So my daughter starts paying her student loan in January

[llmart]

73. That's a little melodramatic I think.....

she isn't "bankrupt". She borrowed money that she now has to repay. It's no different than if you buy a new car, which, by the way, nowadays can cost $30K. She's making an average salary for a new college graduate in communications and has her health insurance paid for. That's a whole lot more than many in her situation. Remember - she got a degree in "Communications" so she must have known that it isn't exactly a high paying field.

My daughter also got her undergrad in Communications/Journalism but she worked a part time job 5 days a week as a cashier in a grocery store the entire time she went to college. In fact, she started that job a few months before her high school graduation to get a jump on the jobs before others got them. She also did a paying internship in her senior year but had to drive quite a distance for that job. She just did it. She also worked as a reporter for a small town newspaper and got paid $20 per article. Every little bit helped.

When she graduated she got an apartment with a friend and they shared the living expenses. What's wrong with that? I don't remember her not ever being able to pay her bills - the necessities. She never once asked us for help financially.

I work at a university so I hear many different stories from different students. I have student assistants that work for me. The girl that is working for me now is working two part time jobs and works 7 days a week. She doesn't have a car but shares with her mother or gets a ride from a classmate when their schedules coincide. She is an A student.

Where there is a will, there's a way.