94808540980980938 in debt (according to some statistics I read last fall in the Wall Street Journal, almost all students graduating from a four-year college carry a debt on two or more credit cards. Wow!)?

We go to college with high hopes, dreams of making lots of money and because we are encouraged that this step in life will make our lives better. So what is the real value of our education and what is education missing that we don’t learn until we actually hit the real world?