Wednesday, November 23, 2011

The Student Loan Vs Full-Time Job - Which Is Best For Me?

Going to college can help you choose a career path and increase your earning potential over the long-term. While attending college is important for the average person, the cost of classes can be prohibitive. If you don't have thousands of dollars sitting around pay for college, you may have to choose between getting a full-time job or taking out a college loan to pay for your education. When choosing between these two options, there are a few factors for you to consider.

How Long Do You Want it to Take?

One of the most important factors for you to consider is how long you want your education to last. If you plan on working a full-time job while you are taking classes, it will most likely take several more years to get your education done. Most people who work a full-time job are not able to take a full load of college courses and get all of their homework done at the same time. Because of this, they have to go to college on a part-time basis until their degree is reached.


By comparison, when you use a college loan, you can borrow enough money to pay for your entire education in a condensed period of time. This allows you to focus all of your energy and attention on your degree instead of on working. This essentially allows you to speed up the process of getting your education.

Can You Handle Debt?

Another factor to consider when making this decision is how much debt you can handle when you get out*of college. Some people are against the idea of having a large amount of debt after they get out of college. You'll have to make regular student loan payments every month for many years to pay off your debt, in most cases. If you use student loans, you may end up with anywhere from $20,000 to $200,000 of debt, depending on where you go to school. If you plan on going to graduate school or medical school afterwards, you will have even more debt to deal with.

If you decide to work your way through college with a full-time job, you can avoid some of this debt. While it may take you a little bit more time to complete your college education, you will not have to worry about the debt comes with student loans. Then when you get out of college and start working in your chosen career path, you will be able to use all of the money that you receive from your paycheck. You won't have to worry about taking a chunk out of your paycheck to make your student loan payments.

Tax Benefits

Although most people don't like the idea of having to pay off student loans, they can actually help out at tax time. When you make student loan payments, the interest that you pay is tax-deductible, regardless of whether you itemize your deductions. This means that you'll be able to lower your tax liability for the year when you start paying off your student loans.

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