College is such a burden. Kudos to you
@UpperMI for helping the kids as much as you can. I consider myself lucky only graduating with 10K in debt. My folks were buying a business at the time, so there wasn't a lot extra that they could help with. I worked my butt off, got some scholarships and essentially lived for free because of it. I got my engineering degree and started making REAL money, right away.
Now I hear about kids going to school, incurring 100K in debt and getting jobs making 30 grand a year in something unrelated to their field of study. Its asinine. I blame the government for most of it...Pushing college on EVERYONE in high school, then making loans too easy to get.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Caddyshack..."The world needs ditch diggers too, Danny." Now, in that context, its meant as an insult, but in my field Skilled tradesmen are VERY difficult to come by, let alone good ones. The world DOES need ditchdiggers, Plumbers, Machinists, Mechanics, etc. I could probably name 10 people I went to high school with who were smart, but not "college" people. They would have been SO much father ahead picking up a trade rather than starting college, dropping out and working whatever job they can get. Worse are those poor saps that "stuck it out" to earn a degree they cannot or do not want to use and they are saddled with debt.
I have two female friends, one with a Bachelors and the other with a Masters. They are both in their mid 30's paying off student loan debt, and are stay at home moms. What a waste (imho). Good on them that they have supportive husbands and they can afford to stay home with the kids, but my goodness...