mymaineaccount46 t1_ja4dczi wrote on February 26, 2023 at 7:26 PM

Reply to comment by metalandmeeples in Maine Child Care Subsidy by Dry-Date-6730

I was in highschool in 2005. My debt is a very realistic number for attending a state school and graduating within the past decade.

metalandmeeples t1_ja4s2eu wrote on February 26, 2023 at 9:04 PM

The average is around $40,000 which is about what both my wife and I had. I lived at home until I was 28 (I'm 40 now) and paid them off. Most people I know that graduated in the last 10 years have ~$1000/mo student loan payments. Your story and my story are not the norm. The difference here is I'm aware of that fact.

mymaineaccount46 t1_ja5263c wrote on February 26, 2023 at 10:13 PM

I left at about average. I had 38k after graduation. There are many payment options to lower your monthly bill and you can always pay above the bill amount.

I don't know a single person who ended up with a $1k a month student loan payment and they've all graduated or attended college in the past decade.

metalandmeeples t1_ja55ybr wrote on February 26, 2023 at 10:39 PM

$38K on a 10-year plan is going to be a hell of a lot more than $300/mo. Considering two incomes are almost a requirement now to buy a house, unless your partner came from money they will likely have student loans of their own. We waited until our late 30s to have children because of this. Both of our parents had children in their early-to-mid 20s.

I'm not the one downvoting you by the way.

mymaineaccount46 t1_ja5ylpy wrote on February 27, 2023 at 2:13 AM

You don't have to be on a ten year plan. You can do 25 or income based. These generally lower your monthly payment and there is no penalty for paying more. I had mine on 25 but paid them back aggressively. Plus student loans have been paused for a long time now, and I think still are. It's not something that should have impacted most people's budgets for the past two years.

You're a bit older than me as I'm in my thirties. You may just think the situation is worse for people younger and it really isn't. There are options if people choose to pursue them and the opinion on this site really doesn't reflect reality.

metalandmeeples t1_ja7byvt wrote on February 27, 2023 at 11:28 AM

You don't have to, but there are many people out there who are not financially disciplined enough to be on a longer plan and pay anything more than the minimum. I don't think my original comment was focused enough and is mostly based on my own personal experiences. I live in a neighborhood about 30 minutes north of Portland that isn't too dissimilar from the one I or my wife grew up in. The difference, however, is that the parents here who have children are either older, have two graduate-level+ careers, and/or have family helping out with childcare. The couples that don't have children still have two white collar incomes. I grew up on a police officer's salary and my wife on a truck driver's salary. The average first time homeowner demographic is very different today.