Mistakes That Can’t Be Easily Undone
July 13, 2009 – 5:52 am
I recently read an article that describes people who have decided to leave the country rather than live up to their student loan commitments. Believe me I know what it’s like to be over my head with debt, and to struggle to pay it off.
Part of me feels that these people should do the honorable thing and work to pay off this debt. I do believe, however, that some of these people (like the rest of us) made bad choices and cannot easily undue them.
Student loan debt is one area that is nearly impossible to correct. That’s because student load debt cannot be cleared through bankruptcy. I’ve read that in extreme cases it’s possible to get the loans discharged if you can prove that paying back the loans will cause to forgo basic life necessities, but apparently you have to prove that this will be the case for the entire term of the loan. With 20 and 30 year loans this seems unlikely.
Although smaller in scale, here are a few other mistakes that can’t be easily undone:
- changing your mind after buying a new car, boat, or other item that depreciates rapidly.
- cosigning on a loan for someone else.
- failing to be properly insured (life insurance, homeowners insurance, etc.)
- becoming uninsurable because you went without medical insurance at some point in your life
- although this is an opportunity cost issue, waiting to begin saving for retirement cannot be undone easily, and neither can investing poorly (i.e. all cash asset allocation) early in life.
Do you know of any others I missed?
Image Credit: chaps1
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3 Responses to “Mistakes That Can’t Be Easily Undone”
Having a baby before you can afford to support a child. (Yes, you can adopt the kid out, but that’s not exactly an easy option)
By Frugal Urbanite on Jul 13, 2009
Ah. This is a very good one. I think some people also have issues on the flip side of this one, meaning they want everything to be perfect and have tons of extra money before growing their family.
Thanks for the comment!
By todd on Jul 17, 2009
Believe it or not, but when I graduated college, I was not earning $46K/year. That was in 1992. That also was not a lot of money – even for back then. If you go to college and think you are going to make $100K/year, you probably won’t make it! The average college salary at time of this post is $46K. If you think you are going to make this, you are nuts. Most college graduate make about $25-30K. How do you pay for an apt. and car and clothes at this level of income plus pay taxes?
Don’t get me wrong, education is #1. Just don’t spend like your going to make a lot of money when you graduate!!!!! Pay off your student loans first. There is no way to get rid of them!
By The Realist on Jan 31, 2010