Many over 50 are still saddled with student loans

[SheilaT]

12. I have spent the last two decades or more

telling people not to take on student debt. And for parents not to borrow money to send their kids to an expensive school. There is NOTHING wrong with attending a community college.

I also tell everyone I can that it's fine to go ahead and major in something you love, but you must remember that in the end you're going to need to earn a living.

When I was about twenty-five I had a conversation with a distant cousin who bitterly regretted that she had taken on debt to complete college. I forget the amount she named, and even allowing for inflation it wasn't too terrible. But she said to me that I should never consider doing such a thing. That conversation has stayed with me some forty years.