Poll: Paying for University

[Chaotic42]

I'm currently in community college. I'm planning on attending a four-year university starting in the fall of 2006. If I attend an in-state university (which I plan to do), my total cost for the two years will be right at $10,000.

My question to you is, should I save up the money now or should I take loans out when the time comes? To save this much money now, I'd need to bank about $550/mo, about 40% of my take-home pay. I would also need to spend about $2000 on the current school I'm at now.

I have an excellent credit rating, almost no debt (it's about to all be paid off), and I have few bills (maybe $500-700/mo total).

What are your thoughts on this? I'm going to plan as though I will get no grants or anything.

 

[Yossarian]

loans definitely. the interest is way low, tax deductible, and you can make them dance around quite a bit when you start working.

 

[nageov3t]

take out loans.

I wish I had done it for grad school... my plan was to save money for 2 years after getting my undergrad and then go to grad school full-time with the money I had saved. but way led to way, and I moved out of my parents' house, had some unexpected financial problems, and the best I can hope for now is going part-time and taking 3-4 years to get my master's.

 

[BRObedoza]

save as much as you can without sacrificing too much, and then take loans for the rest.

 

[Heisenberg]

I always like to avoid loans if at all possible, so my vote would be to save as much as is reasonably possible.

 

[gutharius]

Save as much as your can as to defer the effects of the loans.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
save as much as you can without sacrificing too much, and then take loans for the rest.

Well, saving would entail not getting the little neat things that people buy: Computer upgrades, speakers, etc. I'd pretty much be limited to maybe $100 of "fun" per month.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
save as much as you can without sacrificing too much, and then take loans for the rest.

Well, saving would entail not getting the little neat things that people buy: Computer upgrades, speakers, etc. I'd pretty much be limited to maybe $100 of "fun" per month.

Just think of it as part of the overall college "experience". Being broke-ass poor is part of the deal.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Just think of it as part of the overall college "experience".

Well, I've been living like this for the past 5 years now. I've had jobs that only paid me enough to live. Now I'm a little more comfortable with my new career, so I was thinking that I might as well put that money towards school.

My current career is never going to pay me enough to buy a house or anything, so I figure that this will be an investment in myself.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
Just think of it as part of the overall college "experience".

Well, I've been living like this for the past 5 years now. I've had jobs that only paid me enough to live. Now I'm a little more comfortable with my new career, so I was thinking that I might as well put that money towards school.

My current career is never going to pay me enough to buy a house or anything, so I figure that this will be an investment in myself.

Get the degree. They pay.

I also recommend to all who will listen to avoid debt as much as possible but considering the lifelong payoff, University debt is worth it.

BTW, I wish they would fix this forum software so that I wouldn't have to hit the enter key to space down and have it post a message with no response and then make me edit it to enter my reply.

 

[vegetation]

Loans for sure. The low interest rates make it a lot more sense for you to invest any spare money towards other activities.

 

[Landroval]

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
save as much as you can without sacrificing too much, and then take loans for the rest.

 

[The Stigenator]

loans

 

[Corporate Thug]

wow, after i finish law school, i'm gonna be in the hole atleast 75k. think of it as an investment , take the loans

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
I'm currently in community college. I'm planning on attending a four-year university starting in the fall of 2006. If I attend an in-state university (which I plan to do), my total cost for the two years will be right at $10,000.

My question to you is, should I save up the money now or should I take loans out when the time comes? To save this much money now, I'd need to bank about $550/mo, about 40% of my take-home pay. I would also need to spend about $2000 on the current school I'm at now.

I have an excellent credit rating, almost no debt (it's about to all be paid off), and I have few bills (maybe $500-700/mo total).

What are your thoughts on this? I'm going to plan as though I will get no grants or anything.

If you can afford to put the money away, do it. Being in debt is never good.

 

[yhelothar]

Loans. Why the hell would you want to pay for your college off low wage salaries, when after you finish and get a real job, it'll be 100x easier.

 

[alent1234]

take out the loans and pay the interest on them every month so it doesn't accrue. The current rates are less than 3% which is nothing since you will be able to write off a lot of it off your taxes.

taking on debt to pay for school is nothing bad and don't let people scare you. Doctors and lawyers come out of school with $200,000 in loans or more but it enables them to get a job that pays enough to pay the loans and drive a $50,000 car. It's an investment in your future just like corporations take out loans to expand operations.

it's better to have a $100 student loan payment and a job that brings in $1000 more in cash every month, than a crappy job and no student loan payment

 

[Chaotic42]

Bump for any more replies.

 

[archcommus]

I've been wondering this myself.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Yossarian
loans definitely. the interest is way low, tax deductible, and you can make them dance around quite a bit when you start working.

^^^^^

What he said.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

education loans rock

that beind said, even if the interest rates are low and you can keep deferring it, it still is a debt, and will loom over your head until its paid. i would save what you can comfortably so you dont have to take out huge loans

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: sleepmachine
save as much as you can without sacrificing too much, and then take loans for the rest.

Yep a little of both. Take loans but always have some cash to pay the bills juts in case the loan check is late, which WILL happen.