I guess my point is that I agree with you re: financial classes in college, and that decisions should be made with a lot of consideration given to finances - but I very much take offense to the insinuation that it's a blatant rejection of the importance of finances.
It wasn't an insinuation. It was based on the following comments on this thread:
"I just try not to think about it, and i'm going to do my best to make a decision based on programs, not on cost, no matter how hard it is to seperate it out. Also, I tell myself every morning - 'Yes, I might be in debt for decades after i graduate, but i'm going to love what i'm doing while i pay it off." that really helps with the stress of it."
"I'm going in with the mindset that I'll be paying them off until I die. That way, if I sit down with a financial planner later and find out I'll pay them off before I die, I'll be pleasantly surprised!"
Ignoring debt, or the potential of debt, is not reasonable or logical. In my opinion, intentionally not thinking about an issue IS a blatant rejection of the importance of that issue. I did NOT say you were ignoring the importance of the issue, I said that I detest the attitude, which was stated, as noted above. We aren't talking about just being in debt. We are talking about people who may eventually have to declare bankruptcy (which does NOT forgive subsidized loans.) We are talking about people intentionally shoving reality out of thier minds because they don't want to think about it. Assuming that you will die in 25 years (the max for HPSL, which I think is the longest) isn't rational either. I realize the latter wasn't quite the way they are probably thinking, but rather that they will spend so much repaying loans that they will have to work to the day they die to provide for themselves.
Obviously, because the topic is out here, there is absolutly no reason for anyone to say 'I don't understand what it means to have that much debt.' At this point, if you don't know, it is time to find out. Talk to a financial advisor NOW. Ask someone in your undergrad/grad program's finacial aid office to sit down and go over what the numbers actually mean to you. Approach a mentor who has money sense and ask them to go over what this debt will mean in the future. Walk into your bank and ask a loan officer to go over it with you, and explain what it will mean.
Inexperience, or difficulty grasping a concept is not a good reason to ignore it. Treat your future finances like you would a pre-req for vet school; if you don't understand, you work on it till you figure it out, or get help to figure it out. You wouldn't decide not to learn about oxidation reactions because you haven't experienced them, or they don't make perfect sense when you first think hear/read about them.... except when talking about finances we aren't talking about flunking a test or a class. We are talking about the potential to be homeless and pennyless and STILL owe money.
The government and other lending institutions aren't going to say 'its ok, we get that you didn't understand what you were getting into with educational debt, here is a pass.' They aren't doing it with homes now, which actually are a form of collateral. I have helped friends through bankruptcy....people who make far more than vets, who didn't realize that thier student debt will NOT go away with the bankruptcy.
It isn't the issue of having to work for the rest of your life....it is the issue that you may not be able to manage the payments on the minimal required schedule, especially if ANYTHING goes wrong (illness, pregnancy, natural disaster, personal disaster, lay off, bad economy, identity theft, etc.)
Again, I don't know your situation, and I don't know if you are blatantly ignoring the issue of finances or not. I was responding specificly to comments on this and other threads that amount to 'I don't think or want to think about finances and what they will really mean down the road.'
Of course, it is just my opinion, based on my experience, which ranges from living on a farm where we worked long hours to not have enough food on the table for the first 5 years of the farm's existance, to living out of my car (yes, literally homeless), to owning a bed & breakfast on 5 acres of land and bringing in more income in a year than I have in the past four years of working more than full time.
If you take the time to figure it out now, to understand it and plan for it, you can set yourself up to have a solid foundation finacially coming out of vet school with an awareness of what your financial goals are so that you can obtain what you want, whether that is living near poverty or relatively well off. The reason to know and understand finances is so that you can do what you want with your life as a vet. This knowledge means you make decisions that can enable you, in the future, to pusue your passion (donating services, supporting rescues, buying better equipment, owning a practice, researching a specific interest, etc.)
Of course, just my opinion, so your milage may vary.
Scares the living daylights out of me, as I have a hereditary aversion to debt (it didn't occur to me til I was seventeen or eighteen that some people DON'T pay cash for their cars, etc. My family had never done anything else. And we are not rich people.). Luckily I've been really fortunate through undergrad, and hopefully I'll get in to my contract school (also my dream school) when I apply.
I love how that post about Sumstorm's name just slipped off the front page and we're back to Sun...
