My wife and I worked and sacrificed to pay our student loans off. Struggle builds character, appreciation, and gratitude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
Struggle can also cause bankruptcy, violence, and misery.
Yes, people should decide how much debt they want to take on.
There are vast differences in the value of different degrees (cost and earnings). It's people's responsibility to educate themselves. The rest of us shouldn't have to subsidize someone's terrible decision to go into debt for a degree in basket-weaving.
If you're old enough to drive a car, join the army, or be charged as an adult, you're old enough to realize that paying tens of thousands of dollars for a degree in musical theater isn't a great idea.
It's not rocket science. There are tons of resources online to help you figure out which degrees and schools are good value.
And how many finance courses would they have taken during high school?
Not having an emergency fund is about the riskiest thing you can do.
> If you owe $2k every month to NelNet or another institution, it's much harder emotionally and financially to quit your job to travel the world or start your own company.
The emergency fund helps with that. When built up, it should cover 6-12 months of zero income. Amassing it first means losing a job doesn't mean deferring payments on the student loans and winding up with years more payments to make as a result.
> We had Federal Loans and the interest rate was still 6.5%
One of my wife's student loans is at 2.5%. At 6.5%, it's not below inflation and paying it off makes more sense.
But sometime emotions get in the way of financial strategy.
Sorry, I have to laugh. This is the most HN thing I've read today. It's a tremendous privilege to have the option of quitting your job to travel the world, rather than the fear of being arbitrarily laid off, and failing to put food on the table or lose your house. My redneck might be sticking out this morning, though.
I have moved around the country for work quite a bit, so I do feel fairly well-traveled. At least in the continental US.
At least colloquially, this term signifies one has been to other countries (or better, other continents) and visited other cultures, immersed in other languages, other governments, other ways of eating, etc. One who stays within a country would not (in my opinion) be "well-traveled", despite the country being enormous. My 2cents.
I define well-traveled as someone who has traveled a significant distance based on their circumstances in life. By your definition a large portion of the people living in the EU are well-traveled just living their normal lives. Which is a far easier thing to accomplish than someone in the US. I have driven from Orlando FL to Las Vegas NV, a distance of around 2300 miles or so, twice. How many countries does that cover for that range in the EU? I have visited many locations around both cities and in-between. I have lived in four states in different areas of the country, each with their varying cultures. I can tell you for a fact that the Southeast and Southwest US do have different cultures, even though they both sort of speak the same language. Walking through downtown Los Angeles after growing up in small town Alabama is visiting a different culture.
Just my 2 cents.
I agree, there is a kind of snobby adherence to the term by some people, as they see the point of becoming "well-traveled" to have been able to afford it.
I politely disagree that the term -- or idea it was meant to abstract -- is to convey how much distance one has traveled, but rather how varied the places have been that one has lived in. Just a short quick visit, e.g. a many-hundred-mile 2-week scourge through Europe, robs you of the experience of living in a non-tourist area where the environment is nothing like what you are accustomed to.
The idea (phrased as "well-traveled" or otherwise) from my perspective is to learn that many countries have very different ways of life; some have better/free access to health care, or not at all; some have almost no diverse ethnicities (e.g. China), or that in the middle-east, you can have countries with a strong diverse mix of many religions (Lebanon); how foreign country governments treat you (no VISA, vs. register yourself with police everywhere); etc.
For those with hard lives, many can be some of the nicest people. Visit China, other south-east Asian countries, rural India, Africa, as well as the well-developed nations in Europe. The most important trait one should take away from travel is: first-hand experience at the range of life that exists on this planet, something which cannot be read from a book.
We take for granted many of the artifacts and ways we work in our lives; seeing others gives us perspective that becomes a useful skill. I wholeheartedly agree that these skills can be developed without leaving the country, among our own rich, poor; and we are fortunate to have all four climates within our borders, too!
Edit: If you are supporting children, the above advice may not apply.
Thank you for recognizing that.
It's also worth noting that 2.5% is still higher than inflation in the last couple years.