Student loans, man. I escaped without any myself (some good luck on the scholarship/grant front). But I've been helping my husband pay his for almost 20 years now and he still doesn't "own" his master's degree. We spent last night helping our eldest (age 23, 1 year out of college) refinance to get a better interest rate and a monthly payment she can make without starving. I don't look forward to going through this again in two years for the youngest.
@rpardee we were able to help our daughter get much better interest rates by cosigning with her. And by not financing through one of the truly egregiously predatory lenders. But, she doesn’t really own anything she can put up as collateral yet. She’s 23. Technically I own her car.
@Samanthabwriter I paid for my first degree pretty fast (partly paid by military service) but the one I got 14 years ago was way more expensive (house mortgage/food costs) and with interest.. well I'll owe them more than my house is worth when I die. It's insane.
@TrueBloodNet it really is insane. Right up there for healthcare for exploitation.
@Samanthabwriter oof, I feel that.
I wound up folding my own loans into a mortgage re-fi like 8 years ago. That was a huge win interest-rate-wise. Probably not so much nowadays...