[MUSIC PLAYING] Brought to you by the Every Dollar App. Start budgeting for free today. Our question of the day comes from Brandon in Maryland. He says, I've had several friends whose parents took out our parent plus loans and had them go sideways once they graduated. What your stance on them, obviously, they're a bad idea. But if they were taken out, whose responsibility should it be to pay them once they come do? Well, I mean, legally, it's the parent's name on the bill. And so I mean, that's from a legal perspective. It's the parents. I mean, what's frustrating about this whole thing, though, is that-- and we've heard this multiple times-- is that the student agrees with the parent that they'll pay it. But the parent takes out the parent plus loan. And the student fails to tell their new fiancee. And you get married. And three years later, mom and dad go, you remember that time you said you were going to pay this loan and they go, now I didn't. Yeah, that's what happened. They get me there, too. We hear that all the time, don't we? Well, that or the student didn't pay. And then the parents, like, well, I guess I have to pay it. And then they're frustrated. I mean, it ends up being this tangled mess, relationally. But whose responsibility, once it comes do? Whoever promised to pay it morally. If the kid promised to pay it, then they should go back and pay it. They're not legally liable. So if the kid-- if you said, mom and dad, if you take this loan out so I can go to the college at my dreams, then-- and mom and dad are stupid enough to go do that, then they sign the note. They're legally liable. But you made a promise to them to pay it. That's you keeping your word. You go pay it. Mom and dad took out the loan and nobody ever said anything to nobody. And then mom and dad come back learning, go, you need to pay for your college. No, I don't. I didn't tell you I'd pay it, and I'm not going to pay it. So there's no moral contract, and mom and dad are up a creek. Bottom line is you can avoid all this by staying away from the stupidity completely. No student loans of any kind are good in no freaking circumstances. Parent plus loans are stupid. That'll help you. Yeah. There you go. It's hilarious to me that when people are stupid about education, that's an oxymoron, isn't it? We've lost our stupid minds on the subject of education. I will say, do you feel like in the most recent years, in the last two years or so since COVID, I feel like people have woken up to this, though. I think that they're-- Student loans? Yes. I think that there has been a backlash against just collegiate in general. I mean, I think people are-- Well, higher education has gotten a backlash in general. Yeah, I just think that there's just been a-- Some of it was they wanted to charge you the same amount while they wouldn't let you come to campus. Yep. And made you study, remote, and they want to charge the same amount. Everybody went, well, listen, I was already getting ripped off, and this is really screwing me. I don't think so. But I mean, I think it's waking up, and I hope that borrowed future, our documentary that was award-winning and highly viewed, I had something to do with it. If you haven't watched that, you can watch it on YouTube free, and many other streaming services as well. But it'll blow your mind how crooked and backward this whole student loan thing is. In the politicians, you guys, you congress people, somebody ought to just smack one of you. Y'all are just-- it's unbelievable. Student loans are horrible. We need to forgive them while we continue to make them. That's so intellectually dishonest. If they suck and they hurt people, why don't you stop it? Hello, the poor little victims of the student loan is-- and you keep making them. And you're the villain, Congress. It's your fault. If you just stop it, nobody would have student loans. That'd be an awesome thing. And the universities would probably lower tuition, because nobody should have been in it. Because people couldn't afford to pay it. And people would wake up and go, wait a minute. This is like real money in my hand that I earned. I'm going to make better value choices about what I study. I'm not going to study left-handed puppetry and pay somebody $85,000 a semester for that. And call it an Ivy League education. And I'm furthering my thought patterns. Oh, bull crap. You're just shoveling money out. And by the way, it was my money, because I'm the taxpayer, and now you're not paying it, because you got a degree that's worthless and you're a barista. And so that's what happens. The whole stupid thing is a scam. And so higher education is to blame. The Congress is to blame weak parents that won't tell their spoiled, freaking children know are to blame everybody in this thing. And you used to say it 1,000 years ago, before we had borrowed-- before we had borrowed a feature and all of it out, you said, we don't have a student loan problem. It's a parenting problem. Because you talk to these college students, to your point, they graduate at 21 years old with 120 grand in debt to not an Ivy League. I mean, they're charging insane money now. And they want to go and be a missionary or do something where they're not making a ton. But they got all of this debt. And I'm like, well, how did your parents direct you? Well, they didn't talk to me. And you're like, oh my gosh, like an 18-year-old is sitting here making a decision that's going to affect them for the next decade of their life. And a parent didn't step in and at least have the conversation. Nothing is being said. Or we get a call like, my daughter told me she's going to this school that we can't afford. So we're going to have to take out student loans. See, there's the problem. Because I love Rachel, but when Rachel was 18 and we were spending my money, she didn't tell me nothing. I told her some stuff, but she didn't tell me anything. That's not how this works. That's backwards. So there wasn't much dialogue. No, there wasn't. It's like you're going to go to this school and I'll pay for it. That's pretty much how it went. All three of them went to the same school. The dialogue was, if you take all these classes, you graduate in four years. So take the freaking classes. Yeah, that's fair, because yeah, and-- I did. That was the dialogue. And to be transparent, you guys paid for our education. But we had to stay in state. Yep. We had to take in state tuition and we had to graduate in four years. If you went four and a half, you had to pay it. And you had to freaking behave. And if you did-- yeah, and if you went out of state-- You don't get to go off the reservation and get my money. That's not how it works. I'm not going to support your freaking insanity that some communist professor told you to engage you. You're not going to do it, you know? I went partying in my life. I went partying in college if you went off the reservation. I meant partying, not-- Well, I'm talking about losing your freaking mind. And you know, you're confused what you're there for. You're there to take these classes to get this degree. And if you take these classes and pass them, it's magical. You graduate in four years. And we go, we're sitting in the orientation at the University of freakin' Tennessee where the kids went and I went. And they said very proudly, we have a 57% graduation rate of the people that are sitting in this room, 57% are going to graduate. And I'm thinking to myself, I almost raised my hand and said, if they make a 57 in class, don't you give them an F? You wouldn't be bragging about that. That's called failure. Oh, and then they pipe up and say, and only 20% of the ones that do graduate will do it in four years. And I rode across my oldest daughter's little orientation packet. So have a freaking plan in black magic marker while this idiot was on stage telling us this. I mean, how are you bragging about a 57% graduation rate? That's failure. And this is another lesson that you take out loans and you may not even get the degree and you're paying money back for a degree you never received either. Yeah, 33% of the time. Yeah. Apparently you don't get the degree. Oh, well, Brandon from Maryland's question of the day. Hope that segment that was for you. Well, I mean real, that guys-- I know, I know, it's hard. You can go to college debt-free. You choose a school that is reasonably priced. It's typically an in-state school. Yeah, but honestly-- $12,000 a year will put your little butt in a state school right now. No. 14. I mean, it's getting worse and worse. It is. It is. OK, and you can go to-- It's not going to be that fun. I mean, for free in most states, you can go to a community college for two years. So get your prereqs done. Yes, I mean, there's a plan to go about it. It's not the most glamorous, but-- You're not studying anything that matters the first two years anyway, usually. Yep, yep. So there is a plan, and it probably doesn't look like the shiny plan that you always help college. And here's an idea. Get a degree. It'll help you get a job. Whoa. That was insightful. Create your free $3 budget today, the simplest way to budget for your life.
