Plain Stupid

[Kevin L]

Kevin,

You raise the buying a car for a kid example, and it's perfect.

Start with an 18 year old kid. Dad shouldn't buy him a new Chevy, the kid won't appreciate it nor care for it and most likely is going to get into a couple of wrecks as he learns to drive. Instead, most kids would do best with a running junker. He's going to wreck it anyway, make it a $2000 car he smashes instead of a $25k car.

The problem we're talking about with college doesn't compare to the junker nor the new Chevy. We're not talking a $2k or$25k expense. College degrees are $100-200k. We're talking about buying an 18 year old a new Tesla/Corvette/Ferrari. Does that sound insane? So does dropping $100k in debt on a kid that hardly knows how to wipe his nose and has no clue about what he wants to do with his/her career.

I disagree somewhat.

There is always an element of chance and a risk of loss when investing money. One can buy a house, and have it destroyed in a hurricane.

Likewise, a kid can start college, get hit by a car and end up with brain damage during freshman year.

Still.....many (not all) kids who get a college education experience a better quality of life than people who don't go to school (and I'm lumping vocational education in with this as well).

I worked hard to become a paramedic, and I loved my job. I looked forward to going to work, and I felt like I was leaving the world a slightly better place when I got off shift.

I could have gotten a vocational job that would have made more money, but the feeling of enjoying what you do is--literally--priceless.

I incurred a lot of debt in the process, but it was worth it 10 times over.

 

[TexasFreedom]

Kevin,

I think you are making my point for me...

Yes you need a good bit of training to be a paramedic, but not a college degree. In fact I'd consider a paramedic to be an excellent example of a vocational career.

In my few seconds of research, it takes $5-15k in training to train to be a paramedic. You first start and become an EMT, which is much cheaper & quicker. Step by step. $1-3k to train to be an EMT. You can start on the job. Work & train to upgrade to a paramedic. If you get to the EMT stage and hate it, change paths. $3k is a tiny expense compared to a $200k student loan debt and realize you hate your field. Please correct any of my comments/numbers if I'm off. When you said 'a lot of debt', can you give us a ballpark number? Not counting college studies that didn't apply...

 

[Kevin L]

Kevin,

I think you are making my point for me...

Yes you need a good bit of training to be a paramedic, but not a college degree. In fact I'd consider a paramedic to be an excellent example of a vocational career.

In my few seconds of research, it takes $5-15k in training to train to be a paramedic. You first start and become an EMT, which is much cheaper & quicker. Step by step. $1-3k to train to be an EMT. You can start on the job. Work & train to upgrade to a paramedic. If you get to the EMT stage and hate it, change paths. $3k is a tiny expense compared to a $200k student loan debt and realize you hate your field. Please correct any of my comments/numbers if I'm off. When you said 'a lot of debt', can you give us a ballpark number? Not counting college studies that didn't apply...

I got my EMS degree (an associates) along with my paramedic and EMT curricula.

I incurred about $30,000 in education expenses, but I did things in dribs and drabs, and paid my way through while working at the same time.

I did take out some loans, but not as much as other people might have.

In addition, I'm a published writer, and I took money that I made from writing science fiction, murder mysteries, and romances (under a female pen name) and plugged it in to my tuition and books.

And no, I'm not Hemmingway when I write....but rather a hack who can churn out literary junk food that sells.

 

[Danil54grl]

I got my EMS degree (an associates) along with my paramedic and EMT curricula.

I incurred about $30,000 in education expenses, but I did things in dribs and drabs, and paid my way through while working at the same time.

I did take out some loans, but not as much as other people might have.

In addition, I'm a published writer, and I took money that I made from writing science fiction, murder mysteries, and romances (under a female pen name) and plugged it in to my tuition and books.

And no, I'm not Hemmingway when I write....but rather a hack who can churn out literary junk food that sells.

Kevin. that is the difference between you and so many others who went into major debt to finance your schooling. You took out some loans and yet you have the initiative to actually pay them back and have put an effort forward to achieve that goal.

 

[Kevin L]

Kevin. that is the difference between you and so many others who went into major debt to finance your schooling. You took out some loans and yet you have the initiative to actually pay them back and have put an effort forward to achieve that goal.

Thank you, but my circumstances were not typical. I'm a creative person, and I tend to find unorthodox answers to things that stymie other people.

So, I did my education in dribs and drabs, but it took more time. Someone with a spouse and kids might need to move faster, so would maybe need more loans.

 

[JackDW]

Wifey was an EMT. She worked with a volunteer fire department and they paid the tuition at a local community college for the training. She then started running with the Local Volunteer rescue. She then advance to EMT-I and was working on paramedic when she was "forced" to resign to take care of her elderly mother. This way her tuition was paid for and the department had a dependable volunteer. She go to the point where she was certified to participate with the helicopter rescues. It you are interesting in this career, it may be worth checking out you local volunteer department and see what they offer in return of you volunteering.

As stated earlier, she had to resigned after her elderly mother broke her hip and needed constant care. While she could afford it, my MIL was a iron willed gal who refused to go to a nursing home. We never regretted taking her in and providing her with care the rest of her life. I think we are better for it as we leaned a lot of valuable lessons from her.