I went to an in state college and did a lot more borrowing than I should have. I paid for rent and school with loans and was surprised by how easy it was to get approved. In the end I paid $60K for college 15 years ago. I paid it off in 5 years with a pretty low paying job and felt it was no big deal. I know college is a lot more now, but I was very conscious of how much I owed at the time and wanted to pay it off fast. Also back then my bills and cost of living were way low so it was a good time to do it. After I paid it college off I bought a house by plan because both debts at the same time was way more lost money to interest. I learned a lot about borrowing and paying back a large debt from my student loans. It seems like people take on large debt nowadays likes it’s no big deal and pay the minimum payment. I was raised by my dad to hate hate hate debt.

I think the myth is that college gets you paid fast. It still took me 5 years after college of working hard to get something like a family wage job. I have no idea how a middle aged adult with a family could re-train or really start a new career taking the loans and then paying them off. It’s not worth it.

I think the secret in life is to make a long term plan that works long term for you and stick to it. I could probably be way richer and taken more risks, fished less, whatever, but I did make a pretty conservative financial plan and have little debts and it feels good. Society will never be able to pay for everyone to have what I have, it took a lot of decisions.

Plus, worst case scenario, my vault full of Mickey Mantle and Ohtani cards is all I need to keep me comfortable for the long haul.