Americans who locked in a job, a home, and stocks are thriving. Everyone else missed out on their ticket to wealth.

[ISUBryceC]

country would be better off if 3% was automatically pulled from everybody’s pay check and put into an index fund they couldn’t touch until 55 years old and all home and new car purchases needed 20% down payment. You would instantly see less consumer debt and smaller economically affordable homes being built.

Australia does this but I think it’s up to something like 8%. It has almost universal appeal there. Wish we could do something like that.

 

[CaboKP]

$50k. LOL. I have a kid in college. That's half of what it takes these days.

I've socked away what I thought would be a good sum for college, enough to pay about half and get him started in life. Now I know that I will probably work for a couple years longer than I thought and help him out more than I expected I would need to. I'm fine with that, one or two more years will fly by for me.

The way I see it, if a kid racks up $100k in education debt that it should be treated as an investment in their future. People have no problem plunking down $50k+ on a vehicle, a depreciating asset. So, it stands to reason that dropping $100k, two vehicles, on something that will provide you a career and earnings potential for the rest of your life, that is not a terrible investment.

All that said, the state should be doing a whole lot more to fund education at state schools to bring down the costs. It should not cost $30k per year (total cost of attendance) to attend a state school.

As for field of study, he's going to engineering school.

I plan to do the same for my son. I will gladly work another year or two if it will allow him the freedom of not having huge student loans. Both my wife and I went back to school as non traditional students to further our educations. We both completed an associate degree right out of high school. Now we both have student loans, but only for another 2 years or less. The total burden for us is around a $1k per month, that will be a big relief.