The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: obstinate on May 25, 2018, 11:30:56 AM
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-meru-has-1-million-in-student-loans-how-did-that-happen-1527252975
Spoiler alert: because he didn't fucking pay.
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I read this article this morning. This guy is entitled and disgusting. He has a million in student loans because he used it to bankroll his life for 7 years. It's awful that the story is trying to show a "tough time for students" and a predatory student loan industry. Really this guy made a bad choice and instead of facing it it he did whatever he wanted and blocked out the consequences.
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
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https://dentistry.usc.edu/files/2011/11/TroDent-Summer-2017.pdf
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Are you f-ing kidding me??!?! Conveniently left out of the student loan pity story is this guy snowboards out of helicopters?!
Then again, I guess I'm the real sucker here paying off my student loan debt like an upstanding responsible person.
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Wonder if he's saving toward that $700k tax bill...
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I read this article this morning. This guy is entitled and disgusting. He has a million in student loans because he used it to bankroll his life for 7 years. It's awful that the story is trying to show a "tough time for students" and a predatory student loan industry. Really this guy made a bad choice and instead of facing it it he did whatever he wanted and blocked out the consequences.
kinda like me at the dessert table.
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Some of he comments in the comment section called him out too. I’d love him to do a case study, we’d really rip him a new one.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
Right?!
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Unfortunate that tuition went up once he'd already started school bc that screws people over as it throws off any financial planning. But hard to feel bad for someone who went from living at home rent free to a $1500/month 1 bedroom to an $1800/month 2 bedroom when he already knew his loans were growing by the day; to say nothing of the $390/month car payment on a Mercedes AS A STUDENT. And then he graduates and can't manage to live on the cheap in Draper Utah and instead takes out a 400k mortgage? And then there are vacations, a used Tesla, and Panda Express for lunch? Come on!?
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
Right?!
They all do. The last one I read racked up interest and fees by going to a foreign university for grad studies and defaulting on loans the whole time.
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Holy shit. I was expecting something like $200K undergrad to pay for Harvard, followed by $300K for dental school, so that by the time he even got a job he was already like $800K in the hole. But his undergrad was fully paid!!! And heli-skiing??? Dude. This is someone who just flat-out thought he was entitled to a certain lifestyle and was determined to live it, whether he could afford it or not.
I am a huge fan of SLF for people who voluntarily accept low-pay "public good"-type positions, or for people who face some unexpected hardship/injury/etc. that puts them permanently behind the mounting ball o' debt. But spending 25 years heli-skiing and driving your Mercedes -- and then whining about the hardship in public -- is the kind of thing that gives the whole idea a bad name.
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https://dentistry.usc.edu/files/2011/11/TroDent-Summer-2017.pdf
The guy shattered his L1 vertebrae 4 years ago and was paralyzed from the waist down for an hour and fifteen minutes, and now has T11 - L3 all fused together. I think I might change some life choices after that, but he seems committed!
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Holy shit. I was expecting something like $200K undergrad to pay for Harvard, followed by $300K for dental school, so that by the time he even got a job he was already like $800K in the hole. But his undergrad was fully paid!!! And heli-skiing??? Dude. This is someone who just flat-out thought he was entitled to a certain lifestyle and was determined to live it, whether he could afford it or not.
I am a huge fan of SLF for people who voluntarily accept low-pay "public good"-type positions, or for people who face some unexpected hardship/injury/etc. that puts them permanently behind the mounting ball o' debt. But spending 25 years heli-skiing and driving your Mercedes -- and then whining about the hardship in public -- is the kind of thing that gives the whole idea a bad name.
As I understand it, this was one of the motivating factors for making student loans non-dischargeable in bankruptcy. A fear that doctors, lawyers, and other professionals were running up huge student debt then declaring bankruptcy after finishing school... can't repossess a degree/credential. Though I do wonder how much this problem was real vs. imagined. And I think we need to reexamine the assumption that a degree/credential cannot be "repossessed" - in many cases would make sense to shed student loans in exchange for having the degree/credential rescinded by the issuing school and/or a court order that you can't claim or use it.
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I have no idea what semi-pro means in the world of extreme sports. Wonder how much of his heli-skiiing and other adventures are covered by sponsors? Or does this just mean he gets some free gear?
Other than the above (which the WSJ didn't touch), the article itself was fairly sympathetic. The most alarming thing is that it's possible for any student to run up this kind of debt in the first place. Schools charging outrageous tuition have no incentive to change as long as their students have no limits on borrowing.
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Even without the "helicopter skiing", couldn't help cringing every time the article mentioned "Benz" or "used Tesla." Common dude - what're you doing?
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
Right?!
They all do. The last one I read racked up interest and fees by going to a foreign university for grad studies and defaulting on loans the whole time.
Several anti-student loan articles and news pieces hit the street at the same time this weekend. Most of their examples are terrible. NYT did one where in the lead case study the woman being interviewed flat-out states if she didn't have the $60k in loans she'd waste the money rather than saving for a mortgage. The whole point of her story was that the loans are preventing her from living the American Dream.
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This guy could have paid his student loans. I have a ton of doctors in my family, most of whom took out loans to go to school. One cousin has about $250k in loans. Guess what, he does a ton of moonlighting as he finishes up his residency. When I last saw him he was making a spreadsheet and calculating just how long it would take him to pay off his student loans. And he isn't a frugal person either.
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
Right?!
They all do. The last one I read racked up interest and fees by going to a foreign university for grad studies and defaulting on loans the whole time.
Several anti-student loan articles and news pieces hit the street at the same time this weekend. Most of their examples are terrible. NYT did one where in the lead case study the woman being interviewed flat-out states if she didn't have the $60k in loans she'd waste the money rather than saving for a mortgage. The whole point of her story was that the loans are preventing her from living the American Dream.
The American Dream has changed a lot these last few decades.
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
Right?!
They all do. The last one I read racked up interest and fees by going to a foreign university for grad studies and defaulting on loans the whole time.
Several anti-student loan articles and news pieces hit the street at the same time this weekend. Most of their examples are terrible. NYT did one where in the lead case study the woman being interviewed flat-out states if she didn't have the $60k in loans she'd waste the money rather than saving for a mortgage. The whole point of her story was that the loans are preventing her from living the American Dream.
The American Dream has changed a lot these last few decades.
I've lost track of what it is supposed to be, but according to NYT the "American Dream" includes buying a home right out of college.
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It's just like the WSJ to pick the least sympathetic possible face of a real social problem that needs to be addressed by some government action.
Right?!
They all do. The last one I read racked up interest and fees by going to a foreign university for grad studies and defaulting on loans the whole time.
Several anti-student loan articles and news pieces hit the street at the same time this weekend. Most of their examples are terrible. NYT did one where in the lead case study the woman being interviewed flat-out states if she didn't have the $60k in loans she'd waste the money rather than saving for a mortgage. The whole point of her story was that the loans are preventing her from living the American Dream.
The American Dream has changed a lot these last few decades.
I've lost track of what it is supposed to be, but according to NYT the "American Dream" includes buying a home right out of college.
To be fair, a lot of people are at least 22 years of age when they graduate college. Previous generations were generally purchasing their first house by that age. They see that they could purchase a home at 22/23/24, so why can’t young people do that now too?
Ancidotal data: my in-laws had custom-built their home at age 19.
Article I found, stating that in the UK in the 1960s the average home buyer was 23: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/property/first-time-buyer-age-increase-1960s-housing-market-cost-property-ladder-a8244501.html%3famp
But, it doesn’t mean the American Dream is out of reach, it just means that there’s a longer waiting and saving period now. I can get being upset about that, because that’s the boat my husband and I are in now. Student loans really do delay marriages, houses, and children, and it’s not just because of laziness. It is a real economic challenge.
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I read this the other day and figured the MMM crowd picked up on it.
It does seam abhorrent that Universities are able to charge so much. It creates a vicious cycle.
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The cost of dental school HAS gotten out of hand in the last ten year, but they picked the wrong person to make that point. So cringeworthy.
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I just want to express my appreciation for the spoiler alert in the first post. *two thumbs up*