Here is a man who borrowed $110,000 to attend the University of Mississippi — not a top-tier university, and tax-funded. Their joint income is $50,000.
They have one child. So, there are day care expenses.
With so many couples like them, day cares are very profitable when they are run right.
The couple says that they hope their infant daughter will not make the mistake they did: college debt. They doubt that they will have another child.
This is the demographics of student debt: a shrinking population. This will cheer up the Zero Population Growth movement.
The wife was interviewed about their finances.
Do you worry about money?I’m not worried about the everyday [expenses], for example not being able to put food on the table or buy diapers or gas, but I worry about emergencies. I worry that our cars, which are both older models, might give out on us and we don’t have the extra cash flow to fix (them). I worry about something happening to one of us that makes us unable to work, or in some way negatively affects our job situation.
Biggest expenses: (1) student loan payments, (2) day care. That is their “mortgage payment.” They rent.
We could probably find a cheaper apartment to live in, but it is worth it to us to pay a little bit more and not have to worry about the neighborhood we live in, or commute too far to work. We both drive less than three miles to work every day.
They have cable TV. They occasionally attend a movie.
They both have B.A. degrees that have no connection to what they do for a living. The degrees are not entry requirements for their jobs.
They could have gotten into the job market four years early. If they had, they would now own a home.
They pay $500 a month on the husband’s student loan debt. Yet he did not need to spend a dime. He is in real estate.
They probably will pay until he is 60 . . . unless rates go up. Then he will be trapped for life.
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Published on August 6, 2012. The original is here.
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